We recently released our video, A Mission of Hope and Healing in South Africa, to show others the dramatic needs of the South African people. These are people faced with hunger, malnutrition and even starvation. They also suffer from HIV/AIDS and there is an overwhelming population of orphans. Our sisters in South Africa provide care to many with these devastating needs while sharing their love of God in everything they do.

Our ministry began in the village of Limpopo, South Africa in June of 2008. In 2010, two sisters from the United States, Sister Vicky Segura, CBS, MD and Sister Elaine Davia, CBS, NP traveled there to assist with medical and nutritional needs. The sisters utilized their medical skills to assist many HIV/AIDS patients and were also able to help refugees, families and orphans with basic needs in the village. They share inspiring stories from their journey in this short video.

In addition to the sisters’ work in their HIV/AIDS clinic and in outreach to the people in the village that continues today, they are now educating young women in … continue reading…

Tonight at 7:00pm, Sister Pat Dowling, CBS vocation director will launch the Sisters Chat Room for women who are exploring their call to religious life. Featured guest is Sister Chris Webb who will share her story of being called to religious life and how she knew. Sr. Chris is preparing to make final vows November 12 and will be sharing what this means over a four week period with women who exploring their own calling to religious life. To access Sisters Chat go to our home page and click on Sisters Chat. Instructions for logging on are found on the Chat Room page. Hope to see you on Sisters Chat!

Read the updates from July 2001 for UNANIMA. Learn more about how the Sisters of Bon Secours and UNANIMA fight against human trafficking.

Here is the June update from UNANIMA International. 

Click here to read the newsletter in English.

Click here to read the newsletter in Spanish. 

The Sisters of Bon Secours are proud of our membership in UNANIMA, a non-government organization (NGO) with membership status in the United Nations. The coalition was founded in 2002 by sisters from seven religious congregations who believed they could make a difference by working collaboratively.

Today it numbers over 16,000 members world wide in thirteen continents. As women religious, the coalition is able to bring their collective expertise and concerns to the members of the United Nation. We act together for the economic and social advancement of all people with a special emphasis on women and children in poverty; immigrants and refugees and the welfare of the planet. We are glad to have a “voice at the table” and a chance to educate others on issues relevant to our mission.

What have you done this year to impact our environment? Do you have any Earth Day plans?  Many have planted trees, or committed to using less natural resources. Perhaps a few have decided to purchase electric cars. On April 22, 1970, when Senator Gaylord Nelson founded Earth Day, his primary goal was to educate people as to the impact that their own actions have on our planet. To bring about a general awareness.

I am sure he Senator Nelson could not have predicted the radical importance of Earth Day in today’s world.  Although Earth Day is only one day a year, millions band together across the United States to become strategic about their own carbon footprints. It is one day out of the year where we can all devote our time, efforts, and imagination purely to preserve our planet for the next generations.

We would love to offer the following resources to make your Earth Day more educated, fun and active!

Measure your household’s carbon footprint using a … continue reading…

Join us for an Interfaith Prayer Service to End the Death Penalty. 

Sunday, March 13, 2011
7:00 p.m. EST
Basilica of the Assumption
Cathedral and Mulberry Streets, Baltimore, Maryland

Including:
Baltimore Archbiship Edwin O’Brien, Auxiliary Bishop Denis Madden, and other Maryland interfaith leaders.

For more information, visit www.mdcathcon.org or www.archbalt.org
“From oppression and violence he redeems their souls; and precious is their blood in his sight.” 

                                                    -Psalm 72:14

Recently, we attended a Provincial House Forum, where all Bon Secours Provincial House employees get together and give updates.  Well, at this past forum, we had a presentation about Stigma and how language matters.  It was brought up because The Anti-Stigma Project, an agency that promotes the understanding and awareness in the mental health community, was conducting a meeting in-house at the Bon Secours Spiritual Center.  Their meeting and in-house conversations had sparked some curiosity about the subject matter.

 The discussion in our forum was about “stigma,” as we explored the pain and harm it causes to people and relationships.  In 1962, the Webster Dictionary defined a stigma as, “A scar or brand left by a hot iron on the face of an evildoer.”  Fortunately, the definition has been refined over the years.  

The Anti-Stigma Project currently defines stigma as ”Pre-determined attitudes or beliefs, regarding an individual or a group, which disempower or devalue that individual or group and undermine relationships with them.”  Given that, each table in our forum broke off into a group … continue reading…

Here is the September update from UNANIMA International: 

CLICK HERE to download the ENGLISH newsletter

CLICK HERE to download the FRENCH newsletter

As published on June 4, 2010 in The Weekly Insider, Volume 5, Issue 22 in the Sisters Corner column.

A Commitment to Healing

Flying across time zones, Sister Patricia Eck, C.B.S. saw first hand the devastation left by a Tsunami that left over 250,000 dead in 2004. Representing Bon Secours Health System as part of a delegation from Catholic Relief Services, Sr. Pat Eck as chair of the BSHSI board stood on the expansive flatlands of Banda Aceh in 2005 and realized that no one could have survived the violence of the tsunami that struck Indonesia.

The purpose of the trip was to see first hand how donations helped in recovery and as a witness to tell the story of how CRS relief efforts are doing wonderful works. Three years later in January 2010, Sr. Pat, as Chair of Bon Secours Ministries and as Congregation Leader for the Sisters of Bon Secours stood in the desert heat of Trujillo, Peru as part of a delegation from BSHSI to support the formal launch of a collaborative Infant Mortality Project to … continue reading…

They say the opposite of war is not love…it is PEACE.  And I have to say that this video, actually it is a trailer for an independent film, certainly brings light to how strongly we should be waging a campaign for Peace.  What do you think?

Here is an excerpt from the Global Zero website:
The film is a fascinating and frightening exploration of the dangers of nuclear weapons, exposing a variety of present day threats and featuring insights from a host of international experts and world leaders who advocate the total elimination of nuclear weapons.

Countdown to Zero is a chilling wake-up call about the urgency of the nuclear threat. It tells the striking story of uncertainty, exposing the real possibility of nuclear disaster and revealing the truth behind an issue on which human survival itself hangs.