Jubilee Year of Mercy - mercymidatlantic.org of Surviving ... without the permission of ¡Viva! ... Our 25th anniversary year and the Jubilee Year of Mercy intensify the powerful and

JULY | AUGUST 2016 Bimonthly publication for sisters, associates and companions of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas

2016JubileeYear of Mercy

Where There is Hatred, Let Me Sow Love: Stories of Surviving Violence in the Philippines

also in this issue:

Defining Mercy: Spirituality for Justice

Woodshed of Grace: Building a Resurrected Life

F E A T U R E S

5 Defining Mercy: Spirituality for Justice By Sister Victoria Battell and Michelle Thivierge

8 Where There is Hatred, Let Me Sow Love: Stories of Surviving Violence in the Philippines

By Sister Helen Libo-on

12 Woodshed of Grace: Building a Resurrected Life By Dee Dee Risher

C O L U M N S

4 Vocation & Incorporation | Jubilee Year of Mercy: The Good WorkBy Sister Cynthia Serjak, Institute New Membership Team

16 Justice | Countering Islamophobia with Mercy and Relationship-BuildingBy Marianne Comfort, Institute Justice Team

D E P A R T M E N T S

2 Community UpdateCompiled by Mercy Communicators

17 Spice of Mercy Life | Brides on the BusBy Sister Peggy Gorman

J U L Y | A U G U S T 2 0 1 6

Table of Contents

page 12

BIMONTHLY PUBLICATION FOR SISTERS, ASSOCIATES AND COMPANIONS OF THE INSTITUTE OF THE SISTERS OF MERCY OF THE AMERICAS

PublisherInstitute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas 8380 Colesville Road, #300 Silver Spring, Maryland 20910-6264 tel 301.587.0423 [email protected]

Editor Lauren Albright [email protected]

Design and Production RoundPeg

TranslationMany thanks to our translators!

Advisory BoardSisters Anne Curtis, Camille D’Arienzo, Kathleen Erickson, Diane Guerin and Patricia Kenny. Anne Boyle, Sue Carroll, Liz Dossa.

Articles or portions thereof are protected by copyright laws and therefore cannot be reproduced or reprinted without the permission of ¡Viva! Mercy and/or the author.

Visit www.sistersofmercy.org for highlighted articles from this publication.

¡Viva! Mercy is printed on acid free, elemental chlorine-free paper containing 50 percent recycled content including 15 percent post consumer waste.

A resident of a village in North Cotobato, a province in the Philippines, flees his home in August 2008 as rebel factions of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) attack. Credit: Jason Gutierrez/IRIN. Read more on page 8.

page 5

J U LY | A U G U S T 2 0 16 ¡Viva! Mercy 1

Dear Sisters, Associates, Companions and Mercy Volunteers,

Begin and beginAnd begin againBegin any timeBegin any whereBegin any wayTo begin is the thingHold tight to your PASSIONThe thing is to begin, begin any timebegin anywhere, anyhow

— artist Chris K. Foster

We greet you as we begin our 25th anniversary year marking the Founding of the Institute of the Sister of Mercy of the Americas. On July 20, 1991, the doors in the convention center in Buffalo, New York, opened, and these words proclaimed our new relationship—our new beginning:

“We are Sisters of Mercy … We, women of mercy, have discovered a new relationship among us, and we pray that the bonds we formalize today will endure, will enliven us, and will serve our church and touch our world.” —Founding Document, July 20, 1991

Twenty-five years later, how blessed we are that our bonds of union and charity have not only endured but continue to deepen and enliven us. Our anniversary inspires our reflection and evokes both awe and gratitude as we recall the abundance of gifts and graces of these past years. Yet, while this year arrives and stirs many warm remembrances, how providential it is to be nestled within the great Jubilee Year of Mercy!

Our 25th anniversary year and the Jubilee Year of Mercy intensify the powerful and incessant prophetic call of the Gospel, our Institute Direction Statement, our Critical Concerns and our Chapter Declaration. Our “mercy-ing” response to the most haunting cries of our sisters and brothers—indeed, of all life on this planet, “our common home”—is needed now perhaps more urgently than ever. How have our years as Institute better positioned us to exert our collective passion for mercy and justice and respond as one? Is this not the most compelling reason for walking the Journey of Oneness?

In the Book of Leviticus, jubilee “mercy” is experienced by the people as the invitation to begin again! It is a time of joy and rebirth. In Luke’s gospel, Jesus inaugurates his mission by announcing a “year of favor … release … recovery … liberty.” For our anniversary year, perhaps we best begin anew by celebrating and honoring God’s faithfulness and mercy to us as well as ours to each other, and by holding ever so tightly to our passion: our renewed commitment “to begin again … begin anywhere, anyhow” to make the mercy and justice of God real today and into our future!

In Mercy,

From the Institute Leadership Team

The InsTITuTe LeadershIp Team (STANDING) SISTERS PAT MCDERMOTT,

MARY PAT GARVIN, EILEEN CAMPBELL;

(SEATED) SISTERS ANNE CURTIS AND

DEBORAH TROILLETT

Community Update

2 ¡Viva! Mercy J U LY | A U G U S T 2 0 16

C O M P I L E D B Y M E R C Y C O M M U N I C A T O R S

MID-ATLANTIC

DURING THE RECENT Mid-Atlantic Community Assembly, sisters decided to make a communal commitment to do an examination of conscience on a regular basis regarding their participation in consumerism and the “stuff” they have or need. For the past four years, the Critical Concerns Committee worked to deepen the Community’s awareness of its connect-edness with all creation via book studies, videos and reflections. Last year, the committee invited the Community to consider sustainability as a “transformative worldview that offers a mindset for seeing and changing our world.” The committee also promoted excerpts from Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home along with reflection questions. Their hope is that the examination of conscience will draw the Community into prayer which leads to conversion of heart. They are also planning to develop a mantra to sing or recite which will serve as a reminder of this communal commitment.

