Attic Sale – Saturday August 9

Sisters Home Visitors of Mary will offer assorted attic treasures for sale 9:00 am to 2:00 pm on Saturday, August 9, 2025 to raise funds in much-needed support of SHVM missions in Nigeria.  Items will be displayed on the beautiful porch and front lawn at the Sister’s home at 121 E. Boston, Detroit.

121 E. Boston, Detroit, MI

9:00 am to 2:00 pm.   Saturday, August 9.   121 E. Boston.

Bargains Galore!  Art works and crafts, household items, office furniture and supplies.   Proceeds support HVM Sisters in Nigeria.

Sisters Home Visitors of Mary sale will be held in coordination with Arden Park-East Boston Historic District annual Attic Sale event.  Items will be displayed and sold by residents of many of the nearby beautiful neighborhood homes .

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If you love me … feed my flock.  

Click here to view the entire Sisters, Home Visitors of Mary website.

Click here to donate to Sisters, Home Visitors of Mary.

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July 14 “Procession to ICE”

Strangers No Longer is having a “Procession to ICE” on Monday, July 14, 2025, holding a solemn and prayerful march from the plaza in front of Most Holy Trinity Church, 1050 Porter in Detroit to the ICE Regional (MI/OH) Field Office, 985 Michigan Ave. The theme is to “confess” to ICE we are standing with immigrants as our brothers and sisters, and to request a meeting with the Regional Director of ICE.

Clergy and Catholic organizations presence in this short and prayerful procession is encouraged. We want to put the face of the Church on our concerns for our brothers and sisters. This is not a political march so any signs would need to be relevant to Church teaching.

For more information please contact Bill O’Brien at Strangers No Longer at obrien.b@strangersnolonger.org

“Immigration policy must begin by recognizing the humanity of the immigrant.”  Read Archbishop Weisenburger’s article from AMERICA Magazine and share it with others. 

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If you love me … feed my flock.  

Click here to view the entire Sisters, Home Visitors of Mary website.

Click here to donate to Sisters, Home Visitors of Mary.

If you wish to stop Sisters Home Visitors of Mary news in the future, let us know via email to shvmblog@yahoo.com

Pray for End to Nigerian Violence

Violence Not Far Away from Sisters, HVM

Pope Leo XIV condemned the terrible massacre of approximately 200 persons that occurred last Friday night , June 13/14, 2025, in the village of Yelewata, Benue State, Nigeria. Families in homes and shelters were attacked without warning in the dark of the night. Men, women and children were indiscriminately set aflame, shot and cut with machetes.

Pope Leo prays:  https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-06/pope-terrible-massacre-guma-yelwata-benue-state-nigeria.html

News:  A familiar pattern of bloodshed:  https://globalvoices.org/2025/06/16/nigeria-witnesses-one-of-its-deadliest-attacks-in-2025/

News:   Yelewata Massacre:  https://opitanglobalmedia.com/tragedy-in-benue-over-100-feared-dead-in/

Video: https://apnews.com/video/yelewata-community-in-mourning-after-gunmen-kill-150-in-north-central-nigeria-3837f6a8df8046fa9473c03b7c076aec

 

Pope Leo prayed for “security, justice, and peace” in Nigeria, especially the “rural Christian communities of the Benue State who have been relentless victims of violence”. Nigerian Church officials were grateful for Pope’s support and prayers.

Home Visitors of Mary Sisters teach at 2 schools in Benue State not far distant from Yelewata: in Ichama and in Korinya.

Please join with Pope Leo and with the Sisters, Home Visitors of Mary in pray for peace and an end to bloodshed in Nigeria and throughout the world.

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If you love me … feed my flock.  

Click here to view the entire Sisters, Home Visitors of Mary website.

Click here to donate to Sisters, Home Visitors of Mary.

If you wish to stop Sisters Home Visitors of Mary news in the future, let us know via email to shvmblog@yahoo.com

The Lord is Risen!

