Retreat Notes (2025 Edition)

August 28, 2025reflections, retreatcreation, Evangelista, Jesus, Mary, prayer, retreat, video prayers, watersusanfrancoiscsjp

I will be honest. Given the state of the world, it felt a little self-indulgent to spend a week away in silence and the beauty of God’s creation this year. And yet I leave renewed and strengthened by God’s love, grateful for the wisdom of tradition and my community’s expectation that each sister take an annual retreat (it’s in our Constitutions!).

Mother Evangelista, one of the first sisters to profess vows in the community in 1884, taught this to her novices:

“Retreat – What is it? A Spiritual Holiday with our Lord. … God comes to us now with His hands spread out over us, and filled with every kind of grace and gift. Are these gifts for me Lord? Is it I?“

I can relate. This year, I returned to Wisdom House, an interfaith retreat center in Connecticut run by the Daughters of Wisdom. When I was a novice, I made my retreat here both years. It is a sacred space filled with beauty where I have received many graces and gifts, this year being no exception.

I leave with three messages tucked into my heart from this week, wisdom for the journey.

1. Strengthen Your Weak Knees

The week before my retreat I twisted my knee. Given that one of my favorite things to do on retreat is go on long walks in the woods, this was problematic. Thankfully I am improving and was able to take (slow) walks with the help of a knee brace.

God has a (serious) sense of humor, however. The Sunday reading as I began retreat was from Hebrews 12:

For what “son” is there whom his father does not discipline? At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it.

So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be disjointed but healed (emphasis added by me).

I burst out laughing at mass as this passage was proclaimed. OK God, I get it. But just to make sure I got the message, later that same day, I was listening to new music by Sandra McCracken, who it happens released a song based on this same verse in July!

Strengthen your weak knees became a theme of sorts for this retreat. The journey is not without challenges, but I find strength in God and community (and knee braces) and stay on the path. Speaking of paths, I visited the Montfort Fathers Lourdes Shrine in Litchfield and made a prayer video set to the song.

2. Do Whatever He Tells You

I attended daily mass this week at a local parish, where on my second visit I noticed a beautiful stained glass window of the wedding at Cana. I love the look on Mary’s face as she looks over her shoulder at Jesus. Aren’t you going to do something, her whole being says to her son. And to the servants (and to me), she says simply, “Do whatever he tells you.”

Life can be overwhelming on the best of days. Right now … well. Sigh. I have been mostly unplugged this week but have been reading (and praying with) the news. Enough said.

I also carry with me the stories of the immigrant families I have met on my visits to the Delaney Hall detention center in the face of cruel, inhumane, and constantly changing visitation policies at the for-profit prison. Another reflection point this week that kept coming up for me (and is in the video above) was standing at the foot of the cross. My experience of accompaniment at Delaney Hall has been a true foot of the cross experience. I can feel helpless in such moments. Like Mary and the other women, I suppose.

As I prepare to return back to real life, I am encouraged by Mary to follow her son. “Do whatever he tells you. He is the way. Love is the way.” My task is simply to listen to him and act accordingly. Small acts of love add up. And as Pope Leo reminded us that first day from the balcony at St. Peter’s… “God loves all of us and evil will not prevail.”

3. Be Like Wise and Rational Fish

Bear with me here … This morning, on the feast of St Augustine, I was drawn to look at the Office of Readings for the day, which I presumed would have something from him. Sure enough, it was the “Late have I loved you” bit, which is lovely and worthy of reflection, to be sure.

But it was the daily reading from St. Columbanus (different from Columba apparently), a sixth century Irish Missionary that caught my attention. Reflecting on Living Water, he wrote:

“We are called to the source and fountain of life … From this Life comes everything: wisdom, life, eternal light. The Creator of life is the fountain from which life springs; the Creator of light is the fountain of light. So let us leave this world of visible things. Let us leave this world of time and head for the heavens. Like fish seeking water, like wise and rational fish let us seek the fountain of light, the fountain of life, the fountain of living water.“

His words came back to me later as I happened upon a bubbling brook on my morning walk in a nearby nature preserve. Remember, I was necessarily walking slowly thanks to my weak knees so I noticed things! I even took advantage of a conveniently placed bench to ponder this living water (and later make a video, because why not?).