NORTHEAST

RECENT MONTHS BROUGHT “fullness of life” to the Northeast Community through members’ participation in various events. Sixteen members traveled to Belmont, North Carolina, for the anti-racism program in April—the largest turnout to date. Additionally, approximately 200 people came to Mercy by the Sea in Madison, Connecticut, in May for “Catholicity and Conscious Evolution,” a program by Sister Ilia Delio, OSF, the renowned theologian. In other news, Sister Gail Jarvis and her

ministry as “DJ Joy” on a contemporary Christian music radio station was featured in Vermont Catholic, the magazine of the Diocese of Burlington, Vermont.

CARIBBEAN, CENTRAL AMERICA, SOUTH AMERICA

THE COORDINATING TEAM for CCASA Associates recently met in Panama, accompanied by Sister Estela Gomez and translator and Associate Antonieta Castilla. Associates Celina Murtagh (Argentina), Mavila Esteves (Perú), Aida González (Honduras), and Patricia Liverpool (Guyana) shared experi-ences and worked on the development of common associate guidelines for CCASA.

In Lima, Peru, Sisters Durly Salazar, Biviana Chique, Nidia Huanacuni and Alita Sanchez (Peru/Newfoundland) welcomed nine young women, mostly university students, into their community and coordinated days of reflection on the Mercy of God poured out in the self-giving of Holy Week and on our charism of Mercy in this Jubilee Year of Mercy.

At a public event commemorating International Women’s Day, Mayor Celauro of Clorinda, Formosa, Argentina, honored

with gratitude Sister Estela Gomez’s dedication and enduring commitment to the community, especially in the struggle against gender violence and service to women and children.

Preparations are underway for the 2017 CCASA Assembly which will take place the last week of January in Lima.

From left, Associates Celine Murtaugh, Aida González, Patricia Liverpool,

Antonieta Castilla and Mavila Esteves.

Northeast Community members who participated in the anti-racism workshop

in Belmont include (from left, bottom front row) Sisters Rita Parent, Susan

Wieczynski, Mary Costello, Ann McKenna and Maureen McElroy; (from

left, second row) Sisters Patricia Rooney and Miriam Therese Callnan

and Companion Constance McMurray; (from left, third row) Sister Jude

Kapp, Alice Poltorick, and Sisters Amy Hoey, Rosemary Burnham and

Norma Fleming; and (from left, back row) Sisters Chris Kavanagh and Jane

McGarrahan. Not pictured: Sister Mary Miller.

Sisters Maureen

Murray (left) and

Paschal Hill (right)

contemplate the

proposed com-

munal action

at the recent

Mid-Atlantic

Community

Assembly.

3J U LY | A U G U S T 2 0 16 ¡Viva! Mercy

SOUTH CENTRAL

SISTERS OF MERCY Urgent Care won the 2016 Urgent Care Association of America Humanitarian Award for its mission work in Haiti since the devastating 2010 earthquake. The 14th medical mission group from Mercy Urgent Care, Team Mercy, returned to Haiti May 22-28. Dr. Ellen Lawson, medical director, accepted the award on behalf of the staff April 19 in Orlando, Florida. Mercy operates five Urgent Care clinics in western North Carolina.

The Honeybelles, a team of six science and art students at Mount St. Mary Academy in Little Rock, Arkansas, won a $15,000 first-place award in the Lexus Eco Challenge, a national contest for middle- and high-school students. The students created a pollinators habitat on the Mercy school’s campus to protect the dwindling population of bees, which

are vital to agriculture, and they started a composting system for the garden. The team previously had won $10,000 in grants and scholarships before going on to compete with 15 other teams in the final challenge.

WEST MIDWEST

SEVERAL SISTERS in the West Midwest Community were recently honored! On April 26, Sister Rose Mary Boessen, director of La Posada in Twin Falls, Idaho, was present-ed the Exemplary Community Partnership Award by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Washington, D.C. La Posada assists the growing Hispanic population with adapting to life in the United States. The ministry recently completed the certification process of the Bureau of Immigration Appeals to be designated as a site for citizenship interviews for those unable to travel to the state capital, Boise.

Sister Augusta Stratz of Kalkaska, Michigan, has been nom-inated for this year’s Lumen Christi Award. Her nomination reads: “She will celebrate her 65th Jubilee this September, and in this Jubilee Year of Mercy, her ministry working with incar-cerated women is especially relevant.”

Sister Rosemary Connelly, who has spent almost 50 years helping those with intellectual and developmental disabilities at Misericordia Heart of Mercy in Chicago, Illinois, was presented an honorary doctorate from MacMurray College on May 7. She received the honor while she served as keynote speaker for their commencement ceremonies in Jacksonville, Illinois.

Dr. Ellen Lawson

(right), medical

director of Sisters

of Mercy Urgent

Care in western

North Carolina,

checks a patient

in Haiti.

NEW YORK, PENNSYLVANIA, PACIFIC WEST (NyPPaW)

DELIBERATIVE MEMBERS at the third NyPPaW assembly elected to relate to the Institute Leadership Team as of January 1, 2017. The current NyPPaW Community Leadership Team will extend its term until December 31,

2016. In the meantime, Sisters Patricia McDermott, Institute pres-ident, and Patricia Prinzing and Sheila Stevenson, representing NyPPaW leadership, will form a transition work group to help plan the way forward on the Journey of Oneness.

Members also elected delegates to the 2017 Institute Chapter and approved a recommendation to conserve water and prevent the pollution of water.

Philippine sisters dedicated a new administration building at Holy Cross High School, Kolambugan.

Sister Jane Kenrick returned to Rochester, New York, and the NyPPaW Community after ministering in Chile for the past 50 years.

Sister Mary Felice Duska received the Distinguished Alumni Service Award from Mercyhurst Prep in Erie, Pennsylvania, on March 5.

At the NyPPaW Assembly, Philippine sisters

perform a dance celebrating water and natural

resources during a presentation on Critical Concerns.

Sister Rose Mary

Boessen (right)

assists families such

as Helen Negassi

(left) and her twin

sons Noah and

Nahom through her

ministry, La Posada.


Countering Islamophobia with Mercy and Relationship-Building

J U S T I C E

This is a very frightening time to be a Muslim in the United States. There have been instances of children eating lunch alone in school bathrooms to avoid bullying and women dressed in a head covering having liquid, along with insults, poured over them outside coffee shops and being roughly ejected from presidential campaign rallies. Passengers have been pulled off planes for speaking Arabic on the phone or writing out “suspicious” math equations.

