What would you like to know about St. Joan of Arc? Do you have a story about our parish or of general interest that you think others would like to hear? For story ideas, contact Jeff Rholl, jeff@stjoan.com.

Ronnie Angelus and her "Stories of Grace"

...featured in upcoming book on Women's Spirituality

Jeff Rholl enjoys his volunteer job as webmaster for stjoan.com and working with delightful people like Ronnie Angelus.
When we started this project that has become stjoan.com, I didn't know who I would meet along my journey to reach our goal of building an online support center for what we see on Sunday mornings and during the week. I anticipated working with the staff fairly closely as they learned how to use the website as a tool for their ministries. The staff has indeed embraced our website and found creative ways to use it's messaging power. I should have known, however, that it was the "average parishioner" that would most intimately be the heart and soul of our online community. That is the way St. Joan of Arc works and that is what we have since come to call collaborative ministry. And so it has occurred for our website. Very little staff time goes into the product that appears daily at stjoan.com. Whereas many large churches have a staff member who "does" the webpage, ours is a collaborative effort between 30-80 parishioners all volunteering their time, as well as their hearts, to the cause of informing, educating, and celebrating the cause that is our mission at St. Joan of Arc.

St. Joan of Arc is a joyful Christian community which celebrates the loving Word of God in worship and in action. We transcend traditional boundaries and draw those who seek spiritual growth and social justice. We welcome diverse ideas and encourage reflection on the message of the Gospel. We are committed to the equality of all our members and strive to ensure their full participation through liturgy, education, and service. By these means we seek to empower all who come to grow in wisdom and bring to reality the promise of Christ.
- St. Joan of Arc Mission Statement

Whereas, this website is not a ministry unto itself, it is a communication tool impacting those in our community and outside our community carrying the powerful messages of the individual ministries. One such example is the subject of this story.

WebReporter Ronnie Angelus
Ronnie Angelus is one of many who signed up to report on stories for our website. Ronnie is a 75 year-old dynamo who has helped with many stories on our website and organized a recruitment effort last January that landed us several new reporters and photographers. Ronnie also happens to volunteer at Grace House leading a weekly writing group. This combination of volunteer tasks led to a series of stories Ronnie wrote earlier this year called "Stories of Grace". These stories, mostly of residents living with AIDS, were well received by our local community but also noticed by others across the country. Mary Faulkner, an author living in Nashville, came upon Ronnie's stories and interviewed her in her Bloomington home. Mary also attended a mass at SJA while she was in town. She clearly was impressed with St. Joan of Arc and specifically this talented writer who was painting faces on the story of AIDS. Our own Ronnie Angelus and her "Stories of Grace" are part of a Mary Faulkner book to be released this spring by MacMillan Press.

Mary Faulkner holds a Master's degree in Religious Education from Scarritt-Bennett Graduate School and is a writer, director of the Institute of Integrative Healing Arts in Nashville, Tennessee, and a psychotherapist(and sometimes standup comic) in private practice. Her first book, which she co-authored with
Read a press release about Mary's first book.
Bob O'Gorman, who teaches at the Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University in Chicago, was called The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Catholicism.

The new book, which includes Ronnie's story, is tentatively titled The Complete Idiot's Guide to Women's Spirituality . Ronnie will be one of many women Mary Faulkner uses to put a face on the spiritual side of being female. Here is what Mary told us about the new book in an email:

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Women's Spirituality is part of a series of books on religion published by MacMillan. The series is very popular and offers overviews of various world religions. Bob O'Gorman and I wrote The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Catholicism (2000), which continues to be a very good seller...mostly among Catholics.

"Idiot" means that the book must be able to explain things to someone who does not know anything about the subject...terms must be clearly defined and all concepts must be developed from introductory level to more complex. In other words, don't make references to anything you aren't ready to thoroughly discuss! Once things are clearly defined, the discussion can be as deep as it needs to be to adequately cover the meaning.

Women's Spirituality will be released sometime in February 2002. It will be around 350 pages, and will offer a working definition of the term "Women's Spirituality", an overview of the movement, profiles of some of the foremothers (i.e. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Tubman et.al.) an overview of feminist/liberation theologies, recent biblical scholarship along with a discussion of the reinterpretations of scripture, women's rituals and ceremonies, women's spirituality vis-a-vis transformation of culture...both a brief history of and recent examples including personal stories of how women are practicing their spirituality today. As you can see, it is pretty comprehensive.
We do not know how much of the humor of the Idiot's Guide to Catholicism will be present in the new book. We have been given a sneak peak, in rough draft form, of Ronnie's part of the book. We include it below with Mary's permission. Thank you, Ronnie, for all you do telling the stories of Grace House and of St. Joan of Arc.

