ONE APOSTOLIC BODY: Rejoicing in our Mission in Pakistan

The young woman in the photo is Suneeta Saleem. She is a Junior RJM and has recently passed, with honors, her studies for Masters in Finance. She was selected to represent her college, The University of Lahore, at a Research Symposium held in a University in Islamabad. Suneeta is from a family living in a Basti in Shadbagh, one of the most underdeveloped areas of Lahore. She is a graduate of the school we opened there in the early 90’s.

Once I was asked if I felt I had achieved anything worthwhile during my many years spent in Pakistan.

Well, Suneeta is an excellent answer for that question. And there are many more: Shahan, a recent graduate of Officers Training College for the Pakistan Army. His mother was so sure her prayers that a Convent school be opened in Toba Tek Singh would be fruitful that she delayed admitting him to school. The school did open and his name is the first in the Admission Register. He came to visit me in Islamabad after receiving his Commission in the Army. I have met several other men and women from the village, Mariakhel or from Fatima School in Islamabad doing well in the Armed Services, as Staff Nurses in various hospitals, employed in Embassies, or N.G.O.’s.

Many parents coming now to admit their children are themselves graduates of Khatoon-e-Fatima High School were among the first students attending classes in the partitioned spaces in the Church Hall in the early 80’s. They want a promising future for their children and good education is the path to that future.

In answer to the question posed I say “Yes, I feel my years in Pakistan have been fruitful, and the Sisters and Lay Teachers who have accompanied me have been support and strength throughout those years. It is now a joy to see the fruit of the labor doing so well.”

- Mariam Norick, RJM

RELIGIOUS OF JESUS AND MARY US PROVINCE

BRIDGES May 26, 2017

EASTERN JUBILEE - May 20th St. Martha’s, Plainville, MA

PRAYER OF THE FAITHFUL: JUBILEE EUCHARISTIC CELEBRATION Response: LORD, HEAR OUR PRAYER

For our Church, especially for Pope Francis, Cardinal O’Malley, for pastors, ministers, women and men religious, lay leaders and all who form Christ’s body: that together

we may grow to full maturity in Christ and in joyful service of the Gospel, we pray: LORD, HEAR OUR PRAYER.

For our world and nation, especially where vio-lence, suffering, discrimination and poverty abound. For our sisters and brothers on the margins, those affected by family separations, war, famine, and civil discord, we pray: LORD, HEAR OUR PRAYER.

For the province jubilarians of 2017: Sisters Beatrice Bonin, Lorraine Genest, Antoinette Jacques [70 years]; Maria de Belén Rojas [65 years]; Janice Farnham, Dina Marie Garcia, Margaret Theresa Guinan, Mary Stella Herrera, Lina Lavoie, Thérèse Picard, Fatima Viramontes [60 years]; and not least, Diane Dubé [50 years]: with gratitude

for God’s faithful love in their lives, and their share in Claudine’s apostolic gifts for ministry and community. May trust and hope in God’s fidelity fill their future days with deep joy, we pray: LORD, HEAR OUR PRAYER.

For the deceased jubilarians who rejoice with us from the fullness of God’s life and light, and who would have celebrated 70 years as RJM: Sisters Gertrude Brault, Mathilde Chartrand, Madeleine Demers, Helene Dussault, Mary Martin Langlais, Mary St. Gregory Leonard, Frances Teresa McMurray, and Lillian Rochon: may their prayer for us today strengthen our faith in the promise that “those who live and love in Christ never see each other for the last time”: we pray: LORD, HEAR OUR PRAYER.

For our Congregation and its leaders, for our sisters throughout the world; as we look to our bicentenary year, may we continue to follow Jesus and Mary as Claudine and her companions did, in forgiveness, love and service to the poor, and care for our dear plan-et, we pray: LORD, HEAR OUR PRAYER.

For all of us gathered at this Easter jubilee Eucharist; that, “as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved,” we proclaim our joyful hope in Christ risen and in the promise of the Spirit, we pray: LORD, HEAR OUR PRAYER.

The Sisters of Holy Cross, included Sr. Maria de Belen Rojas, RJM, in their own Jubilee celebrations, beginning with a special Mass and ending with a feast. They report that Sr. Maria had a continuous smile that day.

PRAYERS FOR THE BICENTENNIAL

In this issue of BRIDGES, we offer two more prayers suggested by our sisters.

From Sr. Michelle Authier:

From the Hill of Fourvière to the many hills of our dear Earth, dear Mother Foundress, St. Claudine, we your daughters of the 21st century,

come to praise and thank you for having generously accepted our ‘Good God’s’ call to you, to know, love and serve Him through the poor children of your battered city of Lyon,

following the terror of your country’s revolution. Two hundred years later,

Your spirit of compassionate forgiveness lives on in the memories of our hearts. We are ever grateful for the gifts we have inherited

from your devoted life of service to the needy: loving, teaching, forming youngsters toward life in an era of life-threatening circumstances.

