News - August 2019 RSS Feed

Sister Edith Arsenault celebrated her 100th birthday with family and friends who gathered at St. Joseph's Motherhouse for a luncheon and sharing of memories. Blessings Edith! Click on the title for a link to Edith's 100th Birthday photo album.

During the THIRD week of AUGUST, we listen to the heart of the world and hold in our prayer the Sisters of St. Joseph and the people of LEBANON. This week we pray for the people of Lebanon and for the nine Sisters of St. Joseph of Lyon who minister there. They are mostly involved in school and youth ministry. Consider holding in prayer: 1. Very recently two drones fell on the city of Beirut amounting to an open attack on the country's sovereignty and an attempt to foment regional tensions. aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/hezbollah-chief-israeli-drones-lebanon-skies-190825165611883.html 2. Striving for sustainable practices: “The only way to revive our ancestral land and demonstrate its beauty and diversity is to abide by the laws of natural agriculture and biodynamics,” . . . . “That’s the way our ancestors used to work.” https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/23/travel/lebanon-sustainable-practices-tourism.html

ON August 23, we celebrated the birthdays of three special Sisters - S. Leona Spencer, S. Margaret Cushman and S. Edith Arsenault. S. Edith will be 100 years old on August 29, 2019. We have some photos to share

Four Sisters of St. Joseph minister in Kenya, from the Annecy and Springfield congregations. They serve in spirituality and retreat work, schools, health ministry with a dispensary, visiting villages, parish work and pastoral work. The Sisters of St. Joseph of Sault Ste Marie were a presence in Kenya from 1994 – 2008, providing small business support, working in education, addiction intervention and AIDs support. Sr. Carolyn Schan ministered in Kenya from 1994 – 2007, and Sr. Mae Kierans from 2004 – 2008. From the In Canada congregation, Sr. Teresa Ryan served in Kenya from 2006 – 2010 and then again for a year in 2012. We are grateful for all our members who discern ministry abroad!

A huge thank you to Fr. Daniele Muscolino and his group for the care they took to clean the stones and statues at the cemetery. Attached are some photos of the group hard at work.

The Sisters and staff enjoyed a lovely evening sitting by Lake Nipissing and relishing in the great tradition of bon fires on summer evenings. Thanks to Daniel Currie we also had great entertainment and a singalong and no bon fire is complete without s'mores. Take a look at the photos! FYI, we had a visiting groundhog who seemed to also enjoy the activities.

This week we pray for the people of Jamaica and for the Sister of St. Joseph from Springfield who ministers there in a doctor volunteer program. We are also mindful of the Sisters from the Hamilton Congregation (now part of the Congregation of Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada) in served there from 1993 – 2007; Sr. Ann Marshall, Sr. Nancy Sullivan and our deceased Sr. Katrina Rooney.

ON August 9, our Life Enrichment Co-ordinator, Mandi and the sisters gathered to make kites. Attached are some photos. Could not catch a kite flying but we all had a great deal of fun!

This week we hold in prayer the Sisters of St. Joseph ministering in the Ivory Coast and the people of that nation. There are twenty-three Sisters from the congregations of Aosta, Lyon and Institut des Souers de Saint Joseph. Their work includes education, adult literacy, visiting prisoners, parish and pastoral work, working with school drop-outs and teenagers, social centre, lunch programs, and care of the handicapped. From the news feed: “Recent negotiations for payment of the cocoa produced in the Ivory Coast was unsuccessful. This is especially painful in the Ivory Coast because the country has destroyed massive portions of its forests trying to satisfy the global demand for chocolate. In 1960, the West African nation had roughly 12 million hectares of forests. Today, nearly three-quarters of that forest is gone, reports the World Bank. Compounding the pain, many cocoa farmers in the Ivory Coast still don't make a living wage, even though their country is the world's top producer and exporter of cocoa beans that are the main ingredient in the $100bn global chocolate industry.” How is our charism calling us to respond . . . .