Friday, October 10, 2008

An Announcement and Revisiting the Crisis

Up and Running

Our new website has found its parking place on the world wide Internet. Here is the link:
http://redemptoristinenunsofnewyork.org/

Please check it out and leave a comment.

Now, back to the financial crisis at hand.

Since Sr. Julie Viera, IHM is happily busy and surrounded by nuns at the huge meeting of the National Religious Vocation Conference, I don't think she would mind if this contemplative nun spoke of her Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. And, believe me, this is connected to the current financial crisis.

The IHMs of Monroe published in 1997 an absolutely wonderful history of their congregation entitled Building Sisterhood - A Feminist History of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. With the consultation of the historian Margaret Susan Thompson, the sisters themselves planned the process, did the research and wrote the essays.

One of the chapters is devoted to the building of the new motherhouse in Monroe, Michigan in the early 1930s, the heart of the depression. After a disastrous fire, the community and its leadership was determined to build anew, undeterred by the perilous financial times. They borrowed millions of dollars, a huge loan for the time and circumstances. In these financial transactions they gained the respect of the local banking community. When a bank was threatened with failure bankers prevailed upon the sisters to come to the bank frequently to make deposits as a public demonstration of their faith in the financial stability and security of the bank. The sisters demonstrated both their courage in a time of uncertainty and their faith in God to support their mission. In so doing, they supported stability and gave example of courage in trying times.

2 comments:

Dina said...

Mazal tov on your new website! It is indeed wondrously and beautifully formed, a labor of love.

jorgecoloncssr said...

I was taught by the Monroe IHMs, who worked in Cayey, Puerto Rico. They were then, and still are, outstanding witnesses to cheerful service.