New Affiliates ‘find deeper meaning in relationships, conversations’

Barb Ceranski
“I’ve always felt this Franciscan influence,” shares new affiliate Barb Ceranski. Sisters taught her in elementary school and served as administrators and teachers at her high school (where she discerned religious life). FSPA taught Barb’s children too. Their principal (an FSPA) “saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself ... encouraged me to consider church ministry.”
A Marathon, Wisconsin resident, Barb is a Viterbo University alumna with a bachelor’s degree in integrated studies and North American Forum on Catechumenate certification. She’s served in parish ministry as a DRE and master catechist at St. Mary’s in Marathon for 38 years; as a DRE and director of adult formation and evangelization at St. Anne in Wausau for eight years; and as interim director of St. Anthony Spirituality Center for two years. She volunteers at both the spirituality center and a food pantry, and also as a prayer leader and Eucharistic minister.
Barb, who shares that she “truly enjoys monthly affiliate gatherings … finding deeper meaning in relationships and conversations,” reading “Building Stones for a Fundamental Theology” and the Franciscan morning and evening prayers, is led by Sister Jolynn Brehm.

Raymond List
A “strong interest” in Franciscan 
spirituality since childhood, discovering FSPA through retreats at the Franciscan Spirituality Center and the desire to “reconnect with my roots” have all culminated in the new affiliation of Raymond List.
But you might say that he has been grounded in the spirit of Franciscanism, of caring for others, all along. Raymond has served the profession of health care with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology with which he’s cared for those in need in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, from 1996 to 2003; in the U.S. Air Force for the next five years; and, since then, at Gundersen Health System in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He has cared for his sons, Isaac and Simon, and volunteered in their band and foreign language program activities. He has cared for the earth in the Villa organic garden at FSPA farmlands at St. Joseph Ridge.
The new affiliate, led in the program by Sister Celesta Day, is seeking that Franciscan spirit in part to help care for someone else—himself. “I believe involvement with FSPA will help bring purpose and peace,” shares Raymond, “back into my life.”