November - Season to be Grateful

 

Respect Challenge: Spiritual Playdate

Be a part of the Respect Challenge initiated by Spiritual Playdate!

Spiritual Playdate is a collection of fine online resources that can be used for social, emotional, and spiritual learning for young people. Topics include things like fear and anxiety, forgiveness, living and dying.  Edwina Cowell in Chicago, the Spiritual Playdate director gave an overview of their resources at the November “women connecting globally” gathering. Women are the main educators of children. In the world now, there seem to be so many divisions, and so much fear.  How can we help children develop spiritually so they have a sense of belonging?  See the introductory film  to Spiritual Playdate. 

Edwina invited us to share the “Respect Challenge” and to get as many people as possible sharing this and “challenging” another group to do so also.

It’s a WIN-WIN

Enter our Social Media: #RespectChallenge

2025 Grand Prize $1000

Now, you can join families, friends, schools, and even business teams from around the world in our global movement to restore humanity to a culture of respect!

We’ve made it super easy to participate whether you’re at home, in a classroom, at a spiritual center or with neighbors! Watch a film (18) How to Join the Global #RespectChallenge 🌍 | Quick Start Guide to Make Respect Cool Again - YouTube

  Follow the directions https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:US:06fb450a-e0bd-471b-a4c7-72cd7e33d189

Women of Gaza and Israel for Peace

Women Wage Peace Who with Their Palestinian Partners Women of the Sun have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize

Watch the inspiring introduction to Women Wage Peace co-sponsored by the National Council of Jewish Women – San Antonio and the University of the Incarnate Word as part of the annual Peace Day, Oct. 29 https://youtu.be/V1S94ePU3-Y?si=gOPyWtSvmhcwzuPS

Before the program, hear “The Prayer of the Mothers” by the beloved singer and promoter of peace Yael Deckelbaum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyFM-pWdqrY.   

The women who spoke on Oct. 29, including Sr. Martha Ann Kirk, are among the crowd in  the lower left picture. They are among 6,000 who were in the People’s Peace Summit, May 9, 2025, in Jerusalem.

 

Book on Gaza

Stories I Couldn’t Let Die: Shadows of Gaza by Salem Medhat Alaydi. Dianne Monroe, the Jewish author of the introduction of this book of Salem’s Instagram postings, will spoke of her grandmother who suffered under the Nazis in Holland and why she tries to help Salem and his family.  “I’m Salem. I’m 18 years old, and I’ve spent my whole life in Gaza. My home was destroyed in 2023, and since then I’ve been living in a man-made tent. Through everything, the bombings, the hunger, the endless days of fear I’ve carried my cell phone.”

Women Connecting Globally

Women Connecting Globally Gathered on Nov. 8, 2025, 8 am to 10 am, Standard US time for our second “Women Connecting Globally” gathering. 

NOTE: This is Standard Central time, NOT Daylight savings now. 

Register here for the link.  

In the first gathering on Oct. 25, undergraduate and graduate students from CIW, Mexico City, and the University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, Texas, and professionals in Arts Therapy, Communication Arts, Early Childhood Education, Higher Education, Hospital Chaplaincy, and Law bringing ideas from Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Palestine, the Philippines, and the USA had rich sharing on developing and sharing their gifts.  

Catherine Cuasay, a successful Arts Therapist and mother in San Antonio, Texas, continues to build connections with her Filipino family. Natalia Hernandez, who had done fine work in the Young Women’s Global Leadership program in high school not only spoke of her university International Studies major, but also her passion to help immigrants.

Jacqueline Zavala Aguila of Mexico City shared from the perspective of helping international students in her position in the UIW Office of Research and Graduate Studies and of being a Ph.D. student. Catherine Cuasay, a successful Arts Therapist and mother in San Antonio, Texas, continues to build connections with her Filipino family. Natalia Hernandez, who had done fine work in the Young Women’s Global Leadership program in high school not only spoke of her university International Studies major, but also her passion to help immigrants. 

