In our March PV Newsletter, we included a reflection written by Jenny Wiley about the role that PV reflection has played in her life in the last 20 years.

Reflection, just that word was enough for me to dread the evening hours during my first year as a PV Volunteer. Who would have ever thought that twenty years later I would be singing its praises? I joined the PV Volunteers to do service, to help others, to change the world; little did I know that the greatest change would occur in me. Oh sure, as a PV Volunteer I can proudly say that I have had a positive impact on the lives of many, but as usual Katie LaCurrubba was right. “We don’t come to evangelize,” Katie often said, “what we find is the experience evangelizes us.” When I think of my feelings about reflection, I once again go back to Katie’s words and think how true they are.

Nothing has had a bigger effect on my life than PV reflection. Every night we gather, summer after summer, to reflect on our day and experiences. Every night we share our stories with each other and every night I hear something that moves me. It is in the sharing that we are changed. Sharing is difficult. Allowing oneself to become vulnerable is not an easy thing. It takes a great deal of trust to open oneself up and pour out one’s innermost feelings. I am not good at it. I am a private person; I say that all the time. I don’t always want to share want I am thinking, seeing, feeling. I resisted reflection for a very long time. I don’t even remember when my defenses began to slowly break down. All I know is somewhere along the way it happened and I am most grateful.

Why am I grateful? That answer is easy. It is what I learned in reflection that I have carried with me all these years. We all experience pain, suffering, loss. It is part of our life. Like everyone, I have had my share of sorrow. Years ago, I used to think I had to keep all the pain inside. I didn’t trust others enough to share. But after twenty years of sharing, twenty years of listening to others, twenty years of nightly reflection, I see what a change has happened in me. The PV Volunteers have brought so many wonderful, caring people into my life. I have long known that. But what I think I have finally learned is the true beauty of reflection, in my PV life as well as my daily life. When a PV calls and ask how I am doing, I can answer honestly. I can share my grief because I know that I can trust that friend to listen and not judge. I used to be so afraid of opening myself up to others, but reflection has taught me that it is in the sharing with others that we begin to heal and to grow.

In our March PV Newsletter, we included a reflection written by Jenny Wiley about the role that PV reflection has played in her life in the last 20 years.

Reflection, just that word was enough for me to dread the evening hours during my first year as a PV Volunteer. Who would have ever thought that twenty years later I would be singing its praises? I joined the PV Volunteers to do service, to help others, to change the world; little did I know that the greatest change would occur in me. Oh sure, as a PV Volunteer I can proudly say that I have had a positive impact on the lives of many, but as usual Katie LaCurrubba was right. “We don’t come to evangelize,” Katie often said, “what we find is the experience evangelizes us.” When I think of my feelings about reflection, I once again go back to Katie’s words and think how true they are.

Nothing has had a bigger effect on my life than PV reflection. Every night we gather, summer after summer, to reflect on our day and experiences. Every night we share our stories with each other and every night I hear something that moves me. It is in the sharing that we are changed. Sharing is difficult. Allowing oneself to become vulnerable is not an easy thing. It takes a great deal of trust to open oneself up and pour out one’s innermost feelings. I am not good at it. I am a private person; I say that all the time. I don’t always want to share want I am thinking, seeing, feeling. I resisted reflection for a very long time. I don’t even remember when my defenses began to slowly break down. All I know is somewhere along the way it happened and I am most grateful.

Why am I grateful? That answer is easy. It is what I learned in reflection that I have carried with me all these years. We all experience pain, suffering, loss. It is part of our life. Like everyone, I have had my share of sorrow. Years ago, I used to think I had to keep all the pain inside. I didn’t trust others enough to share. But after twenty years of sharing, twenty years of listening to others, twenty years of nightly reflection, I see what a change has happened in me. The PV Volunteers have brought so many wonderful, caring people into my life. I have long known that. But what I think I have finally learned is the true beauty of reflection, in my PV life as well as my daily life. When a PV calls and ask how I am doing, I can answer honestly. I can share my grief because I know that I can trust that friend to listen and not judge. I used to be so afraid of opening myself up to others, but reflection has taught me that it is in the sharing with others that we begin to heal and to grow.