Some of the spike in Islamophobia is attributed to fear-filled reactions to the attacks in Paris, France, and San Bernardino, California. But hateful anti-Muslim rhetoric at presidential campaign rallies also has clearly encouraged violence, with perpetrators sometimes quoting candidate Donald Trump or tossing his name at their

targets. The Bridge Institute at Georgetown noted that since the primary season began in March 2015, there have been 180 anti-Muslim attacks in the United States, with 53 in December alone, after a surge of anti-Muslim statements by Trump and calls for shutting down mosques.

Earlier this year, members of a coalition of Catholic advocacy organizations based in Washington, D.C.—including the Institute Justice Team—realized it was past time to raise our voices against this growing tide of Islamophobia. We drafted a statement, developed talking points for letters to the editor and advocated against proposed legislation that would bar refugees from seeking a safe haven in the United States because of their religion or country of origin.

Also, the Sisters of Mercy of the

Americas have joined Shoulder to Shoulder, an interfaith organization working to replace violent anti-Muslim rhetoric with values of religious freedom and respect.

But the most important work is going on in communities around the country, where Mercy sisters, associates, students and volunteers are standing as visible witnesses to interfaith soli-darity and reaching out in friendship to their Muslim neighbors.

Over the past few months, Mercys have led and participated in prayer vigils welcoming Syrian refugees and expressing support for Muslims in Nebraska, Tennessee and beyond. Mercy groups as large as 70 people have visited mosques and participated in interfaith dialogues around the United States. Read ways you can help below.

There are many ways of living in solidarity with our Muslim neighbors, including:

• Praying for interfaith understanding and unity

• Inviting a Muslim speaker to a group or event

• Reading about or watching videos about Islam and the experiences of Muslims in the United States

• Joining a coordinated effort to welcome refugees to your community

• Looking for opportunities to visit a mosque or attend an interfaith dialogue

• Participating in some way in the month-long Ramadan fast, which this year was June 6 through July 5

You may find a more extensive list, with accompanying links to education resources, prepared by the Extended Justice Team at www.sistersofmercy.org/muslimsolidarity.

Early this year several Mercy sisters visited a mosque in Sacramento, California. Pictured here, Sister Anne Chester speaks with Dr. Irfan Haq, Sr. during the visit. The sisters dressed conforming to the practice of the mosque.

“Mercy is …”This was the challenge we posed to the delegates at a workshop on the Critical Concerns at St. Mary’s College of California: to develop a succinct definition for “mercy.” For most of the participants—mainly college level students—mercy embodied action, taking care of the other, pursuing a cause, committing to service. Few of the delegates expressed an understanding of mercy as an experience, something they were immersed in and an energy from which they approached service. This was where we sought to lead them. We hoped that the workshop would highlight a vision of mercy as spirituality for justice.

Defining Mercy: By Sister Victoria Battell and Michelle ThiviergeSpirituality for Justice




All Are WelcomeSieger Koder’s image “All Are Welcome” provides the viewer with an image of a Gospel table, one where those from all walks of life are present and welcome. For many who desire a more equal and open Gospel table in the Church, this image serves as a reminder that we are all one around the table of mercy, regardless of country of origin, or even our perceived “worthiness.” Mercy is the radical notion that what we are immersed in is the spirit in which we serve, rather than service from a place of privilege or power. We are all gathered around the one table of mercy, and we serve and learn from one another. This was the model of service learning we sought to present to the del-egates: mercy goes beyond charity; it is a lived experience, a spirituality for justice.

We learned from the participants that they desire a sense of connectedness to one another and that this sense of community was reflective of a Merciful God, reminding us of Catherine McAuley’s maxim: “The mercy of God has given us one another.” God, who is a community of mercy and love, draws each person, each living being—indeed the whole universe—into this continual relationship of life. Through their questions and reflections, the participants led us as presenters into a deeper sense that the call to mercy in our own time is one of community, mutuality and love, reflective of the very life and essence of God. That call can be most humbly expressed in genuine acts of mercy, seeking justice, at the grassroots and systemic levels.

This call to mercy and justice in and as community, invites us all to move beyond seeing mercy as a solely personal encounter, and into consciousness of our con-nectedness and common need for healing and love. Mercy

then becomes a collective experience as opposed to a purely private devotion. The moment we see mercy as only a per-sonal encounter with God, we are at risk of not pursuing justice for the good of all. This is the deeper understanding of mercy as spirituality for justice, which we both took away from our reflections with these young people.

An Exercise in InjusticeAs we continue through the gift of this Year of Mercy, we are invited to continue to look to others to expose and realize our need for mercy. As some of the young people reflected back to us, it is very easy to develop campaigns and well-designed promotional materials for a jubilee year like this, and even to get lost or overwhelmed in the scale of the needs before us. But if the core call to service in a spirit of solidarity and love is not manifested and experi-enced, then the Year of Mercy may not be as authentic a celebration and experience as it could be.

This insight was gained when the participants were led in an exercise emphasizing the connection between oppression and privilege. They started the experience standing next to one another, holding hands. Asked a series of questions based around socio-economic and cul-tural issues, they were instructed to either step forward or backward, depending on their response. By the end of the exercise, the once unified group had become broken and divided.

This exercise is a microcosm of the bigger picture, the injustice that exists in the world. Breaking hands with those standing on either side breaks our connection. It highlights how there is no “us” and “them,” only “we”; solidarity works to fix the broken connection. A similar

Sieger Köder’s “All Are Welcome,” originally titled “Das Mahl mit den Sündern” (“The Meal with Sinners”). © Sieger Köder-Stiftung Kunst und Bibel, Ellwangen


image that serves as a juxtaposition to this is when we pray the Lord’s Prayer together. We join hands in community, united in prayer, asking God to reveal God’s Kingdom on Earth as it is in Heaven. The harmony that comes from holding hands and being one with each other is experienced in a place of worship, the frontlines of advocacy work, vigils for peace, in the classroom, service trips and every time it is realized we are a collective whole.

