Showing posts with label Margaret Anna Cusack. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Margaret Anna Cusack. Show all posts

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Pray for us, pray with us, Dorothy

One of our great Sisters and a great friend died last week - Dorothy Vidulich, CSJP, a passionate, engaged woman, writer and journalist, justice seeker.  She wrote a biography of our founder, Margaret Anna Cusack, Peace Pays the Price, that attracted many of us who've since become sisters or associates. 

I will always remember meeting Dorothy at a Call for Action (I think) meeting in Albuquerque - must have been about 1993 - and the way she welcomed me like a friend she'd known for ages.  It was a time when I needed a friend, so her welcome touched me deeply.  I suppose we may have met four or five times since then - not often, as she lived in Washington D.C., and then in New Jersey, while I was in Seattle/Bellevue and then El Salvador.  But each time, it was the amazing experience of stepping into a deep friendship that didn't need any light conversation.  I can only imagine how many friends Dorothy must have left remembering her with love, as I do!

Dorothy led an amazing life - you can find a good summary here from Susan Francois, CSJP, and another, with a sample of her writing, from Arthur Jones, her colleague at the National Catholic Reporter.  She will continue to pray with us from the community of saints, and people who never met her will find two new friends, Margaret Anna Cusack and Dorothy Vidulich, when they pick up Peace Pays the Price. 

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Founder's Day


For the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, today is Founders Day, the day we celebrate our founder, Margaret Anna Cusack, a woman of courage who experienced much conflict in her life, and longed for the gift and blessing of peace. Two special celebrations mark her day this year: our new website has been formally launched, and you can learn more about us and about Margaret Anna Cusack there. And in the western U.S., we celebrated Jubilees today, honoring the commitment, faithfulness and contributions of our eight Jubilarians.

Instead of joining in the celebration, I put Margaret Jane on the plane for New Jersey today - she'll be there for six weeks - and came home to a house that feels very big and very quiet with just me in it. Though, come to think of it, quiet is never long-lasting here, and even now I can hear the kids playing in the street and the buses rumbling past.

I can't be there in person with Cecilia Marie (80 years!), Rita Mary (75 years), Rose Marie and Mary (60 years), and Barbara, Jo-Anne, Margaret and Marilee (50 years), but I'm surely there in spirit with these great sisters of mine. May they each know themselves cherished today and every day. Happy Feast Day!