Rector Maria Fabiola Iturbide, who leads the branch of the University of the Incarnate Word in Mexico City shared some of the things that have helped her to be a leader including her many experiences with the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word. 

Darlene Jasso is the co-founder and Vice-President for Communications for an agency helping Mayan indigenous children and their families, the Little Angels of Mary. We hope to meet some of the women with whom she works in our next session, Nov. 8. Dr. Joan Labay-Marquez is both an attorney and the Graduate Education Coordinator in the Dreeben School of Education at the UIW. Her wise and consistent assistance and encouragement has helped so many students be successful. 

Learn more from the “women connecting globally”  July newsletter, the October newsletter, the November newsletter which  includes articles on Peace Day at UIW which pictures and was  dedicated to Sr. Helena Monahan.  

Palestinian Dana Osaily, a speaker at the October gathering of “women connecting globally.” 

The "Let the Children Live" Grant Program

Photo from "It's Time. . ." the People's Peace Summit with over 5,000 people in the Jerusalem Conference Center, May 2025. Be part of the coming "It's Time" on April 30, 2026.

 The “Let the Children Live” Grant Program is now accepting educators, both formal and informal, who care about the lives of children and others in the Holy Land. We will have our first of three online conversations once people register and share times they can be available, hopefully early February 2026.

Register here "Let the Children Live" Grant Program and Holy Land Trip Information .

The program is to promote understanding, dialogue, and compassionate action.  Those participating will be expected to share what they learn helping to build empathy among people. Participants  will receive a copy of Teaching Palestine, a subscription to Re-thinking Schools, opportunities to participate in discussions both face-to-face and virtual, and other resources such as the recording of Women Wage Peace.  Probably we will have virtual conversations with Israeli and Palestinian women, Jews, Muslim, and Christian whom Sr. Martha Ann has been with in the Holy Land.

The grant leader Sister Martha Ann Kirk was a scholar-in-residence at the Vatican founded Tantur Ecumenical Institute between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Read some about her in Global Sisters Report.  She was mentored by Rev. Tom Stransky, the young theologian who drafted Nostra Aetate, then published by the pope and the bishops in 1965 as one of the most important documents of the Second Vatican Council. Read of her May 2025 experiences in the Holy Land among the Women of the Sun and Women Wage Peace nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.  The Incarnate Word Sisters Justice, Peace, and Creation Office invites you to be a part of this free effort to build compassion, justice, and peace funded by a grant from Re-thinking Schools. 

Secondly, would you like to like to be part of a solidarity trip to the Holy Land? Start saving money for this and consider asking your community to support you in this work of peace-building. Sr. Martha Ann seek peace pilgrims to go the Holy Land, April 28 to May 12, 2026. We will to be part of the next “It’s Time” conference and learn of realities from groups like Rabbis for Human Rights, SABEL, a Christian group working for human rights, Women of the Sun and Women Wage Peace.  See her experiences with those groups as described on  the blog about May 2025. 

Read about a past presentation on that and she and Rev. Julie Rowe are happy to do this presentation for groups now:

“We don’t have the luxury of despair. There is too much work to do.” 
        A Repeated Sentiment from Palestinian Christians

 What’s Happening on the Ground in the Holy Land?  What are we Called to do about it as Churches?  Hear experiences from a 3-week journey, May 2025, from Sister Martha Ann Kirk and Rev. Julie Brenton Rowe.     

Learn and plan what churches can do. (Previously: Opening Prayer: Rev. Leyla King, Canon for Mission, Episcopal Diocese of West Texas. Moderator: Rev. Ann Helmke, COSA, Faith Based Liaison. Closing Prayer: Bishop Sue J. Briner, SWT Texas Synod, ELCA. June 26, 2025,  University of the Incarnate Word or online).

Contacts:  Sister Martha Ann Kirk at kirk@uiwtx.edu  210-883-5934
      Rev. Julie Brenton Rowe at revjbr2003@yahoo.com 847 312 5884 

Register here for information on the trip and/or for information on the grant program.  "Let the Children Live" Grant Program and Holy Land Trip Information | Home | University of the Incarnate Word