Catholic Diocese of Green Bay priest, Father Doug LeCaptain, pastor of St. Raphael Parish, Oshkosh, WI, as well as sacramental minister at St. Mary, Omro and St. Mary, Winneconne, was looking for a brief vocation podcast on consecrated life. He wanted to play the video at a Sunday Eucharist during 2012 National Vocation Awareness Week. Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity quickly responded to his request uploading a  2 minute 37 second podcast on youtube.

Featuring Franciscan Sisters talking about discernment and the call as a women religious, the video also provides real life footage of community life and ministry.

Click here to view this podcast.

Is your parish technologically savy? We invite you to alert your pastor to this free youtube download. Tell  Parish and  education leaders, especially young adult groups, about this discernment resource. 

Possibly even more personally, consider emailing a link of this posting to a friend who you think would make a joyful Franciscan Sister. Our next Franciscan Discernment Retreat is February 17-19, 2012.

The wistful ‘I Wonder as I Wander’ is the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity’s December song of the month featured both as an Advent-Christmas podcast and a free  mp3. Sister Marsaia and Novice Sister Leslie combine their musical gifts to perform  this treasured wayfarer song.

Download audio file (I Wonder as I Wander.mp3)
 

Click here for free music download.

About ‘I Wonder as I Wander’

John Jacobs Niles heard snatches of the melody and lyrics from a poor, homeless Appalachian girl in a North Carolina town. He then fine-tuned the folk composition into a memoriable Christmas song on October 4, 1933 (interesting that this happened on a day associated with St. Francis of Assisi), performing it for the first time in December of that year.

Much as in past centuries, the Franciscan vocation continually draws those desiring to  lead a Gospel life. If you are a single, young woman, we invite you to wonder and ponder if you are called to be a follower of  Jesus like St. Francis and St. Clare, open to wandering with other traveling companions while seeing goodness and holy possibility in our world. Consider our Franciscan Discernment Retreats.  

Stained Glass Windows

Our podcast shines with splendid stained glass windows from St. Clement Church, Sheboygan, WI. Be mesmerized by the colorful display of  sensitively-lit images  perfectly-pieced to tell this wonderous tale.  

Latest Videos

If you are new to Franciscanized World, you may want to check out two other recent podcasts on our calledtobeFranciscan youtube channel:

• Sister Pamela Catherine’s Vocation Journey
• Catholic Podcast on the Book of Revelation  

Special thanks to Mark Kolter, Kolter Creative Counsel, Milwaukee, WI and Audio Visual of Milwaukee for professional excellence in directing and producing our stories. We invite you to replay your favorites and watch for more podcasts in 2012.

Lyrics:

I wonder as I wander out under the sky

How Jesus the Saviour did come for to die

For poor on’ry people like you and like I;

I wonder as I wander out under the sky

                                ***

When Mary birthed Jesus ’twas in a cow’s stall

With wise men and farmers and shepherds and all

But high from God’s heaven, a star’s light did fall

And the promise of ages it then did recall.

                              ***

If Jesus had wanted for any wee thing

A star in the sky or a bird on the wing

Or all of God’s Angels in heaven to sing

He surely could have it, ’cause he was the King

Desiring to understand the feelings involved in someone called to be a Franciscan Sister? We invite you to view Franciscan Sister of Christian Charity Sister Pamela Catherine’s discernment  journey from a Franciscan Vocation Discernment Retreat to her current life in community with our Sisters at St. Peter Mission, Bapchule, AZ. 

Originally from Grand Blanc, MI, Sister Pamela Catherine made first vows in June 2011. Read more about her irresistible call in her Lansing Diocesan paper by clicking here.

Click here to enjoy her podcast on our calledtobeFranciscan youtube channel.

In these final days of the current liturgical year, we’ve been reading from the Book of Revelation. Desiring to know more about this apocalyptic form of writing?  

Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity invite you to watch our latest calledtobeFranciscan youtube video featuring  St. John University, NY,  professor,  Fr. Jean-Pierre Ruiz, S.T.D., who speaks about the Book of Revelation. Father taught “Approaching The  Apocalypse: The Book of Revelation from the First Century to the Twenty-First” at Silver Lake College of the Holy Family in summer 2011.

Click here to view the podcast.

Incorporated in this video are magestic stained glass windows representative of various locations including  St. Thomas Aquinas Church, East Lansing, MI and Holy Angels Church, West Bend, WI. 

Learn more about ‘The Grande Window’ pictured above by reading comments sent by pastor Father Mark Inglot. Click here.

Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity invite you to view our podcast highlighting our recent Lake Michigan shoreline Adopt-a-Beach and why we are committed to this event.

Collaborating with the Alliance for the Great Lakes, Novices and Postulant Regina as well as other Community members witness our Franciscan spirituality. Sister Mary Ann Spanjers was our event leader.

Praised be You, my Lord, with all Your creatures…Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Water, who is very useful and humble and precious and chaste.

- St. Francis of Assisi

Click here to view the podcast on our Calledtobe Franciscan channel.

We invite you to read about Sister Pamela Catherine Peasel’s call to the consecrated life as a Franciscan Sister of Christian Charity in her home diocese’s Catholic paper, The Catholic Weekly, The Catholic Times. Follow this link.

