Valley Park, Missouri

Hi! Greetings from sunny, cold, Missouri.  Guess what - when it snows it also gets cold!  I guess if I want one I have to take the other.  Yesterday it was 9 below zero in the morning.  When we ran PFP in the afternoon it had warmed (?) up to 2 above zero.  It hasn’t bothered me too much, but George hates it.  At least we have no smog!...

.....  We have PE  once a week.  We do exercises and then practice basketball, but these last two weeks we have had to do our exercises inside because of the cold.  We square dance afterwards.  We aren’t too terribly coordinated, but it doesn’t matter because we have a lot of fun.  We will have a basketball game against the novices about Easter.  It may not be the most professional game, but have you ever seen a bunch of nuns play basketball.  I can hardly wait.  ...

...I have to tell you about this new course we started last week - Scripture.  Doesn’t sound too exciting does it!  Strange as it seems, it is exciting!  You may think I’m gong nunnery on you, and maybe I am, but this course is really great.  Sr. Brigida who has been teaching for quite a few years, is our teacher.  She is a fascinating person.  She wrote her thesis for her Ph.D. while in a concentration camp in the Philippines during the war!  She approaches it, not as something that happened a long time ago and that is dead, but as something vitally alive.  We are each in our own lives living the Old Testament - the exodus from Egypt, etc....

....Back to the Old Testament and scripture.  We are starting to read it on our own a little each day.  We are eventually to read it from cover to cover.  In the OT we can see the pattern of our own lives.  God makes a promise to us and no matter what we do, He will always keep his part of the promise.  It is really consoling.  ...

...Somebody else yelled at me for not using both sides of the paper.  They said it wasn’t in accord with the spirit of poverty.  ...

After the first big snow when we had eight inches, I went sledding.  If you could have seen me, you would have died laughing.  I must admit I did look pretty funny.  I had on one of the old postulant dresses (which are kind of like Cheryl’s and Dorothy’s were), my green sweat shirt, my ear muffs and my beige - anyway tan - gloves, and my tennis shoes, and my boots.  If you can imagine about twenty people running around playing in the snow and in about the same attire, except for variance in color, you have a general idea of what was really a hilarious sight.  

The reason I haven’t written to you more often is because I am allowed only two extra letters a month - and this is really enough for all the free time we have.  ...

....  I’ll fill you in now on the latest - which is MARDI GRAS!!!  We have to celebrate such a big religious feast as that - the day before Lent is very important!  Last night we all started working on our costumes.  That’s right - we all wear costumes, except for the professed.  The novices don’t even have to wear their habits or their veils.  From bits and pieces from the costume room and from our own feeble, little minds some really rare ideas have budded forth.  The kitchen crew is coming as a balanced meal - meat, potatoes, vegetables, dessert - and George and another girl as the urn.  Then we have the cast of Mary Poppins, Poncho Villa, Betsy Ross, a bunny (not the Playboy type!), two fingers with a cigarette, a match, etc.  These are just some of the Postulants costumes.  I don’t know about the novices yet.  I suppose you are wondering where I fit into this rather unusual assortment of characters.  Even if you aren’t  wondering I will tell you anyway.  I will be wearing a fur hat (Russian style), big high black patent leather boots, a long black mustache and I will be carrying an American flag.  What am I?  I’m a Russian defector!

...I’m sending you a sample of what I haven’t been learning in lettering class.  I use my own free style type of lettering, because I can’t do the others very well yet - but I’m trying and that’s what counts - or so they have been telling me!  ...

...  I haven’t had too much time to play my guitar, but I am going to try and practice at least a couple of times a week.  George and I got together last Saturday (we have optional recreation on Saturday and Thursday) for a couple of hours.  Some others joined us and it was really great.  It is a good outlet for your emotions.  It is nice to be able to just sit down and play or goof around working on chords and strums.