May Easter joy be your source of hope!                                                                                          Enter all with the joy of our Lord. First and last, rich and poor dance together. (Cf. Sr. John Chrysostom)

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DO YOU LOVE ME.  At his March 18 installation as Detroit’s bishop, Archbishop Edward J. Weisenburger challenged us from the Easter scene.  Jesus asks Peter: Do you love me? Peter replies with a yes. And if you say you love me, Jesus responds, feed my lambs, my sheep. Archbishop Weisenburger begins his ministry here in Detroit asking us to hear Christ’s question and Christ’s call to love deeply … a call to serve.  Click here for Detroit Catholic excellent coverage of Archbishop Weisenburger’s installation. 
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Our Sisters in Nigeria respond to Christ’s call to serve in the reality in which they live. Children in five schools, day care centers and religious education programs know they are loved and respected. Your support makes this possible.

The HVM school &  convent in Apo resettlement area is almost fully open! 

Children of the Home Visitors Day Care and School say: Thank you. The one-room daycare now serves children from 6 months to high school in the new convent/school in Apo.  Funds from generous St. James, Novi, parish contributed to lighting.  Help for furnishing the classrooms and convent are still being sought.

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Sr. Mercy Ngunan Baaki, HVM, a nurse at St. Joseph Comprehensive Health Center in Korenya, Nigeria, joyfully received a grant from the International Union of Religious Superiors to expand outreach to nearby villages with the clinic’s mobile unit, health education and immunization. The grant will assist in training diverse, gender sensitive staff.

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Sr. Calista, HVM, is chairperson of  Arise-Nigerian Conference of Women Religious, Abuja Province.  The NCWR, Abuja Province, in collaboration with Arise Foundation in UK decided in the face of human trafficking to take the bull by the horns by organizing skill acquisition training programs for vulnerable women and youths within Abuja Province.   Some of these women and youths are internally displaced persons, widows, orphans, and some are from indigent homes.  Click her for details and photos > Empowering Vulnerable Women & Youth.

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Pray for the Sisters, Home Visitors of Mary as we prepare for future.  Thirty-five Sisters will gather in Gwagwalada in July 2025 to discern directions of the HVM for the next four years and elect leadership, director and four counselors. Our theme is:
For I know the plans I have for you … plans to give you hope and a future (Jer.29:11).

Spirit fill us with a burning love, especially for the poor and those marginalized by society as we go forth with your Good News.

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Home Visitors of Mary Associate Alta Sears entered into glory March 11, 2025. Alta dedicated much to St. Charles Lwanga Parish (St. Cecilia) in Detroit.  As her family said so well: She had great compassion and empathy for others. She never met a stranger. She was passionate about her church, family and friends.

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Josephine  Woodruff, sister of Home Visitors of Mary Associate Martha Lum, passed to eternal reward on March 28, 2025, at age 91.  Loved by her sisters, brother, children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.  Memorial contributions may be made to Sisters Home Visitors of Mary.

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Save the date! HVM Gala Fundraiser for Nigerian Mission will be on Oct. 12, 2025 at St. John Armenian church in Southfield. 

Kevin Piecuch, founder and director of South West Immigration and Refugee Center is our honoree. Attorney Kevin Piecuch began his one day free legal clinic at the Michigan Plaza near the Ambassador bridge ten years ago. SWIRC now serves hundreds of people five days a week in three locations-southwest Detroit, eastside Detroit and Pontiac. The free legal clinics serve an array of issues. Learn more about SWIRC at their website: South West Immigrant and Refugee Center. This Jubilee year and our country’s reality reminds us that immigration justice, love of our poor brothers and sisters is a priority.

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He has Risen!

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If you love me … feed my flock.  

Click here to donate to Sisters, Home Visitors of Mary.

