The rain stopped and the sun broke through the clouds just in time for the May 17 “Mother Earth Day” poetry reading at the Poetry Park on East 22nd Street in Erie. “About forty people, including neighborhood kids, joined us to read and listen to poetry that deepened our love of Mother Earth as our home,” said Katie Gordon, one of the event planners. The reading featured two local poets, Niecey Nicole and Matt Borczon. Matt is a cousin of Sister Mary Lou Kownacki, who with Sister Mary Miller, created the Poetry Park for the children in their neighborhood. Although the sisters have both died their memory lives on in the park that is artfully designed with the words of poets on sculptures and boulders.

Sisters Anne Wambach (left) and Linda Romey wove through downtown Erie streets on Saturday, May 10, in the Inner-City Neighborhood Art House Art & Sole 5-K. A record number of runners and walkers—well over 200—joined in the annual fundraiser for the Art House, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Dozens of volunteers hosted activities for kids in the Art House parking lot while local sports and business mascots meandered through the crowd and danced to the music that was only interrupted to announce the start of each event, including a 1-K kids run. Many donors and sponsors made the event possible, and City of Erie police officers stationed along the route, which went all the way to the lakefront before heading east and then returning to the Art House, kept runners and walkers safe in the streets.

In commemoration of Earth Day 2025 residents and staff of Benetwood Apartments planted a blooming cherry tree in honor of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie. "We gathered to plant the tree in gratitude for the sisters, we love being next to the monastery and sharing our grounds. We are working together to keep this land healthy and beautiful," said Wendy Wallace, Manager at Benetwood Apartments. Planting took place in the same patch of front lawn in which a forty-four-year-old oak tree needed to be removed last fall due to disease. There was a brief presentation with the reading of Joyce Kilmer's poem, "Trees," and then all present help plant and bless the tree. Now that the snow is gone and the sun is shining, Benetwood residents are again using the path through the woods to enjoy walks on the adjacent monastery grounds. Benetwood, which opened in 1981, is a 75-unit government-subsided non-profit senior apartment building administered by the Benedictine Sisters.

In the presence of her Benedictine sisters and many friends, colleagues, and family members, Sister Jacqueline Sanchez-Small made her final monastic profession at the Vigil of Sunday on Saturday, May 3, in the monastery chapel.

The Alliance for International Monasticism, US Secretariat, located in Erie, offers their newest newsletter. Download it now.

We are sad that Pope Francis has died, and we remember him with gratitude...

It’s been ten years since Pope Francis offered Laudato Sí, On Care for Our Common Home to the world. On the Solemnity of Pentecost, 2015, Pope Francis issued to all of us an Encyclical Letter, Laudato Sí. People throughout the world, of all ages, have recognized this letter as a beautiful yet brutally honest description of the relationship we are to have with other humans and with our environment, yet it shows how we have fallen short of that.

Erie Benedictine Sister Marian Wehler and her coworker at Catholic Rural Ministries, Sister Tina Gieger, RSM, were among those honored as Outstanding Individuals at the Venango County Human Services awards dinner on April 16 at the Cross Creek Resort in Titusville, Pennsylvania. “We were nominated by Rev. Randy Powell, a Baptist minister, and Eva Palmer of Mustard Seed Ministries. It is an honor for us to collaborate with them as we work to serve families in need in Venango County,” said Sister Marian. The two sisters collaborate with many social service agencies in their Catholic Rural Ministries work. Pictured are, front row, Marian Wehler, OSB, Tina Geiger, RSM, Kathy Stephens, Mary Ellen Hynes and back row, Nancy Fischer, SSJ, Rev. Randy Powell, and Eva Palmer.

Listen to Sisters Kath Horan, Jacqueline Sanchez-Small, Val Luckey, Pat Lupo (behind candles), Rosanne Lindal-Hynes, Pat Witulski, Veronica Mirage (seated), Dianne Sabol (in ray of sunlight) offer a contemporary lamentation scripted and directed by Sister Margaret Ann Pilewski. Sister Peggy blends lines from the poem "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus that appear on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty and lines from Scripture in this interpretive reading that breaks open the suffering of the immigrant and our call as Christians and as U.S. citizens to respond to this suffering. Listen here.