We are finished with Logic.  We had our exam Feb. 18, our fourth anniversary.  It wasn’t too hard; I think I did okay.  One thing that is lacking here is the great pressure for grades.  You are expected to try your hardest, but you aren’t supposed to overdo it.  One thing you can’t do is stay up all night to study - lights out at 9:30 PM.  We will start Introductory Philosophy  this week.  I can hardly wait.  I will write and let you know how it is.

Ecce Ancilla Domini    (Latin: "Behold the handmaiden of the Lord") 

...  It is hard to believe I only have one more year left as a teenager.  It should prove to be exciting and quite different!  We have only a little more than three months until reception.  Time sure goes quickly, as I’m sure you have noticed.  Just a short time ago we were in grade school, then high school, and now we are entering into the adult world, with its responsibility but also its tremendous joys and self-satisfaction.  Life is really a beautiful and fantastic mystery.  We are here for such a short, but meaningful time.  God has given us all a very definite role.  He gives us a goal and a path to reach that goal.  Sometimes it is difficult to see, but He will always help us if we ask Him to.

(This music does things to me.  I don’t always write like this.  I get a whole bunch of ideas in my head, but they don’t come out too coherently on paper!)  We had  an interesting Philosophy assignment.  We were to think about something.  What it was or what its essence is.  It was a different experience.  I guess I’m not too used to just thinking.  I chose “blue” as my object of thought.  My thinking was influenced particularly by my associating blue with the sky and the sea.  There is really a peace and serenity always there.

Yesterday - (Monday) was Sister Mark’s feastday.  She is the superior of the house (but not the Novitiate - it gets a little confusing so I won’t try to explain!).  We had a Sunday schedule - rising at 6:15, no work or classes!  We spent the day rehearsing our program.  ... Sr. Mark gets all our movies for us, so we put on a program about movies.  We were divided into four eras - silent movies, beginnings of sound, the 30’s and 40’s, and the modern era. The silent era included such favorites as Mary Pickford, Rudolph Valentino, Charlie Chaplin and the Keystone Kops.  Believe it or not, George was Charlie Chaplin!  She was terrific!  We also had Laurel and Hardy. (I wouldn’t want to forget them!)   The next era included Shirley Temple, Will Rogers, a chorus of flappers, Al Jolson. ..”.  The next era brought Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy LaMarr on the Road to Hong Kong.  ...Then came the modern era.  Since so many modern movies have been made in and about England, our skit concerned a typical American character, James Cagney, the American gangster, in London.  ....  The Beatles look up, yell “Beatles”, catch James as he falls, and carry him off, singing “You’re finished, Ya, Ya, Ya.”  I had a very large (?) part.  I was a Beatle!  ...

...We are changing work assignments on Thursday.  I will be going to the library for an hour, and for the other hour and a half I will be taking sewing lessons!  How does that grab you ?!  George is also going to partake of this fare!  I pity Sr. Gonzaga, the Sister in charge of the sewing room and the sewing classes.  Wish me luck - I may need it.  I’m not too sure about my coordination with a needle and thread....

... .  Our weather is really getting warm.  Some days it rains, then it gets hot and humid, ugh!...

I just finished a Philosophy test, so this is probably a very bad time to write.  It is my first test (I think) I have flunked in the convent.  I kind of hope it is my last, too.  I can attribute it all to my usual laziness and putting off studying until the night before.  Only I can’t fall back on staying up all night to study - once 9:00 PM comes around - that is it!  ...

...Did you see the letter where I wrote about our visit to a center connected with some settlement houses?  I’ll take it for granted - no - and tell you, at least a few of my impressions.  About thirteen postulants went in, accompanied by Sr. Gregory Marie from St. Anne’s and Sr. Camilla from here.  The program director told us about their basic objectives and aims and how they go about reaching them - or at least trying.  They have clubs and activities for all ages - from the youngest to the oldest.  The center is one of three in the city sponsored by two Churches and the United Way.  They have their chapel right in the center.  The chapel was beautiful with a baptistery behind the altar for baptism by immersion.  The building is colorful and modern.  I think they reach many, many people who really need help.  Sr. Gregory Marie told us that when they ask us what we want to do, we should say to work with the people in settlement houses.  

