Gifts that give joy
and sustain those who create them

by Patty Gayes
Contributor

Looking for that perfect Christmas gift? Want a gift that’s something special? Like also being a gift to a community of religious men or women?

Holiday shoppers may not realize that many religious communities sell unique, beautiful and sometimes even delicious creations. In many cases, producing these goods is an integral part of the communities’ ministry—not to mention a crucial part of their financial stability.

With the help of the Internet and toll-free phone numbers, these creations are easily available. Here are some opportunities that could be on your Christmas list.

The Ministry of the Arts is a special part of the work of the Sisters of St. Joseph of LaGrange. Working from their motherhouse in the western suburb, the sisters sell greeting cards, posters and prints, sculptures, music, and other unique items. The sisters, convent staff and volunteers create, design, package, and ship everything sold at Ministry of the Arts.

The community boasts of several artists specializing in painting and sculpture, as well as a composer and performer of original spiritual music.

About 20 years ago, Sister Mary Southard, an internationally known artist, made a calendar for her brother for Christmas. She illustrated each month with a painting, and then inscribed a message for each day. Friends who saw the calendar asked for one, so the following year she made five. When more requests came in, her community began to print the calendars, which was the beginning of what grew to become a full-time ministry.

“December is a madhouse!,” laughed Flo Christiano, director of Ministry of the Arts and an associate member of the Sisters of St. Joseph. “So many people call to get their yearly ‘fix’ of the new calendar!” Even retired sisters participate by painting sculptures, folding cards and helping with mailings—working with their walkers and wheelchairs beside them.

The sisters have a gift shop at their Ogden Avenue motherhouse, but also sell through the Internet and via catalog. Visit www.ministryofthearts.org or call (800) 354-3504.

Monastery Greetings represents nearly 100 different religious communities, most very small groups who on their own would not be able to effectively advertise and distribute their products. It was begun in 1999 by Will Keller, who said, “We provide a way for these small communities to reach people without compromising who they are.”

For example, the Sisters of St. Benedict in Canyon, Texas produce “pray-lines,” home-made pralines. “Our catalog is one of the few ways to get these, and they are very good,” Keller said. In Oregon, the Brigittine Monks at the Priory of Our Lady of Consolation make “incredible fudge,” said Keller, which Monastery Greetings also sells.

The fulfillment company has a wide range of products, from statues and other artwork to books and CDs to food items and homemade lotions. Every sale directly benefits the religious communities represented. Visit www.MonasteryGreetings.com or call (800) 472-0425.

Across the Illinois border in Waterford, Wis., the “buzz” at the Franciscan Missions Center is their new product, Wild Flower Honey, which they gather, bottle and ship. Bee-sides that, they make wooden bird houses and feeders, carved religious statues and plaques from the Divine Mercy to Our Lady of Guadalupe, as well as nativity sets hand-carved in the Franciscan missions of Equador. For the college crowd there are hand-sewn dorm dolls of St. Francis and St. Clare. Visit www.franciscanmissions.org or call (262) 534-5470.

At Genesee Abbey in Pifford, N.Y., a small group of Trappist monks are united in their efforts to make and sell famously delicious “Monk Bread.” In 1951, when the monks left the Trappist monastery in Kentucky to branch out to a New York location, Brother Sylvester and Brother Theodore made bread for guests and fellow monks. The guests’ delight in the bread eventually led to the monks’ producing several varieties on an increasingly larger scale until in 1955 they had begun to work full-time as breadmakers. They built larger kitchens at the monastery, where they still produce the bread and other baked goods today.

“As Trappists monks, we devote our lives to hard labor and contemplation,” said Brother Stephen, who is in charge of Internet sales. “Some of our monasteries have several different types of work that can be done, but here we have a unity in our focus on bread-making.” In addition to bread, the Abbey makes fruit cakes, brownies and other baked goods. Visit www.geneseeabbey.org or call (585) 243-0660.

School Sisters of Notre Dame Barbara Paleczny and Ann Semel are devoted to artwork as a way of helping American society to move from a culture of violence and death. Transformation of a culture is accomplished by influencing society’s symbols, Paleczny said, and “this involves the whole person, even at an unconscious level. That’s where an artist can make a difference.”

Semel reproduces Paleczny’s paintings through a process called “giclee” which produces prints that are so close to the originals it is difficult to distinguish between them. The two sisters live in San Antonio, and their home also serves as a gallery, called Art Ministry for Transformation. “We can tell people who visit about the background of each picture. We love living in our gallery,” Paleczny said. All proceeds of print sales benefit the poor of Africa and Latin America. Visit www.paleczny.com.

The Sisters of the Humility of Mary began the Heartbeats catalog and internet sales site in 1991. “We started Heartbeats to network the artwork of sisters in our community,” explained Sister Josie Chrosniak. “In addition, we had sisters in El Salvador, in Mexico, and in Native American missions, working with women creating goods in co-ops, but with no way to market them. Eventually, we met more and more women in religious life with similar situations. This was the background of the birth of our catalog.”

Heartbeats now represents the work of a wide range of women, both lay and religious, throughout the world. Heartbeats also works with women’s agencies such as Enterprising Kitchens, through which women produce goods as part of self-sufficiency training.

A major focus of the Sisters of Humility of Mary is fair trade—a fair wage and humane working envi-
ronment for the artists represented in the Heartbeats Catalog. “Our charism is Mary’s humility. We try to bring Mary’s peace of truth into the world. The catalog reminds people of the global context of products, by describing each artist’s situation. We challenge people in a gentle way. They can buy something that can make a difference in people’s lives,” Chrosniak said. Visit www.heartbeatscatalog.com or call (800) 808-1991.

Each year, the Sisters of St. Francis of the Immaculate Conception in Peoria sponsor a collectible limited edition Rolan Johnson Christmas ornament. For years, Johnson, now deceased, painstakingly created a Christmas card for display in his shop window. The card always depicted a different aspect of the Nativity, using the hand-painted mosaic art style of the Biblical era.

Since 1995, Johnson, and later his family, has permitted the sisters to create an ornament from his cards. Each ornament is two-sided and framed in 24K gold plate on brass. The ornaments are delivered in gift boxes and include a numbered certificate of authenticity.

The sisters have served the Peoria area for more than 114 years in education and caring for the elderly. All proceeds of the ornament sales go directly to the sisters’ retirement fund. Visit www.osfsisterswpeoria.org or call (309) 674-2005.

In Conception, Mo., the Benedictine monks run the Printery House as a major means of support. The catalog draws from the works of a variety of religious and lay artists, as well as the monks of the Conception Abbey community.

“A lot of our products are cards of various sorts, and most have scriptural text and messages based on Scripture inside them,” said Benedictine Father Peter Ullrich, director. “This is a way to connect our monastic charism with the world—a means of sharing our faith through the media.” Visit www.printeryhouse.com or call (800) 322-2737.

This is only a smattering of gift sources available from religious communities, but it should open the eyes of shoppers to gift resources that will send ripples of support much broader than even the grandest of stockings.



Contributing: Dolores Madlener