Sr. Fran Ryan, DC

May Crowning Service

In Honor of Mary Prayer Service

The Ladies of Charity of Morgan Hills,  Diocese of San Jose and Western Region Ladies have been busy at work with the LCUSA Board getting all the details in place for an Assembly to remember. Click on the link below for all the latest information about registration, hotels, tours, ads, etc. Thank you Western Region Ladies!

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Winter/Spring 2013 Servicette is now available

The latest issue of the Servicette has been mailed. To view a digital PDF of this issue, please click below.

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April 2013

It is from your hands that Our Lord, in the person of the sick, seeks relief.        St Vincent de Paul

As part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), states have the option of accepting billions of federal dollars to provide health coverage for their uninsured working adults. Unfortunately, due to political gamesmanship, the Working Poor are being denied this chance to live with the security and dignity that God intends for Them. The Ladies of Charity have partnered with NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby, the Saint Vincent de Paul Society and various coalitions throughout the country to persuade governors to accept federal funding that will ensure Medicaid eligibility for the working Poor of our nation.

Last year, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act but it also held that expanding Medicaid to include those who earn up to 138% of the federal poverty level (FPL) cannot be mandatory for states. Tragically, if a state doesn’t expand Medicaid in 2014, there will be no valid health insurance option for many low-income people who earn between 100 and 138% of the federal poverty level (FPL) .  Pursuant to the ACA, the Federal Government will cover 100% of the costs for the initial three years, tapering to and freezing at 90% of the costs by 2021. The federal funding will never be less than 90% and it ensures Medicaid coverage for people who earn less than 138% of the FPL.

This federally funded improvement will provide millions of hard‐working families preventive care and the ability to see a doctor promptly, as needed, instead of ending up in the emergency room. Collateral bonuses of expansion include economic stimulus from the infusion of millions of dollars into the states; job creation for healthcare and companies that support health care; and a more productive, healthy work force. While there is no deadline to opt in to the improved Program, the 100% match only applies to the years 2014, 2015 and 2016. A governor that delays participation by even one year will forever deny the state of the millions of dollars that it would reap in the first year. Nevertheless, if a governor does not accept this year, he can opt in at any point and start providing adequate medical coverage for His Poor.

The LOC are linked through NETWORK with 15 state based teams and we have experienced great success.  So far, 25 governors have accepted the federal funding, including 8 republican governors. Sadly, fourteen governors have rejected the influx of money and the opportunity to insure the working Poor who cannot afford health coverage but earn too much money to be eligible for Medicaid under the current standards.  These governors need to hear and properly respond to the cries of their Working Poor. The remaining governors have not committed to a clear choice.

For more information related lobby efforts for accepting the millions offered to your state and providing healthcare coverage for those who earn less than 138% of the FPL, see http://www.networklobby.org/medicaid.

Author, Sr. MaryEllen Lacy, DC, NETWORK, Inc., a member of the advocacy committee of LCUSA.

Ladies of Charity of the United States worked on developing a five-year action plan for their future during a meeting April 11-13 in Evansville, Indiana. Gathered at the table are board members Lucky Van de Gejuchte, Joan Stanard, Marge Fiala, Donna Montague, Francine Hovanec, Margaret Hanson, Kathleen Sieracki and Mary Nell Williams. Leading the planning session was consultant Karen DeHais. The LCUSA action plan will be posted on the website, presented to the membership at the National Assembly in San Jose, California September 20-21 and mailed to association presidents not in attendance at the assembly.

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This stunning portrait, “Into the Light*” was painted by Sr. Pat Willems, CSJ, of the Sisters of St. Joseph, LaGrange, Il. (courtesy of Ministry of Arts). Sister Pat gave permission to share it with the Ladies of Charity. We find the tomb and the stones that marked the grave of the Risen Lord ‘transformed’ into Light, into a new Life of budding, emerging Springtime. “ Alleluia!” is the song of the desert. “The Lord has Risen”! Jesus emerges from the tomb and visits Mary Magdalene, the apostles by the sea shore, the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Our Risen Savior prepares us for His Ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. “Into the Light” captures the beauty, the hope of the message of the Readings for us in the Gospel- time of Resurrection to Pentecost.

For St. Louise de Marillac, ‘light’ and the time of Ascension to Pentecost, had particular significance. A powerful mystical moment was experienced on the Feast of Pentecost (1623) for St. Louise, which she called her ‘Lumiere experience’. She wrote: ”I would be in a small community where others would do the same. I, then, understood where I could help my neighbor, but I did not understand how this would be possible because there was much coming and going.” (L.Sullivan DC, (1995) Classics: Vincent DePaul and Louise de Marillac. Paulist,p.226). Working to establish the Daughters of Charity and assisting the Confraternities of the Ladies of Charity was to be her work in meeting the Will of God for her. In the spirit of St. Louise de Marillac, let us enter into the prayer of the Paschal Mystery and Pentecost Springtime, so that we, too, may find the Will of God in our lives and go “Into the Light.”

- Sr. Fran Ryan, DC , LCUSA Sister Moderator

*“Into the Light”
Artist: Pat Willems, CSJ
Courtesy of www.Ministryofthearts.org
Congregation of St. Joseph

As we enter this final week of Lent, the holiest of the liturgical year, our two Gospel passages for this Sunday bombard us with activity: untying, helping, riding, spreading, praising, proclaiming, rebuking; eating, drinking, sharing, debating, arguing, telling, professing; praying, sleeping, kissing, betraying, striking, healing, arresting; following, denying, remembering, weeping; beating, questioning, charging, sending, mocking, accusing, shouting; carrying, lamenting, crying, crucifying, forgiving, watching, sneering; offering, calling, believing, promising, commending, dying; asking, taking, wrapping, laying, following, seeing, preparing, resting.

This up-and-down movement is enough to exhaust me, to make me ache with incredulity, grief, remorse.

The readings invited us to ponder: what would I have been doing? What would I have been holding, carrying on those critical days? The colt’s tether? A palm branch? A cloak? A shout? A sneer?

Bread? The cup? An argument? A protest? A prayer? Drops of blood? A closed eye? A grieving heart?

A kiss? A sword? A club? A tear? A broken heart?

A whip? A question? An insistence? Silence?

A scream? A cross beam? A child? A rebuke? Paradise? Darkness? A cry? A final breath? A witness? A plan? The body? A cloth? Spices? Oils? A heavy heart?

And what do I hold today in my service with and for Christ in persons who are poor?