The Maryknoll Sisters believe that we are all part of “One Earth Community”… that all of us—regardless of race, nationality, gender, background or personal identity—are all connected as a human family, with each other and with all creation.
As Pope Francis has said, “God created the world and entrusted it to us as a gift. Now we have the responsibility to care for and protect it and all people, who are part of creation. Protecting human dignity is strongly linked to care for creation.”
That’s why Sister Azucena “Ceny” San Pedro works so hard in Alto do Mateus, Joao Pessoa, Brazil, to support women in healing themselves, each other, and the place they live. The people they treat find their way to Sister Ceny and her team in a number of different ways. Some have sought traditional medicine and experienced little or no improvement in their health. Some are poor and have no ability to pay for expensive medical treatments. Others have experienced trauma, abuse, stress and depression, and need a place where they can become whole again!
Around the world, costs of living are rising. For people of little means, that inflation makes it difficult or impossible to afford basic needs such as medicine. Thus, Sister Ceny’s Holistic Center for Women is more important than ever! Together with a group of dedicated local women, she provides healing opportunities through Reiki, hot stone, and aromatherapy massage, among other types. They also make and sell a selection of juices, soaps, herbs, and alternative medicines.
But what Sister Ceny has helped to build is more than just a holistic health center. It’s a community of women who have risen from extremely challenging circumstances, become trained massage therapists, and learned to manufacture the many alternative medicine products sold there. They began healing themselves. Now they heal their community.
“Healing happens when the fragmented self becomes whole again, Sister Ceny writes. All the therapies and herbal teas and juices, flower essences–they all help in the conversion of the fragmented self to wholeness. However, the healing occurs when people open themselves to what is happening to them and to the workings of the energy of the universe. When that openness is absent, no matter how many therapies we give, healing does not happen. Wholeness is an integral part of being “One Earth Community.”
Through your support for the Maryknoll Sisters ministries, your generosity can help bring love of Christ into this community of women and the people they care for.