St. Claudine, we humbly and gratefully appreciate the “intimate experience of God’s active goodness” you experienced in your heart.

May we yearn and grow into such depths in our own hearts, as true daughters of yours. In God’s eternity, two hundred years is simply, RIGHT NOW…

FOREVER MAY THEY BE LOVED AND PRAISED, THE HOLY NAMES OF JESUS AND OF MARY.

From Sr. Doris Bissonnette:

O Jesus and Mary, thank you for the desire and energy you have given to St. Claudine

and to all of us who want to serve you as she did. These gifts caused us to bring your name, your healing, and your love

to countless people, young and old, in many lands. For this continued action with us,

I consent…., I consent.

O Jesus, O Mary, we feel a deep anguish because we have not been able

to respond to so many needs. In our weakness, we ask you to transform our profound prayer that rises to your merciful hearts.

I consent…, I consent.

O Jesus, O Mary, two hundred years have brought us to this time.

Enliven our hearts, quicken our minds, as well as many others, to detect the new ways of bringing your name, your love, your healing

to so many more people, young and old, who yearn for you without knowing you. I consent…, I consent.

AT THE UNITED NATIONS - Exploring 'the Right to Remain'

- Excerpted from an article by Elias D. Mallon, SA, Ph.D., a Graymoor priest, an expert on the Middle East and a frequent contributor to Catholic Near East Welfare Association publications.

It often takes decades for new ideas to become part and parcel of the United Nations agenda and worldview. But yesterday, it appears that something new is happening - and it could have significance for millions.

It happened at a side event hosted by the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See, the International Catholic Migration Commission, Caritas Internationalis, and the Center for Migration Studies. The event was for “ensuring the right of all to remain in dignity, peace and security in their countries of origin.” The concept emerging that is new and which kept surfacing at the event was the Right to Remain.

In sum: the event participants recognized that most refugees and migrants do not want to leave their homes and, when forced to, want to return as soon as possible. What results is the Right to Remain - which, the event stated, precedes the Right to Migrate. While migra-tion is, and remains a right, migration is often the less desirable solution. Thus, for most migrants migration is not a free choice but is forced upon them by what the event called “Drivers of Forced Migration.” The major “drivers of forced migration” are: climate change, economic underdevelopment, and internal conflicts. The Right to Remain stresses that people have the right to have these drivers removed, so they can remain in the native countries.

It is estimated that over 65 million people on the planet are in one way or another refugees or migrants (in what follows, the words migrant and migration will include refugees). The flow of these people from Africa and the Middle East has put European and other countries under tremendous economic, political, and social pressures. In some areas, the migration problem has bred nativist, xenophobic and often racist reactions which manifest themselves in different ways in different countries.

The UN and Pope Francis have consistently called for programs to help and accept people who are fleeing from their homes. The UN High Commission for Refugees is responding to a situation of mass migration that has not been seen for at least a hundred years. While continuing to defend the right of people to migrate, the event recognized that migration must be: 1) sustainable, 2) manageable and 3) a choice, indicating that at present it is too often none of these. This recognizes not only the legitimate issues of the migrants but also of the receiving countries.

Recognizing the priority of the Right to Remain, the Holy See and its colleagues did not in any way question the right to migrate. However, it laid great emphasis on the fact that migration must be a free choice and that people have the right to have problems solved which are drivers of forced migration in their own countries.

Clearly at this point the Right to Remain does not enjoy the same legal standing in international humanitarian law as does the Right to Migrate. However, there is the recognition that migration must be sustainable, manageable and a free choice together with the indication and that such is not the case at present. This is leading to the gradual emergence of a Right to Remain.

And, as I noted: this is something new and significant. It recognizes the rights of both migrants and receiving countries. And it provides a significant impulse towards making a Right to Remain one of the basic human rights.

Praised Forever Be Jesus and Mary

PRAYERS ARE REQUESTED FOR…

Dorothy Grondalski who has been hospitalized, and who is the mother of Margaret Nassar, our Administrative Assistant.

WE ALSO PRAY FOR ALL THE NEEDS OF OUR RJM SISTERS, FAMILY, AND FRIENDS.

(flowering cactus in the Anza-Borrego Desert, Sr. Rosie Nicholson, RJM)

https://rjmusa.org

PROVINCE OFFICE

May 29 Office closed in observance of Memorial Day

UPDATED CONTACT INFORMATION

Sr. Pat Dillon’s email address is patd.rjm@gmail.com. Please stop using patd.rjm@juno.com immediately.

Sr. Priscilla Lemire has moved to St. Tim's in Warwick, RI. Her cellphone still remains 603-703-3356 and her email remains priscillaRJM@gmail.com.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THOSE CELEBRATING IN JUNE...

June 4 Teresita Morse June 6 Jacqueline Jacques June 9 Clarice Dionne June 10 Florence Lebreux June 13 Patricia Brito June 16 Claire Lebreux June 20 Joan Faraone June 24 Mary Haché