Bishop David L. Ricken Welcomed to Franciscan Sisters’ Home
Posted on February 26, 2009
Filed Under Franciscanized World | 3 Comments
While about 90 miles away the Archdiocese of Milwaukee prepares to bid farewell to Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, a man in the news soon to lead the Diocese of New York, the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity on February 26, 2009, welcomed Bishop David L. Ricken , Bishop of the Diocese of Green Bay, on his first visit to their Motherhouse 
in Manitowoc, WI. Beginning with a tour of the Franciscan Sisters’ home, Sister Louise Hembrecht, OSF, Community Director, ushered the 12th bishop of Green Bay through the historic halls, some dating back to 1879.
Bishop Ricken’s other planned activities included:
- Visits with about 80 Sisters in St. Rita’s (one wing of the building which houses an infirmary for members of the community)
- Reception with almost 100 Sisters who reside at the Motherhouse while serving the Franciscan Community in various ways or ministering other folks in near by locations i.e. leadership, formation, administrative services, health services, tutors, craftroom workers, housekeeping, culinary services, seamstresses
- Solemn Vespers in St. Mary’s Chapel
- Evening meal in the convent cafeteria
After dinner the Bishop thanked the Franciscan Sisters for their hospitality, affirmed the whole community for living their charism with an alive spirit and for their faithfulness to the community’s traditional ministries of education and health care.
For Me, Life is Christ
Posted on February 22, 2009
Filed Under Vocations / Discernment | 21 Comments
On February 20-22, 2009, ten young women ages 21-33 from CO, IA, MN and WI arrived in Manitowoc, WI,  for a Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity ‘For Me, Life is Christ’ (Phil.1:21) Discernment Retreat Weekend. Sister Mary Ann Spanjers, OSF, and Sister Julie Ann Sheahan, OSF, guided the retreatants focusing on the conversion stories of St. Paul, St. Francis and St. Clare.
Paul was a tent-maker, Francis and Clare re-built ruined churches, you and I build our lives.
While providing personal prayer time to grow in one’s relationship to God, the young women joined the Franciscan Sisters in the liturgy of the hours, Eucharist, and meals. Personalized mosaic creations concretized the ‘construction’ theme. Sister Anne Turba, OSF, facilitated this prayer activity. Sister Karen Suhr, OSF, Sister Laura Wolf, OSF, and Sister Caritas Le Claire, OSF, gave of themselves for Friday evening’s opening session .
A Saturday snow storm allowed the opportunity to walk on frozen Silver Lake and protective, evergreen-lined trails, as well as find healing in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Contemporary praise music was a shared joy for the group.
Retreatants’ question: How did this experience touch your life?
What Do College Students Want to Know?
Posted on February 18, 2009
Filed Under Franciscanized World | 5 Comments
Maximizing on a winter break Assisi experience, UW Whitewater travelers to Europe and other members of the Catholic Student Coalition invited the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity on February 16, 2009 to reflect on Franciscan Spirituality.
Here are words and phrases that the students themselves offered to describe this way of relating to God:
- charity
- serenity
- peace, working in our every day lives to achieve peace
- focuses on loving nature like St. Francis
- religious acts in prayer, a lifestyle
- contemplative prayer
- selfless devotion to God
- respect for all
The following day and over two hundred miles further north, UW Stout (Menomonee, WI) Catholic Campus Ministry students wanted to know about the topic ‘inner peace’ from a Franciscan perspective. The Franciscan Sisters Vocation Team again responded to the invitation sent by one of the students whom they were blessed to meet at Lifest 2008 (Oshkosh, WI).
The Thursday evening session will be framed in the context of prayer beginning with a quote from  St. Bonaventure’s The Soul’s Journey to God:  “This is the peace proclaimed and given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ and preached again and again by St. Francis.” St. Francis’ own prayer of enlightenment, The Prayer Before the Crucifix, and other media enhance the theme.
Day in the Life
Posted on February 16, 2009
Filed Under Franciscanized World | 3 Comments
Do you ever wonder just what someone else does all day? On Monday, February 16, 2009, Benjamin Wideman, the originator of a series of ‘Day in the Life’ articles for the Herald Times Reporter, Manitowoc, WI and Jaslyn Gilbert, an award winning photographer of the same mid-size daily Wisconsin paper, were on assignment at Holy Family Convent, home of about two hundred Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity.
Now, the newspaper correspondents came in hopes of  reporting just ‘what Sisters do all day’. Similarly, the Franciscan Sisters wondered what this crew “would do all day” among them. At day’s end, the Sisters felt blessed to witness a ‘day in the life’ of two dedicated professionals, who were sincerely inquisitive, strong in carrying the tools of their trade, keenly aware of detail in expression and surroundings,  and genuinely delightful people.
Recall a time that you learned about how someone else lives their life.