Yes, a person can choose to ignore it, but once this knowledge becomes seared in our minds and hopefully our hearts, how can we? Once we see, how can we un-see?

Who Is My Neighbor?Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in one of his famous sermons, “On Being a Good Neighbor,” reflects on the parable of the Good Samaritan and the question asked of Jesus by the lawyer in Luke 10:29: “And who is my neighbor?”

King highlights three possible responses to this question that are demonstrated in the parable. The first response is that of the robbers; King interprets their actions as “what is thine is mine;” possessions, if not given, will be taken. The second response is that of the Levite and the priest who ask themselves, “If I stop and help this man, what will happen to ME?” King interprets their response as: “what’s thine is thine and what’s mine is mine.”

Finally, there is the response of the Samaritan. King wrote that the Samaritan’s response was most compassionate and derived from a solidarity perspective, because the Samaritan asked himself: “If I DO NOT help this man, what will happen to HIM?” The Samaritan’s actions exude a sense of “what is mine is thine.” When we can choose to respond the same, we do make manifest God’s Kingdom here on Earth.

While no particular word in Hebrew or Greek translates into our modern concept of “solidarity,” it is intimately woven throughout Scripture. Genesis tells us we are our brother’s and sister’s keeper; Deuteronomy offers the instruction to love the orphan, widow and stranger just as God does; Tobit tells us to give from what we have received and to not turn away from the poor; Sirach urges us not to delay in giv-ing to those in need; 1 Corinthians offers that if one member suffers, all suffer, and if one member is honoured, all rejoice. The examples are numerous. Solidarity from this Scriptural perspective indicates a “walking with” that leads to one’s own understanding of self. What we can glean from Scripture is that it is not a title or rank that anoints us to this work, but our collective call as a community of believers.

The work of solidarity is not smooth. The road, like that

in the parable of the Good Samaritan, can be dangerous, but the path is clear. The Jubilee Year of Mercy provides a great map to follow, when we are called to make mercy real and live more compassionately.

Compassion puts something of our-selves on the line; perhaps it’s our time, voice, presence or more. Compassion is the emotional connection to another that leads one to act; mercy is the action itself. It is our asking: if I do not help, what will happen?

So, as we approach the mid-way point in this Year of Mercy, maybe we can ask our-selves as individuals and as community: What have I done? What can I do? What am I willing to do and be in order to expe-rience and gift to others the mercy of God?

Sister Victoria L. Battell is from the United Kingdom and teaches religious studies, sociology and criminal justice at Maria College in Albany, New York. She also works

in adult formation and spirituality and offers courses on the theology and spirituality in the Gospel of John.

Michelle Thivierge is the director of campus ministry at Maria College in Albany, New York. The College’s ministry upholds the values of the Sisters of Mercy in the

education of the mind, body and spirit of each student, focusing on social justice and advocacy.




Where There Is

Hatred, Let Me Sow

LoveStories of Surviving

Violence in the PhilippinesBy Sister Helen Libo-on

Introduction by Sister JoAnne Courneen, NyPPaW Community President

Christianity is the most prevalent religion in the Philippines, with roughly 82.9 percent of the population professing Catholicism (according to the Pew Research Center). In Mindanao, where most of our sisters live and work, there is also a large Muslim community. Muslims work alongside our sisters at Mercy Community Hospital, send their children to our schools and respect our sisters for the min-istries they provide to all people, regardless of their religious beliefs.

A visitor to the country would see only the harmony of these groups working together. That is the normal, everyday experience. But beneath the surface lurks unrest from radicalized Muslim groups, particularly in Mindanao. These groups have never targeted our sisters; in fact, much of their violence is directed at other Muslim groups. Unfortunately, there is a serious risk for everyone, includ-ing our sisters, of being caught in the crossfire.

It is critical to understand that the actions of radicalized Muslim groups do not represent in any way the core beliefs shared by the 1.6 billion Muslims in our world. In many cases of violence in the Philippines, Muslim neighbors have helped to protect our sisters from the attacks of radicalized groups.

We pray for the safety of our sisters in the Philippines and com-mend the work they do each day, serving without discrimination in a volatile space so desperately in need of mercy. Sister Helen Libo-on’s story, which begins on the next page, tells of one such example of their dedication and forgivness in the face of terrible injustice.


Photos pages 8-9, clockwise from top left (all photos credit: Jason Gutierrez/IRIN)): 1. Children living, literally, under the barrel of a gun at an evacuation camp following the 2008 attacks. 2. A Muslim woman carrying her toddler at an evacuation center. They were displaced by the fighting between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and government forces. 3. An elderly woman at an evacuation camp. 4. A young girl at an evacuation camp in the southern Philippines, displaced by MILF attacks in 2008.

Christians, Muslims and MercyIn Lanao del Norte, Mindanao, Philippines, where we min-ister, there are two schools situated in the Muslim area: Holy Cross High School in Kolambugan and Mercy Junior College in Tubod. Ever since the schools started, there were Muslim parents who entrusted the education of their chil-dren to the Sisters of Mercy.

Kolambugan has a timber company, the Findlay Miller Timber Company, started in the 1940s. It has done many logging activities all over the neighboring towns. As work-ers flocked to this town because of the timber company, many attacks were done by Muslims on the loggers, because the loggers had tried to cut the trees in the forest areas where the Muslims were dwelling.

As a child, I thought that the timber company was so good, because it gave a living for the whole community. When I became a nun and learned creation spirituality, I realized that the Muslims were the protectors of the forest. Only later did the Christians realize that logging was not good. It was a great awakening, and we sisters started to rally against the logging. We started reforestation wherever we were assigned. The government supported the efforts; in fact, it became a requirement that students must plant on average 20-25 trees in order to graduate from high school.

The relationship between the Christians and Muslims in Kolambugan and even the province of Lanao del Norte has prospered. The sisters who taught in the schools make efforts to invite an imam (Muslim priest) to teach Islam in our Catholic school, usually during the catechism classes for the public elementary school children. Sometimes the Muslim students pray the rosary, showing their respect for Mary. Thus whenever we sisters visit a Muslim area, we are highly respected by the Muslims, especially by the elders.