God’s love is everywhere if we but have eyes to see and ears to hear (and weak knees to slow us down). God gives us living water to sustain, refresh, and renew us. May we, like wise and rational fish, remember to seek out and be light and love in the darkness amid the dry times in which we find ourselves.

Thanks for reading. I have been praying for you, yes you, during these days of retreat. May we all remember that God is good. All the time. And so are we.

We Cannot Be Silent

August 9, 2025reflectionsaction, Catholic social teaching, Delaney Hall, ethic of resistance, holy resistance, immigration, justice, refugees, resist, social justice, social sinsusanfrancoiscsjp

Friends some seriously (and apparently intentionally) inhumane actions are being perpetrated in our name and funded by our tax dollars. This is true on many levels and across the country, but this particular story is local and takes place a 20 minute drive from my house at Delaney Hall, a private for profit prison in an industrial area of Newark, New Jersey where immigrants are detained on behalf of our federal government.

There are many issues with the lack of due process, lies and deception by ICE officials, and violations of established legal protections that have led to up to 1,000 of our immigrant brothers and sisters being detained at Delaney Hall on any given day. Then there are the questions about how these human beings are being treated while in detention. Those are topics for another post.

This story is simply about the arbitrary and constantly changing rules for visitors, rules that are cruel and inhumane. Inhumanity seems to be the point and motivating factor. There is no other explanation to what is happening to the families desperate to see their loved ones one more time before they are deported.

Like the 14 year old US citizen child who was in tears today, trying to get into the detention center with her Aunt. Her mom and dad are both detained at Delaney Hall. They heard that her father might be deported tonight. They were desperate for accurate information regarding the fate of her parents. They could not afford legal assistance. Listening to her story was simply heart breaking.

Or like Bella who was denied the right to visit her daughter Mary during the scheduled 7:30 am visitation time allotted for just 15 visitors each Saturday for the up to 100 female detainees in Mary’s ward. Bella made an early morning trip from her home across the Hudson in New York to get there in time, at great expense. The published visitation rules signed by the Delaney Hall security chief say you may be denied entry if you arrive after the start of visitation hours. She arrived by 7:20 but the guard decided she was too late and told her to come back tomorrow. I tried to advocate for her but to no avail. He kept just saying she should have come earlier and he was within her rights to deny her visitation. Even though they had not yet let the 7:30 visitors inside, and they had not met the limit on the number of allowed visitors. I asked to speak to a supervisor, after identifying myself as a Catholic Sister/clergy, but he refused and again just said he was within his rights to deny her entry.

Bella literally dropped to her knees and opened her arms wide in supplication, calling out to God for mercy. She was in tears, as was I. Powerless in the face of inhumanity and injustice.

These are just two stories of many, just from today during the morning hours at this one detention center. Visitation is no longer allowed during the week at Delaney Hall, only on the weekends and during very limited hours. Family members line up hours early, waiting in the hot sun, often after driving hours to visit, without any guarantee they will be allowed inside. The visitation hours and rules published on the Delaney Hall and ICE websites are incorrect and out-of-date at best, if not intentional misinformation. Each week the guards seem to change the rules or at least apply them inconsistently. The families suffer, as do their loved ones who are waiting for a visit that never comes. Why? I can’t help but think it is by design.

And then this afternoon, after navigating this whole ordeal to set eyes on their loved one for a few minutes, a group of visitors came out to find their vehicles had been ticketed or towed by the Newark Police Department. Because, you see, not only is there not a visitor parking lot at this detention center (operated by tax dollars under a $1 Billion 5 year contract with ICE), there is also not any legal parking on the public city street outside the detention center. There is a public parking lot next door at the Essex County Detention Center, but visitors to the private prison next door are not allowed to park there, although staff apparently are. Again, why? I can’t help but think this inhumanity is by design.