In our March PV Newsletter, we included a reflection written by Jenny Wiley about the role that PV reflection has played in her life in the last 20 years.

Reflection, just that word was enough for me to dread the evening hours during my first year as a PV Volunteer. Who would have ever thought that twenty years later I would be singing its praises? I joined the PV Volunteers to do service, to help others, to change the world; little did I know that the greatest change would occur in me. Oh sure, as a PV Volunteer I can proudly say that I have had a positive impact on the lives of many, but as usual Katie LaCurrubba was right. “We don’t come to evangelize,” Katie often said, “what we find is the experience evangelizes us.” When I think of my feelings about reflection, I once again go back to Katie’s words and think how true they are.

Nothing has had a bigger effect on my life than PV reflection. Every night we gather, summer after summer, to reflect on our day and experiences. Every night we share our stories with each other and every night I hear something that moves me. It is in the sharing that we are changed. Sharing is difficult. Allowing oneself to become vulnerable is not an easy thing. It takes a great deal of trust to open oneself up and pour out one’s innermost feelings. I am not good at it. I am a private person; I say that all the time. I don’t always want to share want I am thinking, seeing, feeling. I resisted reflection for a very long time. I don’t even remember when my defenses began to slowly break down. All I know is somewhere along the way it happened and I am most grateful.

Why am I grateful? That answer is easy. It is what I learned in reflection that I have carried with me all these years. We all experience pain, suffering, loss. It is part of our life. Like everyone, I have had my share of sorrow. Years ago, I used to think I had to keep all the pain inside. I didn’t trust others enough to share. But after twenty years of sharing, twenty years of listening to others, twenty years of nightly reflection, I see what a change has happened in me. The PV Volunteers have brought so many wonderful, caring people into my life. I have long known that. But what I think I have finally learned is the true beauty of reflection, in my PV life as well as my daily life. When a PV calls and ask how I am doing, I can answer honestly. I can share my grief because I know that I can trust that friend to listen and not judge. I used to be so afraid of opening myself up to others, but reflection has taught me that it is in the sharing with others that we begin to heal and to grow.

You can now help support the PVs by donating a set amount each month, via PayPal. Just click the subscribe button on the right side of the blog and choose which level of monthly support you would like to offer. Plans start at just $5 a month. Every little bit helps!!!

You can now help support the PVs by donating a set amount each month, via PayPal. Just click the subscribe button on the right side of the blog and choose which level of monthly support you would like to offer. Plans start at just $5 a month. Every little bit helps!!!

You can now help support the PVs by donating a set amount each month, via PayPal. Just click the subscribe button on the right side of the blog and choose which level of monthly support you would like to offer. Plans start at just $5 a month. Every little bit helps!!!

The date has been set for the 5th Annual Live with Passion and now let the planning begin!  We hope you consider joining in the LWP movement. This is our largest fundraiser of the year. Last year we raised $15,000 to help support the efforts of the PVs.

Hosting an event is fairly easy and a lot of fun. We encourage you to look through this blog to get ideas of what events have been done in the past. It is time to use your creativity!

We also are in need of sponsors for the event. If you and/or your employer would be interested or if you know of someone that would like to help sponsor the event, please send them our way. Sponsorship starts at $50 and includes a logo on the LWP t-shirts as well as a t-shirt itself. In order to get the t-shirts to the printer on time, we must have all artwork to us by March 15th.

We will be continuing to add new information to this blog. Please keep checking back.

In our February PV Newsletter, we also included a reflection written by another of our volunteers,Maureen Maroney. Maureen thoughtfully compared her experience volunteering her first summer in 1994 and this past summer.

Flashback: July, 1994
Kate Maroney, 12, and I, her mother, slightly older, leave New Jersey for Wild and Wonderful West Virginia to be Passionist Volunteers for the first time ever. Attracted by the family- welcoming structure, and completely seduced by the incredibly charismatic Katie LaCarrubba, we plan to spend two weeks in Preston County, living in community and helping out where needed. Lacking a car capable of making the trip, we take a train, ending up in Cumberland, Maryland where we are met by the first PV’s we will come to know and love: the pre-Luke Mechmanns, who had graciously offered to fetch the novices and bring us’ Home.’