On the Road Inspirations: Roundabouts
Posted on February 14, 2009
Filed Under Vocations / Discernment | 8 Comments
The Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity Vocation Directors offer the second of a series of 
‘On the Road Inspirations’ gleaned from their experiences. Sharings from other travelers are welcome.
Francis: In whatever way it seems better to you to please the Lord God and to follow His footprint and poverty do it with the blessing of the Lord God and my obedience. And if you need and want to come to me for the sake of your soul or for some consolation, Leo [your name], come.(Letter to Brother Leo)
Scenario of the Roundabout
In your personal journey, is your spiritual life resembling a roundabout?
A google search reveals that roundabouts are statistically safer than traditional intersections.
Spirituality is like an inner GPS. It is unique to each person and it calls for specific ways of relating to the world ‘around’ us. There is safety and comfort in praying with a sense of direction and in a certain way i.e. specific prayers, using scripture, adoration, prayers of intercession and gratitude. This assurance leads to choosing a path for growth in our relationship with God and others.
Roundabouts allow u-turns, which are often impossible or forbidden in normal road junctions.
Our relationship with God is all about a movement to go deeper. This free flowing “intermingling of public and personal prayer…is how we speak to God and how God speaks to us. In this way we undergo those purifications by which we become open to God and are prepared for the service of our fellow human beings. We become capable of the great hope and thus we become ministers of hope for others.” (#34 On Christian Hope, Pope Benedict XVI)
Those entering the roundabout are required to yield to traffic. This yielding moves others through an intersection with less delay. It also accommodates the turning radius of large vehicles.
Our journey to God includes other people. It is vision that moves us beyond self-interest and self-concern. There is no end to our waiting, desiring and searching for God/others. This relationship with God/others leads us in a variety of directions and will continue as long as we live.
Spiritually and physically a traveler who is indecisive may end up on a path going no where, dizzy and out of sorts with life. (Keep watching the slideshow and you’ll get a good taste of what this means!) Stop when you find yourself in this kind of situation.  Seek guidance. Learn some decision making skills.
Can you add any other helpful contrasts or comparisons on roundabouts, the spiritual life etc. ?
Visitation: Popular Catholic Word
Posted on February 7, 2009
Filed Under Franciscanized World | 8 Comments
Some words have several meanings. While sentences determine the meaning of words, people and  events determine the popular usage of specific words. ‘Visitation’ seems to be a currently recurring Church expression.
The Compass Points to Cyberspace Communication
Posted on February 5, 2009
Filed Under Franciscanized World | 3 Comments
At a time when full power television stations in the United States were originally targeted to switch to 100% digital broadcasting on February 17 (Congress asked for a June 12, 2009 extension, because low-income households, minorities, seniors or disabled are still unprepared), The Compass, the Diocese of Green Bay’s catalyst of communication, is exploring the new digital arena, the so-called cyberspace, by launching a redesigned, interactive website.Â
The new design includes a graphic indicating The Compass’s mission to point out “a correct course” in line with church teaching - as the founding publisher, the late Bishop Aloysius Wycislo, said in his first bishop’s column, “True North,” in The Compass in 1978. (The Compass, January 30, 2009)
Celebrating this new direction during ‘Catholic Press Month’, Bishop David Ricken presided at a Eucharistic liturgy at St. Joseph Chapel, Green Bay, WI, on February 5, 2009. Food followed. Members of the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity, Catholic women religious whose Motherhouse is within the diocese,  supported this new endeavor that marks a fundamental shift in evangelization for all ages. See the homepage banner ad link.
Some Catholic communication trivia:
- Pope Pius XI constituted the Catholic Press Month in 1931. He exhorted the Faithful to celebrate this event knowing the importance and power the printed word has on peoples’ minds.
- Pope John XXIII once told a group of Catholic journalists in the Vatican: “The Catholic Press is the mouthpiece of the Church; the loud speaker of the Church. To be a Catholic journalist is not only a profession but also a mission.”
- St. Francis de Sales is the patron saint of writers, editors and journalists. He was Bishop of Geneva, Switzerland, 1602-1622. He was noted for the energy and zeal displayed in his missionary work in the province Chablais, a stronghold of Calvinism. His practical advice to defenders of the Faith was given to the world in 1608, when he published his Introduction to the Devout Life.
- Pope Paul VI in the document Inter Mirifica recognized the importance of media, and that the “press, movies, radio, television and the like, can, of their very nature, reach and influence, not only individuals, but the very masses and the whole of human society, and thus can rightly be called the media of social communication.”
- Pope Benedict XVI in a May message entitled New Technologies, New Relationships, Promoting a Culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship “appeals to friendship as a motive to ensure that the new digital world is truly accessible to all. It finds friendship a shared reference point with all of humanity that grounds the appeal of the message to promote a culture where there is respect for all and where all are invited to search for truth in dialogue.”
How is friendship a shared reference point in your life? What do you think of The Compass’s new look?
