| Possumus Fall 2008 |
Partnerships |
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Partnerships transform us.
A Chinese proverb says, “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.” But either way puts you in a superior position rather than in a position of mutuality. What if you went fishing together instead, and during your time together you told stories, developed a relationship, perhaps even came up with a more creative way to fish? We might call that “partnership.” That is what Sisters of St. Joseph do naturally. It is also the spirit of the United Nations Millennium Development Goal #8, which calls on first-world nations to partner with developing nations. |
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In the beginning, the Sisters of St. Joseph “divided the city” and went out to discover what the people who were poor needed. Then the Sisters would work with those people to alleviate the need, or else find others who could accomplish what was beyond their capability. A story that has come down to us pictures the early Sisters sitting in a circle making lace with prostitutes and other women in need of a marketable skill. Together, they engaged in “sharing of the heart,” our CSJ tradition of sharing personal stories. In the process, both groups of women were transformed.
Today the “city” has become the whole world and the sharing might be called “deep listening.” Our partnerships use new language and methods, yet the process is relatively the same.
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For example, Sister Rosita Aranita, CSJ, and two St. Joseph Workers recently traveled to Kenya to explore ways to help Kenyans access clean water. They went there thinking new wells would be at least part of the answer. However, by working with the people and their leaders, they uncovered two other central needs: 1) the education of young women, and 2) help for grandmothers who struggle to care for grandchildren orphaned by AIDS. Their transformation was extended to our entire CSJ community. As a result, we initiated the Grandmother Project to help the courageous Kenyan elders. |
Of course, the CSJ charism to serve the dear neighbor without distinction calls for working toward eradicating poverty of all kinds: poverty of health care, education, and work; poverty caused by discrimination, sexism and religious intolerance.
Worldwide poverty is so great that it threatens to overwhelm our best intentions. We cannot do it alone. We never could. That’s why our charism calls us to form partnerships and transform relationships. Through our partnerships, people on all sides share, grow, work together for sustainable change, and are personally changed in the process.
Sister Liz Kerwin, CSJ
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