NEWSLETTER of the St. John Vianney Vocations Ministry of SavannahAugust 2016

These words spoken by South Central President, Sr. Jane Hotstream, RSM, filled the sacred space with great joy and enthusiasm. What a blessing it was to share this moment with our family, friends and especially the Sis-ters of Mercy.

After completing two years of candidacy, our daugh-ter, Kelly, was received into the Novitiate of the Sisters of Mercy on July 23, 2016 at 11:00A.M. in the chapel at

Mercy Center in St. Louis, Missouri. After this announcement was made, the applause of all those gathered expressed their love and heartfelt joy. I was reminded of Psalm 47:1. “Clap your hands all peoples and shout to God with loud songs of joy!”

The beautiful Rite of Reception cere-mony began with the entrance of Kelly’s Vo-cation Minister, Sr. Sue Weetenkamp, RSM, as the cross bearer. Following Sr. Sue was the Welcoming Community sisters; Sr. Agnes Brueggen, RSM, Sr. Diane Ferguson, RSM, Sr. Jonella Rhoda, RSM, Sr. Annette Seymour, RSM and Sr. Michelle Salois, RSM. Preced-ing Kelly was the South Central leadership team, which includes Sr. Pat Coward, RSM. Sr. Pat was one of Kelly’s teachers from her high school days at St. Vincent’s Academy. Kelly then entered the chapel with Sr. Jane Hotstream, RSM and Sr. Jill Webber RSM. Sr.

Jill is Kelly’s Incorporation Minister and will continue to journey with her while she is in formation.

By Lori Williams

“…and now she will be

called Sister Kelly Ann”

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Kelly stated her intentions with a peaceful confidence and a sense of great love as she asked to be received into the novitiate of the Sis-ters of Mercy. Sister Jill’s testimony affirmed her readiness as well before the community, friends and family that were gathered.

Sister Miriam Nolan, RSM and Sr. Claudia Ward, RSM read from Sacred Scripture and Con-stitutions of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas. Fr. Douglas Clark of Statesboro, GA, a long time family friend, proclaimed the Gospel.

Following a beautiful personal reflection by Sr. Priscilla Moreno, RSM, the Rite of Re-ception took place. Kelly was signed in memory of her call and as a sign of her re-commitment of her life to God. (As a note, I would compare this “signing” to the rite used when RCIA candidates are received into the Catholic Church at Easter.)

When Kelly was presented with her Mercy Cross as a sign of her identity as a Sister of Mercy, I could feel my heart begin to swell and I could no longer hold back my tears of true joy and gratitude. “My daughter is a Sis-ter! Thank you God!”

Then we came to the part of the ceremony called the Naming where the quote from the

beginning of this article was proclaimed. Kelly was welcomed into a deeper communion with the Sisters of Mercy and they claimed her as their sister. At this time the sisters all rose and sang a very beautiful blessing.

As her parents, Mike and I were then given the great honor to be a part of the ceremony and lead all in the Prayers of the Faithful. It was such a gift to us and we are so very grateful for this privilege. After Sister Jane offered the closing prayer, the beautiful Sus-cipe of Catherine McAuley was sung and we all followed Kelly to a lovely social gathering to continue the celebration.

Le!: Sr" Katherine Doyle# RSM $ Novice MinisterRight: Sr" Jill Weber# RSM $Vocation Minister

Sr" Jane Hotstream# RSM

Fr" Douglas Clark

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Kelly summed up her feeling about the day as follows:“I am so humbled and honored to have had so many people

present to celebrate his special day with me. I am extremely grateful for your love, support, and prayers.

”I want to thank the Mercy community for opening their arms to receive me as a Novice, my family who all made huge sacrifices to come and spend a prayerful and exciting weekend together, my Mercy families for their support and encourage-ment. I am forever in amazement of the kindness given.

“Next week is the feast of St. Anne, my confirmation Saint, my middle name, and now part of

my religious name (Sister Kelly Ann). As the mother of Mary and Jesus’ grandmother, I ask her to intercede for all of us. St. Anne, pray for us!”

Psalm 118 captures the true spirit of the day. “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.”