Click here to view the entire Sisters, Home Visitors of Mary website.  If you wish to stop Sisters Home Visitors of Mary news in the future, let us know via email to shvmblog@yahoo.com

Sisters Empowering Vulnerable Women and Youths

May God reward you abundantly…

Sisters HVM, in collaboration with the Nigerian Conference of Women Religious, Abuja Province, chaired by Sr. Calista HVM, and the Arise Foundation in UK (Arise-NCWR Network) have taken the bull by the horns in efforts to combat the evil of human trafficking by helping to organize skill acquisition training program for vulnerable women and youths within the Abuja Province. Some of these women and youths are internally displaced persons. Others are from indigent homes with no access to training opportunities in their daily lives.   Skill training can be either short term or long term depending on what each person is capable of learning and will be able to manage once trained and established.

Photo below … Dorcas and others preparing egg rolls and bread. She also bakes fish and meat pies and other foods. She is a single mother, who previously had no means of livelihood, but now she is self-reliant, bakes and provides food products to people to sell for her. Dorcas expressed her gratitude during an interview by Sr. Calista, HVM. When asked about the impact of the training on her life and if there is any success story. She said: “I am grateful to God for using the Nigerian Conference of Women Religious and Arise Foundation (Arise-NCWR Network), Abuja Province to provide food for me and my son, especially for making it possible for me to pay my son’s school fees… May God continue to bless you all in Jesus name…”

Dorcas and others preparing Egg Rolls

Anthonia is 19 years old. She is one of the beneficiaries of the skill acquisition training. She said: ” I will eternally remain grateful … for training and empowering me with a sustainable skill that will help me and my parents in future, may God reward them abundantly…” Her success story is not only that she now has a skill now but also she is self-employed, and can make both male and female fabrics.

19 year old Anthonia

Examples of work products of participants. 

Display of womens clothes and hair wig

Florence is another beneficiary of short term training program. She supplies donuts, puff puffs and bread to her neighbors to sell. When she was interviewed, she said: ” I can not thank God enough for this great thing He has done for me and my family through the Nigerian Conference of Women Religious and Arise Foundation, I pray for God’s many blessings on them…” Sharing her success story, she said that she was able to register one of her daughters for further schooling last year.

Donuts to start Nigerian day

Jacinta is a widow with seven children. She is also one of the beneficiaries of 2024 short term training and she is grateful to God for using the Sisters and Arise Foundation to change her life and the lives of her children, hence she is able to feed her children now and take care of their school fees with the little money she saves daily from the business.

Puff Puff snacks

Eunice’s fashion and designing training is a long term program. She does both women and men clothes and she is grateful to the Sisters and Arise Foundation for giving her this great opportunity to learn a skill and be self-employed. Eunice expressed her gratitude to God and to the sponsors of her training. She said that the only way to show gratitude to God and the donors is to train other people freely just as she received her own training and empowerment freely.

Eunice sowing fabrics (long term training)

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If you love me … feed my flock.  

Click here to donate to Sisters, Home Visitors of Mary.

Click here to view the entire Sisters, Home Visitors of Mary website.  If you wish to stop Sisters Home Visitors of Mary news in the future, let us know via email to shvmblog@yahoo.com

 

March 29 Saturday Morning Reflection

Join us at “West Meets East” – Getting to Know Our Brothers and Sisters in the Eastern Churches.

All Welcome.  Free & secure parking in spacious Blessed Sacrament Cathedral parking lot.  Enter from Trowbridge Street.

Park in lot, up the steps to door, down the elevator to meeting room.  Bring a friend.

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  • Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world — Margaret Mead

Click here to view the entire Sisters, Home Visitors of Mary website.  If you wish to stop Sisters Home Visitors of Mary news in the future, let us know via email to shvmblog@yahoo.com

 

Warm & Wonderful Winter Tea

Delightful Winter Tea Event

A delightful Winter Tea event was held at the Sisters, Home Visitors of Mary convent in Detroit on Sunday, February 16. 2025, in preparation for the (promised?) upcoming arrival of warm Springtime in Michigan weather.  Attendees included a good number of welcome parishioners from nearby Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament.  Attendees all enjoyed each other’s company and shared their favorite tea or coffee beverage and the delicious snack foods provided by always-generous volunteer SHVM fund raising committee members.

