Now in its 4th year, National Catholic Sisters Week has proven itself to be a great unifier - connecting women religious with surrounding communities through celebrations, engaging materials, and social media support.

Celebrating sisters for their impacts both large and small, 2016 saw the first set of mini-grants dispersed to grantees who helped spread the movement across the entire country and all the way to Rome. In 2017 the mini-grant program has expanded and it's time to start sharing these success stories.

This is the goal of Be Inspired. A new podcast from SisterStory that aims to be a place to engage and share stories that inspire others to plan events, engage online, and connect with their communities at large through attendance.

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Coming Soon

This episode features the story of Julie McElmurry, founder of Franciscan Passages. Inspired by sisters and her commitment to providing aid to the poor, Julie created two documentaries showcasing the work done by sisters with missions helping the poor. She was able to accomplish this with a #NCSW2016 mini-grant. The two films, Anna’s Place and Energy of Nuns, include interviews with sisters that share their stories locally and international. Her films have been featured in film festivals and can be found at franciscanpassages.org.

This episode produced by Rocky Pierson and Pa Ying Vang at St. Catherine University.

Julie McElmurry

This episode features the story of Donna Myers, director of Mission Integration at HSHS St. Eizabeth's Hospital in Belleville, Illinois. As a member of Hospital Sisters Health System (HSHS), they are a healing ministry guided by the historic mission of the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis. Through the use of progressive physician partnerships and the latest technology they continue to demonstrate commitment to their communities and to their Franciscan traditions by providing quality, caring and compassionate health care to all—including the sick, needy, uninsured and underinsured.  Last year Mission Integration found a variety of unique ways to celebrate the sisters involved with the hospital and the many contributions they have made to staff and patients.

Learn more about St. Elizabeth's Hospital at http://steliz.org/

HSHS St. Elizabeth's Hospital

This episode features the stories of two events centered around prayer from #NCSW2016. Sister Barbara Sable, SS.C.M.s and Sister Belinda Monahan, OSB talk about prayer services they hosted during the week and how they became conduit to welcoming the surrounding community.

This episode also features reflections on the power of prayer from Sister Katherine McLaughlin, CSJ. To hear more of her insight listen and subscribe to the podcast Interpreting Sisterhood: https://soundcloud.com/interpreting-sisterhood

Power of Prayer

This episode features the story of Claire Noonan, vice president for Women In Mission and Ministry at Dominican University. The St. Catherine of Siena Center is one of the centers within the division of Mission and Ministry, and last spring they had a public lecture which was open to both members of the campus community and the wider public.

Claire Noonan

This episode features Jane Comeau, Director of Communications for the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in La Crosse, WI. Jane retells the online #NCSW2016 event that was a collaboration between the Catholic Sisters of the Upper Mississippi River Valley. Through this event, the Sisters were able to bring awareness and Pray It Forward for social justice issues, such as human trafficking, environmental injustice, and much more.

Learn more about the Catholic Sisters of the Upper Mississippi River Valley: https://www.facebook.com/catholicsisters/

#PrayItForward

This episode features the story of Mary Vagnone, grant writer and assistant of the St. Joseph's Worker Program in Orange, CA and Gena Gadient, previous St. Joseph Worker participant. Mary and Gena talk about their #NCSW2016 event, where they built a little free library that contains the stories of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Orange.

Learn more about the St. Joseph’s Worker Program: http://csjorange.org/ministries/st-joseph-worker-program/

St. Joseph's Work Program in Orange

This episode features the story of Jackie Walter, Director of the Center for Women in Church and Society at Our Lady of the Lake University. In honor of the Sisters of Divine Providence, Jackie and her organization came up with a plan to record the stories of Providence at work and create a book so that all the Sisters can have a physical copy of Providence at work.

Learn more about the Sisters of Divine Providence: https://www.cdptexas.org/

Jackie Walter

In the lead up to #NCSW2017, the podcast Be Inspired was created to release a series of interviews chronicling the successes of the mini-grant program for #NCSW2016. At the same time interviews with 2017 recipients have been conducted in preparation for continuing the inspiration and carrying National Catholic Sisters Week far beyond its week of celebrations.

There is one more release of season 1 tomorrow, and then we will be on a break as the next season is produced. New episodes will start soon.

Season 2 Teaser

In this episode Rocky talks with Jennifer Szweda Jordan and Sr. Barbara Einloth about their NCSW 2016 Standup Sisters event. Standup Sisters was an event featuring sisters who shared their stories to live audience. Sr. Barbara was one of those featured sisters. She talks with Rocky about what it was like to participate in this event and the value of storytelling.

Standup Sisters

A podcast chronicling the success stories of National Catholic Sisters Week - an annual celebration of women religious. Each episode will present interviews with NCSW Mini-Grant recipients to present a picture of the celebration's growth and highlight the valuable impacts of women religious all across the country.