FEAST OF THE ASSUMPTION IN RUSHOOKA, UGANDA

FEAST OF THE ASSUMPTION IN RUSHOOKA, UGANDA

FRANZISKA NOTES August 2012

These notes are an endeavor of love, to keep alive the great Charism that was God’s gift to our foundress and adapt its rich message to a world that has changed dramatically.  She came from a time when there was the Church founded by Christ and its enemies.   Catholics were the good people, anyone who did not accept the moral code expressed in Catholism, was lost if not evil.   When the sisters arrived in the United States they found themselves in an experiment in ethnic and religious pluralism.  The beginnings were rocky and Catholic immigrants were the object of sometimes severe and violent discrimination.  They were the first to accept the separation of Church and State because it gave them liberty to practice their faith and to educate their own children and serve the poor and sick of all races and creeds for the love of Christ.   The Catholic Church in America has been the envy of Bishops in countries that were just beginning the struggle with democracy and pluralism.  What would Mother Franziska tell us today?   I think she would say: “Love the Church, cultivate compassion and forgiveness to the members who carry all the faults and weaknesses common to our humanity.”   She would tell us to pray daily for the Holy Father and Bishops who are faced daily with difficult decisions and dilemmas.   There is often no road map.  In many ways we are on new ground with a wide variety of moral convictions and practices and technology that spreads these various ideas in rapid succession, allowing almost no time for reflection or dialogue.   She would counsel her sisters to cling to Christ, to allow ample time for meditation and intimate prayer to the Holy Spirit.  She would ask all those in her charge to be devoted to Sacred Scripture and to good sources of information.  In her time she had “Sunday Schools” for the housemaids working for wealthy families because she understood that even a maid or kitchen worker who loved Christ would be a blessing to the entire family of their employer.  The secret of Mother Franziska and all saints lies in  prayer, especially quiet prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.