Meanwhile the Mercy Community Hospital serves and employs both Christians and Muslims. The sisters are very keen on catering to the needs of the Muslims, banning pork in their meals and providing a separate wing for them with a masjed (prayer room).

The AttackVery early on August 8, 2008, around 5 a.m., the church bells were ringing. Then I heard them suddenly stop, as did the early-morning prayers at the nearby mosque. Then fol-lowed the sound of high-powered guns firing.

The guard at the front gate of our school, Holy Cross High School, shouted that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) were attacking our town—Kolambugan, Lanao del Norte, Philippines—and they were passing right by us.

We saw uniformed men. At first, Sister Kristine Violango (who was a candidate at that time) was happy because she

thought they were government soldiers who had come to help us. But I noticed they were not wearing uniform shoes. When I heard them speaking in a different dialect, I realized they were the MILF attackers. Immediately I motioned to Kristine to hide in the foxhole.

This foxhole is inside the convent, which is on the school property. It was built by Sister Guadalupe “Loly” Lumantas, who was once the directress of the school. We had laughed when it was built, but now we appreciate it because there are more risks these days, even up to the writing of this article. The foxhole has a door in the second floor that goes beyond the first floor, with an opening at the back.

Altogether five of us—Kristine, three students who were staying at the convent and myself—hid in the foxhole for eight hours, listening to the gunfire, bombing and, later, the sound of helicopters hovering above the town. Sister Virgencita “Jenjen” Alegado, our local leader at that time, called us on our cell phone to check on us.

At 1 p.m., after not hearing anything for awhile, we decided to leave the foxhole. We saw that the lock of our front school gate had been shot. There were traces of bullets in the front guardhouse. The guard at the rear gate told his story: He had seen the men, uniformed and armed, and like Kristine, he believed they were government soldiers. Then they started firing at him, so he fired back. Thankfully, though scared, we were all safe.

After this incident, many people left the town, leaving it like a ghost town. The silence was so deep during the night-time. It seemed so scary.

I never intended to leave the convent. There had been several conflicts between Muslims and Christians that pre-vious sisters had endured; they never fled. I wanted to be in solidarity with those people who still stayed in the town. However, in obedience to our local leader at the time, I did leave.

In Search of PeaceSeveral weeks passed until peace came. Jenjen was so busy helping the people whose homes had been burned down by the MILF attackers. They even burned down one of the buildings of the nearby elementary school. Additionally, the event had scared many people, and they did not keep up with their businesses, especially buying and selling food products, which made the neighboring towns run short on food. The most affected towns were in Muslim areas. Some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) tried to organize to help those areas; Jenjen and I joined a medical mission team to a Muslim town in the mountain area. Off we went with food and medicines. We were thinking that although the attackers were Muslims, they had victimized Muslim women and children, who were in dire need of our help.

During the mission, I met a woman with a very sick

J U LY | A U G U S T 2 0 16 ¡Viva! Mercy 11J U LY | A U G U S T 2 0 16 ¡Viva! Mercy 11

Photos top to bottom: 1. This family was among the one million Filipinos displaced from the fighting between government forces and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Credit: Veejay Villafranca/IRIN. 2. A young school girl at an evacuation center in the Philippines following the 2008 attacks. Thousands of children were unable to attend school regularly in the wake of the conflict. Credit: David Swanson/IRIN. 3. Children crowd under a tarpaulin tent at an evacuation camp in the southern Philippines, nine months after the attacks. Credit: Jason Gutierrez/IRIN

child on her lap. I talked with her, and I was able to gain her trust. She told me that in a tent there were other children who were sick, whose parents were too afraid to bring them to the hospital. I begged her to lead the way. Lo and behold, there were several Muslim children who were very sick and hungry. I begged the parents, both fathers and mothers, to bring their children to the nearest hos-pital. They trusted us, so they came with us, and the children were hospitalized and healed.

Although we had been attacked by a Muslim group, in our hearts we could not afford to ignore those little children who were dying of hunger and sickness.

A priest shared another story about the attack with me. He was on a bus full of people which was passing through Kolambugan during the attack. Several MILF attackers would not let the bus pass, but the local Muslim people begged the attackers to release the passengers, who were mostly Christians. Fearing other attackers would find them, the townspeople hid the bus passengers in a mosque near the sea. When the high tide came, they allowed the bus passengers to use their boats to escape.

When the attack happened I did not feel hurt. In my mind I understood violence as part of the business of those who are in power and have money. The Muslim and the Christian civilians were only victims. Seeing those Muslim victims, especially the infants, really pained me so much; we tried our best to help them.

Being a Christian, the value of forgiveness is planted in my heart. The moment I feel hurt, it disturbs me, and the feeling remains unless I for-give. Forgiveness deletes the hurt, and it frees me to creatively act in love. As a Sister of Mercy living in the Philippines, I see the need of forgiveness in every place where hatred is present.Photos for this article were shared courtesy of irinnews.org.

Sister Helen Libo-on ministers as a local leader in the Philippines. She has also served in the apostolate for indigenous peoples, as a novice directress in the Philippines and as directress of Holy Cross High School. She can be contacted

at [email protected].


