The Consecrated Life: A Valentine

By David Myers
Southwest Kansas Register

When I was asked to devote an entire issue to “consecrated life,” I had to first ask myself what the consecrated life really meant. We Catholics are very picky about the names and titles we assign, titles that are not always what they imply.

For example, the first time I heard the name, “Holy See,” I thought it was a body of water near Vatican City.

And then there’s the title, “Ordinary.” In the Church, the title is given to certain Church leaders. But if they’re “ordinary,” doesn’t that preclude them from having a special title? Shouldn’t the people in the pews be termed “ordinary?” In the Church leader’s case, wouldn’t a better title be “Extra-Ordinary,” or even, “Special”?

Why vocations matter

By Mary Sharon Moore
Awakening Vocations

The Church today is in a state of emergency, vocational emergency, often understood as a shortage of priests. Indeed, clergy and laity alike feel the strain. So our first response to the question: Why does vocation matter? is often the obvious: “Because there’s a shortage of priests.” This answer can easily get us off the hook and make “vocation” someone else’s problem. But this logic blinds us to the reality that the world suffers when we as Church forget the urgency of our anointing.

What I learned from the bear

By David Myers
Southwest Kansas Register

Last night I had a dream (this is true, by the way) in which a buddy and I were camping in a cabin up in the mountains when a bear decided to pay us a visit.
In my dream the bear was foraging through a back room. My buddy told me that he heard that bears enjoy Heineken beer. I frantically looked in the fridge. One beer left. I slowly opened the door to the room with the bear. The massive beast, looming tall and curious, slowly turned to face me, his lips curling around a mouthful of teeth suited for devouring small cars. I slowly reached out with the beer, which the bear accepted with his large paw.
Then, in my dream, I suddenly had another beer in my hand. The song, “I Have Friends in Low Places” broke out, and the bear and I clinked bottles in a kind of inter-species toast.

Sister Julitta Elsen, ASC, 1902-1995;  Part II

By Sister Irene Hartman, OP
Holy Ones of Our Time

Editor’s Note: The following is Part II of a two-part series. To read Part I, click here.
After reading the very inspirational book of Sister Loretta Gegen, A.S.C (who served the Diocese of Dodge City as Director of Leadership Formation and Strategic Planning from 1991 to 1998) entitled “Julitta Elsen … She Walked in Faith,” I knew that she was one who could truly be called a Holy One of Our Times. Sister Julitta’s story was printed by the International Center of ACS Spirituality in 2007. Gratefully, I received the permission of the author to write a part of Sister Julitta’s story for the Southwest Kansas Register. All my information is based on Sister Loretta’s book.   -- Sister Irene
•  •  •  
Part II: Brazil and Beyond
(Part I ended as Colwich, Kansas native, Sister Julitta Elsen, and Sister Evelyn Gorges, were commissioned to make an exploratory trip to Brazil.)
Red tape, missed flights, disappointments, all delayed the Sept. 28, 1946 trip of Sisters Julitta and Evelyn to Belem, Brazil, where the mighty Amazon is more than 20 miles wide and flows into the Atlantic Ocean. During the many days of the two Sisters’ exploratory trip, they learned that “punctuality” is obsolete in the mission field. Along the Amazon, their boat stopped at many places to load and unload passengers and other cargo. At these stops, the sisters learned first hand the great need for missionaries who would bring spiritual help and attend to a variety of health needs.
During these trips to many places along the Amazon, Sister Julitta was already formulating plans for the location of a foundation, a place for formation, a health clinic. Did the mission field look too big? Again she told herself and others, “We can do it. I know we can.” One bishop explained that missionaries took the roles of doctors, teachers, nurses, laborers, builders, etc. A foundation? Yes, that was in Sister Julitta’s mind. In fact there was one young lady who so strongly wanted to become a Sister that she went to Wichita with them on their return trip. The three were welcomed home at the Motherhouse on Nov. 8, 1946, and gave a full report of their exploratory trip to Brazil. Then they prayed that the superiors would make the right decision to send Sisters to the places where they were needed most along the Amazon.
The community joined in prayer; many gave their names as volunteers. It was apparent that needs were greatest in the field of teaching, nursing, catechetical work, and in social ministries. The Redemptorists shared the dream with Sister Julitta of beginning the formation of Brazilian young women as religious, serving their own people. And that dream was to be fulfilled later.
The community eagerly awaited the announcement. Who will be going to Brazil? Mother Alyosia gently announced: “Sister Julitta, you will lead the Adorers in setting up our mission in the Amazon region.” Her companions were the blood sisters, Sisters Marcianna and Georgiana Heimerman, and Sister Jane Frances Baalman. A great team, skilled and experts in a variety of areas, they began collecting supplies, packing the mission barrels, and praying for the success of their new mission to the disadvantaged along the Amazon. Departure date was set for Nov. 25, 1947. But before the departure, there was the Solemn High Mass at which Bishop Mark Carroll presided and bestowed the mission crosses.
By plane and by boat, through delays and long layovers, the four missionaries, along with their boxes and crates and barrels finally came home on that late Christmas afternoon in 1947 to an empty building that had served as a dentist’s office. Small beds with straw mattresses were welcome sights after their long trip from Wichita. By candle light they unpacked what they needed for the night. The next morning the four were ready to roll up their sleeves and get things ready for the ministries of which they had dreamed.
The pastor had other thoughts. After Mass there was to be a lesson in Portuguese, led by Father who insisted on the importance of knowing the language of the people. (Sister Julitta learned that her Spanish was of no use, as the people of Brazil spoke Portuguese.) Setting up a clinic for the sick in the empty rooms was high on Sister Julitta’s agenda. School would come later; care of the sick was first. Word got around and the sick flocked to see the new nurse, Sister Jane Frances, and receive her gentle nursing care.
The first day on the Amazon was followed by plans for a new congregation, for building schools, for educating teachers and nurses, for providing proper formation of the new members, for betting and borrowing to get needed land. Few were the authorities and those in businesses to say “no” to any request/suggestion she made. Always Sister Julitta was the optimistic one. “We can do it. I know we can.” And with God’s help and the assistance of her Sister companions and her community back home, Sister Julitta established a flourishing community of Brazilian Sisters along the Amazon.
From 1947 to 1965, Sister Julitta ministered in Brazil; also from 1972 to 1977; and from 1979 to 1985. In her later years, she continued to pray for the missions in Brazil and was always ready to share stories with those who visited her in the Health Care Unit at the Motherhouse. Early on the morning of March 27, 1995, Sister Julitta, the valiant foundress of the Brazilian Community of Adorers, died quietly.
As her saddened Sisters followed her coffin to the cemetery, they also felt a joyfulness for having known and loved this marvelous woman “who Walked in Faith.”

Time to review your investment portfolio

By Mary Sharon Moore
Awakening Vocations

In good years, just for fun, I occasionally like to review my net worth on paper—a 401(k) here, an IRA there, the savings account. But when the markets are not going well, I don’t  like to think about how financially shrunken I have become. You may feel the same way, too.
The start of the new year, the new decade, is the perfect time to revisit that investment portfolio, take an honest measure of your “financial worth,” and set in motion a plan to achieve your fullest financial stature.