Excitement filled the air when our four Tertians and director, Sister Suzanne Marie Kush, greeted ten Kenyan Felician Tertians and their director at Detroit Metropolitan Airport with a giant Welcome sign. Sisters Maria Bakhita Waweru, Dong Hong Marie Zhang, Grace Marie Del Priore and Maria Louise Edwards formed a three-car caravan to bring the Kenyan sisters to Maryville Retreat Center in Holly, Michigan, reuniting them with one another after the sisters’ own visit to Kenya this past April.
Within the Felician tradition, Tertianship is a period of ongoing spiritual formation for perpetually professed sisters, offering time away from daily responsibilities to deepen one’s relationship with God, renew one’s commitment to religious life and reconnect with the Felician charism and Franciscan spirituality. As a significant milestone in the lifelong journey of formation, it marks a season of renewal for sisters who have lived their final vows for 12 to 18 years.
The program officially opened with a prayer service on “Faith Like a Mustard Seed,” followed by the planting of mustard seeds our sisters tended throughout their renewal journey. Living together in the Maryville lodges, the sisters shared classes, meals and prayer. Worship beautifully blended cultures, with songs and Mass parts in both Swahili and English, and a Mass celebrated all in Swahili. Patronal and Church feast days were celebrated together. The sisters enjoyed praying the Liturgy of the Hours together from “Franciscan Morning and Evening Praise,” which gave them an opportunity to share personal intentions as one family.
Sisters who came to teach enriched the program with talks on finding one’s voice, living interculturally, transformation in religious life, spiritual expression through art, a contemporary approach to the vows, Eucharistic spirituality and Franciscan dialogue. The sisters also visited local ministries and convents and the Felician Sisters Heritage Center & Archives, deepening their connection to the wider Felician family.
Before returning home, the eleven Kenyan sisters spent four days at Mother of Good Counsel Convent in Chicago with Sisters Suzanne Marie and Nancy Marie, delighting in reunions with sisters they’d known, including former Minister General Sister Mary Barbara Ann Bosch. Over meals, they swapped stories of family, vocation, ministry and shared about life back home. Each Kenyan sister shared her story before leading the room in a Swahili song and dance. As the visit closed, both groups raised their hands to bless one another, singing “May the Lord bless and keep you.”
The Tertians all left grateful for the friendships formed and the genuine intercultural blessing they experienced.
