Please welcome Sister Ann Higgins, DC, to the blogosphere. Sister Ann recently started a poetry blog called Scattered Showers in a Clear Sky.

Check out her first post to find her poem by this name.

For an up-to-date listing of other blogging nuns, please go to my page Blogs by Catholic Nuns.

The IHM Sisters of Scranton, Pennsylvania (click here to see how they are related to my IHMs), have a new music CD available.

I’ve had the privilege of hearing some Scranton IHMs perform and they truly rock.

Here’s what they have to say about their CD:

“With One Voice” features 13 selections, several of which are original compositions by two Scranton IHMs – Sr. Joan McCusker, IHM and Sr. Trish Scalese, IHM; include both contemporary English and Spanish music as well as traditional English and Latin hymns and instrumental compositions.

“With One Voice” features a chorus of approximately sixty Scranton IHMs, a few of their friends and a small group of instrumentalists under the direction of Sr. Joan McCusker, IHM.

Whether you’ve been taught by, ministered to, or work with a Scranton IHM or are just looking for a quality spiritual musical experience, “With One Voice” intends to share with you what gives Scranton IHMs so much joy – lifting our voices to God in song!

All profits from the sale of the CD go to the Scranton IHM Retirement Fund.

Click here to learn more about the CD and to order.

You may not know this but Sisters have often made way less than a living wage especially in church ministries. We are not financially supported by the Church, though we are grateful for the yearly retirement fund appeals. We are largely supported by the wages that Sisters earn, gifts from generous benefactors, and income from wise investments. Here’s an opportunity to get a great CD and support the Scranton IHM Sisters.

If you are in a position to donate your time, financial resources, or services, contact a local community of Sisters in your area. I’m sure they’d love to meet you and would appreciate your support in whatever way you can offer it.

Here’s a great article by Catholic News Service posted at Catholic Online. Support Sister Evelyn Brokish’s mission by ordering some treats today! Call Poverello Delights at 219-922-0193 or email Sister Evelyn at .

Sweet dreams – Imagination leads nun-run candy shop aiding order

By Debbie Bosak
1/4/2007

Catholic News Service

HIGHLAND, Ind. (CNS) – If browsers were to peek into the windows of Poverello Delights in Highland, they wouldn’t be surprised to find the candy store bustling with activity. What might be surprising is that the proprietor is a nun.

Open since October, Poverello Delights is the realization of a dream that Franciscan Sister Evelyn Brokish believes to be the result of divine providence.Sister Brokish has spent most of her 47 years as a religious sister serving as a professional liturgical musician in various parish communities, which often had no budget for the music program.

“We used to collect aluminum cans to finance the music ministries,” she said with a laugh. “Our pastor once commented that we needed to find a different means. All we needed was a little imagination.”

Imagination was something Sister Brokish had in abundance. Born into a large family, she grew up on a farm where they grew their own produce, made their own clothes and learned how to cook and bake.

“My parents taught us to be creative and imaginative,” she said. “If there was a need, you learned to find the solution.”

With that wealth of knowledge behind her, Sister Brokish soon developed her signature candy, the ChocoNutty Trio. When she cautiously tested it on staff and choir members, they gave the sweet treat a resounding “thumbs up.”

“They told me it was equal to or better than those commercially produced peanut butter and chocolate candies,” she proudly recalled.

Her brother, Ray, came up with the name ChocoNutty Trio for the candy’s three layers of dark chocolate, peanut butter and white chocolate. Sister Brokish is in the process of trademarking the name.

The dream of a candy business was a natural progression. When she moved on from St. Mary of the Lake Parish in 2006, she felt the Holy Spirit was guiding her down a new and exciting path. “I always look forward, never back,” she added.

To better prepare for the demands and challenges of managing a new business, Sister Brokish enrolled in an entrepreneurial program at Purdue University Calumet in Hammond, Ind. When she entered her business plan in a school contest, she was shocked and honored to be among the semifinalists.

While she currently markets Poverello Delights through local chambers of commerce and word of mouth, she admits that she is hesitant to grow too fast. “I want to make sure I have a handle on everything and that there is a sufficient variety to offer my customers,” she said.

