Poetry, reflections, and a commemoration of Sister Susan Dewitt, CSJP.

by Jan Linley

Sister Suzanne Golas grew up in New Jersey spending summers at the beach where a lifelong love affair with the sea began. So, it’s no wonder that when her term as Congregation Leader ended in 1996, she had the bold and prescient idea of starting Waterspirit, a program that would wed ecology and spirituality, helping people not only understand the connection between the two but teaching the importance of care of creation.

by Frank McCann, CSJP-A

We are reminded daily about the growing threat of climate change, but we hear much less often about the radical revolution required in our global food system. What we eat affects our planet’s health.

by Bryan Johns, CSJP-A

We pull up in our trusty 1999 Honda Odyssey van, in the redlined no-parking zone, curbside and we unload. First the tables and chairs. The coffee and water. Next is the canopy that never seems to get any easier to setup, no matter how many times we do it.

by Margaret Gesualdi

In Christianity, the heart symbolizes the center or core of our being, from which prayer and moral actions originate. The Bible has taught me that the greatest human struggles happen within our hearts, struggles resolved through faith rather than intellectual facts. The greatest battles involving our fears, loves, ideas, hopes and trust – are all seated in our heart.

by Liz Dodd, CSJP Candidate

“My grandmother was very specific: you will know your vocation by the joy it brings you,” said Dorothy Day’s granddaughter, Kate Hennessy, as she sat across from me in my office on a drizzly afternoon in March. How could she know that, just a week before, I had caught a first glimpse of my own vocation, over coffee in the cafe crypt of a London church with Katrina, the Sister of St. Joseph of Peace I’d nervously reached out to over Twitter?

by Stephanie Peirolo, CSJP-A

My granddaughter, who is almost two years old, recently discovered the concept of emptiness. She peers into the laundry bin and looks up at me and correctly pronounces it “empty.” She knows that nothing has a name.

by Susan Rose Francois, CSJP

Human beings and human community are sadly also prone to breaking the connections between and among us. Racism—predicated upon the lie that some persons are of more/less value than others because of their skin tone or ethnic background— is a persistent tragedy of destructive disconnection.

Waterspirit is a center of ecology and spirituality that informs, inspires, and enables all people to deepen their consciousness of the sacredness and interdependence of all creation with a focus on water as critical in sustaining life. It was founded in 1996 by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace.

In 1978, the Irish Section of Pax Christi, the international Catholic peace movement, asked the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace to consider coming to Dublin, Ireland to work for peace and justice. The sisters’ aims aligned with the goals of Pax Christi, and the invitation was accepted. Peace House was opened in 1980 and served the community for nearly 20 years.

When chaos surrounds us—especially on a large scale that blends the personal drama with the world stage—it can be hard to keep our bearings.

by Frank McCann, CSJP-A

Water is one of our most precious resources, one that many of us take for granted. Yet, for more than 844 million people worldwide, or one in every nine people on Earth, access to clean and safe water is still out of reach.

by Susan Rose Francois, CSJP

When the very first Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace professed vows on January 7, 1884 in Nottingham at Our Lady Chapel in St. Barnabas Cathedral, they did so in the presence of Bishop Edward Gilpin Bagshawe. His critical insight that we require both social analysis in light of the Gospel and development of the capacity to dwell in the peace and love of God are as relevant to 21st Century readers as they were to those first expectant, and most likely anxious, Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace gathered at Our Lady Chapel, ready to begin their new adventure.

No matter what is happening in the world, there is always a population of disenfranchised, underserved, and usually poor, who are struggling. As our editorial board planned this issue, we realized we wanted to hear from people at the nonprofit ministries that serve those populations.

by Susan Dewitt, CSJP

Love my enemy, do good to those who hate me, bless those who curse me, pray for those who mistreat me – how do I begin to do that?

by Christabel McCooey

I have a confession to make. I have been avoiding news about Brexit like the plague. Ever since the first vote on 23 June 2016, wherein 51.9% of British voters opted to leave the European Union, I have had an impulsive urge to steer conversations away from the subject.

by Sheila Lemieux, CSJP

Recently, my niece Megan came to me expressing how troubled she was regarding the Church’s response to the abuse of children, as well as by all the other disturbing events happening in our world today. She was looking to me not only as her beloved aunt, but as a Catholic sister who could help her make sense of what is happening.

by Cristina Turino

Since their earliest days, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace had expressed an interest in the care and instruction of the blind poor. Bishop Wigger of Newark invited the Congregation to take the reins of the three year-old Home for the Blind in 1889. This initiated the founding of St. Joseph’s School for the Blind, the first Catholic school for blind children on the East Coast, which still stands today as an ambitious innovator in the education of the visually-impaired.

by Max Lewis, CSJP-A

As a card-carrying neurotic, I expected my first inpatient hospital experience to be awful.

by Katrina Alton, CSJP

The phrase “illegal immigrant” has become common parlance to describe men, women, and children, who because of economic poverty, can’t buy their way out of countries crucified by war and terrorism, or droughts and floods. Over the last 15 years all routes to enter the UK as a “refugee” have been closed, creating an asylum system so complex, so racist, and so arbitrary that even experts in this field struggle to keep abreast of changes.