Daughters of Divine Charity

Together We Live in the Legacy that is the Daughters of the Divine Charity

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Current Appeal

Spring 2022

Dear Friends,

By now we all hoped and prayed the pandemic would have come to an end. Yet, we find ourselves with more boosters, more testing, more masks, and uncertainty that there will be a true end date to our adjusted ways of life.

Fortunately for the Sisters in the United States convents, we have been safe and well cared for—not just by our healthcare workers, but also by you- our loyal friends and family of supporters. In the past, we prepared a St. Joseph’s Appeal at this time of year. This was our annual request for a particular project for the Sisters or for a special need the Sisters required for their care in retirement. However, with the overwhelming generosity you have shown the Sisters during the years of the pandemic, we do not have a major project on our calendar.

Instead of a request for a physical need, our appeal this year is one for prayer. This year with Easter falling in mid-April, we have a unique opportunity.  We ask that you join us for a few moments each week for the duration of Lent and Easter Sunday. This allows us to concentrate our prayers and meditations on one area of faith during the Lenten season and celebrate the resurrection!

Thank you again for your love and support of all our Sisters. We are so grateful to have you here with us in spirit. Please continue to send us your intentions. It is our honor to be here to share the love you have for those you honor and remember, to be a part of the milestones you celebrate, and to be here to share God’s love with those that are in the greatest need of strength from Him.

Yours in Prayer,

Sister M. William McGovern, FDC

P.S. Please remember to use the enclosed card and envelope to send us your special intentions.

See This Week’s Concentration

Current Appeal

Dearest Friends,

As we settle into the fall of 2021, we experience many mixed emotions.  The vaccine allowed for lifted restrictions and more normalcy to return, but a new strain brought a rise in positive cases and a scare that we might repeat another fall and winter season in solitude.  As Catholics, we live on faith. Our lives are fueled by hope for what will come.  Despite this summer setback- we know and trust that God will get us back to normal.  So don’t lose hope—but rather hold on and dig deep.  

No matter what we face in the coming months, the Holy Spirit will be beside us ready for the end of the crisis. Let us hope that although we lost so much time together, and possibly loved ones, we will reunite stronger and more grounded in faith.  Despite this positive outlook, we also feel a bit of trepidation; fear that our world’s faith was tested, fear that the absence of church community due to Covid restriction will result in lower attendance at Mass and devotions, etc.

This “new” life after Covid gives us the opportunity to recommit our lives to our faith and to our Church.  That brings us to our wish for a renewed interest in our Church– for younger generations to grab hold of our Catholic values, for a new generation to be called to religious life.

As Sisters, we have devoted our lives to God, to prayer, and to pass on our faith to students, and the men and women we care for through our many ministries. Thousands of our Sisters have been able to “make God’s love visible” due to the support you have provided in the past. As more of the Sisters pass on, we have turned many of our daily responsibilities over to the laity.  This allows our ministries to thrive—providing safe housing and care for men and women, teaching youth, providing parish outreach, and so much more.  We pray now that the Catholic Church at large may have the same success in pairing new vocations with support from the laity.

Today, we send you a request to multiply the strength of our prayers for these intentions.  Join the Holy Family Province of the Daughters of Divine Charity with a special intention that the Holy Spirit gives our church the fortitude to withstand the changes it faces.  During the year of St. Joseph, we ask for him to intercede, to help us heal not just physically and emotionally, but also in faith.  Our church, like many families, suffered great losses during the pandemic.   With this prayer, our collective intention is for the Holy Spirit to find men and women that will ensure the future of our Catholic faith.  We ask for vocations for priests, brothers, and sisters.  We ask for devoted lay disciplines to return to the Church, not only for the celebration of mass but also for their dedication to their parishes and to their roles in preparing the next generation to continue our traditions. 

Also enclosed is a request for your support. You may choose to send a contribution to our Sisters in retirement; to support our active ministries to the handicapped, women, children, and the elderly; to honor a loved one by enrolling him or her in our St. Joseph Prayer Guild.  Whichever way you wish to support our Sisters, your gift will be recognized and thanked by all our Sisters in their daily prayers.

