Sr. Pat Eck, Congregation Leader of the Sisters of Bon Secours, Sr. Elaine Davia, Formation Director, Sisters of Bon Secours, USA and Sr. Rose Marie Jasinski, Provincial Leader, Sisters of Bon Secours USA, are attending the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) 2018 Assembly in St. Louis this week. They join roughly 800 sisters in leadership in their respective communities to reflect on this year’s theme, “Being the Presence of Love: The Power of Communion.” LCWR, which represents approximately 80 percent of about 48,500 women religious in the United States, sees “being the presence of love” as one of the most important roles of women religious in this era, said Sr. Annmarie Sanders of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, LCWR’s Associate Director of Communications.

Last weekend, several sisters spent a wonderful few days with the women who attended the July Come and See Weekend. It was a time for prayer, reflection, conversation, fun and getting to know the Sisters of Bon Secours. The weekend aims to help women understand more about God’s call for their life, and we were blessed to have them here for the journey. We ask that you keep them in your prayers. The next Come and See Weekend will take place in the fall, from October 5-7.

We have a great group of women joining us this weekend for our Come & See Vocation Weekend. We’re looking forward to introducing them to some of the Sisters and having them get to know us. This weekend will help them understand more about God’s call for their life, and we’re blessed to be here with them for the journey. We ask that you keep all of us in prayer this weekend.

Last Friday, we said goodbye to Sam, Narda, Beatriz, Ruby, Elizabeth and Claire, the six wonderful young people who made the one-year commitment to Bon Secours Volunteer Ministry for 2017-2018. Although your presence will be gone, your spirit will always remain in our hearts and part of our charism of compassion, healing and liberation. May you find fulfillment in the path God is calling you to follow!

Bon Secours Community Works “Clean and Green” Team, along with Srs. Elaine and Nathalie, began renovating a vacant playground on North Fulton Avenue in Southwest Baltimore. Their team, along with more than a half dozen other organizations, helped rake and pull weeds, clean and paint the park. The next phase includes creating a mural for the back wall of the playground.

Sr. Rose Marie Jasinski and Sr. Fran Gorsuch, pictured with Betty Lutz, joined crowds of people in Baltimore’s Patterson Park on Saturday, June 30 to protest the current immigration policy. The rally featured an array of speakers, including representatives of CASA of Maryland, the People’s Power Assembly, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Jews United for Justice, all of whom called for changes in administration policy. U.S. Sen. Benjamin Cardin and U.S. Reps. C. A. “Dutch” Ruppersberger and John Sarbanes also spoke. The gathering — dubbed the Immigrant Solidarity Rally — was scheduled as a local companion to the Keep Families Together rally that drew tens of thousands of protesters to Washington, D.C., on Saturday, as well as similar rallies in more than 700 cities across the country out against the policy of separating families trying to cross the US-Mexico border. The crowd, estimated at more than 1,000 people in Baltimore, later walked to Eastern Avenue where protesters lined up to chant and wave signs at passing traffic. Many drivers honked their horns or gave a thumbs up in solidarity.

Sisters of Bon Secours Young Adult Program Manager Nick Stein helped lead a webinar today in advance of this year’s Vatican Synod on Young People, Faith and Vocational Discernment. The webinar focused on an important document – called “Instrumentum Laboris” (Working Document) that will serve as the foundation for the Synod in Rome in October. The 67-page document is the end result of nearly 18 months of preparation in which young people around the world voiced their views on current realities facing them and the Catholic Church today.

“This is an extremely important document,” said Stein. “It summarizes hundreds of thousands of pages of conversations, comments and questionnaires with young Catholics into a format that will be the guiding document read by the Holy Father and Bishops at the Synod. It is important that we take it seriously.”

The webinar was hosted by the US Catholic Bishops Southeast Regional Office for Hispanic Ministry (SEPI) and will be held in Spanish tomorrow. This webinar is open to all pastoral leaders, especially those working with youth, young adult, and campus ministries. In addition to Nick Stein, who is also chairman of the USCCB National Advisory Team on Young Adult Ministry, panelists included Fr. Rafael Capó, Executive Director, Southeast Pastoral Institute (SEPI), Paul Jarzembowski, Lead Staff, USCCB Youth and Young Adult Ministries, and Katie Prejean, U.S. Delegate to the March 2018 Pre-Synod.

A full version of the webinar will be posted on the Bon Secours Young Adults website in the near future.

Junno Arocho Esteves, June 19, 2018 | Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Young Catholics are looking for a church that listens to their concerns, accompanies them in discerning their vocations and helps them confront the challenges they face, said a working document for the upcoming Synod of Bishops on young people.

The synod’s “instrumentum laboris” (working document), published by the Vatican June 19, stated that young people “want to see a church that shares their situations of life in the light of Gospel rather than by preaching.”

Quoting a presynod gathering of young people who met at the Vatican March 19-25, the working document said young Catholics “want an authentic church. With this, we would like to express, particularly to the church hierarchy, our request for a transparent, welcoming, honest, attractive, communicative, accessible, joyful and interactive community.” (more…)

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On this World Refugee Day, we commit ourselves to embody Jesus’ clarion call to “welcome the stranger” so that the arduous journey to safety will truly be a journey of hope. We are reminded, too, of the plight of migrant families who are trying to enter the United States. From our statement this week: “To our migrant brothers and sisters, we promise to accompany you on your journey not only through our prayers for your safety and security but also through our continued advocacy for just and fair migration polices.”