Help. St. Rose Phillipine Duschesne led us to her as we contemplated opening a Catholic school in Douglasville, GA. This is the first Catholic school in the entire county, the next closest Catholic school is 45 minutes away.  
 
St. Rose Academy is opening fall of 2007 and we are interested in what it would take to become a School in the Sacred Heart network.  
 
Please email any information to me at judefay@yahoo.com. 
 
Many blessings to you!

I am trying to get in touch with Sr. Marie Louise Flick. Can ayone tell me where she is in 2007. 
 
Thank you so much.

Please hold in your prayers two dear friends from North Carolina. Read Martin’s wife’s email below. God bless you! 
 
 
 
Rosemary Travis, s.f.o. 
 
Omaha, Nebraska USA 
 
 
 
============================== 
 
From: penelope baker [mailto:penbaker@trconline.net]  
Sent: Friday, January 05, 2007 1:20 PM 
Subject: martin's illness and an update 
 
 
 
I believe most of you know Martin was diagnosed with a recurrence of cancer in early december. The cancer is a mass in his lower pelvis and is a recurrence of his 2004 colon cancer. We have been spending much time in Ashville talking to doctors and learning the options for treatment. Our new motto....'nothing is as bad as it seems nor as good as it sounds".  
 
 
 
The Wednesday appointment was the 'bad as it seems' treatment. Surgery that promised only a 20% success rate and possible paralysis. removal of the bladder, and a long painful recovery. Yesterday we opted for a less conventional treatment....a cyber knife. No success rates are known because it is relatively new. But, we had a very long discussion with the physician... no surgery, non-evasive, no long hospital stay, no recovery period, no damage to nerves, etc. Mission is the only hospital in the Carolinas to have this treatment available.  
 
 
 
Our last option to consider is MD Anderson in Houston. We're not at that point yet. 
 
 
 
We have received many calls and emails and I want to thank you for the expressions of concern and assistance. We are fortunate to live in such a caring neighborhood, and have friends who have stayed in close touch over the years. 
 
 
 
Penelope

i worked for the sacred heart sisters at GGaba - Uganda for 5 good years and i really enjoyed it. They are really a leading example. I would like to get in touch with Sr. Anamaria and Sr.Solome Najjuka

Albany Times Union Let's live story of Christmas  
 
 
By REV. DEARTHRICE DeWITT  
First published: Saturday, December 23, 2006  
 
I am a native son of Albany with great affection for my hometown. I am blessed to have a large extended family, which includes the DeWitts, Howards and Fergusons, whose connections to the Capital Region run deep.  
Out of these roots I was exposed to the National Baptist, African Methodist Episcopal Zion and Church of God in Christ denominations. Experiencing the diverse contours of Christianity continued for me at the Doane Stuart School, which is renowned for its merger of Roman Catholic and Episcopalian traditions. The school's weekly chapel services and campus ministry indelibly shaped my own calling to ministry.  
 
At Colgate University, I found the intellectual pursuit of religion as stimulating as my involvement in the ecumenical Protestant community, University Church. I became committed to Christian faith and assumed religious leadership. Those four years were a time of personal growth, culminating with my decision to enter Princeton Theological Seminary.  
 
Seminary is a time when assumptions about faith are brought into question. I remember in my Old Testament Bible class, studying the section about Jericho where Joshua blew his horn and toppled the walls. But when I learned the irrefutable historical evidence from archaeological study that no walls ever surrounded the city, I had to discard my literal understanding of the story for a new interpretation that its truth comes when people of faith perceive God's role in their lives.  
 
Events along my journey and the evolution of my beliefs led me away from the AME Zion tradition to the United Church of Christ. I was becoming increasingly progressive and longed to be part of a denomination that practices the radical hospitality it preaches. I discovered other pilgrims along the way and that I was acceptable as I am.  
 
Now as a pastor, when I ponder the meaning of Christmas, I realize how it distinguishes my religion from other faith traditions with which God has graced our world. Christmas is about God loving us and identifying with our suffering so much that God becomes us.  
 
This was an important truth for my ancestors who were enslaved. They looked at their lot and determined that the contradictions of their lives were not final. Somewhere deep within they asked, Who is this God? They discovered that God was with them in the belly of the slave ship, at the spilled blood of the whipping post and in the cries of families sold off and torn apart to kick-start our nation's economy. If God did not show humanity a way out of slavery, there would have been no hope.  
 
The gospel message of God With Us is also a powerful political truth.  
 
At college, some people viewed intellectual life to be at odds with a life of faith. Whether it was by professors or students, that dimension was under attack. To this day, I am not afraid to stand up for what I believe, even if it costs me. We whitewash the political dimensions of faith in Christ at our own peril. If some liberal folks don't want to talk about their faith because they fear being identified with the fundamentalists, Christianity always looks like the religious right rather than its true form, which is far more diverse and complex.  
 
In the Christmas story, we see our own struggles -- human lust for power, illusions of peace through the threat of war, families left without adequate housing. There is hope, too. Hope for God to deliver us from the worst humanity can perpetrate. Ignoring this risks no longer taking the Christmas story seriously enough in the face of evil or injustice.  
 
If we believe God came among the oppressed to bring hope, whom do we see in our communities needing this good news? How will we nourish people's spiritual hunger and also speak prophetically to the powers and principalities of our cities? For me, it is not enough to tell the Christmas story. We must claim and live the story to fully grasp its truth. I feel this awesome task before me every day, but thanks be to God, I am not alone.  
 
Dearthrice DeWitt is the pastor of First Congregational Church in Poughkeepsie.

I would like to know where  
Sr. Lillian Conaghan is. The last I had contact with her she had gone to St. Louis after Katrina hit New Orlands.

Sr. Brown's poem, "Old Woman Saint", reminded me of Ma Mere Ducoin, RSCJ and others in the Kenwood community. I am grateful for my time at Doane Stuart and for the spiritual presence that the school's proximity to Kenwood provided.

Can anyone tell me if the author of the following poem is one of the founders of The Doane Stuart School? If so, I would like to get in touch with Sr. Brown. Please contact me via SeanPAlbert@aol.com . Thanks 
 
Sean 
 
Old Woman Saint 
 
 
Michael O'Neill McGrath OSFS 
 
You with your old hands 
And creased face went to Sugar Creek, 
Your eyes speaking hope, 
Your ears compassion. 
 
Others preached, 
You prayed. 
Others taught wise truths, 
You played with children, 
Smiled at them and held a small 
Bird in your lap, 
Hid a frightened child in your skirt folds, 
Wound your ancient time-piece once 
Again before child's-gaze, 
Amazed. 
 
You blessed the prairie Church 
With your true presence. 
Then with your old body 
And beads smooth-worn 
Went home to die. 
 
Judith Brown, rscj 
Province of the United States