 |
|
New Community Leader at the Cenacle
As of Tuesday, September 1, 2010, Sr. Ann Wylder will replace Sr. Evelyn Jegen as the Local Leader at the Metairie Cenacle Retreat House.
Sr. Ann brings a wealth of experience, energy, and enthusiasm to the Cenacle. She comes to us from the Cenacle Conference Center in Chicago where she was Novice Director twice, Provincial, Ministry Coordinator, House Coordinator, Provincial Secretary, and manager of the sacristy. She has been a member of the Ignatian Spirituality Project in Chicago, which offers retreats to homeless women and has lived and worked in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Warrenville, Illinois; the Longwood House in Chicago; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Wayzata, Minnesota. She has also been a retreat director and a spiritual director to many people over the years.
Abilene, Kansas is the place of her birth, but she learned about the Cenacle Sisters when she was a social worker in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, where she also attended retreats at the Vancouver Cenacle Retreat House. As a social worker, Sr. Ann could see that many of her clients also needed spiritual support. Therefore, she became a Cenacle Sister. After 49 years of devotion and dedication to the spiritual needs of those in other parts of the United States, Sr. Ann has come to the Metairie Cenacle, where she will continue to inspire those around her through her love of life, faith, and Community.
We warmly welcome Sr. Ann Wylder as our new leader. |
|
|
Sr. Gloria Haagensen
New Ministry Coordinator
We are happy to welcome Sr. Gloria back to the Metairie Cenacle. She has lived here twice before: in 1967, for 6 months, right after making her first vows and from 1990 to 1993 while working for the Social Apostolate Office of the Archdiocese as a Headstart social worker in the Desire Housing Project.
Sr. Gloria is trained in spiritual direction and shares this with others through individual spiritual direction, directed retreats, home retreats, and many other adaptations of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. She has also taught in Cenacle Spiritual Direction Training Programs and supervised those wishing to become Spiritual Directors.
She is originally from West St. Paul, Minnesota where she also grew up. Her education incudes a BA degree in Sociology from the College of St. Catherine and worked for two years as a social worker in the County Welfare Department, entering the Cenacle in 1964. After entering the Cenacle, she earned an MA degree in Religion and Education from St. Louis University. This degree program included a strong emphasis on Family Systems Theory. She also earned a Certificate in Training for Cross Cultural Ministry from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.
She has served as Ministry Coordinator in the Cenacles in Minneapolis (Wayzata), Minnesota and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and on the ministry team in several other Cenacles. From 1979 to 1982, she was Director of Associates (the initial formation period for those entering the Cenacle, formerly know as postulants).
In more recent years, her ministry has focused on outreach to those who are poor and marginalized in our society, bringing the Cenacle Charism to them in the context of their daily lives. At various times in Chicago, she has worked as a supervisor in a refugee mental health program serving refugees from Cambodia, Vietnam, Eritrea, Romania, and Afghanistan. She also worked in the social service department of a large Catholic Day Care Center, with a very multicultural population. From 2000 to 2008, she lived and ministered in an inner city neighborhood on Chicago's Southside where she conducted a pastoral ministry and ministry of presence, predominantly among African-American and the English-speaking Hispanic populations. Most recently, Sr. Gloria worked with two other Cenacle Sisters in South Florida to establish a continuing Cenacle presence there.
She is looking forward to life and ministry in Louisiana and to meeting all of those who support the Cenacle Sisters in their mission.
|
|
Sr. Dorothy Mennis
Joins the Ministry Team
Sr. Dorothy Mennis comes to the Metairie Cenacle with 40 years of experience as a spiritual director and a director of individual and group experiences of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. She has served in Cenacle Retreat Houses in Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia. She has also given Focusing Retreats and other programs of human and spiritual development and has taught and served as a supervisor in a training program for spiritual directors. Sr. Dorothy has a BA from State University of New York at Stony Brook, an MA in Religious Studies from Manhattan College (Christian Brothers of de La Salle), and a certificate in training as a Spiritual Director from the Center for Spirituality and Justice - N.Y. She was a staff member of a three-
year training program for Spiritual Directors
that began at the Ronkonkoma Cenacle twelve years ago and is now at the Spiritual Center of the Sisters of St. Joseph at Brentwood, New York. At the Metairie Cenacle, Sr. Dorothy will assist with the Ministry Team, replacing Sr. Jackie Bates.
|
|
|
|
|
|
To learn about becoming a Cenacle Sister,
E-mail
or call her at
(773) 528-6300 |
|