Another tid-bit of VP news - did you know I’m in the sewing room?  The past few days we have been sewing on our snaps and name tags on our habits.  We will be received in thirty eight days.  We go on retreat June 14th.  A ten day retreat - eight full days.  I can hardly wait.  No classes, no work! - and some spiritual benefits.  Please pray that I make a good retreat.  Are you getting excited about coming.  I sure am.  At least I won’t have to decide what to wear - I think I’ll wear my basic grey!  

Ascension Thursday should be a fun day.  Sr. Miriam Samuel said something this morning about no bells and pick-up meals.   Sounds like a relaxing day - I hope!  

it is beginning to get warm - the weather I mean.  We haven’t had too much hot and humid weather, but what samples we have had are not too encouraging.  Their spring is like our summer.  (I’m now writing to you from the privacy of my little cubicle - it is 8:30 PM.  We are having an electric storm  [I think that is what they call it.]  It is tremendous - lightning  and thunder - not like Whittier, that’s for sure.)  The insects around here sure  do bite a lot.  Summer hasn’t yet begun and I’m already beginning to feel it.  The rain really sounds great.  I can look out the window from the third floor - down onto the trees and out to the dark sky.  It is magnificent.  

I think I have recovered from this afternoon - so I’ll tell you about my other classes.  For our Scripture final - due May 21 - we have to write a one page appreciation of Saul, David and Solomon three pages in all.  We are also having another Liturgy test this week, probably Saturday.  Our Maryknoll History reports will be due soon - things are getting a little hectic!  

...We have had a few tests recently, but not really exams.  We are having a Scripture test on Thursday.  One pressing problem is that our papers for Maryknoll History (our area studies) and maybe our Philosophy papers, are due before retreat, and retreat should start around June 14.  I’m really looking forward to this ten day retreat (actually it is only eight full days).  Right now we are in the midst of a special project - making 200 centerpieces   for the Serra Club convention which is going to be held in St. Louis in June.  On each of the centerpieces is a plaster statue of Fr. Serra - and we are making the statues.  After they are molded, we have to repair them - broken hands and feet, holes, etc.  We have over 150 molded and five finished ones - painted and ready to go.  They all have to be finished before retreat.  We may be a little busy!  the work is being done on the statues by both novices and postulants, with Sr. Rita Anne in charge. 

The postulants are also practicing a play for Mother Columba’s feast day, June 9.  We are doing “I Remember Mama”.  I haven’t done anything with the play yet.  I’m working on make-up, so my chance will come!

Last week when I went into St. Ann’s I said good-bye to my kids.  I took some pictures of all the postulants with their groups.  I hope they turn out okay.

In answer to your questions about a summer vacation - yes, we do have a vacation.  In August we have a week off.  We can do what we want when we want (within reason).  They have it worked out where one half of the group is on vacation the following week.  Someone has to keep the house running.

The assignments came out last week.  It was exciting to hear all these people be assigned to Africa and Latin America and Hawaii, etc.  Even if I only knew a few, it was still exciting.  One of the sisters from St. Ann’s is going to Africa.

I didn’t play tennis on Ascension Thursday, but it was still a fabulous day.  About half the group went to the river with their picnic lunches.  I went to the Ridge with another group.  We picked up all our food for the whole day in the morning and put it in boxes.  We had fried chicken, and sandwiches, pop, candy, brownies, etc.  We played guitars and sang and roasted  marshmallows and hiked!

