Mission
“Community is for mission.” We strive to bring the healing spirit of God into our world. Learn more about how we serve.
The Loretto Mission Activities Team represents the Community committees, networks and some offices. They met at the Motherhouse to share their work and develop strategies to do it better. They reviewed Loretto’s five-year goals and recent Assembly resolutions on immigration and sustainability. Representatives of the Pakistan, Guatemala, Peace and Latin America/Caribbean committees, the Earth and…
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Every year we grow different vegetables and share them with our neighbors. Last year when I was at the Motherhouse, Nancy Wittwer very generously offered to help me to buy good seeds, which are now giving life and strength to many. We never use any pesticides in our garden; it is organic. We are very…
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Six young women from outside Lahore and ten teachers from our school joined the Loretto sisters for a three-day discernment retreat. The first day began with these questions: Why am I here on this planet earth? What is the meaning of my life? Where is God calling me? What gives me energy and joy? What…
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Mary Ann McGivern opened the first day of the August Loretto Link gathering relating a story from her novitiate days that taught her that solemn times can include the delight of friendship and celebration. By the last day we knew that 31 people had been shot and killed in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio. Our…
Read MorelIia Delio muses on the future of religious life: “I anticipate religious life in the 21st century will be more provisional and local than institutional and permanent. … What form will this new type of religious life take? Many forms, for love and compassion know no bounds.” Ilia suggests “our challenge is to make a radical shift in our thinking…
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As a participant in LCWR’s Collaborative Leadership Development Program (CLDP) in 2013-2014, I recently was invited to attend this year’s Leadership Collaborative Biennial Conference in Chicago as a participant on a panel. The Leadership Collaborative (LC) was created to support the vowed, associates and co-members who had completed CLDP. It was designed, in the words…
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We aspire to be inclusive. We work for justice. Today, these core Loretto values call us to develop an understanding about gender identity as an element of individual identity. For many of us, this is new. For many in our society, especially members of generations younger than ours, this is neither new nor unfamiliar. Learning…
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How do retreat centers support transformational change? I was among the diverse group of retreat center directors and social movement leaders invited to discuss that question during a three-day meeting in June. Convened by the Fetzer Institute, whose mission is to “help build the spiritual foundation of a loving world,” ours was the last of…
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As she talked toward me in the middle of the bus station, the first thing I noticed was the long bright red sweater pulled down tightly over her very pregnant body. Looking at her bright, dark eyes, almost perfect complexion and wide smile, no one could have guessed that Maura had just stepped off a…
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Retirement” means different things to different folks. For some, it is an opportunity to travel; for others, a chance to pursue a long-neglected hobby or to discover a new one. For Judy McLaughlin, it meant co-founding a shelter for those with nowhere else to go. Burning desire for social justice work In 1997, Judy retired…
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The food supply for monarch butterflies received a boost at the Motherhouse in May with the planting of 4 acres of milkweed and other plants favored by pollinators. Last fall, Infirmary physician Dr. Lida Oxnard brought a mesh cage with a dozen monarch caterpillars to the Motherhouse so that we could enjoy watching the metamorphosis…
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Life in Pakistan is not easy for women. The majority of Pakistan’s women belong to the working class as agricultural laborers, factory workers, domestic servants and governesses. They are part of the lower and middle class, which includes students, teachers and nurses. In the middle classes women are becoming doctors, engineers, computer programmers, etc. Women…
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