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Catholic Sisters Week Food Drive Makes Huge Community Impact

Thank you to all who participated in the Catholic Sisters Week Food Drive on March 13, 2026 at Walt Churchill’s Market and at the Ursuline Convent Offices. Sisters and supporters collected 8,845 pounds of non-perishable food items and more than $5,000 in monetary donations to support the Toledo SeaGate Food Bank. The food bank says that every dollar will provide 4 pounds of food, bringing the total poundage of food collected to 28,845. Toledo SeaGate Food Bank supplies food at no cost to more than 400 pantries and programs throughout Northwest Ohio to supplement their inventories, including many Catholic parish food banks. Participating in this year’s Catholic Sisters Week Food Drive were the Ursuline Sisters, Sisters of Notre Dame of the United States, Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Sylvania Franciscan Sisters, Tiffin Franciscan Sisters, Mercedarian Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, and the Sisters of the Visitation. Your contribution to this worthy project has blessed countless families in our community!

Easter Joy in Everyday Life

More than just a day, the Church gives us a seven-week Easter season to celebrate. Yet sometimes our everyday lives feel so heavy that celebration is not a part of them. Critical illness in the family, loss of a job, disappointment in a relationship, and the burdens of everyday life can make it a challenge to feel particularly joyful – even in the Easter season.

But the joy we are being invited into this season is beyond what we see in our everyday lives. It’s true that Jesus says, “Come to me and bring me your burdens,” but we usually can’t believe it. Maybe we don’t want to believe it. If I really allow Jesus to come into my heart the way he wants to, will he ask me to change my life in ways that are too hard? How do I share the chaos of my life with Jesus? If I keep him at arm’s length, my life might be difficult, but at least my problems are familiar. What would it cost me to let go and change my life?

We know our own faults and failings so well. Too well. We begin to believe that Jesus loves the way we love – with all of our human limits. How could Jesus love us and accept us the way we are right now? Maybe when we fix a few things about our lives, love our spouse a little better, stop being so critical of family members, stop drinking, stop nagging, love a little more… when we are perfect, then Jesus will love us.

If we can overcome our fears, the real power of letting Jesus into our hearts is how free our hearts will become. Suddenly, we are not afraid, not burdened, and simply ready to serve with Jesus.

Jesus loves us - right now. At this moment, Jesus holds each one of us in his warm and loving gaze and loves us so freely at a depth that our human minds can’t take in. Whether we comprehend this or not, Jesus loves us endlessly and waits for us with his arms open, ready to hold and support us. 

As we receive his embrace and feel the peace and joy of Easter wash over us, we can look over his shoulder, and see beyond to those in need who now wait for us. That’s when we realize that the real joy in our lives is putting aside our own faults, challenges and difficulties for a while and entering into the lives of others.

Pope Francis said at Easter, we leave ourselves behind and encounter others by “being close to those crushed by life’s troubles, sharing with the needy, standing at the side of the sick, elderly and the outcast.”

We are being missioned as Easter People. We find peace in Jesus’ love for us and now we share it with others. We find ourselves standing side by side with Jesus, looking together at those we are being sent to love.

That is where the real joy of Easter waits for us.

https://onlineministries.creighton.edu

“LCWR extends gratitude to the more than 190 congregations who have participated in three sessions of 100 Days of Prayers. … The commitment period extends from Ash Wednesday to Corpus Christi, June 7, … and coincides with the prayer of Ramadan, February 17-March 19 and Passover, April 1-9 providing an opportunity to be in union across faith traditions and in solidarity with the human family during Laudato Si’ Week, May 22-29.” 

“These days of prayer, fasting and advocacy are meant as a way to witness what goes against the principles that we, as Catholic Sisters, have labored for centuries to nurture and protect. …These values around which we have spoken publicly and that have guided our lives, include, (to name a few):

• The belief in the inherent right to life of all human beings and the dignity of each life
• The commitment to the Gospel demands of love welcome, and care for all people especially for all those who are most vulnerable
• The responsibility to stand against violence in all its forms
• The commitment to dismantle systemic racism
• The belief that care of the planet Earth requires our attention and action

“May we wholeheartedly embrace the call of the church to be people of hope and live this call with all our being for the sake of the world and its future.”

(above statements are taken from LCWR (Leadership Conference of Women Religious and their Response to These Times))