Pentecost was another big day.  We could talk throughout the house, like on Christmas and Easter.  I played around with statues for a while and helped to write chords on song sheets.  In the afternoon a group got together and practiced for a hootenanny we had scheduled for that night’s recreation.  We had supper outside on the Lanai.  It was semi-pick up.  After supper we had our hootenanny.  It was really a success, thanks to Mary Jo’s organizing.  Memorial Day we had a free half day - that means no classes.  At ten in the morning we had a flag-raising ceremony.  It was really nice.  We had a drum and a bugle for accompaniment. ..

...We are on a new summer schedule now, and a new schedule because we are now canonical novices.  I won’t write all the details in this letter, since you will be able to read all about it in my “home” letter.  (As soon as I finish it!)

You might be wondering if it feels any different being a Canonical novice instead of a postulant.  Physically - yes.  It is quite a bit warmer, but at least it is not tight!  I don’t mean to throw these big words at you - like Canonical.  That just means that this is the year of novitiate that canon law requires as a novice.  We are distinguished by either Canonical or Senior....

June 28

...Last night we watched Sing Out ‘66 on television.  It was terrific.  We had learned a few of the songs already.  They have a record out “Up With People.”  It is pretty good, I guess.  I haven’t heard it, but since they are so good, I just figure the record is good! ...

...(It’s now evening and I’m sitting in front of the TV, alone, watching a western.  So I won’t scandalize you, I guess I’ll explain.  There is going to be a repeat on the sing Out ‘66 program.  I guess I’m a little early, so here I sit!  I played pinochle tonight for the first time in a  long time.  We played partners, single deck, no passing, bidding starting at 15.  When the game ended I was losing.  Oh well, can’t win them all.

(They are singing “Up With People” at the moment.)

My classes are Vows, Typing, and Psychology.  This is our summer schedule.  We are also going to start the SRA reading laboratory to increase our comprehension and our speed before we get to college.  Pretty good huh!  All I have to do is take advantage of all these opportunities...

...Hi!  Happy Halloween!  (A little belated by the time you get the greeting!)  Tomorrow night all good ghosts and goblins and witches come out!  We will be busy watching the postulants program.  They have been working on it for quite a while.  (They have had a little more time than we did!)

This week I had a lot of variety during my assigned work time.  One  day I raked leaves outside.  The weather was perfect.  Just what you picture a fall day to be like.  I hope we have a fire and burn some leaves.  Mrs. Kern says they really smell great.  At least that is what she told Sr. Georgianna last year!...

...I started reading the epistle at Mass today.  We rotate on that, just like we do on regulating.  From here I go to participating in the Divine Office as reader and up the line.  I think I am going to enjoy it.

We had Forty Hours this week.  The novices had adoration during the night and morning hours.  I was on from 2:00 to 2:30 AM.  It was so beautiful in chapel with all the candles blaring on the altar and almost no one there.

Sr. Miriam Pacis left Friday afternoon for the Motherhouse.  She is going to be in charge of the kitchen there.  Sr. Athonita is now in charge of the kitchen.  I wonder if we will have fried Zebra meat!

I went into Valley Park last Friday to baby-sit.  Only three mothers came for the sewing classes, so we didn’t have too many children to baby-sit, only eight, and there were four of us!  The children were between 1 and 5.  The only bad thing about the set-up is the fact that the mother’s class is in the same room as the one we use.  The children can keep getting in the way, and it isn’t exactly a quiet atmosphere or a real change of scenery, but it is giving them an opportunity to learn.  (Boy, is that a long-winded, rambling sentence!)...

...We started our hobby groups this week.  I’m in the art group.  I can’t believe I learned so much in such a short period of time.  There is a lot more to a picture than first meets the eye!  The course we are taking is an art seminar for the home from the Metropolitan Art Museum. It has 12 portfolios with twelve pictures in each.  A book gives the information about the painting and criticizes it - asks questions, encourages discussion.  We just took a look at six portraits last week.  Even a portrait tells much more that you would think.  The colors, the positioning, the composition, all fit in.  I think I am going to learn a lot from this group.  I may even learn to like and understand something about art!...