May God continue to bless you and St. Joseph intercede for us!

Gratefully yours in Christ,

Sister M. William McGovern, FDC

P.S. Please consider making a gift to our Sisters which will be put to immediate use. 

March 2nd – Ash Wednesday – MORALITY

“From dust you came and to dust you will return.”

            We mark the beginning of Lent by focusing on how we will prepare for God’s ultimate gift of eternal life won by the sorrowful passion and glorious resurrection of Our Lord, Jesus Christ. Examine your attachment to the material things in life and how you can become more spiritual.

            During Lent we identify a sacrifice we can make with the intention that in doing so, we will enhance our relationship with God.

At 93 Sister Lawrence Called Home to God

Sr. M. Lawrence Churko F.D.C passed away peacefully at St. Joseph Hill Convent on Sunday January 9, 2022. Following the advice and encouragement of their countrymen, John Churko and Catherine Boda also became determined to try their good fortune in the Land of Plenty and the world of great possibilities. After experiencing various areas, they joined the Hungarian Colony in Toledo Ohio. It was a good move and soon Mr. Churko found satisfying work and Catherine was well accepted by the women who introduced her to profitable work. Because both were busy in their new settlement, they no longer were under any strain or anxiety. John and Catherine became friends and eventually married. Within time their fondest dream materialized and they were blest with fifteen children. Unfortunately, many of them died in early childhood. The good parents were very saddened by their loss but continued to love and nourish their remaining children The last child born was Mary Ann, born on August 13, 1928. She enjoyed the love of her dear mother, but her mother died when she was just three and a half years old. The Daughters of Divine Charity proposed that the bereaved father send his youngest child, to St. Elizabeth’s Orphanage in Detroit, an adjunct of Holy Cross Church. Mary Ann spent 10 years at the home, nurtured, guided and loved by the Sisters. It was here that she received her elementary education. Later she attended St. Joseph Hill Academy in Staten Island for several years. Her two sisters and a brother eventually established themselves very well and had Mary Ann join them, share their life, and attend the Central Catholic High School from which she graduated in 1948. 

On September 12, 1948 she entered the familiar grounds of St. Joseph Hill Convent as a candidate. Here she continued the basic tenets of Community Life. Because of her sincere desire to become a Religious, she was invited to enter the Novitate on August 16, 1949, receiving the name of Sister M. Lawrence. This was a special time to deepen her prayer life and learn the sacredness of her Religious Vows. On August 15, 1951 she made her Simple Profession and on August 16, 1956 her Final profession. 

By her kind nature and love for children, she was assigned to the teaching profession. For her preparation she attended various colleges and received her BA with a major in History and a minor in Education. 

In the East she taught in Roebling, New Brunswick and Trenton New Jersey as well as in South Bend, Indiana. She spent 43 years in California, at St. Therese and St Charles in San Diego and in St. Joseph’s in Fontana. 

Sister Lawrence was a concerned kind teacher, who loved and understood children. During these years she was the Superior, Principal, Sacristan and CCD teacher. She fullfilled each of these positions with distinction. 

Sister loved all sports especially baseball and was very partial to the Los Angeles Angels. She was a good driver and willingly accompanied the Sisters to their destinations. 

In 1999 she was assigned as Vice Principlal of St. Joseph Hill Academy. It was a responsible assignment but she knew with God’s help and the support of her Community, she would succeed to please God, the children and their parents. 

Mr. Hansen, the current Elementary School Principal, spoke of Sister’s warm personality and her sense of humor. When she first met Mr. Hansen she asked him how he preferred to be called; Larry or Lawrence, he replied Larry. Sister said that’s good, I prefer Lawrence and I would not want people to confuse the two of us. Her remarked that her presence in the school was invaluable, how she so enjoyed being around the school children, helping prepare them for the Sacrements of Penance and Communion and .the joy she took in setting the Chapel up for Mass, 

Visitation for Sister will be on Thursday January 13, 2022 in the Chapel at St. Jospeh Hill Academy from 2-4 p.m. A Mass of Christian Burial wiil be offered at 4: 30. Sister will be laid to rest in St. Ignatius Cemetey in Orgeon Ohio on Janary 25, 2022. 