As the following ten days unfold, we learn Peggy and Ed, Michael and Clare, are representative of the other PV’s we will meet: the Schletzbaum family, as well as Trish and her two nieces from Massachusetts and the group we call the ‘teenagers’- Jill Wallace and Jenny Wiley (more about them later!) Jen’s brother John, Bill and Fabio- all living together in the big old parish house and going to work everyday- to run camps, to do house repair, to tutor. At night we pray and reflect on our day ( we especially like the ‘new and the good’ and will use it often in the following months.) We also have fun- who would have thought that Demolition Derbies were real? Remember Chubby Bunny?

When it is time to leave, Kate is in tears, so I figure our trip has been a success. Only when I promise we will return the following summer does she stop crying and start to plan for the following year.

Flash-forward: July, 2012
Kate Maroney, 29, and I, her mother, still only a teeny bit older, are leaving once again for West Virginia. Although we have been to WV many times since 1994, this is the first time in a dozen years we are able to drive down together. Much has changed: Kate, a professional singer, no longer lives at home; I have retired from teaching, and we have a car which will make the trip! The Passionist Volunteers are now the PV Volunteers, and Jenny and Jill, once apprentices to Katie, are the Co-Directors of the program. We are no longer working in Preston County, but in Wyoming County, and this year in a completely new location. We are not as nervous as we were that first year, but spend a lot of time saying, “I hope so and so is there with us this year” and “I wonder what jobs we will be doing, and how many kids will come to camp” reflecting our veteran rather than newcomer status. Of course, we still criticize one another’s driving and argue about the music we will listen to, but after all, we have been mother and daughter for a long time, and some things will never change.

More important things have not changed, either. The welcome we receive from Jill and Jenny and the other volunteers, some whom we know and some we do not. The strong sense of being in the right place at the right time, doing worthwhile work in sync with incredible human beings, the volunteers as well as the people we serve. Our new Directors, Jill and Jenny, along with the unfailingly imperturbable Dan, follow Katie’s lead in running a program which allows dozens of different people to come together to work and live in an atmosphere of peace, tolerance and justice. In short, our PV experience is a microcosm of the world we wish to inhabit; we get a glimpse of that world whenever we serve.

No tears when we leave this time, because Kate and I know we will be back- and we don’t even argue until we hit New Jersey!

In our February PV Newsletter, we also included a reflection written by another of our volunteers,Maureen Maroney. Maureen thoughtfully compared her experience volunteering her first summer in 1994 and this past summer.

Flashback: July, 1994
Kate Maroney, 12, and I, her mother, slightly older, leave New Jersey for Wild and Wonderful West Virginia to be Passionist Volunteers for the first time ever. Attracted by the family- welcoming structure, and completely seduced by the incredibly charismatic Katie LaCarrubba, we plan to spend two weeks in Preston County, living in community and helping out where needed. Lacking a car capable of making the trip, we take a train, ending up in Cumberland, Maryland where we are met by the first PV’s we will come to know and love: the pre-Luke Mechmanns, who had graciously offered to fetch the novices and bring us’ Home.’

As the following ten days unfold, we learn Peggy and Ed, Michael and Clare, are representative of the other PV’s we will meet: the Schletzbaum family, as well as Trish and her two nieces from Massachusetts and the group we call the ‘teenagers’- Jill Wallace and Jenny Wiley (more about them later!) Jen’s brother John, Bill and Fabio- all living together in the big old parish house and going to work everyday- to run camps, to do house repair, to tutor. At night we pray and reflect on our day ( we especially like the ‘new and the good’ and will use it often in the following months.) We also have fun- who would have thought that Demolition Derbies were real? Remember Chubby Bunny?

When it is time to leave, Kate is in tears, so I figure our trip has been a success. Only when I promise we will return the following summer does she stop crying and start to plan for the following year.

