Our Ministries Today

– SISTER EILEEN CURTEIS ssa –

Sister Eileen is a certified Karuna Reiki® Master and Usui Master Reiki Teacher and arranges and teaches classes for all levels of Reiki.

Reiki is an ancient and revered practice that promotes and accelerates healing and balancing of body, mind and spirit through the laying on of hands, a practice that has often been shared in the Christian tradition. Reiki (pronounced ray-key) is a Japanese word that translates as “Universal Life Force Energy”.

A reiki practitioner has the ability to focus and direct this energy by simply placing his or her hands on the body of the person receiving treatment. It is not the practitioner’s energy but God’s that does the healing. The practitioner is like a channel or conduit through which the Divine healing power flows. Reiki is not a spiritual belief system and in no way contradicts any individual belief. It is, instead, a simple and gentle infusion of God’s holy energy that accelerates the body’s ability to heal physical and emotional ailments. It opens the mind and spirit to the causes of disease and pain and invites the recipient to take responsibility for one’s life and one’s health.

Since personal energy is not used by Reiki practitioners, they also receive Divine healing energy even as they give. When a treatment is finished the practitioner feels as energized and fulfilled as the person to whom they have given the treatment.

– SISTER JOYCE HARRIS ssa –

Although I never intended to “work” with men I was invited to Anawim House by Mark Lemay to “come and see”.

As we know from scripture, such invitations can be compelling! In the spirit of Esther Blondin I realized that educating men could only benefit women. Anawim’s Mission is to assist people suffering from addictions, mental illness, and poverty to re-claim their lives, In order to become a resident a person must want to change his life. After volunteering for a few months, getting a feel for the program, the staff, residents and outreach members I was invited to serve on the Board.  My primary responsibility is to be a liaison between residents, staff and Board. In this capacity I help facilitate our Monday Night Group where residents and staff gather to reflect on a spiritual reading, share about their personal growth and resolve community living issues. I am often humbled by the depth of self-knowledge, the desire for change and the clear recognition that the residents have for the need for God in their lives. As one man put it: “for the first time in my life I feel loved and a member of a family who cares.  Now I can heal, I can address my addiction issues, I can form some meaningful relationships and hopefully get a job. I feel worthwhile.

I also meet regularly with the Director to assist him to hone his own leadership skills. Anawim Society truly responds to the most vulnerable in our city and gives them a chance to change.

– SISTER PATRICIA SHREENAN ssa –

Current data indicate that 5000+ persons visited my website since October 2012. Observing the tradition of enduring spiritual communities, we Sisters of St. Ann,  use today’s education outlets to make available spiritual teachings freely received as inherited wisdom and now freely passed on to Internet seekers.

The site features audio tracks of adult student narrations providing examples of their learning to live in right relationship and of my teaching concerning the function of our gifted energies of faith, hope, and love as the essence of right relationships.

Teachings describe recognizable signals of being stuck in self-serving motivations of harmful fear, deceit, and anger – and ways to get unstuck. My generous, competent collaborators matched our commitment to living our spiritual heritage in generous service.

This website is a work offered in praise to our Beloved God for gifting us with life and to express gratitude to Jesus whose Spirit guides us unfailingly in living in right relationship – or  in knowing what to do when we are not.

– SISTER JUDI MORIN ssa –

For some years, I have wanted to be more concretely involved in restorative justice.  So I began learning and then facilitating groups in Nonviolent Communication (NVC), which I see as a language of restorative justice.

NVC is a needs based communication that translates blame and judgment and shoulds into feelings, needs and requests.

I really enjoy designing exercises for the facilitation of NVC.  Thinking that these exercises would be helpful to others, I asked Lucy Leu and Raj Gill to work with me to publish exercises for facilitators to use in sharing NVC.  Four years later, the NVC Toolkit For Facilitators was published and is now used in more than 40 countries.  I still facilitate some groups or individuals and guide them towards using  NVC to support their happiness.

Since retiring from 30 years of prison chaplaincy, I have been able to spend more time working with restorative justice. Last winter after having completed a superb training component, I am now able to work on cases as a mentor or facilitator.

This is how it works. Someone who has committed a crime and admitted it may be diverted from the courts to restorative justice. He or she works with a mentor to prepare for a facilitated meeting with the person(s) affected by the crime.  There, the person(s) affected by the crime is given a forum through which they communicate to the person responsible for the crime how it affected them.  They can also ask questions of the responsible person to help  gain some understanding as to why the crime happened.  Then the two, with the help of the facilitators, name concrete ways in which the responsible person will make some reparation for the harm done as well as address any underlying causes of crime.  When both parties agree, an agreement is signed and the mentor supports the responsible party in fulfilling the terms of the agreement.  This process meets the needs of the victim of the crime in a more satisfying way than simple punishment does. For example, the victim is able to share how the crime affected them and continues to affect them. It gives the person(s) affected by the crime the opportunity to ask questions so they can understand why the crime was committed and “why me?. In addition, the affected person has a say as to how the responsible person will make amends for his/her actions and to how they might address the factors that led to the crime.   This gives the affected person some power.  It also supports the person responsible for the crime by  addressing the factors in their life which resulted in the crime and in helping to make changes in their lifestyle; hopefully lessening  the likelihood of their creating future crime.

I find this work very satisfying and a good balance with the work of the  Provincial Council.