...We have started to sing high Masses again.  We had discontinued them for the summer.  They really are beautiful, especially in English, when you know what you are saying....

...We are changing group charges tomorrow.  Our group goes to dining room, serving guests, organizing Bible vigils, etc.  I think this will be a busier six weeks than the past ones were!

...We are hitting the books a little more often now-a-days.  I have a term paper due for Theology, the beginning of December.  It is supposed to be somehow related to the course - the Redemptive Incarnation.  I’m doing my paper on Christ as Mediator.  It is hard to take and develop just one point because every aspect of Christ is so closely connected - Redemption, incarnation, priesthood, etc.

The studies are a little harder than before.  I think I’m more use to concrete subjects like Math or History.  Now I have to do more reflective thinking.  Everything isn’t always perfectly clear.  One thing about the classes, though, is that the material absorbed becomes a real part of your life.  Whereas History does not affect your life and thoughts too much, Theology and Scripture lay the very foundations of your life.

In Scripture we are taking the Gospel of Mark, line by line.  His gospel is beautiful.  He brings out little, insignificant and unimportant details that really make Christ and the apostles seem so real,

so alive.

In Vows class we are studying obedience.  When you look at it from a positive angle, it is beautiful.  Like Christ’s obedience, it is a giving of self in love.

On to lighter subjects!

Last Sunday evening we saw “Through the Looking Glass” on colored TV in the professed sisters’ community room.  It was a musical, almost like Alice in Wonderland.  It was a lot of fun.  On Friday evening we watched (not on color TV!) ”Barefoot in Athens”, a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation, about Socrates.  ...

...Thanksgiving is fast approaching and we have much to do.  Our charge group is in charge of the dining room - decorations!  We also have to have a couple of Bible vigils for Thanksgiving, Advent and maybe the Immaculate Conception....

...Winter fluctuates around here.  One day it will be cold, the next day cool, and maybe the next day, really warm.  I love it - every day something new.  The weather is just like us - it doesn’t follow a schedule!

Right now our basketball team is practicing for the big game on the afternoon of the Eve of Thanksgiving.  I didn’t try out for the team, but us non-players are going to whip up some cheers and maybe some entertainment! ...

...Did I ever tell you about the new schedule for night - about retiring time?  We don’t have to be in bed until 10:30 PM.  We can get ready for bed after 9:00 PM, we just have lights out at 9:30 PM, except for a lamp in the study areas.  It really makes it nice because you can go to the chapel or the library until 10:00 PM or you can get ready for bed and sit out in the study area and read until 10:30 PM.  The only problem is that the longer I stay up, the wider awake I get!

Hi!  happy New Year ( a little late!)!  First of all, thank you for the Christmas gifts....

...The other novice with me and I got into quite a deep discussion.  You might not call it deep, but serious, not light.  I want to share these thoughts with you..  Maybe they will invoke a response in you.  Maybe you can clarify, add to, or question.  Maybe by the time I get it all down on paper, it will lose a lot and will seem like a lot of trivial nothings.  Here goes! 

  I think I am growing up.  I guess it has taken me a while and now I see I will never be fully “grown up” and mature.  It is something to keep plugging away at day after day.  Sometimes you really feel grown up and everything is relay going great - and then something comes along to burst your bubble - you meet up with reality and its stark realism.  I was never more conscious of myself as a person as I am at this point in my life.  We are all persons.  How?  We are most fully persons in our powers of knowing and loving - and there is an endless chance for growth;  there is so much to know and love.  The realization of other persons as persons is another big insight.  All of us are unique and we are all part of this world - the same 20th century world, which isn’t the same as the world we grew up in.  We grew up in the “old” and must live in the “new”.  The essentials are the same, but the externals aren’t.  We have to learn to ... [ I left for noon prayers.  I don’t remember what I was saying in that last sentence. ]  Now I’m back.  It is now about 2:30 PM.  I was going to baby-sit in Valley Park but they aren’t having the sewing class today.  I’ll see if I can get back on my trend of thought.

