Community News

Although we cannot physically gather now, we want to take this time to honor our 2020 Sister and Covenant Companion jubilarians. Over the next few weeks, we will celebrate the lives and contributions of our 7 Sister jubilarians and our 3 Covenant Companion jubilarians. Please join us in recognition of their commitment to living Gospel values. Message from Provincial Directress Sr. Melanie Paradis:      70 Years      Sr. Mary Patrick Salm What attracted you to the Franciscan way of life? “After high school I worked in the main office at St. Elizabeth [...]

By Covenant Companion Mary Krystinak, Director of  Our Lady of Angels And Sisters Healthy Living Alphonse Scepurek contacted me early this year to discuss the possibility of having one of his beehives located on our property.  The agreement would be that he would tend the bees, harvest the honey, and then share half of the honey with the Sisters.Al and his wife Mary have been longtime friends of Sr. Martha Friedman, Sr. Alice Reckamp and Covenant Companion Brother Harry DeGrave.   At our initial meeting on March 5. 2020, Sr. Martha and Sr. Alice joined me and Al for a lesson [...]

On Sunday, February 16th, several Wheaton Franciscan Sisters, Covenant Companions, IBVM Sisters, and members of our Worshiping Community joined nearly 1000 other volunteers gathered at North Central College in Naperville to pack mobile food packs for the Feed the Need campaign. Using protein powder, vitamins, soy and rice, we were able to fill, seal and box 235,008 Manna Packs during our 2-hour shift, as part of a 6-shift, two-day packing effort.  This is enough to feed 643 children one meal a day for an entire year! The goal for the weekend was to pack 1.2 million meals to be shipped to “Feed [...]

By Sister Glenna Czachor On Sunday, February 2nd the Wheaton Franciscans welcomed Maiga Muga a young man from Tanzania who presented a short PowerPoint presentation and took questions about his culture and his learning experience in the US. He is spending a year in the U.S. as an volunteer/intern with the International Volunteer Exchange Program (IVEP) of the Int’l Mennonite Conference. An essential element of the experience for IVEP participants like Maiga is to have mutual cultural exchanges in a variety of community and church settings.During his stay in the U.S. he is living with host families from the Willow [...]

By Jeanne Connolly, Covenant Companion More than 280 people filled Our Lady of the Angels chapel on Christmas Eve to celebrate Mass with the Wheaton Franciscans. As in recent years, the liturgy began with a procession to fill the nativity scene that would grace the chapel throughout the Christmas season. From young children to our eldest Sister, each piece was brought in with love, and placed with care, in the stable. The choir provided beautiful music and the faith community joined in joyful song. Smiles, hugs, and wishes for a “Merry Christmas” filled the space as people left the chapel. “Joy [...]