This is not ok. We cannot be silent.

Now for good news. A group of folks organized in mutual aid swiftly organized to help the visitors get their cars out of the impound lot. Others are strategizing how to work with elected officials on a long-term parking solution. Many folks spent time outside Delaney Hall today in solidarity and support of the visitors, providing umbrellas and tents to protect them from the sun while they waited hours outside the gate. Offering coffee and donuts and water. Creating a play area for the children. Making and holding up signs as public witness to say that profiting off of human misery is immoral, that no human being is illegal, and that we are called to love our neighbors. Some of the visitors even brought toys and snacks themselves to share with others. Community at its organic best.

Goodness, in other words, was present even amidst the inhumanity. Love is always stronger than hate.

We must choose love. Always.

Love cannot be silent.

We cannot be silent.

A lesson from creation by Pope Leo

August 3, 2025reflectionscreation, pope, pope leo, scripturesusanfrancoiscsjp

A reflection from Pope Leo on the readings for 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time:

“Ecclesiastes, invites us … to come to terms with the experience of our limitations and the fleeting nature of all things that pass away (cf. Eccl 1:2; 2:21-23). On a similar note, the Responsorial Psalm presents us with the image of “the grass that is renewed… in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers” (Ps 90:5-6). These are two strong reminders which may be a bit shocking, but which should not frighten us as if they were “taboo” issues to be avoided. The fragility they speak of is, in fact, part of the marvel of creation.

Think of the image of grass: is not a field of flowers beautiful? Of course, it is delicate, made up of small, vulnerable stems, prone to drying out, to being bent and broken. Yet at the same time these flowers are immediately replaced by others that sprout up after them, generously nourished and fertilized by the first ones as they decay on the ground. This is how the field survives: through constant regeneration. Even during the cold months of winter, when everything seems silent, its energy stirs beneath the ground, preparing to blossom into a thousand colors when spring comes.

We too, dear friends, are made this way, we are made for this. We are not made for a life where everything is taken for granted and static, but for an existence that is constantly renewed through gift of self in love. This is why we continually aspire to something “more” that no created reality can give us; we feel a deep and burning thirst that no drink in this world can satisfy.”

Birthday ponderings

July 27, 2025reflectionsbirthday prayer, birthdays, creation, God, God moments, goodness, gratitude, life, love, wondersusanfrancoiscsjp

Today, this brown eyed Susan turns another year older. Three years into my fifth decade and I continue to be astounded.

Astounded by the love of God who created all things even you and me and everyone and everything in between, for all eternity … created out of and for love.

Astounded by the beauty of creation. No words necessary.

Astounded by the gift of life and the invitation to share my gifts (and even vulnerablities) for the good of the whole, to be present to the beauty and the pain, to witness to God’s love even amidst suffering, and to remember and re-member in service of God’s dreams for us.

Astounded by the witness, love and challenge of family, friends, community, colleagues, strangers, bunny rabbits and birds and dragonflies. You name it.

What gift!

Turning of the World

July 11, 2025reflectionsCatholic social teaching, holy resistance, Jesus, peace, prayer, scripture, social justice, social sin, video prayerssusanfrancoiscsjp

Last night I made this prayer video featuring pictures of our global family set to a song that has been in my heart of late, Turning of the World by Sarah Thomsen.

Then, in this morning’s liturgical readings, I heard in Psalm 37:

Turn from evil and do good,

that you may abide forever;

For the Lord loves what is right,

and forsakes not his faithful ones

And from the Gospel of Matthew:

But beware of men, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans. When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

We are in times when much evil is being done by those in power. This leaves us with a choice. What will we do as …

Millions of children and families lose their lives that could have been saved with humanitarian food and medical assistance, which has already been funded by our government.

