by Michele on February 11, 2014
The month of February will always remind me of Sister Dorothy Stang SNDdeN, who so inspired me that I wrote a book about her and then watched my life veer in a new direction. I still find it amazing.
On February 12, 2005, Dorothy was killed on a lonely Brazilian Amazon road, by farm hands hired to commit this heinous act. She was an amazing woman as the title of my book indicates, dedicated to education, first, in Arizona at a mission school in the 1950’s and then in Brazil from 1966 until her ... (read more)
by Michele on February 3, 2014
As the Board Chair of Notre Dame Mission volunteers, NDMVA, I traveled to New Orleans (otherwise known as NOLA) to visit with site director Jessica McKeown and her 14 members who are working in schools. Notre Dame Mission Volunteers AmeriCorps Program, founded by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in 1992, has been placing volunteers at sites nationwide to work alongside urban and especially the economically disadvantaged. The volunteers accomplish this mission by promoting literacy and education.
AmeriCorps is a federally-funded service program, commonly referred to as the domestic Peace Corps, that brings together citizens ... (read more)
by Michele on February 12, 2013
Commemorating the murder of a saint like Dorothy — for I do believe that she is a saint even without sainthood — is never easy. I am reminded of all the hatred and gun violence that continues in our country as well as all over the world. And I am reminded to keep the pressure on in the US to change our laws to reduce this insane state of affairs. And do it with Dorothy’s zeal and never-ending diligence.
Dorothy Stang was all about love, for her family, her Sisters and the peasant farmers ... (read more)
by Michele on December 17, 2012
We all know what happened in Newtown. I listened immediately to the news because that little country town is only about 20 minutes from Easton, Connecticut where I lived as a school child in a different age. In 1960 Newtown’s population was just shy of 11,500, today it is nearly 28,000! The community is only 65 miles from New York City which explains the growth — but not the carnage.
Like most Americans who are parents, my husband and I are very, very sad for the parents of the children and the families of the teachers ... (read more)
