Visitation Community Center Community Dinner!

Last Friday, Claire and Maggie prepared enough tacos to feed a small army. After preparing the food, they brought it to Visitation Community Center and shared a meal with over 40 Kensington residents. The evening was wonderful and full of delicious food and fun games, facilitated by Maggie's fabulous family and several of her sister's friends! We are so grateful to continue to build community here in Kensington. Here are some photos from the evening!

National Poetry Month

During April we will be sharing some of the Poetry of our two SSJ Mission Corps volunteers, Claire and Maggie. We invite you to share you thoughts and questions with us as well as any of your own poetry that you might be willing to share.

Poetry and writing are a wonderful and important medium in self and spiritual expression and we are excited to share it with you in this way!

“Under God”

It chokes me up every time I see all these faces

Dutifully pledged loud and proud hands over heart

Right or left- doesn’t really matter

The same words I pledge

Allegiance to the USA

When it doesn’t always pledge back…

When not all can say you actually belong here

According to some…

And some scraps of paper…

Because your face is too brown

And your accent too round

And your R’s roll off the tongue.

by Claire Geruson

Ponderings of Grace - The Feast of St. Joseph

Below is a reflection that the SSJ Mission Corps director, Becca Little, wrote for the St. Mary-by-the-Sea Retreat House's Ponderings of Grace. We are delighted to share it here with you as well!

Openness. Love without hesitation or question. Humble loyalty. Each of these things could be used to describe Saint Joseph. As we celebrate him and I begin to reflect on these characteristics, it is not lost on me the similarity between the qualities of Saint Joseph and the qualities of the Sisters of Saint Joseph and SSJ Mission Corps communities.

Devoted service without second thought is the path that Saint Joseph modeled for us in his devotion to Mary and to the will of God. Daily I see this humility and loyalty in the faces and lives of the Sisters of Saint Joseph and the SSJ Mission Corps volunteers. Last year, during his Papal Inauguration, which fell on Saint Joseph's Day, Pope Francis describes Saint Joseph as a protector with a heart full of tenderness and compassion:

"In the Gospels, Saint Joseph appears as a strong and courageous man, a working man, yet in his heart we see great tenderness, which is not the virtue of the weak but rather a sign of strength of spirit and a capacity for concern, for compassion, for genuine openness to others, for love. We must not be afraid of goodness, of tenderness!"

  It is a privilege and honor to be a witness to this tenderness within the hearts and lives of the SSJ community. Daily I walk with the SSJ Mission Corps members, two young women who live lives full of this compassion, teaching me how to live out this call. As we celebrate the feast of Saint Joseph and continue to move together through Lent, I encourage you to look for the places in your own life where others are teaching you the humble, unfailing loyalty and compassion of Saint Joseph. These living examples are the key to finding these traits within our own hearts.

When words just don't cut it...

We are practicing writing down our “gratitudes” for Lent… 5 things we are grateful for every day x 40 days x 3 people (it’s beginning to sound like one of my student’s math problems…).

With so many amazing people in our lives, our wall is filling up effortlessly.

We sit here, surrounded by love: gorgeous letters from our retreat hung on our walls, maxims decorating our doors, dinners filling our bellies, and spirit moving among us.

As spring begins to bloom and we feel reenergized for the next three months, as St. Joseph’s Day approaches, we want to say thank you.

We have had some difficult and trying experiences in our time so far, and moments of joy and awe. Through it all we have been acutely aware of Your presence in our lives.

We have compiled a list of moments/experiences/people/things that have directly influenced our Mission Corps experience thus far, that have made our lives exponentially better, and that we can’t imagine living without. Know that each and every one of You have helped us make it through this year and stay (somewhat) sane. Over and over again we had the privilege to answer the question, “What is the SSJ Mission Corps?” We’ve found the answer to be long, but simple. Here are just a few examples that popped into our heads after a long day and even longer week:

·     Becca Little-Bex-the Bexster

·     Unforgettable retreat experiences with unforgettable women

·     The 11 convents and counting that have welcomed us (multiple times!)

·     Meeting the associates at Our Lady of Hope

·     The Welcome Center Trivia night

·     Having a “usual” at the Kensington Mini Mart

·     Our Students…even that one

·     Our incredible co-workers who inspire, encourage, assist, and put up with us

·     Sharing the state of the heart

·     Receiving three containers of Christmas decorations

·     Receiving donations for classrooms and classroom prizes

·     Re-discovering our home city, and exploring the gems that Kensington has to offer

·     The immigration reform rally

·     Visits from UNC

·     Going back to our Mother Ship at Chestnut Hill for multiple events: Commissioning Mass (and dinner!) Founder’s Day, Peace Vigil for Syria, Greg Boyle’s talk, Band of Sisters film, Visitation BVM fundraising auction…

·     Spirituality and Community nights

These events and people have become an integral part of our Mission Corps program, and our lives—not just a year, but a lifetime.

Dreamers

As mentioned before, current Mission Corps member Maggie Myers teaches English as a Second Language classes to Visitation School's 3 and 4 year olds.

As part of a project for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day a few weeks ago, Maggie had her students write down some of their own dreams and draw them. Below are a few of these beautiful projects:

 "My dream is for everyone to be friends."

 "My dream is everyone will love each other."

"My dream is we will stop fighting."

A Snow Day in Kensington

What happens when two school teachers make a snow man? Crayon hair. Check out Maggie and Claire's adventures in Snow Person creation during their snow day last week!

Inside Maggie's Classroom

You had the chance to have a look inside Claire's classroom at St. Anthony of Padua in Camden, NJ. Now take a moment to have a look inside Maggie's ESL Classroom at Visitation BVM school in Kensington.

Maggie splits her time between teaching ESL to 3 and 4 year old students of Visitation and supervising the 5th grade at aftercare.

 Maggie's classroom space is very limited but she has made the most of it! She typically has 3 students in her classroom at a time.

 The sign reads: "We play together. We share our toys. We love each other. We can all be friends."