There is a whole new trend toward openness - to other people, to events.  We have to be open.  What do I mean by openness?  Terms are hard to define, but I think it is essentially listening, and responding.  Respond  - that is one of Sr. Camilla’s favorite words.  We can’t afford to not become involved.  We have a responsibility.  I never realized before that I - you - we all have a real responsibility - to others, to the world we live in and the persons who are part of our world.  Our actions, our response effects others.  When we do “good” we help to bring humanity and the world to God, when we choose evil, we add to the evil in the world.  there is so much trouble and pain and suffering in the world and we have it so easy.  We really do live in an affluent society.

Another part of openness, is our openness to God.  When we (I turned the record player down, and I lost my trend of thought, sorry!)  We are “open” until it comes to something that goes against our will.

Listening - I think this is one of the most revealing thing I have learned - how important it is to listen.  When you are talking with someone - are you really fully and totally present to that person?  Are you really listening to him; his ideas?  I didn’t realize how much and how easily I could just “tune” people out.  I don’t know if you have ever noticed this.  Try “listening” and being fully present to people.  There is a depth in people that you never knew existed - and then recall, that Christ is in all people.

One of the hardest aspects of openness is opening up yourself.  When you open yourself fully to people, you open yourself up for criticism, suffering - but the happiness and fulfillment are there.  When you open yourself you accept the sufferings of others.  If you love fully, you will be feeling what they feel. 

I’m just rambling and I don’t know if you can get what I was trying to say.  All these thoughts and many more are just running through my mind.  It is wonderful and maybe a little frightening to be aware of the idea of person.  And in back of all of these ideas and thoughts is God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  I’m doing my term paper on Christ as Mediator.  To think that God sent His Son.  That God became man, and he did just that because He loves us, and we surely haven’t done anything to deserve it. 

The more I read, the more I learn in class, the more I meet Christ - I realize how limited is my knowledge.  Then I want to know everything - all at once - everything about God, the Church, the world, science, etc.  Someone said that maybe part of the suffering of this life is not being able to know everything.  When you realize how very limited you are, you see more clearly how infinite God is.  He loves each of the billions of people in the world with an individual love.  He put us here, where we are right now, for a very special reason.  No one else can give him the glory and praise that we can at this moment.  He doesn’t want us like Jim, John, or Mary.  He wants us as the person we are, with all we are - our good points and our failures.  Our failures praise God if we are doing His will.

How do we know what God wants of us?  That is the $64,000 question!  Not really though - we have Christ to follow.  Through our baptism,  God lives in us.  he is present to us every minute of the day.  We have to ask for help though.  We have to realize our need.  We have to realize - why are we here? - and where are we going?  I can’t answer these questions fully, but I have a few thoughts I want to share with you.  We are here to love, to give glory to God.  Where we are going - that is the most alive and living fact.  We are on the way to the Parousia.  We are looking forward to Christ’s second coming.  This doesn’t sound too terribly great and exciting does it!  Sr. Camilla tells it much better.  Death is when we take the last step into the waiting arms of Christ.  We take the step alone - but we are stepping into life.  We are fully persons then - we know and we love.

I think I’d better stop for now.  I don’t want to be preaching, but in order to make a thought or an idea really your own, you have to be able to express it.  When you talk it over and think about it, it becomes deeper and a real part of you....

