We are a community...
...of life...
... and hope.
Pandemic Prayer Joan Chittister

Special Announcement

Join us in prayer this November in our Community of Life and Hope Progam.

Covid 19 has changed all of our lives in many different ways. Much of life is now out of our control ─ whether it’s a new way of doing our job, the children not going to school, experiencing unemployment, financial worries, sickness and fear of the unknown, or feeling isolated because we can’t meet with friends. Understandably, we are all feeling some kind of anxiety and uncertainty. Here is something to count on: beginning on All Saints' Day, November 1, our sisters will remember your loved ones by name through the month.

>>> Read more and send us the names of your loved ones to remember in our prayer.

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Nuns on the Bus 2020 virtual tour

Nuns on the Bus 2020 virtual tour

September 23, 2020

The Benedictine Sisters of Erie and oblates participated in the first stop of the 2020 Nuns on the Bus Virtual Tour: "Who we elect matters." Nuns on the Bus, sponsored by Network: Advocates for justice, inspired by Catholic Sisters, has dozens of virtual town halls and dialogues interspersed with site visits now through October 23. Benedictines for Peace coordinator Sister Anne McCarthy and Colleen Leathley, postulant, organized the sisters' gathering at the monastery.
More information >>>

Sister Lucia helps with voter registration at Emmaus Ministries

Emmaus Ministries: voter registration and giveaway

September 23, 2020

With both a furniture giveaway and voter registration drive, Emmaus Food Pantry was busier than usual this past Monday morning. Sister Lucia Surmik helped people register to vote at one end of the Emmaus driveway while at the other end Sister Colette Korn helped sort and distribute donated items.

Read at Emmaus>>>

Sister Val Luckey, Emmaus Ministries staff

Emmaus Ministries participates in Nuns on the Bus Tour 2020

September 20, 2020

"Since the Nuns on the Bus annual social justice bus tour sponsored by the Catholic advocacy group NETWORK could not go on the road, they asked organizations like Emmaus Ministries to share how federal policies can affect the people it serves,” said Breanna Mekuly, Emmaus staff member. Scroll down to view Sister Valerie Luckey talk about these policies. Everyone is invited to participate in this virtual tour.
Read and participate >>>

Old Monk's new blog post...golf, favorite foods, and grace

Old Monk's new blog post...golf, favorite foods, and grace

September 20, 2020

"Do you want the good news or the bad news first?" asks Sister Mary Lou Kownacki, aka Old Monk, as she begins her new blog post at Monasteries of the Heart. In the midst of good and bad, there is grace: "It’s hard to explain 'grace' until you see it in action," she writes. And then we see it through Old Monk's personal experience and her insight.
Read at Monasteries of the Heart >>>

Prioress Stephanie Schmidt, OSB, Board Member Bernadette Bell, RSM, Sisters of Mercy Leadership Team Maryann Bader, RSM, Sisters of St. Joseph President Mary Drexler SSJ, Board Member Rosemary O’BrienSSJ, and Erie DAWN's first director, Phyllis Hilbert, SSJ

25-year collaboration: Erie DAWN

September 19, 2020

Twenty-five years ago the Benedictine Sisters of Erie joined with the Sisters of Mercy and the Sisters of Saint Joseph to found Erie DAWN, Dwellings and Advocacy for Women in Need. At a press conference earlier this week Erie DAWN Executive Director Maureen Dunn recognized the three founding religious communities...

Read >>>

Land of the free, home of the self-centered

Land of the free, home of the self-centered

September 18, 2020

"The most superficial study of the Constitution of the United States is clear about our freedom, our rights, our laws and our responsibility to the common good," writes Sister Joan Chittister in her new National Catholic Reporter column. ..."Clearly, the land of the free and the home of the self-centered has a lot to learn from the people of all ages and all countries who manage to wear masks, avoid pool parties and understand that the fines that go with activities like those are in recognition of everybody else's rights."
Read at NCRonline.org>>>

Emmaus Ministries participates virtually in Nuns on the Bus 2020 Tour

With so many events—large and small—adjusted, postponed, or cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Nuns on the Bus, an annual social justice bus tour sponsored by the Catholic advocacy group NETWORK, had to adapt as well. Prior to the coming national presidential election, NETWORK has organized a virtual bus tour to address issues that are part of the Catholic social justice agenda.

“Since Nuns on the Bus could not go on the road, they asked organizations like Emmaus to share how federal policies can affect the people it serves both for better and for the worse,” said Breanna Mekuly, Emmaus staff member. Emmaus submitted a video for the tour explaining policies important to its ministry in the city of Erie: support for food assistance programs like SNAP, the FEED Act which helps farmers get their food to the hungry without waste, expansion of the Affordable Care Act, and a call for a “housing first” approach to ending homelessness. “Each person and each family we meet at Emmaus is unique, but they all are harmed by policies that punish the poor. We call on the federal government to prioritize bills and laws that will allow for all, especially those most marginalized and forgotten in our society, to obtain their basic needs,” Sister Valerie Luckey, Emmaus staff member, shared in the video. (NOTE: Archive photos, pre-COVID-19, used in video.)

Emmaus Ministries (Erie) from Paul Marchione on Vimeo.

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