Ashes to Ashes

Lent begins today. A day of beginning; a day to renew.

Often Lent is seen as a season of "giving up;" it is probably better to think of it as a season of "giving to."

In our local community, we are pondering the vow of poverty throughout the Lenten Season. The life of St. Francis was marked by absolute poverty, giving up all for God. St. Clare followed him with a determined vision to maintain "the privilege of poverty" in her convents.

Living in a culture wholly immersed in greed for material goods, religious poverty speaks a powerful witness. In our congregation, we consciously maintain a vital balance. We follow St. Francis and we have a stable apostolic work, which requires the use of material goods.

It's an art, and one that requires constant renewal. How do you use goods as necessary, but not begin to accumulate "things"? How do you possess while avoiding being possessed by things? How do you keep from getting caught up in the acquisitive spirit of the times?

They are good questions to ponder in the season of penance; the time of renewal.

St. Francis of Assisi, pray for us.

--submitted by Sister M. Luka, Kansas City in Kansas

Welcome to Rachel

Praised be Jesus Christ! Hi! My name is Rachel Erb. I am from York, Pennsylvania. I am 19 years old. I entered the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George on December 28, 2008.

While studying Catechetics along with a Youth Ministry Concentration I met the Sisters. I had a blessed one and a half years at Franciscan University of Steubenville which helped me discern if God might be calling me to religious life. I first heard God calling me in eighth grade when I had a sister for a teacher. She radiated Christ with her joy and love. Throughout high school I decided to push this idea out of my mind. Every once in awhile God would ask "What about becoming a bride of Christ?" Many times I argued and told God no! At Franciscan University this idea changed because I saw all the religious sisters who were in love with Jesus and this overwhelming joy was bursting from my heart.

I was afraid at first but I asked Jesus what I should do. He replied, "What did Mary do?" So Mary's fiat "Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done unto me according to your word" began to resound in my heart. Jesus confirmed many times this path to become a bride of Christ. After meeting the sisters from our community and visiting my heart was filled with joy and peace. Our charism of "making the merciful love of Christ visible" and "looking on the One Whom they have pierced" has become the desire of my heart. There is still an overwhelming joy and peace after entering.

Right now I am down at our day care working with Sister M. Christina. We have very eventful days down at the day care with the two year olds. There is never a dull moment! I enjoy very much working at the day care. As I continue on my journey with my Beloved I am sure He has many eventful things planned. But I am learning from the children that it is much more freeing to be child-like in the arms of Christ. God bless!

"Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done unto me according to thy word." (Luke 1:38)

Always Remember the Spirit of Just Beginning...

The maxim quoted above is the oft-repeated mantra of our school President. He reminds us early and often that the "spirit of just beginning" is the essential outlook from which we must operate.

And it's a great paraphrase of St. Francis: "Let us begin today, brothers, to serve our Lord God, for up to now, we have done nothing."

In living as "just beginning," there is an element of excitement, investment, daring, that is so often lost when "the new wears off." The beginning is the time when plans are made, goals envisioned; it is a time of joy and hope, trust and confidence. One is open to trying things, experimentation - but always with a purpose.

It is the vision that the Church holds for us a brides of Christ.


Religious women are never referred to as "wives," we are always "brides" - always just beginning the adventure of life with the Lord of Heaven. Our Mother wisely reminds us that we are ever young; our hearts looking to fulfillment in a heavenly marriage feast. And she calls us to renew the spirit of just beginning as the long years meet us. She calls us back to spirit of our girlhood, when we wanted to fling away our lives in the service of the King.


The Church has recently announced the Apostolic Visitation of Institutes of Religious Women in the United States. In desiring to look into the quality of apostolic religious life in the United States, there is a distinct invitation for each religious woman to renew her consecration at its roots, to remember the spirit of just beginning.

Our Lady, Health of the Sick

Today is the celebration of the World Day of the Sick, chosen because it is the feastday of Our Lady of Lourdes. Every year thousands of people, suffering from every sorrow and sickness, travel to Lourdes to invoke the intercession of Our Lady. She appeared at Lourdes to a young girl and told her, "I am the Immaculate Conception." During one visit, she revealed the spring that God has used to heal the sick even until the present.

For me, it is a day to pause and remember the meaning of sickness; a day to pray for those who are ill; to remember all the Sisters engaged in the apostolate of health care, particularly in our Saint Anthony's Health Center and Mother of Good Counsel Home.