Families are torn apart by an inhumane immigration detention system on steroids fueled by greed and ideology.

The coffers of the ultra wealthy are overfilled by stealing life saving food and health care from those on the margins though drastic budget cuts and eliminating the social safety net.

We must call this what it is … social sin. We cannot be silent, even if as Jesus points out in this Gospel passage, there may be consequences. We must use whatever privilege we have and also take risks to turn from evil and do what is good, trusting in the Spirit of God.

Together we can turn the world through our loving, healing, and dreaming. Let us be hope for one another.

Poetry for our times – Adrienne Rich

July 5, 2025poetryholy resistance, poetrysusanfrancoiscsjp

What Kind of Times Are These

(By Adrienne Rich)

There’s a place between two stands of trees where the grass grows uphill

and the old revolutionary road breaks off into shadows

near a meeting-house abandoned by the persecuted

who disappeared into those shadows.

I’ve walked there picking mushrooms at the edge of dread, but don’t be fooled

this isn’t a Russian poem, this is not somewhere else but here,

our country moving closer to its own truth and dread,

its own ways of making people disappear.

I won’t tell you where the place is, the dark mesh of the woods

meeting the unmarked strip of light—

ghost-ridden crossroads, leafmold paradise:

I know already who wants to buy it, sell it, make it disappear.

And I won’t tell you where it is, so why do I tell you

anything? Because you still listen, because in times like these

to have you listen at all, it’s necessary

to talk about trees.

Copyright Credit: Adrienne Rich, “What Kind of Times are These” from Collected Poems: 1950-2012. Copyright © 2016 by The Adrienne Rich Literary Trust. Copyright © 1995 Adrienne Rich. Reprinted by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc..

Source: Dark Fields of the Republic: Poems 1991-1995 (W. W. Norton and Company Inc., 1995)

A friend shared this poem with me this morning, and so I share it with you. In these times where we stand and who we listen to, and what we choose to see are important.

Won’t You Rise Up?

July 1, 2025reflectionschristianity, holy resistance, Jesus, liz vice, resist, resistance, scripture, social justice, The Porter's Gatesusanfrancoiscsjp

Today’s Gospel reading is one of my favorites, and so timely. From Matthew:

“As Jesus got into a boat, his disciples followed him. Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by waves; but he was asleep. They came and woke him, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We are perishing!’ He said to them, ‘Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?’ Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm. The men were amazed and said, ‘What sort of man is this, whom even the winds and the sea obey?’”

There is a beautiful song reflecting on this story by The Porter’s Gate, “Wake up Jesus,” in which the singer Liz Vice laments soulfully at the end: “How can you sleep when we’re in need. Won’t you rise up? Won’t you rise up?”

This morning in prayer it dawned on me … I need to be the one to rise up. You need to be the one to rise up. We need to be the ones to rise up. That’s how this whole Christianity thing works. They will know we are Christians by our love.

Our love for families who are separated by inhumane immigrant detention efforts.

Our love for the estimated 14 million people who will die over the next five years due to cuts in US international humanitarian relief funds.

Our love for the children and families who will lose food assistance if the budget bill goes through. Even Fox News admits 3 million people could lose benefits to combat hunger.

Our love for the estimated 12 million people who will no longer be covered by health insurance with cuts to Medicaid to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest among us.

The storms keep coming and lives are literally at stake.

Will we rise up as our lawmakers prioritize greed and misguided ideology over life and human dignity?

Will we be Christ and use our God given agency to calm the raging seas, each doing our bit, contributing to the common good?

Will we be awake to the suffering of human beings, present to their pain and ready to act to rebuild our social fabric?

My prayer this morning is for Christ to guide me/us, to sustain me/us, and to inspire me/us to action.

May it be so. May WE rise up.