I believe that the most essential work we have to do in this world is to marry the hope and vision of youth with our failures. | Only when we have been unrelentingly honest and specific about who we are, can we build bridges across lines of difference. | I fail every day. Decades of justice work, and not only the world not only feels more unjust, but also, most days, my own life does! | Those things God brings to birth are not invin-cible. They falter, fail, die. | I ’ve begun to believe that one sign of spiritual maturity is the growing ability to leave our ideologies - political, religious, and otherwise - in the dust. | I believe that the most essential work we have to do in this world is to marry the hope and vision of youth with our failures. | Only when we have been unrelentingly honest and specific about who we are, can we build bridges across lines of difference. | I fail every day. Decades of justice work, and not only the world not only feels more unjust, but also, most days, my own life does! | Those things God brings to birth are not invincible. They falter, fail, die. | I ’ve begun to believe that one sign of spiritual maturity is the growing ability to leave our ideologies - political, religious, and otherwise - in the dust. | I believe that the most essential work we have to do in this world is to marry the hope and vision of youth with our failures. | Only when we have been unrelentingly honest and specific about who we are, can we build bridges across lines of difference. | I fail every day. Decades of justice work, and not only the world not only feels more unjust, but also, most days, my own life does! | Those things God brings to birth are not invincible. They falter, fail, die. | I ’ve begun to believe that one sign of spiritual maturity is the growing ability to leave our ideologies - political, religious, and otherwise - in the dust. | I believe that the most essential work we have to do in this world is to marry the hope and vision of youth with our failures. | Only when we have been unrelentingly honest and specific about who we are, can we build bridges across lines of difference. | I fail every day. Decades of justice work, and not only the world not only feels more unjust, but also, most days, my own life does! | Those things God brings to birth are not invincible. They falter, fail, die. | I ’ve begun to believe that one sign of spiritual maturity is the growing ability to leave our ideologies - political, religious, and otherwise - in the dust. | I believe that the most essential work we have to do in this world is to marry the hope and vision of youth with our failures. | Only when we have been unrelentingly honest and specific about who we are, can we build bridges across lines of difference. | I fail every day. Decades of justice work, and not only the world not only feels more unjust, but also, most days, my own life does! | Those things God brings to birth are not invincible. They falter, fail, die. | I ’ve begun to believe that one sign of spiritual maturity is the growing ability to leave our ideologies - political, religious, and otherwise - in the dust. | I believe that the most essential work we have to do in this world is to marry the hope and vision of youth with our failures. | Only when we have been unrelentingly honest and specific about who we are, can we build bridges across lines of difference. | I fail every day. Decades of justice work, and not only the world not only feels more unjust, but also, most days, my own life does! | Those things God brings to birth are not invincible. They falter, fail, die. | I ’ve begun to believe that one sign of spiritual maturity is the growing ability to leave our ideologies - political, religious, and otherwise - in the dust. | I believe that the most essential work we have to do in this world is to marry the hope and vision of youth with our failures. | Only when we have been unrelentingly honest and specific about who we are, can we build bridges across lines of difference. | I fail every day. Decades of justice work, and not only the world not only feels more unjust, but also, most days, my own life does! | Those things God brings to birth are not invin-cible. They falter, fail, die. | I ’ve begun to believe that one sign of spiritual maturity is the growing ability to leave our ideologies - political, religious, and otherwise - in the dust. | I believe that the most essential work we have to do in this world is to marry the hope and vision of youth with our failures. | Only when we have been unrelentingly honest and specific about who we are, can we build bridges across lines of difference. | I fail every day. Decades of justice work, and not only the world not only feels more unjust, but also, most days, my own life does! | Those things God brings to birth are not invincible. They falter, fail, die. | I ’ve begun to believe that one sign of spiritual maturity is the growing ability to leave our ideologies - political, religious, and otherwise - in the dust. | I believe that the most essential work we have to do in this world is to marry the hope and vision of youth with our failures. | Only when we have been unrelentingly honest and specific about who we are, can we build bridges across lines of difference. | I fail every day. Decades of justice work, and not only the world not only feels more unjust, but also, most days, my own life does! | Those things God brings to birth are not invincible. They falter, fail, die. | I ’ve begun to believe that one sign of spiritual maturity is the growing ability to leave our ideologies - political, religious, and otherwise - in the dust. | I believe that the most essential work we have to do in this world is to marry the hope and vision of youth with our failures. | Only when we have been unrelentingly honest and specific about who we are, can we build bridges across lines of difference. | I fail every day. Decades of justice work, and not only the world not only feels more unjust, but also, most days, my own life does! | Those things God brings to birth are not invincible. They falter, fail, die. | I ’ve begun to believe that one sign of spiritual maturity is the growing ability to leave our ideologies - political, religious, and otherwise - in the dust. | I believe that the most essential work we have to do in this world is to marry the hope and vision of youth with our failures. | Only when we have been unrelentingly honest and specific about who we are, can we build bridges across lines of difference. | I fail every day. Decades of justice work, and not only the world not only feels more unjust, but also, most days, my own life does! | Those things God brings to birth are not invincible. They falter, fail, die. | I ’ve begun to believe that one sign of spiritual maturity is the growing ability to leave our ideologies - political, religious, and otherwise - in the dust. | I believe that the most essential work we have to do in this world is to marry the hope and vision of youth with our failures. | Only when we have been unrelentingly honest and specific about who we are, can we build bridges across lines of difference. | I fail every day. Decades of justice work, and not only the world not only feels more unjust, but also, most days, my own life does! | Those things God brings to birth are not invincible. They falter, fail, die. | I ’ve begun to believe that one sign of spiritual maturity is the growing ability to leave our ideologies - political, religious, and otherwise - in the dust. | I believe that the most essential work we have to do in this world is to marry the hope and vision of youth with our failures. | Only when we have been unrelentingly honest and specific about who we are, can we build bridges across lines of difference. | I fail every day. Decades of justice work, and not only the world not only feels more unjust, but also, most days, my own life does! | Those things God brings to birth are not invin-cible. They falter, fail, die. | I ’ve begun to believe that one sign of spiritual maturity is the growing ability to leave our ideologies - political, religious, and otherwise - in the dust. | I believe that the most essential work

Woodshed of Grace:Building a Resurrected Life

By Dee Dee Risher




It was important for me in my twenties to find a vision large enough to encompass my whole life. Now I am older, and I have learned that to have any dream large enough to hold your life is to also wake up at night and glimpse failure, to grope in your sleep and feel the certainty of loss. It is to see parts of ourselves we do not wish to believe are there.

Yet we do not tell ourselves our stories of failure. And our inability to see and tell them becomes our inability to live fully. Older people often make fun of young idealists—or their own younger dreams. There is a societal belief that we get wiser, or more “realistic” with age. The implication is that this reneging of big visions is a good thing.

I believe that the most essential work we have to do in this world is to marry the hope and vision of youth with our failures. This is the work that allows us to tap into a wiser, stronger power which sustains us for the long haul.