Sr" Pat Coward# RSM was one of Kelly%s teachers at St" Vincent%s Academy

Sr" Kelly Ann# RSM with her parents# Lori and Mike Williams

Published by the St. John Vianney Vocations Ministry of Savannah Supporting Vocations in the Diocese of Savannah

President: Gretchen Reese; VP Communications: Peter Paolucci; Editor: Walt Kessel 912-354-9493 <waltkessel@comcast.net>

Photos by Sr" Pat Pepitone# RSM

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Beginning in February 1858 and continuing 17 more times, Our Lady appeared to Ber-nadette Soubirous, a 14 year old peasant girl, with little formal education. Our Lady invited Bernadette to pray the Rosary and in one of the last appearances, declared “I am the Im-maculate Conception”. The Lady asked that a chapel be built on the site of the vision and told Bernadette to “drink of the waters and bathe yourself there.” Though no water was seen, when Bernadette dug at the spot, a spring began to !ow and continues to this day. Since that time many thousands of pilgrims have come to Lourdes to partake of the water and many people claimed to have been cured by drinking or bathing in it.

The Knights of Malta is a lay religious order of the Roman Catholic Church dating back to the middle of the 11th century. From its for-mation, the Order has assisted pilgrims in search of healing, from Europe to the Holy Land. The "rst international Pilgrimage to Lourdes, France was held in 1958. In that year 465 members of the Order followed 69 pa-tients. Since then, the International Pilgrimage has grown to include well over 5,000 members

of the Order of Malta accompanying and help-ing hundreds of patients from more than 30 countries.

Through our friendship with Marguerite Baxter, our neighbor for the last couple of years, we learned of this Pilgrimage to Lourdes, and she asked if we wanted to go as volunteers. Marguerite is a Dame in the Order and also the Head Nurse with the Federal As-sociation of the Order, which this year brought 49 Malades and companions to Lourdes at the expense of the Order.

After being accepted, we began to receive all the pertinent information regarding the trip: our “uniform”, travel information (we !ew on a chartered plane from Baltimore directly to Lourdes), our accommodations and, most important, our “jobs” as volunteers. We were to be of service to the sick people (“malades” as they are called in French) who were on our team, taking them in their “carts” to wherever we needed to go, making sure they were warm, had water, were comfortable, etc. We were to be with them from 7 a.m. until 10 pm. We didn't know how we could be busy all day for 6 days, but we were.

OUR PILGRIMAGE TO LOURDES

By Joyce Egan

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The quaint town of Lourdes is "lled with hotels and shops, but the Domaine, where the Grotto is located, is quite a separate area. The Domaine includes 5 Churches: the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, St. Ber-nadette's, Rosary Church, St. Jo-seph's and the underground St. Pius X Basilica, one of the largest in the world, which can hold 25,000 people. At our Interna-tional Mass in the underground Basilica there were 17,000 peo-ple with the Order of Malta, in-cluding 1,500 Malades from 50 countries. Also there is the Grotto, where outdoor Mass is celebrated, the 14 stone baths for the sick and the well, plus drinking fountains, an area to light candles, Adoration Chapel, a building for Confessions and Stations of the Cross.

We were put on the “white team” consisting of 40 people: team leader, 2 assistant team leaders, nurses, doctors, 3 priests, Dames, Knights, volunteers and 6 Malades. There were 8 teams totaling 350 people, including

20 priests, who were all on our plane. Each day we were as-signed to a di#erent Malade. Fortunately, all of ours could do some walking on their own.

We attended Mass every day; our celebrants included 4 di#er-ent Bishops, plus Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore and Raymond Cardinal Burke from Rome. In between the Masses we had meetings, lighting of Pil-grimage candles, the Baths, Sac-rament of the Anointing, Candle-light Procession, saying the Ro-sary and singing a Procession for the Jubilee Year of Mercy, Eucha-ristic Adoration, historical talks, etc. The most emotional cere-

mony was the blessing of our team individually with the Lourdes water on our faces and hands, then some to drink. We also visited the home where Bernadette lived with her family.