Contributions to Sisters Memory can be made the the Daughters of Divine Charity 

Letter sent by Sr. Lucyna

“On the Solemnity of Christ, the King of the Universe,Novemeber 21, on the very day of the anniversary of thebirth of our Congregation, the celebration of the much awaited and demanding closure of the aforementionedprocess is scheduled. The ceremony will take place in the”Mother Thrice Admirable” church and will be followed by Vespers. “

This ceremony marked the end of the diocesan process andthat Sister Lucyna Mroczek, who is the postulator, will bringthe material of the Cause to the Dicastery for the Causes ofSaints in the Vatican.

So, we lift up our prayers to God in gratitude for the life ofour Foundress who founded the Daughters of Divine Charity in 1868 and we her daughter wish to continue tospread her charism of “making God’s Love visible” to thepeople of God and beg her to intercede for us in praying for new vocations to carry on our mission of serving theelderly, women and youth, by living “All for God, for thePoor and for our Congregation.”

Advent

Dearest Friend,

Advent, as we all know, is the liturgical season during which we prepare spiritually for the coming of Christ on the feast of Christmas. Many families use a special calendar –an Advent calendar—as a reminder of the importance of this time. Each day gives us a reminder of the peace, love, joy, and hope spoken of in the pre-Christmas liturgical readings. These four ideals are often considered during our time at Mass, but are we losing track of them during the chaos of the week?  Perhaps we are.

Peace. Love. Joy. Hope. Whether your prayers are for you and loved ones or the world at large, these four words can be beacons of light leading to the bright promise of Christmas. Let us find a few more minutes a day, a few hours a week, for just this brief season of Advent. Put aside the holiday to-do list, the ongoing worries each of us faces, and remember why this season is so important in our community of faith.

During the coming weeks as autumn turns to winter, let’s not get lost in the hustle and bustle of decorating and searching for gifts. Let’s, instead, focus on the real meaning of Christmas. Although, as Sisters, we have chosen to focus all our energies on our students, patients, residents under our care, and dear Sisters with whom we share our lives, we too, can forget to focus on peace, love, joy, and hope which are the essential elements of the season.

This is a time of year when we ask you to show your support with a contribution. Time and again your donations have come when most needed to care for our Sisters or to improve our homes.  Those gifts are always appreciated. This year, we continue our efforts in meeting the needs of the Sisters during their senior years with any support we receive.

Today we remind all our friends, family, and supporters that we hope you will send us your prayer intentions. This Advent we also invite you to join us in prayer and reflection each morning or evening and remember that Christ is coming. Please use our weekly guides below.

May the Holy Family continue to bless you.

Gratefully yours in Christ,

Sister M. William McGovern, FDC

P.S. Please consider making a donation to our Sisters which will be put to immediate use.

Perhaps you can use these weekly topics as your “Advent Calendar” and focus on the four gifts of the season.

Week One- Peace -Let’s look at the whole spectrum of peace in the world, in our country, in our families, and in our hearts.  Most of us will never be able to enact world peace or anything beyond maybe peace in our families; but we can work on peace in our hearts.  This first week of Advent let’s pray for peace for ourselves, our loved ones, and our neighbors.

Week Two – Love – As we enter week two of Advent let us try to remember that love is not the sentimental “Hallmark” feeling. Love is an act of the will.  We may not “love” the person who rubs us the wrong way, but we can pray for them and seek a way to show them kindness. This is just a small way to fulfill God’s request that we love Him, all His creations, and ourselves.

Week Three – Joy- Once again joy is not that bubbly, happy feeling.  It is that satisfying sense of pleasure that we get when we have either done something nice for someone or better still, when we see something or someone that reminds us of a blessed time in our lives.  Let us try to look for a moment of joy each day of this week

Week Four – Hope- I believe that God in His wisdom saves the best for last! No matter how bad the news reports are or the headlines in the papers are or how much suffering we see in our home life at times at times, we can always have hope knowing that God is with us, providing strength and guidance. Hope in and of itself is the best Christmas gift we could be given.