Flash-forward: July, 2012
Kate Maroney, 29, and I, her mother, still only a teeny bit older, are leaving once again for West Virginia. Although we have been to WV many times since 1994, this is the first time in a dozen years we are able to drive down together. Much has changed: Kate, a professional singer, no longer lives at home; I have retired from teaching, and we have a car which will make the trip! The Passionist Volunteers are now the PV Volunteers, and Jenny and Jill, once apprentices to Katie, are the Co-Directors of the program. We are no longer working in Preston County, but in Wyoming County, and this year in a completely new location. We are not as nervous as we were that first year, but spend a lot of time saying, “I hope so and so is there with us this year” and “I wonder what jobs we will be doing, and how many kids will come to camp” reflecting our veteran rather than newcomer status. Of course, we still criticize one another’s driving and argue about the music we will listen to, but after all, we have been mother and daughter for a long time, and some things will never change.

More important things have not changed, either. The welcome we receive from Jill and Jenny and the other volunteers, some whom we know and some we do not. The strong sense of being in the right place at the right time, doing worthwhile work in sync with incredible human beings, the volunteers as well as the people we serve. Our new Directors, Jill and Jenny, along with the unfailingly imperturbable Dan, follow Katie’s lead in running a program which allows dozens of different people to come together to work and live in an atmosphere of peace, tolerance and justice. In short, our PV experience is a microcosm of the world we wish to inhabit; we get a glimpse of that world whenever we serve.

No tears when we leave this time, because Kate and I know we will be back- and we don’t even argue until we hit New Jersey!

In our February PV Newsletter, we also included a reflection written by another of our volunteers,Maureen Maroney. Maureen thoughtfully compared her experience volunteering her first summer in 1994 and this past summer.

Flashback: July, 1994
Kate Maroney, 12, and I, her mother, slightly older, leave New Jersey for Wild and Wonderful West Virginia to be Passionist Volunteers for the first time ever. Attracted by the family- welcoming structure, and completely seduced by the incredibly charismatic Katie LaCarrubba, we plan to spend two weeks in Preston County, living in community and helping out where needed. Lacking a car capable of making the trip, we take a train, ending up in Cumberland, Maryland where we are met by the first PV’s we will come to know and love: the pre-Luke Mechmanns, who had graciously offered to fetch the novices and bring us’ Home.’

As the following ten days unfold, we learn Peggy and Ed, Michael and Clare, are representative of the other PV’s we will meet: the Schletzbaum family, as well as Trish and her two nieces from Massachusetts and the group we call the ‘teenagers’- Jill Wallace and Jenny Wiley (more about them later!) Jen’s brother John, Bill and Fabio- all living together in the big old parish house and going to work everyday- to run camps, to do house repair, to tutor. At night we pray and reflect on our day ( we especially like the ‘new and the good’ and will use it often in the following months.) We also have fun- who would have thought that Demolition Derbies were real? Remember Chubby Bunny?

When it is time to leave, Kate is in tears, so I figure our trip has been a success. Only when I promise we will return the following summer does she stop crying and start to plan for the following year.

Flash-forward: July, 2012
Kate Maroney, 29, and I, her mother, still only a teeny bit older, are leaving once again for West Virginia. Although we have been to WV many times since 1994, this is the first time in a dozen years we are able to drive down together. Much has changed: Kate, a professional singer, no longer lives at home; I have retired from teaching, and we have a car which will make the trip! The Passionist Volunteers are now the PV Volunteers, and Jenny and Jill, once apprentices to Katie, are the Co-Directors of the program. We are no longer working in Preston County, but in Wyoming County, and this year in a completely new location. We are not as nervous as we were that first year, but spend a lot of time saying, “I hope so and so is there with us this year” and “I wonder what jobs we will be doing, and how many kids will come to camp” reflecting our veteran rather than newcomer status. Of course, we still criticize one another’s driving and argue about the music we will listen to, but after all, we have been mother and daughter for a long time, and some things will never change.

More important things have not changed, either. The welcome we receive from Jill and Jenny and the other volunteers, some whom we know and some we do not. The strong sense of being in the right place at the right time, doing worthwhile work in sync with incredible human beings, the volunteers as well as the people we serve. Our new Directors, Jill and Jenny, along with the unfailingly imperturbable Dan, follow Katie’s lead in running a program which allows dozens of different people to come together to work and live in an atmosphere of peace, tolerance and justice. In short, our PV experience is a microcosm of the world we wish to inhabit; we get a glimpse of that world whenever we serve.

No tears when we leave this time, because Kate and I know we will be back- and we don’t even argue until we hit New Jersey!