Inhumane Profits

June 28, 2025ethic of resistance, social sinethic of resistance, holy resistance, immigration, resistance, social justicesusanfrancoiscsjp

Imagine this scenario. Your daughter is a newlywed. While she is not a US citizen, her husband is, and she is trying to navigate the legal system to adjust her own status. She shows up at the immigration office for her regularly scheduled appointment, from which she does not return home. You finally make contact to learn that she is being held in immigration detention at Delaney Hall, a private for-profit prison run by GEO Group under a 15 year contract granted by the Trump Administration in February worth $1 Billion. You call the detention center to learn about visiting hours, yet the phone number listed on the website is disconnected. The GEO website and the ICE website both say that there are daily visiting hours, but when you make your way to the warehouse-like building where your daughter is detained, located on a highway with a nearby sewage plant and industrial estates spewing toxic smells while tractor trailers barrel by, you learn that daily visitation has been cancelled and you can only visit now on Saturday and Sunday. So you manage to come back on Saturday morning, only to be barred entry again because you are wearing open toe shoes on this summer day.

This is not a made up scenario, but the story I cobbled together this morning after greeting this mother outside the gates of Delaney Hall after she had been denied entry. In the end she was able to visit her daughter because I lent her a pair of shoes that Sister Sheena and I had brought with us for this very situation. The guards are able to bar visitors if they judge that they don’t meet the dress code, which in addition to open toe shoes can include sleeveless tops or shorts/skirts that are deemed to be too short. Other visitors who lined up outside the gates this morning to lay eyes on their loved ones were turned away for other reasons. Some thankfully were able to enter the facility to see their loved ones. About an hour later I saw these folks leave the facility, their faces showing a mix of emotion as they rushed back to their cars. I held each of them in prayer as they walked by.

I was able to greet the woman whose story I tell above to return her shoes. She and her son-in-law told us that her daughter is doing ok. They were holding back tears as they thanked us for the loan of shoes and more importantly for our kindness. They told us how much it meant to them that those detained at Delaney hall are not forgotten. I promised to pray for both of them and her daughter.

My friends, horrible things are not only happening in our name, but corporations are making a profit, paid by our tax dollars, on this inhuman treatment of our immigrant brothers and sisters. This attack on human dignity is incentivized. We cannot be silent. We must pay attention. We must listen to and tell the story. That is why I held aloft a sign that I made during my prayer time this morning – “History has its eyes on you.” Sheena held a sign that said “For Profit Prisons are Immoral.”

For the past ten weeks a faithful group of ordinary folks, including Pax Christi New Jersey, have been standing witness outside Delaney Hall to keep “Eyes on ICE” and provide support to the families attempting to visit their loved ones. They offer clothing when needed to pass the dress code, water and snacks for those who have travelled far to stand in line outside in the heat, and information sheets with helpline numbers for immigrant aid organizations. Perhaps most importantly they show that there are good people who are watching, standing witness, and calling out this social sin with real life consequences and who want to offer support. I hope to join them whenever I can. Sadly, this inhumanity for profit is happening just a twenty minute drive from my home.

This for profit prison is convenient for the immigration industrial complex because of its proximity to Newark Airport. “The location near an international airport streamlines logistics, and helps facilitate the timely processing of individuals in our custody as we pursue President Trump’s mandate to arrest, detain and remove illegal aliens from our communities,” said acting ICE Director Caleb Vitello when GEO was awarded the contract in February.

While we were there this morning, we witnessed a van full of immigrants leave the facility, escorted by unmarked vehicles, presumably on their way to a deportation flight at the airport. We were able to just see the men inside through the tinted windows. Hopefully they could see us outside as I held up a sign saying: “Fathers, we see you. We are fighting for you and your families. Stay strong!”

Peace for Us – a poem for this moment

June 22, 2025poetryJesus, peace, poetry, prayersusanfrancoiscsjp

This morning as we grapple with the death dealing decision of the current occupant of the White House to choose destruction over diplomacy, with far reaching consequences we can only imagine, I found myself praying with this poem by my friend Susan. She has been in heaven more than 5 years now. Praying with her wisdom and insight and wonderful way with words in this disturbing moment, and counting on her to whisper into the ear of her loving God on our behalf.

