News From Home

July 2026

By Sister M. Anselma

Dear Families and Friends!

After twenty years in our religious community, our Sisters receive the huge gift of making a six-week pilgrimage, spending three weeks at our Motherhouse in Thuine, Germany, and three weeks in Assisi, Italy, where the Franciscan Order was born in the 12th century. My turn came in 2017… it was such a beautiful grace!

When we were in Assisi, I had the desire to make a walking, prayerful pilgrimage to Carceri for a day. Assisi itself is built on a hill; but immediately behind Assisi, the elevation continues rising to the top of Mount Subasio. Carceri is about halfway up that mountain climb, in the midst of narrow valleys cut into the rock and consisting of several caves. St. Francis of Assisi chose those caves as one of his frequent places to pray… hidden, rugged, completely devoid of comfort… he went there so he could encounter nothing but God, the God who had grasped ahold of his life and whom he loved so passionately!!

I wanted to go where Francis went; I wanted to pray as Francis prayed as much as the Lord would allow.

So after early morning Mass at the tomb of Francis in lower Assisi, I set out for my pilgrimage to Carceri. After two hours of climbing, my legs burning from the steep incline, I arrived at my destination ready for my time alone with the Lord! My heart fell as I realized a large group of tourists had just arrived (buses of them). With loud voices, they either did not understand or completely disregarded the many signs commanding “Silencio in Carceri!” Every word of their loud voices echoed off the cliff faces and cave walls. How would I find a place to pray?? Trying to avoid them, I wandered up a path at the edge of Carceri and soon found myself at a stone wall. Rather than descend back into the riot of voices, I climbed over the wall… just to see what was there. 

On the other side of the wall, my feet landed on a mountain road. Intending to turn back, my eye caught another little path across the road. I thought… “I’ll go just a little further.” The warm sun coming through the green leaves seemed to beckon me higher. I couldn’t stop. Two hours later, I broke through the tree line to find myself at the top of Mount Subasio!! There was not a soul in sight!! I walked right to the rounded top of the mountain and, thanking the Lord, made this my place of prayer for the day!!

I am sure Francis prayed there!! The total abandon of the whistling wind that came and went from everywhere and nowhere… the beauty of the Umbrian countryside far below… the ancient rocks emerging from the ground that were softly rounded from centuries of wind rubbing them smooth (one of which I brought home with me!)… what a perfect place to open your heart to the Lord and thank Him for every gift!!

In October, we celebrate the 800th anniversary of the death of St. Francis of Assisi. Over the next few News From Home editions, I plan to share more about what I have learned of this amazing man who became so transformed by grace. May we all come to know God more deeply through the experience of Francis!!

The Lord give you peace!

In His Merciful Heart,

Sister M. Anselma
Administrator

By Fr. Nick Muenks

I recently finished a book—and rarely do I finish a book!—called The Spiritual Gifts Handbook, co-authored by Randy Clark (an evangelical pastor) and Mary Healy (a Catholic seminary professor). Pastor Clark and Dr. Healy argue persuasively that the spiritual gifts, like the ones St. Paul names in his First Letter to the Corinthians, remained part of mainstream Christian life for at least four hundred years, and can be part of mainstream Christian life even today. According to St. Paul, “to one [person] is given through the Spirit the expression of wisdom; to another the expression of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit; to another mighty deeds; to another prophecy; to another discernment of spirits; to another varieties of tongues; to another interpretation of tongues” (1 Corinthians 12:8-10).

For many of us, things like healings, miracles, prophecies, and tongues are far from our lived experience of Christian faith. Now, many of the Saints are known to have done things like this, but we assume that that is because they were people of unusual holiness, not at all like most of us. Yet, that is not what Jesus says! What Jesus says is this: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it” (John 14:12-14).

Many preachers (including me) have been guilty of finding a way to not take these words of Jesus at face value. And it is just because we don’t believe them that they seem so seldom to come true. On one occasion, Jesus freed a youth who was possessed by an evil spirit, after his disciples had tried to without success. Later, “the disciples approached Jesus in private and said, ‘Why could we not drive it out?’ He said to them, ‘Because of your little faith. Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you’” (Matthew 17:19-20).

Though we certainly have faith to believe that God can work wonders, I think that many of us do not really expect God to work wonders for us, and definitely not through us. What we need, then, is not just faith, but a faith that expects things. We need a conviction that prophecies, healings, and deliverances are the sort of things that can be expected by normal Christians. One of the things we can do to grow in that conviction is to share and listen to stories of what God has done. This is one of the things I really admire about Christians from other traditions—how ready many of them are to tell their stories. Catholics tend to be much more reticent, but we ought not be. In the words of St. Raphael, “A king’s secret it is prudent to keep, but the works of God are to be declared and made known (Tobit 12:7)!”

Well, let me practice what I preach! Though my own faith is still short of mustard seed size, I can say that in ministry I have received and made use of gifts of wisdom, prophecy, deliverance and, in a small way so far, healing. I have had the Spirit give me entire sermons during the singing of the Alleluia! And I do pray in tongues. I have had others minister to me, too, through the spiritual gifts. I have been very blessed by the interior healing ministry of Dr. Bob Schuchts and Sr. Miriam James Heidland. And, last winter, I received prophecies which confirmed that my appointment to Mother of Good Counsel Home (still unknown to me at the time) was the right one. One foretold change; another was “something to do with religious sisters;” a third focused on devotion to the Heart of Jesus, which I later learned is central to the spirituality of the Franciscan Sisters of the Martyr Saint George!

So, now it’s your turn! Tell someone something remarkable that God has done for you, or for someone near you, and be attentive to the stories of others, because “the works of God are to be declared and made known!”

Fr. Nick Muenks

Chaplain

Golf Tournament!

By Sister M. Luka

We want to extend an enormous THANK YOU to everyone who supported us during our Spring Campaign to refurbish Ground Floor! We’ve raised a total of $118,059 for this campaign. WOW!! We’re so grateful for your support!

Now it’s time to register for our 23rd Annual Golf Tournament!!

Click here to register for or donate to our 23rd Annual Golf Tournament! The tournament will be held on Monday, September 21st at Glen Echo Country Club. Registration opens at 10:00 AM and Shotgun Start is at 12:00 PM. Please contact me or Jennifer Lamons (at jlamons@mogch.org) for more information!

Sister M. Luka

Mission Support Coordinator