Ronnie Angelus: Putting a Face on AIDS

Ronnie was born ROSALIE MOORE in New York City, in the PolyClinic Hospital at 52nd and Broadway, right where the Schubert theater now stands. Her mother was a dancer and her father a politician. Ronnie has combined these personable skills into her own version, which is a vibrant, composed, outgoing woman of action who loves people.

When asked to describe spirituality, Ronnie began by saying, "It's not religion. It's not legalistic or bound to rules and codes. It is the totality of who you are. It's how you have internalized the rituals and experiences, how they have become the fabric of your life. Spirituality permeates everything you do, it is how you think, act, live in the world. It is completely inclusive, it’s found in nature, down in the gutter, in temples, churches, and mosques, alike. It's what illuminates you. It's all the bits and pieces of faith that get you up when life has knocked you down." She concluded with a laugh and said, "It's everywhere, nowhere, and somewhere…I don't have a clue what it is!"

If Ronnie doesn't have a clue, which I doubt, she does have clarity on what she is about these days. A few years ago, Ronnie had a dream about working with AIDS patients. The dream said that their stories must be told. Ronnie BEGAN her career as a writer at 70, and just a few years later, her dream became a reality. She started a writing workshop at Grace House, an assisted living facility for people with AIDS, originally sponsored by St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church in Minneapolis.

Ronnie uses writing exercises suggested in Natalie Goldberg's book "Writing Down the Bones." She has had incredible results, and collects them and profiles of the residents for publication as "Stories of Grace" on the St. Joan website(WWW.STJOAN.COM) She encouraged the residents at Grace House to write their own stories, but they politely passed, and asked her to so do it for them.

Ronnie describes the process as triumphal and joyous. "They are facing the greatest mystery of all--death, and are having the time of their lives. Sometimes the stories are heroic; sometimes painful and filled with loss; they are a rich mixture of the best and the worst life has to offer. They aren't just the stories of the residents, although theirs are the first to be told, but of all the people who care for them; all of the people who take a step away from their everyday lives to risk caring while remaining steady in the face of it all. In return are abundant gifts of the magic of laughter and sharing life. I am both filled with gratitude and am humbled by this experience." Ronnie is reminding the world "AIDS has Faces."

Grace House opened in 1990, as the result of an AIDS task force at Joan of Arc, which agreed to lease the group a building at a nominal sum. Parishioners put their communal shoulder to the wheel, and converted it into a facility to serve the needs of people with AIDS. The renovation was extensive, including the installation of an elevator. They began with all volunteers, and later added professional staff. Volunteers continue to take a big part in caring for residents. In response to the growing epidemic of the disease, a second home next door to the original was opened in 1994, called Grace House II.

Joan of Arc is an unusual parish. It combines many ministries and many individuals who often fall between the cracks of more traditional churches. In reading the mission statement, it might appear that it is not different from any other Christian mission. The difference might be found in the fact that Joan of Arc puts these words into practice in a way that has earned it a national reputation as a cutting edge church community.

Church of St. Joan of Arc
Mission Statement

St. Joan of Arc is a joyful Christian community, which celebrates the loving Word of God in worship and in action. We transcend traditional boundaries and draw those who seek spiritual growth and social justice. We welcome diverse ideas and encourage reflection on the message of the Gospel. We are committed to the equality of all our members and strive to ensure their full participation through liturgy, education, and service. By these means we seek to empower all who come to grow in wisdom and bring to reality the promise of Christ.

Ronnie has been a member of Joan of Arc "on and off" for thirty years. While this parish embraces the inclusive worldview that she shares, "big" church, or the organizational church often falls short of her ideals. When this happens, she takes a break. "If it wasn't for Joan of Arc, there wouldn't be a spiritual home for me." This is a sentiment shared by many who attend there. Ronnie came to Joan of Arc after having a spiritual awakening in a church in Columbus, Ohio. She had entered one of those "dark nights of the soul," and felt she had lost everything she held dear. As she entered the church, she was filled with "the smell of moldy concrete walls imbedded with decades olds molecules of incense." She remembers: "I felt totally stripped. There I was, kneeling before the altar, my arms stretched out wide, and I completely surrendered. It's over! Then, suddenly, strength flowed into me; I was filled with grace."