Inspiration for different types of candy often arises out of a need or suggestion. She tells the story of the man who mentioned he was planning to come into the shop soon and hoped to find something with cashews.

“My first thought was that I didn’t have anything with cashews, but then I thought, all right, I’ll be ready for you,” she said.

As a result, the “cashew wheel,” a combination of the nuts and sweet chocolate, was created. While reflecting on the popularity of pizza, she came up with her own dessert version. The “chocolate pizza” has layers of white chocolate, dried blueberries, papaya, pecans and dark chocolate topped with coconut.

“Everything is homemade and from the heart,” she said. “I think customers appreciate that this store is different from any other candy store.”

Profits from the candy business are contributed to the ministries of the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi with the poor and unprivileged.

Aside from the practical aspects, the candy store also serves as a conversation starter. One of the first questions customers ask is the meaning behind the name of the store, Poverello.

A slip of paper that accompanies each purchase talks about the word’s origins in Italian. St. Francis of Assisi was called “Poverello,” or little poor person. The explanation also talks about the Franciscan Sisters and their mission.

“People are usually surprised I’m a nun,” Sister Brokish said, “but it leads to all kinds of questions and discussion about God, vocations, morals and even politics.”
- - -Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

I’ve added a new category to my blog — “Nuns in the Marketplace” — the idea of which came from one of my IHM sisters who, along with a partner, runs two “apostolic businesses” that they built from scratch. I have a ton of admiration for these two — they saw needs, and they created a way to meet those needs. Many nuns and sisters have done this throughout history. My post on Catherine’s Comfortable Tea is another example of how sisters have formed an apostolic business.

So basically, the Nuns in the Marketplace refers to sisters and nuns who have established a company, business or service. I think it is important to highlight the work that nuns have done in engaging in the marketplace, learning the ropes of business (though many have entered with these skills already honed), and creating apostolic businesses that are alternatives to the way we typically think of the business world.

Here’s a great quote by Catherine McAuley:

“Although I should be simple as a dove, I must also be prudent as a Serpent; and since there is very little good can be accomplished or evil avoided without the aid of money, we must look after it in small as well as in great matters.” (Letter to Father James Maher January 10, 1838)

These nuns in the marketplace are women who strive for simplicity of heart but are also saavy women who know how to use business and money to accomplish good in our world.

Periodically I will highlight the work of these nuns. If you are a nun in the marketplace yourself or work with such nuns, please email me with your story.

I recently received an email from a student doing a paper on Catherine McAuley. She asked if Catherine had any symbols associated with her. Not knowing off the top of my head, I headed to web sites of the Sisters of Mercy (whom Catherine founded in 1831). To my great delight, I discovered that one of the symbols associated with Catherine is “a comfortable cup of tea.” Here’s what I found on the web site of the Sisters of Mercy in Wellington, New Zealand:

Comfortable Cup of Tea

When Catherine McAuley was dying, many of the sisters gathered around her bedside to say good-bye and to pray the prayers for the dying. Not long before she died, at the end of a long day of waiting, she said to one of the sisters: “Be sure you have a comfortable cup of tea for them when I am gone.” Ever since, the comfortable cup of tea has been a symbol of the warm and caring relationships which were at the heart of Catherine McAuley’s Mercy vision.

The Sisters of Mercy have taken this beautiful, homey symbol and made it a part of their ministry as well. Check out Catherine’s Comfortable Tea, a ministry of the Mercy sisters in cooperation with Frontier Natural Products Co-op of North Iowa.

Our tea is not just another commercial product. Catherine’s Comfortable Tea is a symbol of compassion and dedication to those in need.… With [Catherine's] spirit in mind, the Catherine McAuley Center created Catherine’s Comfortable Tea. Proceeds from the sale of the tea benefit the Catherine McAuley Center programs, providing housing to unaccompanied women and adult basic education to men and women.

Not being a huge tea drinker, I think I will now look at my morning cup of coffee in a new light … my comfortable cup of coffee. And when I do, I’ll think of Catherine’s warmth and compassion … a great way to start the day.