Franciscan Sister of Christian Charity Sister Pamela Catherine Peasel from Grand Blanc, MI celebrates her call to consecrated life with family members in Manitowoc, WI.

If you haven’t heard Sister Pamela Catherine speak about our Community’s ministries to those in need, follow this link to our Franciscan youtube channel and enjoy our latest films on the 100th Anniversary of presence in Cambridge, OH.

Today Sister Pamela Catherine begins her first full day of living among the Gila River Community at St. Peter Mission, Bapchule, AZ. The Lord bless you.

During 2011 Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity are celebrating with Christ Our Light Parish, Cambridge, OH, the  100th Anniversary of Catholic Education in Guernsey County.

Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity Podcasts celebrate 100 years of Catholic Education in Ohio's Guernsey County. Photo by Priscilla Thomas/Prisca Photography

Join us in keeping this commemoration alive.  Find photos of the actual celebration in Cambridge, OH in early June. Click here. 

To read  Sister Maureen Anne Shepard’s response to the people of the parish at the celebration click here.

View 3 powerful podcasts narrated by Sister Pamela Catherine Peasel and featuring current ministries of our Franciscan Sisters. You’ll want to click on the Sisters’ names to see all 3 podcasts.  

• Sister Carolee Vanness and Sister Janet Rose
• Sister Eloise Biedenbach and Sister Theresa
• Sister Anna Maar and Sister Miriam Dosch

The Lord bless the wonderful people of Christ Our Light Parish past, present and future!

Care to share any of your memories?

As the Roman Catholic Church anticipates the beatification of yet another person of faith (John Paul II) on May 1, 2011, Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity share photos of sacred and significant saintly artforms represented in recent extensive renovations of St. Augustine Cathedral, Tucson, AZ.  A beautiful, peace-filled place of prayer, the Cathedral’s impressive statues of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, St. Katherine Drexel, St. Juan Diego and Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha  (more contemporary witnesses of holiness) inspire the faithful of the Diocese of Tucson and are at home in this glowing gold house of God. (Photos: Sister Louise Hembrecht)

Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity were present for the rededication of St. Augustine Cathedral, Tucson AZ which now houses statues of St. Juan Diego and Blessed Kateri Tekakawitha.

Interesting fact: On March 22, 1896 Bishop Peter Bourgade laid the cornerstone of the new St. Augustine Cathedral at 192 Stone Avenue. He bought the square block in 1885 for $400.

Renovations also include:

•  the Cathedral’s historic painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe in its new home near the retablo that houses St. Juan Diego and Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha.
• a mural of the Good Shepherd tending His sheep high on the back wall of the sanctuary.
• a Pamplona crucifix carbon dated to the mid-12th century and painstakingly restored by art conservators Tohono O’odham Tim Lewis and Maltide Rubio over a 6 month period which hangs on the back wall of the sanctuary. (Watch this refurbishing video.)

All you holy saints of God pray for us.

You are invited to watch our Fraciscan Sisters of Christian Charity Heritage of  Hope video. Sister Martin Flavin, OSF and Scott McConnaha, Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity Health Care Ministry Inc., collaborated to complete the project for the 25 year celebration of our community’s health care system office.  

Learn about our call to be consecrated women religious and the dedicated service of our Sisters for over 140 years. 

Click here to view the podcast.

How does this film speak of hope?

With the beginning of a new liturgical year, Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity invite you to watch our latest podcast reflection An Advent Shower Psalm from Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim by Father Edward Hays.

Click here to view the podcast.

Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity invite you to watch and pray Edward Hays' 'An Advent Shower Psalm' this 2010 Advent Season.

Sister Martin Flavin, OSF, directed our Postulants (Rose, Leslie, Holly and Lindsey) in the recitation of the poem.

Rose, a harp student of Sister Marsaia Kaster, OSF, at Holy Family Conservatory, Manitowoc, WI, plays her original accompaniment.

To help you ponder the poem’s message deeply, here are the words.

An Advent Shower Psalm by Edward Hays

Isaiah of old prayed,

“Let the earth open wide her mouth;

as justice descends, O heavens,

like the dew from above,

like gentle showers,

let salvation fall from the skies;

let justice spring up

and salvation bud forth.”

Come gentle rain of Advent-tide,

soak deep into my heart,

calling forth signs of an early spring.

Make buds appear on my heart’s barren rosebush

and blooms on its dried flower stalks.

Come showers of silence and wet my soul;

soak deeply with your fertile fingers,

dripping heaven’s dew.

May I come forth from my times of prayer

as from a bath:

dripping wet from a sacred soaking,

refreshed, renewed, revitalized.

Advent prayer of December stillness,

dampen my dry soul,

coax forth green leaves of the Spirit

and bring forth buds of bright flowers

as green trees flicker with magic lights

and green wreath circles

whirl on front doors,

red-bowed in festive joy.

May soggy souls ooze out awesome gifts,

for Emmanuel, God-among-us,

is awakened from a yearlong slumber

by gentle mists of Advent longing

and is eager to give gifts of love,

presents of your presence.

Radiant Rain God,           

make me your brimful cloud,

ready to shower down Emmanuel’s justice and peace

upon all I meet.

Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim

What speaks to you in this podcast (e.g. poem, music, images)?