Experience Together

We are Thankful ~ Part 4

Hope Luminary Display at Our Lady of Good Counsel Campus, Mankato, Minn.SSND sisters and associates are thankful for the blessings in their lives. How do they “pay that forward”? Many participate in service projects through their parishes, ministries, local communities or on their own.

Sisters and staff at Our Lady of Good Counsel campus in Mankato, Minn., raised $260 for the School Sisters of Notre Dame Gerhardinger Fund by purchasing 202 luminary bags. The bags were decorated by the sisters with holiday trimmings, in remembrance or in honor of sisters, staff and family members. On a windy December day, the bags were lit and displayed to spell HOPE and could be viewed from the first and second floor dining room windows in Notre Dame Hall. The Gerhardinger Fund is named for SSND foundress Blessed Theresa of Jesus Gerhardinger. The funds are used for non-ministerial needs of the SSND congregation.

While in active ministry, Sister Josephe Marie Flynn from Milwaukee, Wis., helped immigrants from Africa, Asia and Central America negotiate the U.S. immigration system. When she entered her retirement years, she was eager to work for immigration reform. In 2006, while writing her book, Rescuing Regina: The Battle to Save a Friend from Deportation and Death, she co-founded the Justice for Immigrants Committee, an outreach of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), for the Milwaukee Archdiocese. As the committee’s leader since 2008, Sister Josephe Marie said, “I recruit district and group representatives, design and lead forums, and speak regularly on the need for reform to groups within the archdiocese and around the country.”

School Sisters of Notre Dame from the Sancta Maria in Ripa campus in St. Louis and The Sarah Community in Bridgeton, Mo., knit and crochet sleeping mats for the homeless. The mats are made from plastic shopping bags. It takes 900 plastic bags to produce one mat. The bags are cut into strips and rolled like balls of yarn. The final size of a mat is 30”x72”. For more about this project:

How do you help others? How do you pay it forward?

>>Link to We are Thankful ~ Part 1
>>Link to We are Thankful ~ Part 2
>>Link to We are Thankful ~ Part 3

Photo credit: Sister Mary Kay Ash

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