The gathering was highlighted by presentations from Sr. Clare and from Sr. Rosemarie, along with a highly-memorable poetic recital by Sonja Still.  Sonja delivered a wonderful performance of The White Magnolia Tree, a poem written by Helen Deutsch in 1950 (one  year after the founding of Sisters, Home Visitors of Mary).  The audience listened intently to Sonja’s wonderful presentation, fully enthralled from the first words up to the closing phrases …

Dear Heaven, I Give Thanks To Thee for …

Click Here to read the entire beautiful poem – The White Magnolia Tree

Sister Clare addressing attendees

Sr. Rosemarie addressing attendees

Sonja Still. honorary SHVM Poet Laureate

Beautiful door prize and winner

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  • Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world — Margaret Mead

Click here to view the entire Sisters, Home Visitors of Mary website.  If you wish to stop Sisters Home Visitors of Mary news in the future, let us know via email to shvmblog@yahoo.com

Join Us for Tea February 16!

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  • Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world — Margaret Mead

Click here to view the entire Sisters, Home Visitors of Mary website.  If you wish to stop Sisters Home Visitors of Mary news in the future, let us know via email to shvmblog@yahoo.com

January 25 Reflection: Living in Solidarity

Cathedral basement meeting room.  Enter from adjacent free and secure parking.

Fr. Buersmeyer is a well known speaker on Catholic Social Teachings. See https://www.churchworldkingdom.org/

RSVP appreciated: 313-869-2160. No Charge. Free will offerings are appreciated.

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  • Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world — Margaret Mead

Click here to view the entire Sisters, Home Visitors of Mary website.  If you wish to stop Sisters Home Visitors of Mary news in the future, let us know via email to shvmblog@yahoo.com

 

St. James TasteFest Celebration Luncheon

Sisters, Home Visitors of Mary Convent, Detroit, MI

On Sunday, January 5, 2025, key supporters of the acclaimed Fall TasteFest fundraising event held last November by St. James Parrish, Novi, MI, gathered for a celebration luncheon at the SHVM convent in Detroit. The Fall TasteFest was widely regarded as a “miraculous” event – blessed with success, enjoyed by all, and raising more than 150% of the original fundraising goal. Proceeds of the event will support Sisters, Home Visitors of Mary electric service in Nigeria.

Attendees discussed possible future collaborations and enjoyed Nigerian food dishes specially created by Sr. Clare Emeroum, HVM, Director of Pastoral Associate/Evangelical Charity at St. James.

 

 


Several attendees particularly enjoyed their first visit to historic 121 E. Boston, once home to Detroit’s own Joseph L. Hudson and the location where, in 1916,  J.L. Hudson’s beloved niece Eleanor Clay married Henry Ford’s only son Edsel to subsequently become the forbearing parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents of the entire subsequent (and current!) Ford family progeny.

Click on https://sistershvm.org/2015/02 to see a previous informative post from a fundraising Tea focused on J.L. Hudson held at the SHVM convent in 2015.  And click on   https://relevanttealeaf.blogspot.com/2014/12/touring-jlhudsons-home.html and https://relevanttealeaf.blogspot.com/2015/02/fundraiser-tea-at-former-hudson-home.html for wonderful postings by Phyllis Barkey, a friend of SHVM, providing a beautiful visual tour of 121 E. Boston and further smiling faces at the 2015 J.L. Hudson fundraising Tea.

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  • Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world — Margaret Mead

Click here to view the entire Sisters, Home Visitors of Mary website.  If you wish to stop Sisters Home Visitors of Mary news in the future, let us know via email to shvmblog@yahoo.com