As I’ve wrestled with this balance, I’m drawn to a powerful but obscure story nestled in 2 Kings 4:8-37, where a woman identified only as “the Shunammite” builds in her home a room for the prophet Elisha. This act of holy hospitality changes the woman’s life.

The holy man asks what she might like in return. The woman’s response is both significant and powerful: “I live among my own people” (4:12-13). Like her, our work of becoming who God creates us to be must begin with being

honest about who we are and where we come from, including how issues of race, class, gender and cultural assumptions shape us. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what it means that I am “white,” what class means for me, how being a heterosexual woman or a Southerner changes my experience of the world. Only when we have been unrelentingly

honest and specific about who we are, can we build bridges across lines of difference.

Grateful Elisha, flush with the power of God and grateful, extends to the childless Shunammite woman the promise of a son (4:14-17). Within a patriarchal setting where her survival hinged on having a man to care for her, Elisha offers this woman security for her future. The Shunammite is taken aback, less than polite. “Man of God, do not lie to me” (4:16). Yet the following year, a son is born to her.

When the Shunammite woman built a room to shelter the holy one, she followed a call, and unexpected things came to birth in her life. Similarly, my efforts to follow in the way of Jesus brought new passions to birth in my life. Fired by his teachings, I became excited by how we, as Christians, live out genuine alternatives to the dominant culture.

A white Southerner from the plantation region of South Carolina, I have a complex and intricate racial heritage, including slave-owning ancestors and a childhood marked by the lingering realities of segregation. A summer internship

offered me the rare gift of crossing into a tight, rural black community in North Carolina in a region hauntingly similar to that of my white farmer relatives. My family for the summer was the workers who labored on the white-owned farms and houses or in the meat-processing factory. They housed me, fed me, told me their stories, took me into their churches and lives, let me work their gardens and taught me to pick chickens. Their hospitality for me, a naïve young white college girl, was amazing. In return, I tried to learn some racial lessons. This was the unexpected miracle God brought to birth in my life—a chance to rework, at a deep level, my racial heritage.

Since then, I’ve been very conscious of trying to be a “race traitor,” seeking to break down the norms of whiteness. I’ve never again chosen to live in a predominately white neighborhood. I’ve tried to avoid taking leadership in racially

mixed groups and kept my children in multiracial settings. I’ve tried to build strong interracial friendships and worked to make sure non-white perspectives are heard in different conversations.

I have tried to raise my own racial consciousness and that of other white people. There have been some successes. But, in


I fail every day. Decades of justice

work, and the world not only

feels more unjust, but also,

most days, my own life does!



the big picture, I’ve failed. I still operate in many mostly white circles. My very close friends are, for the most part, white.

I could sing the same refrain about other dreams God gave me, like living sustainably. I want to step out of the unjust systems of production that mark our era by trying to consume less and using basic life skills, including growing and putting up a good amount of my own food and learning to do basic repairs and handiwork. But living simply is one big complication. My own low-tech “green” life is full of old, secondhand equipment that breaks down, never-ending chores to squeeze into too-busy days, and ongoing moral dilemmas about wants and needs. A friend nags that I’d be a much better advocate for sustainable living if I did less from scratch and put the time saved into advocacy for policies. She’s probably right.

I fail every day. Decades of justice work, and the world not only feels more unjust, but also, most days, my own life does!

Our failures against injustice are much easier to talk about than personal failures. My partner and I had two children in our forties. While I love the complex challenge of parenting, I’m not very good at it. I could see all my control, micro-management, judgmentalism and failures hanging out. (Except for when I couldn’t, which was worse.) I watched myself, my growing children and my partner and realized that we would be a family who lived with funny wirings, anxiety and depression. My body got older. So life came to teach me of other things—of loss, of limits and of failed experiments. And that is how life began to sculpt me into my most authentic self.

The account in 2 Kings reminds us that any birth is fraught with the threat of death. The child grows into a young man. One day, he is overtaken by a powerful sickness. He dies in his mother’s arms. She takes her son’s lifeless body upstairs, lays him on the holy man’s bed, shuts the door and heads out in search of Elisha (4:18-25a).

The story of miraculous birth becomes a story of searing grief. The prophet’s promised gift becomes a hole torn in her life.

As we begin to incarnate new ways of being, we learn that every birth carries with it potential for deep grief. We will face moments of deep, intense loss. Those things God brings to birth are not invincible. They falter, fail, die.

When that happens, we find God in new ways. It is our grief and failure which allow the real work of God to begin in our particular lives.

The Shunammite woman hunts down the holy man. She goes straight to Elisha and says: “Did I ask you for a son? I told you not to deceive me!” The comforting

thing about the story in 2 Kings is that the holy man fails as well. He sends his underling to revive the boy with his magic staff. Nothing. The expected solution does not work.

He himself prays over the dead boy. Nothing. He has to work with the situation—go downstairs, walk around, start again. Elisha is groping, trying one thing, then another. Finally, he lays himself, eye to eye, mouth to mouth, on the boy. Then a shudder, and the boy comes back to life. What would it feel like to embrace our failures that completely?

Any answers that come will not fit our perfect ideologies. They will be born of concession and compromise, trying one model, then another. They will give us a deep apprecia-tion of grace. I’ve begun to believe that one sign of spiritual maturity is the growing ability to leave our ideologies—political, religious, and otherwise—in the dust.

Henry David Thoreau offered this haunting observation: “The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or, perchance, a palace or temple on the earth, and, at length, the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them.” But what if a woodshed is exactly what is needed?

How do we fully become ourselves? By knowing of the false gods of the world and resisting them, certainly. But we must find an organic way to live out that resistance that feels like our own face, our own flesh.

Once we move beyond the theories and constructs, we are on new ground. If we work with it, that new ground will shape us. Then, inexplicably, joy erupts because, despite the failures and the deaths, we know that we are in touch with the holy path. Even if our lives have a clunky, experimental quality, we also have some certainty that this is the way.

Although the Scriptures do not tell us, we know that both the woman and her child were never again the same. Those who live through a resurrection never again fear death.

