Work Commission Report October, 2003-October, 2004

During the last year much time and energy was devoted to preparations for the All Commissions' Conference (ACC) held in June. Pauline coordinated many of the logistical details. During the conference, presentations were given by Teresa Redder, Mary Kim, and Sally Haddad. Maria Batista recorded the sessions. Fr. Nils participated in the discussions. His homily at one of the Masses contained the now famous question, "Abba, Daddy, how did you do that?"

We met as a commission in New Jersey in February, 2004 to plan for the year and determine how we could best meet the needs of Regional Work Commission Chairs when they gathered at the ACC. By the end of September a summary of our sessions and presentations will be available on the internet for anyone to download.

While Mary and Ed Zablocki were NAFRA Work Commission Chairs, Ed created a very extensive website with many resources related to Catholicism, Franciscan Spirituality, and work. Thanks to Ed giving permission, and Vicki's very able computer capabilities, all those resources are now available when someone accesses information about work through the NAFRA website.

The Work Commission Resource Manual has been updated including the addition of a section of resources for the monetarily unemployed. Plans are being made to put portions of this manual on the internet so it is available to more people and also to minimize the parts of the manual Teresa Redder will have to organize and ship to fill orders. The price of the manual has been raised to $25.00 to cover copying, 3-ring binder, and shipping expenses.

Fr. Nils Thompson, OFM, has very graciously served as our Spiritual Assistant for several years. He asked to resign due to health reasons so a search began for a replacement. Thanks to a suggestion from Marie Amore and his listening to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, which all of us were appealing to, Fr. Tod Laverty, OFM, has agreed to be our new Spiritual Assistant.

We will meet as a commission in October, 2004 at Pauline's home to plan how we can be of the most service to the Regional Work Commission Chairs in 2005 and to welcome Fr. Tod. We are moving our meeting to the fall because meeting in February brought too much potential for bad weather interfering with our gathering.

Respectfully submitted,

(signed electronically)

Pauline Cahalan, SFO

NAFRA Work Commission Chair