Peace for Us
by Sister Susan Dewitt, CSJP

You who are peace for us
came among us into such trouble,
into the Emperor’s world of calculations,
straight roads, good money, crucifixions.

You who are peace for us
came among us into a conquered people,
unfashionable stubborn believers
in the promise and the Word.

You came to a serving woman,
who trusted the impossible promise
you who are peace for us
would bring to birth in her,

You came naked and helpless,
you who are peace for us,
asking us to hold you, feed you,
asking us to help you grow

You ask us now to help you
to make a place for you
who are peace for us
among our tangled riches,

our politics, anger and fear,
to be the womb that holds you,
to be the milk that feeds you,
to be peace for you.

Sisters Speak Out

June 21, 2025ethic of resistance, events, social sinadvocacy, Catholic Sisters, Catholic social teaching, constitutions, ethic of resistance, holy resistance, immigration, in the news, Jesus, justice, resist, resistance, Sisters Speak Out, social justicesusanfrancoiscsjp

On Tuesday, June 24, Catholic Sisters and their partners and friends will gather on the steps of the US Capitol, and in echo events across the country, for prayer and public witness in support of immigrants and a just economy. My Congregation, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, is one of the sponsoring organizations of Sisters Speak Out. It does my heart good to see how the network has grown as evidenced by this graphic.

We will have representation at the DC event and our CSJP sisters and associates will also gather in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey and Bellevue, Washington for echo events. The Bellevue prayer and witness is open to the public and will be live streamed. Click here for details and to register.

This is our moral moment. We must hold fast to Gospel values and stand together in support of human dignity. Speaking out is a requirement of justice even as we are overwhelmed by the inhumanity and unfathomability of actions undertaken in our name. It is a requirement of our faith precisely because these inhumane actions are being taken in our name. Catholic Social Teaching calls us to have a preferential option for those who are poor, to protect life and human dignity at all stages, to defend the rights of workers and migrants, to care for creation. All of these are presently under attack.

Yesterday, World Refugee Day, San Diego Bishop Elect Michael Pham visited the federal building to stand in solidarity with individuals making appearances in immigration court who were afraid of being summarily detained and held in private for profit immigration prisons. (Yes not only is this becoming routine, but these immigrants seeking to follow legal systems are being swept up by men in masks in 2025 in the United States!). This did not happen yesterday in the presence of the Bishop and his fellow clergy.

Per a news story: “masked immigration agents weren’t leaning against the off-white walls, waiting to grab people. They scattered Friday after seeing a clergy delegation led by Bishop Pham.

‘Like the story of Moses and Exodus, the Red Sea parted,’ said observer Scott Reid of the immigrant-aiding San Diego Organizing Project.

Said another observer: ‘We’ve never seen the hallways cleared out so quickly.’

The result: Nobody was detained as immigration lawyers said would happen.”

I will still be out of the country on June 24, visiting our sisters in the UK. It has been an interesting few weeks to be out of the country, that is for sure. And when I tell people the scale and scope of what is happening at home, they look at me with unbelief and a sort of pity.

I lit a candle for my country in every church I visited on my Jubilee pilgrimage to Italy. And I have been praying the Sisters Speak Out Rosary. You can download the Rosary Guide for Immigrant Communities and a Just Economy here. It has special Sorrowful and Joyful mysteries which are very moving.

Wherever you are on June 24 please join us in solidarity. And know that we are in this for the long haul, following in the footsteps of Jesus who always stood with those who were oppressed.

As we say in our CSJP Constitutions:

“Christ is our peace, the source of our power. United with him we engage in the struggle against the reality of evil and continue the work of establishing God’s reign of justice and peace.”

At the Corner of Susan and St. Joseph

personal blog of Susan Rose Francois, CSJP – a Sister of St. Joseph of Peace