Author Archives: Felician Mission: Haiti

We now grow our very own bananas!!!!! Sr. Inga is so happy because she loves a banana a day!

Sr. Marilyn works with teens who are preparing for Confirmation.

Sr. Inga organizes the program and prepares the catechists for each class. Our children come from the poorest families in the Cathedral parish. They come to Mass every Sunday and sit together with us.

You may have met Annette from seeing her on our blogs. She is a young woman who lives with us and shares in the Felician Mission. Annette works with all the young mothers who come to us every month, looking for assistance. About two weeks ago, we worked together to create a nourishing supplement to give them for their children and their babies. This concoction was shared with us by the sisters in Brazil who use it for those who live in the Amazon. It is made of seeds and nuts and corn meal.

We prepared packages for the mothers. Annette meets with them on the first Friday of of the month. On November 29, she gathered over 50 mothers. She began with a spiritual reflection, explaining the necessity of asking for God’s care and support. She also reflected on the meaning of preparing for the Lord’s coming in our lives. Annette truly embraces the core values of the Felician Sisters!

Let us give you a bit of a background before we share what happened on Tuesday, November 26. In August, our Sister Joellen from Lodi, NJ, was packing all her pre-school activities because she was moving to a new ministry. During her many years in child care work, she had created a wealth of hands-on activities for children. When she saw us, she asked if we would want to take any of these activities. Of course, after seeing what she had, we said “YES!” We placed these items in barrels to be sent to Haiti. Finally, after two months, we received those barrels. Yesterday, we were able to share some of those treasures from Sister Joellen with our kids.

Thank you, Sister Joellen, for being a part of the mission in Haiti!

For Jesus, leadership was about self-sacrifice, not earthly authority…Jesus, remember me when come into your Kingdom…

On this special feast, we remember the mission Jesus embraced for all of us. We are reminded that Jesus’ kingdom is within us; and we are given the Way, the Truth and the Life to make His Kingdom real among us.

At Mass today, like every Sunday, we were joined by the children we are preparing for Baptism and Communion.

Another group that was celebrating at the Mass today was an organization for teens that are taught to be civic leaders. It is kind of like Scouts, but with more religious and spiritual direction. Some of our teens participate in the group. They are very aware of the the country’s situation and are reminded to show and be good leaders to all.

On November 21, we celebrated our anniversaries and gave thanks to God for our past, for those who provided leadership, for growth in community, and for all those who led the Felician Congregation and the North American Province to this day. We prayed that God would awaken in us a hope for the future.

The day before the celebration, preparations were started. Our women prepared the chicken and the homemade cakes.

The Felician Haiti mission certainly did awaken in us hope, as we shared the story of Blessed Mary Angela and the founding of our Congregation. The children in our faith formation program were invited to participate in Mass and dinner.

The day began for us with Eucharistic Adoration with Morning Prayer, giving thanks for all that was, is, and will be as we prayed to awaken a hope for the future here in Haiti.

When the kids arrived, we shared a slide presentation which told our story and the life of Blessed Mary Angela.

During Mass, after the homily, we renewed our vows.

Then we shared our joy with a delicious dinner…

As we mentioned in our last post, we want to help our kids to keep learning in the midst of the crisis in this country. Can you imagine 100 kIds being placed in groups to learn math, Creole and French, computers, science, geography and history, and sports, too? Talk about having space! And then we need to feed them…

Our kids were so happy when our mission doors were opened after our return from the States. They are so hungry! Thank God we are able to buy rice and beans. The prices have doubled and tripled for some things but, with your help, we are able to feed our kids. Thank you ever so much!

Our kids have not been in school for three months already; and each day school is closed, they lose time learning. We have been praying to know what can we do to move forward. We will begin lessons, led by our teen leaders, in Math, History, Science, Creole, French and computers. Stay tuned to see how our youth will lead…