In that moment, she was given insight into the nature of the sacred. "It is not the outward signs and symbols. It exists in the communion of people. The true Eucharist is the trust and respect we give one another." Ronnie was raised with ecumenism in a family of German Lutherans, Episcopalians, Greek Episcopalians, Methodists, and Tibetan Buddhists. She chose Catholicism at the age of eleven, and was baptized into the Church.

She considers herself a John XXIII Catholic, and wonders what ever happened to the changes that were promised at Vatican II. "It's like we got all caught up in form, rather than substance. For instance, I can get profoundly offended listening to a long discussion on whether to hold the host in the right hand and put it in your mouth with the left hand or the other way around, while a nation [Africa] is dying of AIDS. What is real communion?

In those moments, I just shrug my shoulders and say to myself, "you [the church] just don't get it, and somehow I am able to hold it all a bit lighter." When I asked Ronnie how she balances her level of activism with the church's apparent lack of it at times, she said, "Life has taught me how little can be transformed beyond myself."

Three things that Ronnie holds sacred and that nourish her spirit include: "Talking with my daughter who opens vistas for me and makes me laugh. She is a mentor, teacher, and guru, without her I would still be wearing high heels and an apron. Being in the circle of Divas, my writing group, who shout, "go girl" and give me standing ovations with their smiles and tears. We have fallen in love with one another! And sitting next to Mary and Claude Paradis during Sunday Mass at St. Joan of Arc, which is as close to pure goodness that I will know in this lifetime."

Here is an open letter Ronnie recently wrote for the St. Joan of Arc website.

An Open Letter:

I wish I could answer your question about when the next "Story of Grace" will be ready. The stories, like the place, seem to have a life of their own-they're amorphous, or whatever that word is.

I've been thinking that I could write a story with the disease as the main character. Because it takes so many forms and each of the stories of grace at Grace House is affected by it in different ways. Two of the men have serious neurological disorders -- they range from almost total paralysis, to a minor partial recovery, to a daily deterioration, which affects communication in writing, and to some extent in speech in another man. One day there is triumph and then weakness.

Theodore, who loves flowers, falls and breaks his hip, in the garden of all places, after his amazing recovery from the back surgery and the hope that the persistent pain would actually cease. People have good days and bad -- some will talk about it and some won't. One man found a deep religious experience with the Jehovah Witnesses and feels saved. His salvation has made it incumbent upon him to renounce who he has been, and maybe is. But he is joyfully getting ready to be baptized in a huge auditorium. He will undergo the rigors of the experience, although some days it's hard for him to move.

The stories of grace have taken on a life of their own. I could write about Michelle. She's a catalyst of the grace some of the residents have found. She's the Director of volunteers, caregivers and God knows what all. She's, also as I've been told, a "world class athlete" whose pictures line the walls of Augsburg College showing her exploits. She's got multi-colored dreadlocks, wears safari shorts and can talk like an MBA who's in charge of a major division of General Electric. She writes with power and grace and has a spirituality that makes even taking out the garbage and rubbish an exercise in love; love of the universe, the environment, and the ritual of recycling back into the earth the gifts it gives us.

I could write about each of them. They've been cutting into my soul, these people of Grace House. Patrick and Mary Jo and Nancy, and voices I've heard when I've called, and John whose quiet presence brings confidence and whose description of the disease left the visitors from Guatemala gently informed and humbled and bowed low. And me with them.

The volunteers. Many of them have been coming faithfully week after week, since the program began. They have laughed and talked and learned to love so many of the residents. They have sorrowfully buried some of these good souls; applauded and cheered as some grew in strength and went back into unassisted living (if there is any such thing). They've met people who knew how to love and some steeped in anger and dejection and on rare occasions, someone who was downright mean. Y'know, it's like they say, "Wherever you go there you are." The men and women are who they are. The disease lives its own life and sometimes transforms and changes them.

It is too raw right now for me to write any more. I have a wedding to go to at Grace House in June. I need the celebration. We're starting a new series of writing groups next week. I need to be back there to be nourished and refreshed. I carry deep in me something someone said about the stories. "I used to think of HIV/AIDS as a separate thing, a terrible disease out there somewhere. But now it has faces--it is William, and Theodore, and Charli, and Clifford." That's a huge thing to think about. It makes my gratitude to them and love for them even deeper. It was their courage that gave the "face" to AIDS.

For now, this is the last story of grace. And surprising to me, it is my own.

The preceding article was written by webreporter Ronnie Angelus, and appeared as an email to the Joan of Arc webmaster. Since it's printing, Ronnie has decided to continue her "Stories of Grace." Thank you, Ronnie!

Editor's notes:


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