Bob and I feel very blessed that we were able to go on this Pilgrimage and hope to go again next year.

© Manuel Gonz&lez Olaechea y Franco

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The Newlead Castellano has been anchored at sea, six miles o! the coast of Tybee Island, for over 3 months with its crew of 15 Filipino sailors still on board. The ship was seized by US Marshals when it was making a sugar delivery at Imperial Sugar on April 19th after the company that owned the vessel defaulted on the loan. This multimillion-dollar vessel will soon be sold on the steps of the federal court-house, but until then this Filipino crew is not allowed to come to the mainland because they don’t have the legal documentation, and this vessel must remain an-chored in the channel.

Initially the crew was not getting paid, but the creditor is not only making sure the crew members are getting paid, but also providing them food and water. But since the crew is stranded here at sea, they couldn’t go to church. So the Church came to them. Father Brett Brannen of Blessed Sacrament Church has now made three trips to the vessel with the help of Hogan’s Marina.

When asked how he became involved, Fr. Brannen recounted the following tale of his adventure:

Todd Baiad, a maritime lawyer who is a mem-ber of Blessed Sacrament, is representing the bank. He had to make a trip out to the ship a cou-ple of months ago to bring the crew some of their pay (in cash). He asked the crew if they needed anything else or if we could bring them something. Most of the crew is from the Philippines and they are all Catholic. They asked for a priest to come and celebrate the Holy Mass. Todd called me and asked me if I would like to go, or if I could recom-mend another priest. Our port chaplain, Fr. Rich-ard Young, was out of the country at the time and very ill in the hospital. So I o!ered to go myself. It was a great adventure!

The bank, to their credit, is treating the crew very humanely. They are supplying plenty of good food and necessities. The bank has hired a com-pany to watch over the ship during the time it will take to get the title transferred to the bank and then get the ship sold to a new owner. This com-pany has sent a Custodian, Gerard LoPreiato, who has been living on the ship and making sure that the crew has everything they need. He is also a Catholic and welcomed me warmly.

MASSOn a Stranded Ship

Captured still shots from WTOC video" Used with permissionPhoto by Lucas Bradley

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I have been to the ship three times so far, to say Mass and just visit with the crew. It is di"cult to get there, because you need a pretty large and sturdy boat. The ship is anchored about six miles o! the coast of Tybee Island.

Joe Hogan at Hogan’s Marina has generously supplied a boat, a captain and the gas to get there and back! This was a gen-erous gift because the boat used about 50 gal-lons of gas each time.

English is a primary language in the Philippines though they also speak Tagalog, in di!erent dia-lects. We can communi-cate quite easily in English and I said Mass in English. The Filipino people are usually very strong in their Catholic Faith and they were happy that I had come.

It is clear that they are su!er-ing. They are “imprisoned” on a ship though they have not done anything wrong and they miss their families. They have not been paid everything that they are owed (though this will hap-pen as soon as the ship is sold).

They do have work to do every day, caring for the ship, and they will be paid for this work, but it could end up being six months before the ship can depart.”

I was very happy to be there to encourage them in their faith, to remind them that Jesus

knows where they are and what they are su!ering and that He will take care of them…and their families. Sometimes when a person cannot come to the Church, the Church must go to them. I was glad to be able to walk with them during this di"cult time.

This was an adventure that I will never forget. Going out in the boat, having to climb up the rope ladder onto the ship and just seeing how these sailors live their lives. They are very poor and their families are poor. Most of them are doing this, not because they like it but because they are just trying to make decent wages to support their families.

We need to give them hope that this is going to pass, and it’s a di"cult expe-rience for them but it will be a great learning experience for

them as well. The crew wel-comes me warmly and I hope it makes them feel the love of Christ and His Church, and re-minds them of their own families and their own pastors back in the Philippines. The Catholic Church is everywhere in the

world and our job is to take care of God’s children.

The purpose of a priest is to bring people to Jesus and Jesus to people. I am always fascinated in my life as a priest by how I am called to do this. There is never a “normal day” in the life of a priest!

[UPDATE: FInances have been settled and ship freed.]