Sister Michele's Acts of Love in her Care for Creation

Sister Michele O'Brien is fond of caring for justice, peace and creation.  In 2024, she is one of the honorees for the Congar Institute for Ministry Development Award for her 50 years of dedicated service to CHRISTUS Santa Rosa where she took several positions such as x-ray tech, registered nurse, community health director, advocate/lobbyist, foundation development officer, etc.  In all of these roles, she has been an instrument of the healing ministry of Christ in San Antonio.  She also advocated COVID 19 vaccines and called on  communities for vaccination around San Antonio during the peak of the pandemic. One of her collaboration for social justice is the collaborative effort with the hospitals in San Antonio to conduct a community health assessment so that all the hospitals will be able to provide address the basic and important needs of the community and pool their resources into a bucket for the common good of the underprivileged. 

Prior to moving to the Village in San Antonio, she used to live in Emmaus community, where she would diligently take care of the plants in the garden.

Now in the Village at Incarnate Word, she enjoys watering her plants on her porch. She advocates for lessening plastic pollution in the Village by carrying her own containers for drink and food whenever she can.  She makes use of her own silverware to avoid using plastic spoon and fork. and even carries an antique salt and pepper given to her by a friend so that she does not have to waste the single serve salt and pepper. She is not afraid to ask the staff of the Village not to give her the plastic cups where her medicines are being placed and even ask if they can use paper cups next time. She also used common trash bag and consolidates her rubbish to lessen the use of plastic bag.

Sister Michele's way of appreciating beauty along with her tireless love for social justice show the relevance of the healthy environment she wants to nurture or care for.   She sees the beauty in it rather than an object to take advantage of.  

Laudato Si Article 215:

If someone has not learned to stop and admire something beautiful, we should not be surprised if he or she treats everything as an object to be used and abused without scruple. If we want to bring about deep change, we need to realize that certain mindsets really do influence our behaviour. 

Reference: 

Congar Institute for Ministry Development - San Antonio, TX