Dee Dee Risher is author of The Soulmaking Room (Upper Room Books, 2016), which unpacks and develops the themes in this article. It is available at bit.ly/SoulmakingRoom. Dee Dee also edited The Other Side and Conspire magazines, and is currently helping to launch the Vine and Fig Tree

community in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania She can be contacted at [email protected].

Only when we have been unrelentingly

honest and specific about who we are, can

we build bridges across lines of difference.


for those who respond. And as we do that, we are contributing in a very real way to the holy peace that is coming toward us, the resolution of conflicts no longer worthy of or appropriate for a community based on trust and love and the homecomings that will mark our coming to maturity as a planetary community. This is not work just for our new members; it is work for all of us, especially in this Jubilee Year of Mercy. In some ways younger members are better at this work, because it is more the world in which they have grown up. Others of us may have to work harder at breaking down our mental barriers, not to mention giving our taste buds some new thrills. But on the hard days when it seems that we’ll never get there, we can remind ourselves that this is the great work going on among good people all over the planet. May all God’s creation know the abundant mercy of this Jubilee Year!

— By Sister Cynthia Serjak (Institute New Membership Team)

as a result, everyone is enriched, and everyone is changed. Multicultural might be head, even heart work. Intercultural is deep soul work.

As we pondered making this change it was good to be reminded that our struggle was one with the struggles of people all over the globe who seek recognition of their right-ful place in the human community. All the wars, all the migrations, all the unsettledness that we hear about in the news every day reflects our longing to be recognized, understood and celebrated for who we are and how we are in this world.

Our new members’ poster reflects how we are being called to live as an intercultural community. We joyfully embrace women from many countries, and many cultures within those countries. God calls whomever God calls. It is up to us to make a home

V O C A T I O N & I N C O R P O R A T I O N

Jubilee Year of Mercy: The Good Work

Sometimes when I am in the middle of a project or a meeting, and I pause to consider what the work that I am doing means, I turn out to the world to see what work is going on there. Often I am able to see how what we are doing around my table is reflected in the larger work of the human community.

Recently those who are most involved with new membership (ministers, leadership, new members, welcoming communities, etc.) reviewed the U.S. portion of our new membership doc-ument, For the Love of Mercy. Of the many excellent conversations around the issues, one stands out for me. We chose very deliberately to move from using the word “multicultural” to using the word “intercultural.” We understood the difference to be that “multicultural” offers a melting pot image, one in which everyone blends in and becomes a common culture. But in “intercultural” people are respected for who they are, celebrated as who they are and,


Brides on the Bus

S P I C E O F M E R C Y L I F E

Most of us in the 1950s and 1960s entered religious life at the age of 17 or 18, and truly were entering a whole new unknown world. As pos-tulants, beginners in reli-gious life, we looked for-ward to the day when we would receive the habit of the Sisters of Mercy. After six to nine months of pos-tulancy our Reception Day would finally arrive, and we would become Brides of Christ.

At the motherhouse in Buffalo, New York, there were 17 girls who entered the Sisters of Mercy from my high school class alone, with a total of 29 that year, which was a real bumper crop! For our Reception Day, because we had to accommodate our sisters and our families as well, we would have to go to a local church for the ceremony as our convent chapel was too small for this big event.

Preparation for our Reception Day included a week of silent retreat to prepare ourselves spiritually for the next step we were taking to become a Sister of Mercy. The ceremony included dressing in bridal gowns to signify our marriage to Christ. The convent had a plethora of previously used and donated wedding gowns ready for our use. Lucky for me, my sister had recently been married so I got to wear her wedding gown. Much to her chagrin she thought it would be returned to her—no such luck, it

became part of the plethora! The excitement mounted as we

donned our bridal finery, picked up our black book bags (which con-tained our “nunderwear,” all the unmentionables that nuns wore under their habits) and proceeded to the bus waiting for us in the back-yard. We borrowed our Hospital’s School of Nursing bus for the trip and boarded in nervous silence. We observed passers-by pointing, staring, smiling and hooting as we wound through the narrow South Buffalo streets trying to suppress our own

giggles and keep the silence of our retreat.

Upon arriving at the church we descended down to the basement and were instructed to take a wooden chair, place it some distance from the other postulants and any other distraction, and sit facing the wall, anticipating the proces-sion that would transform us into Brides of Christ.

Then, in our gowns, we walked down the aisle with joy and anxiety. Later in the ceremony, we descended into the basement once again and changed into the habit of a Sister of Mercy.

Upstairs, we once again processed down the church aisle. This was very emotional for us and for our families as they observed the transformation of their little girl into a Sister of Mercy.

Today entrance into the Sisters of Mercy is quite different. A Mercy cross is the symbol of reception, and the women continue their journey as part of the Incorporation Process, learning the charism and Constitutions of Mercy. These women become members of the Institute and part of the global presence of Mercy in our world. We may never see another bus full of brides, but the memories remain, just as the Works of Mercy will remain, because these women and many others continue to respond to God’s call to be Sisters of Mercy.

— By Sister Peggy Gorman

Sister Patricia Collins, a friend of Sister Peggy

Gorman’s, shared this photograph of postulants

in their wedding gowns on Reception Day in

April 1954.

JULY 28-31Mercying: One World, One Dream St. Louis, Missouri Contact: Sisters Renee Kettering and Judith Kapp [email protected], [email protected]

AUGUST 9-13Young Mercy Leaders PilgrimageDublin, IrelandContact: Sister Mary Kay [email protected]

AUGUST 19-21Institute Governance Work Group Meeting Belmont, North Carolina Contact: Sister Linda Werthman [email protected]

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AUGUST 21-23Institute Ministry Group Belmont, North Carolina Contact: Sister Pat Flynn [email protected]

SEPTEMBER 1-3 Institute Chapter Planning Team Meeting Silver Spring, Maryland Contact: Sister Mary Stanton [email protected]

SEPTEMBER 9-11Mercy Twelve-Step Network Philadelphia, PA Contact: Sister Mary Frances McMahon [email protected]

Documents

Jubilee Year of Mercy - mercymidatlantic.org of Surviving ... without the permission of ¡Viva! ... Our 25th anniversary year and the Jubilee Year of Mercy intensify the powerful and