Talk about reminiscing --

Our Franciscan Sisters at St. Peter's Mission in neighboring Bapchule, Arizona reminisce about our Franciscan Community's 81 years of service there. Treat yourself to a view of their production and you will see one more reason why I am so proud and happy to be a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity.  Thank you, Bapchule Sisters for giving us such a wonderful walk-through of the services our Sisters have given over the years! No matter where we serve, we stand on the strong shoulders of those Sisters who went before us!

See St. Peter's Mission at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHqE3BhqVaQ.

And speaking of "over the years" it is twenty years since I had the privilege of working with teachers and administrators in some of the Czech Catholic Schools able to come into re-existence after the 1989 Velvet Revolution in their country. You may be sure that I often mentally revisit those experiences; I promise to share some of those memories on this blog in the near future.

Making memories - here's a chance for you or someone you know!

Camp Franciscan     Do you know anyone who is interested in knowing what it is like to be a Franciscan Sister? Or maybe just simply curious about it?  If so, here's a great opportunity to meet some Sisters, get some answers, have some fun, and make new friends and new memories!

As I write this I am remembering some of the questions my sophomore religion students used to ask. I can't help but smile as I remember.

What do Sisters do when they are not in school? 

What do you do for fun or do you ever have fun? 

Do you have good food? 

Do you have to pray a lot? led into more serious questions.

Is it true that you weave baskets in the evening? This one-time memorable question was from a very serious looking young man. The answer was "no" and I didn't laugh at the time!

Maybe someone you know has similar questions. Each summer the Franciscan Sisters offer young ladies a chance (Camp Franciscan) to spend a few days at our beautiful Motherhouse on Silver Lake outside of Manitowoc, Wisconsin. "What's the Motherhouse?" was another question sometimes.

We welcome anyone who is even the least bit curious about Sisters, or maybe even has some burning questions about our life. At Camp Franciscan you can get answers to those questions - and also get a little taste of the more serious side of a Sister's life as well.

There's a saying that a picture is worth a thousand words and you'll find pictures from some past camps on our Camp Franciscan web page and on the blog post announcing this year's camp  Do check these out and if you know anyone interested in considering Religious Life, please send them this blog post.

Camp Info: Theme - Women of Strength, Women of God
Camp begins at 1 p.m. on June 15 and ends at1 p.m. on June 17.

Leadership Training: High School Sophomores to college age are invited to help us guide the other campers June 13, 1 p.m. – June 15, 1 p.m.

Please also join us in praying for the campers and for an increase in Religious vocations!

Thank you and God Bless You!

Leaving the Historic Route

Last night with Rt 66 - at historic Tucumcari,"Gateway to New Mexico and U.S. Route 66 West,"

Entering New Mexico

No time that night to visit any of the tourist attractions promoted on its web page, just enough time and energy to get connected to the internet and plan the last full day's journey. We wanted to side track up to Santa Fe to see the stairs constructed by St. Joseph and to reach the home of cousins, Jan and Joe Gilles, in Albuquerque at a reasonable time. I was excited about that because Jan is the first of my distant cousins that I met online and the one who gave me a great boost when I first put my nose into the family genealogy. She had copies of many Gilles records and between the two of us we got them sorted out into which ones fit our family and which did not. But that's for another post.

The view ahead

Roadside view

The scenery along the way was glorious. I ventured taking pictures with my recently acquired cell phone -- no, not a smart one!  It did take good pictures! God bless the camera!

Loretto Chapel, Santa Fe, New Mexico

The first adventure on that last full day was our side trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico to see the Loretto Chapel which has the stairs believed to be built by the carpenter, St.Joseph. This miraculous spiral staircase stands in a small chapel in what was once a girl's school established in 1853 by the Sisters of Loretto. Finding our way to the chapel and a place to park was a bit of an adventure in its own right, but find it we did and have the picture below to prove it.

Sr. Catherine and Sr. Mary Karen'
at the foot of the staircase.

When we found the chapel, we also found the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis (pictures). It's history, architecture and significance are captured well in Wikipedia. No Franciscan would be able to resist taking a peek at that as well. I have no picture to prove we were there due to sunlight glare and consequent inability to see exactly what view I was getting. The "pray" part of the "point and pray" method for taking pictures in the sun did not work!

I do however have a picture of "St. Francis Preaching to the Birds" in the Cathedral garden.  The quotation on the plaque begins with  “My brother and sister birds, you should praise your Creator and always love him."  

Fitting words, I believe, for all of us to take to heart. Sr. Mary Karen and I certainly had many, many things to praise our Creator for as we left this lovely garden and headed for Albuquerque!