“To build peace, to preach peace and to be peace” is the challenge that all of us have been given as Dominican Sisters and Associates of Peace. I have had the wonderful opportunity to realize this challenge by joining Sisters Ceal Warner and Pat Thomas in founding our Peace Center in New Orleans. In August 2016 the Peace Center will be two years old, so it is a good time to reflect.
On Good Friday for the last 30 years, Hope House in New Orleans has sponsored and organized “The Way of the Cross, the Way of Justice.” Several organizations, including the Dominican Sisters of Peace and Associates, are invited to walk through the streets of downtown New Orleans and re-enact the Stations to represent in some way themes and issues in today’s world, for example, the death penalty, immigration, fair housing, etc.
In support of our congregation’s membership in the “Win Without War” organization, I receive their email alerts (which, thankfully, are sent sparingly compared to a lot of organizations – but that’s a topic for another blog). At the end of February, the organization sent an email that asked us to write to our senators and representatives to support the closing of Guantanamo Bay, a US interrogation site in Cuba. This request challenged me. Weren’t the prisoners terrorists? I had heard there was talk of putting them in a prison somewhere in the United States. How would I feel if I lived in the community near that prison? Continue reading →
While the pun is intentional, the need of women cries out for a renewed response as we enter into this month of national attention to the history of women. The 2016 theme for National Women’s History Month is “Working to Form a More Perfect Union: Honoring Women in Public Service and Government.” This theme seems especially essential as the presidential campaign also marches on! Continue reading →
In this Year of Mercy proclaimed by Pope Francis we are called to take a step back and concretely meditate on how our perception of immigrants reflects the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus tells us: “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”
With this in mind the faces and stories of several immigrants come to mind: Continue reading →