Ten years ago, Angie Jack, former FSPA partner in mission, joined the international community that makes the ministries of sisters and affiliates happen: our donors. “It was kind of a slow start, a matter of making a contribution maybe once, twice a year if there was something unique about a particular ministry grant’s impact” she shares. “Then I came to a greater awareness of the various needs that have come to our attention, and I was really turning over in my heart what I wanted my giving to look like.”
Now a monthly donor, Angie shares that her next steps to such giving were “thinking about where I was giving financial resources to and also where my own faith journey was.” That path, she says, “coincided with a rethinking of where any donations I had to give might be best used.” She then transitioned her monetary giving from her parish church to FSPA.
A librarian in St. Rose Convent’s media center for 15 years, Angie has given first hand witness to FSPA’s practice of call to action. “Sisters and affiliates are looking for the ability to allow others to thrive, and that is what draws me to their ministries.” Her perspective of FSPA’s works of service “is a start to finish process: The bottom line is ‘How can we help these people thrive? What would it take for this to go on?’”
And where, shares Angie, does she fit in with FSPA’s mission of prayer, witness and service? “It is more in the realm of the ripples that go out from water in a pond. It is a matter of thinking, ‘Can I emulate this attitude of service?’ They live Franciscan values every day, and I hope it’s reflected through me in my work with them but also my other partners in mission and everyone else I encounter in the world.” She has felt appreciated and “valued for who I am, that I am enough.
“They do not hold us at arm’s length, and that’s empowering, very empowering. These relationships are very, very special, although ‘special’ is an inadequate word.”
Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration Marcella Anibas, Mldred Tigges, Theresa Connolly and Mary Eve Hytry gather
around Angie Jack, donor and former FSPA partner in mission, at St. Rose Convent in La Crosse, Wisconsin
Given the community’s commitment to building relationships, Gospel living and unity in diversity, what impact does Angie see FSPA mission making on the world in the future? “I see that approach personified in FSPA’s Seeding a Legacy of Healing ministry,” investments, or seeds, that are nurtured to make good things happen in the world. “I know they’ve given huge support to NETWORK,” an FSPA collaborator and national Catholic social justice lobbying organization calling for peace and economic justice in our nation and in the world. She sees these deepening relationships with organizations as well as FSPA affiliates, prayer partners, partners in mission and donors as intrinsic. “We are the FSPA in the world. The sisters are teaching us that one-on-one encounters, love, understanding and acceptance, will conquer hate,” make collective change.
Angie shares that, over her 15-year tenure as a partner in mission, the sisters are asking, “what is the new frontier?” Having built ministries of education and health care, the sisters are “not sitting back in retirement” but addressing the evolving needs in the world. “It isn’t a matter of building from brick and mortar; it is building and nurturing those relationships; it is going out into the community and doing bare-bones work. I am astounded by it.”
FSPA’s call to care for all creation surfaced in a conversation she had with her adult son, Chris, about a challenge he was facing in his career. “He said to me, ‘You know, Mom, I just thought to myself, 'What would the sisters do?’ This is the ripple effect.”
While Chris more than likely came to know the ministries and mission of FSPA through his mom, Angie asserts that every relationship — with everyone who’s received a ministry grant or adoration or service in any capacity — “is how their work will live on in the world.
“If we could unite, boy, would we accomplish a lot. And FSPA has.”
Interested in joining Angie in her support of FSPA? Donate now and visit “Ways to Give” to find the giving option that's right for you.