Impermanent Things by Peter Himmelman
Posted on February 1, 2009
Filed Under Song of the Month | 62 Comments
Presently ‘live streaming’ the musical variety show Furious World and performing here Impermanent Things, a song that pleads for seeing life with new eyes, Peter Himmelman, multi-faceted musician and Emmy nominated film and television composer, is the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity’s featured February artist of the month.Peter Himmelman’s work has consistently earned critical accolades. J.D. Considine, in the Rolling Stone Album Guide, called 1989’s Synethesia ” a delight”, awarding it with four stars. Time Magazine heralded Himmelman as one of “the New Troubadours” upon the release of his epic debut From Strength to Strength, asserting that he writes “songs with the emphatic edge and aesthetic urgency that impelled the Lost Generation to write novels.” In its Unstoppable Forces review, No Depression marveled how “Himmelman strips his music to its essence, tapping into a primal inspiration, investing melodies that have the sing-song simplicity of Buddy Holly or the Beatles with the yearning of a spiritual quest.”
During the ’90s, Himmelman, (now living in Los Angeles, married with four children)Â expanded his musical horizons to scoring a number of television shows and films, including the Disney series Bug Juice, NBC’s American Embassy and the Touchstone film Crossing the Bridge. In 2002, he earned an Emmy nomination for his work on Judging Amy, a show he has scored since 1999. He is currently scoring the show Bones on Fox and the new ABS hit, Men in Trees. Exploring different musical opportunities has long intrigued Himmelman. While living in New York in the early ’80’s, he wrote music Swatch watches, Jordache jeans, and runaway music for top fashion designer Issey Miyake. He’s also done national PSAs for drug awareness and written a series of song for a teddy bear that’s currently being used to aid autistic children and rape victims.
Children’s music is another field that Himmelman has delved into with considerable success. He has made three children’s albums: My Best Friend Is A Salamander (1997), My Fabulous Plum (2000) and My Lemonade Stand (2004), with both Plum and Salamander being recognized with a Parents’ Choice Award and the Family Channel Seal Of Quality. Himmelman finds children’s music “a vast and liberating universe of possibility,” although noting that his kid’s songs and his rock songs “come from very distinct places.”
Do something that makes you cry, that makes you weep with awe. There is a state of humility where you can feel something coming from a dimension outside oneself. That recognition, that sense of awe, is what I use to make things.
-Peter Himmelman
Lyrics
Impermanent Things
From the album From Strength to Strength (1991)All these impermanent things
Oh how they fool me
Dominate and rule me
They keep me waiting here forever
All these impermanent things
Well their beauty’s never aging
But their worthlessness’s enraging
You know we all stand alone when we’re togetherWhy keep hanging on
To things that never stay
Things that just keep stringin’ us along
From day to dayAll these impermanent things
Present yet elusive
Passive yet abusive
Tearing out the heart in utter silence
All these impermanent things
Well they point in all directions
Like secondhand reflections
And they’re leading us to subtle shades of violenceWhy keep hanging on
To things that never stay
Things that just keep stringin’ us along
From day to dayAll these impermanent things
Well they’re trying to convince me
Baptize my soul and rinse me
Purge my mind of honesty and fire
All these impermanent things
Well they all add up to zero
They make-believe that they’re my hero
Then they fill my mind with doubt and false desiresWhy keep hanging on
To things that never stay
Things that just keep stringin’ us along
From day to day
Website: http://www.peterhimmelman.com
Sunrise Reflections by Thad Roan
Posted on February 1, 2009
Filed Under Image of the Month | 9 Comments
During this month of February, the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity are pleased to share Thad Roan’s Sunrise Reflections with their Franciscanized World friends.Â
The surface of the water in the cove has melted, providing a mirror for this sunrise. In the distance, the middle of the lake is still frozen. The snow on the beach is leftover from a snowfall 2 days ago. Chatfield Lake, Littleton, Colorado.Â
-Thad Roan
Credit: http://www.bridgepix.com/
Eye-Witness Reporting from Roncalli Convent, Manitowoc, WI
Posted on February 1, 2009
Filed Under Franciscanized World | 16 Comments
Franciscanized World continues its reporting from Manitowoc, WI, a sustainable community desiring to stay healthy and whole. The Herald Times Reporter recently spotlighted Recyclemania efforts of colleges and en masse goals for Lighten Up Manitowoc. The paper also ran a supplement honoring young professionals under age 40 who are contributing to the lakeshore community in significant ways. Manitowoc is also the home of St. Francis of Assisi Parish, a multi-site parish that includes Catholics from the whole city and beyond.
Read here about the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity currently living at Roncalli Convent connected to Roncalli High School, Manitowoc. Sisters teach the high school students, but others drive the distance to serve in St. Francis of Assisi School, FSCC HealthCare Ministry, Inc., Holy Family Convent and St. Mary Parish, Clarks, Mills, WI and St.Michael Parish, Whitelaw, WI. Find out more about their lives together and their ministries with God’s people.
Recently
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