God makes all things work for good for those whom he loves, those whom he has called. By identifying with his sacrifice, our sorrow and suffering become redemptive. We have lately had two Sisters diagnosed with cancer. Both of them are young and were very active before God called them to suffer for him in this particular way.

And yet, they do amazing things for our community, the Church and the world by their patient acceptance of this cross from his hands.

In the living out of Calvary in the day-to-day circumstances of their lives, they gain innumerable graces for the whole world. They may not see the true effects of their suffering until we all meet in eternity.

As the Church celebrates this feast, may all those in sorrow or pain or illness receive the special gift to unite their lives with Christ for the redemption of the world.

--submitted by Sister M. Luka, Kansas City in Kansas

Will you lay your life down?

Yesterday I spoke to 6th graders about the consecrated life. As part of the presentation a priest showed a DVD called Fishers of Men. It is about the priesthood. It is a call to young men to lay down their life for Christ. It is a call to sacrifice, to service, to living a life of truth. It is inspiring.

Today, I make this same invitation to young women. There are many who desire to live a life more than what this world can offer them. They desire more than just mediocrity.

So, I ask you: Will you lay down your life for Christ? The Church needs young women today to follow in the footsteps of Christ. The Lord is calling. He is inviting. He is waiting for women to respond with generous and courageous hearts. What are you waiting for?

Will you lay your life down for Christ? It's not easy. It will involve sacrifice.

Will you lay your life down for Christ? You will come to know love in a more profound way.

Will you lay your life down for Christ? Do not fear. He is with you.

Will you lay your life down for Christ? It takes trust to "Come, follow Me."

Will you lay your life down for Christ? You will find peace in His Will.

Will you lay your life down for Christ? In giving you will receive.

Will you lay your life down for Christ? Go to Him in silence and listen.

Will you lay your life down for Christ? In poverty, chastity and obedience.

Be not afraid to live a life of surrender. You will find freedom.

With a firm resolve to consecrate myself to God...

February 2nd is the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. It is also the day in which the Church celebrates in a particular way the gift of consecrated life in the Church. It is a day to reflect on the fact and gift of the consecrated life, as it is given in the particular circumstances of this day and time.

Of course, it also serves as a reminder of our gift and responsibility for those of us consecrated as brides of Christ.

I think of the big days - the days of promises and gifts.

The day we entered. I had no clue what religious life meant. There were romantic images of long silent corridors; prayers chanted in the dawn; martyrdom and exciting mortification. "Let me give you everything!"


At the end of the year, we received the habit and veil. We received a name that would mark our days of life in His service. It was a day of great happiness. A beginning. A new life.

The joyful days of consecration.

There was the day when the Sisters in my group knelt in our provincialate chapel and definitively gave our lives to God through the vows of consecrated chastity, poverty and obedience in the concrete reality of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George.

It was a lovely day - August 15th usually is - the sun shone, our families were there, rejoicing with us, even those who did not fully understand why we would do such a thing.

And we could not contain the joy of giving our lives to Him.


There was a day, only four year later, when seventeen of us lay prostrate on the carpet and with a deeper understanding and more mature gift handed our lives to God yet again. This time, we spoke the amazing word: forever. To give our lives to Christ with that kind of finality, how can I express the depth of the goodness of God?

And twenty-five years after the day we all arrived, tentative and questioning at the convent door, we gathered again in the Provincial convent to celebrate twenty-five years of God's fidelity to His promises.

Those were the glory days of consecration.


There were dark days; there are in every life. Days when some were very sick. Days when some suffered serious sorrow. Days when "the ring became heavy," as one saintly Sister expresses it. The days when giving all really is all. There is no way to know at the beginning where the road of consecration will lead.


The sorrowful days of consecration.

All of them, each one, expresses the reality of a life handed over wholly to Him. and every one of them - joyous, sorrowful, glorious days - and the magical ordinary days of life - the day when you teach a child to read, or help a suffering soul to receive grace, or heal a broken body, or simply provide for the needs of another Sister or a priest or a bishop... all of the days, consecrated.

With a firm resolve to consecrate myself to God and to follow Christ unconditionally, I vow to the Triune God in the presence of this assembled community, into your hands, Mother, forever, a life of consecrated chastity, in poverty and obedience, according to the Rule and Life of the Brothers and Sisters of the Third Order Regular of Saint Francis and according to the Constitutions of the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Francis of the Martyr Saint George.

With confidence in God, and trusting in the intercession of Mary, the Mother of God and of our holy father Francis, I place myself at the disposal of this religious congregation, to glorify God and to make his merciful love visible.

--submitted by Sister M. Luka, Kansas City in Kansas