... Something pretty exciting happened last night.  It almost seems a little hard to believe.  We had been looking for some type of work that the novices could do.  Last night two men came to tell us about an adult-education program in St. Louis that is held at a Presbyterian Community Center, helped under the War on Poverty and is a community and ecumenical adventure.  Of the two men who came to speak to us, one is a Catholic and is in charge of the adult-education program.  The other man is a Japanese, a convert from Buddhism and a Presbyterian minister.  They are located on the outskirts of the inner city.  The program is aimed at having the people reach the level where they can pass the high school equivalency test.  The students range from 18 to 65 years of age.  They are about 70% white and 30% Negro.  We will be teaching either Math or reading.  The ratio is ideal - only 1,2, or 3 students to a teacher.  Besides teaching Math or reading, there is an opportunity for a real personal relationship.  We are there to help these people fulfill their potentialities and to help them realize that they do have potentialities.  The classes start on February 22.  We will be going in on Wednesday evenings.  The classes themselves are 2 hours - from 7 to 9 PM.  They will be furnishing the transportation.

On February 12, we are going to a workshop at St. Louis University in regard to adult education.  On the 19th of February we will be going to a workshop at Greeley House, where we will be teaching.  That will be a more orientation type to our direct work at the center.  Please keep us in your prayers.  It is going to take a mature person to be effective.  The Japanese man told us about his conversion.  It was a wonderful story.  It brought out how you can’t just go in and preach.  People are going to laugh at you.  You have to be a witness of love.

I’ll keep you posted on the progress of our work! 

Thanks for the advice on communication.  I’m beginning to realize that it is a two-way thing, and like everything else, you have to strike a balance.  You have to learn to be versatile and respond appropriately to a given situation.  You don’t reveal the depths of your inner self in the middle of a light conversation.  The trick is to be able to know when to act how.  I guess that is where WISDOM comes in - the Holy Spirit.  That’s something else I wasn’t aware of - that the Holy spirit is really active in the world - in me.  I think the Church will probably do something to make the sacrament of Confirmation more meaningful. 

I guess that I was told a lot of these things before, but I just let it go right through.  Growing up isn’t so bad!  Every stage of life has its own purpose and appropriate response.  We are very lucky to be where we are, when we are, now!  Don’t you think so?...

...On the subject of exercise - we still run PFP every day - only now we are doing it twice! (Not our own idea!)

Sr. Georgianna (better known as George in the outside world!) has been going to Girl scout meetings with another novice, Sr. Josette.  They take their guitars and have been teaching the girls some songs.  Last night they played for a program that the girls put on for their mothers.  She taught them the song about the Honosarious (I can’t spell it, but it is one of her crazier songs!)

I have been trying to practice half an hour a week on my guitar - just in case!  Now all I have to do is learn how to sing!  I still can’t tune the guitar real great, but I keep plugging away at it!...

...We just completed a six day retreat.  That sounds like a long time, but it really goes fast.  Fr. Anselm, a Benedictine, was our retreat master.  He centered his conferences on the Gospel of St. John and how Christ encountered the people as real people.  The relationships were of a Person to a person, just like our Christianity is supposed to be.  It was good to have time to just sit and think, quietly.  The weather was beautiful, so I did most of my thinking outside!  We could listen to some tapes on a retreat given by Fr. Cooke, a Theologian from Marquette.  Have you read any of his works?  Just a few quotes of his:  “Fear calls forth the desire for security, but faith demands that the heart abandon itself to a Person.”  “Listen to Life”  “It is very important that you gain security so that you don’t fear the risk of making choices and you also learn an amazing thing - that you can make some wrong ones and still pick up the pieces and go on.”  That last one is quite consoling to us humans, who sure do make a lot of mistakes!

During retreat we had Mass at 11:15 AM.  We also started using a continuous reading of the First Epistle of Peter and the sixth chapter of John’s gospel.  This is something new from the liturgical commission.  I don’t think our regular chaplain will use continuous readings.  He is one of the more conservative priests....

...We had a pick-up supper on the ridge last Sunday.  It was a thank-you party for the postulants for all their hard work during our retreat.  We had a fire, music and song, plus food!  We broke up about 7:00 PM when it began to rain.

I almost forgot - Thursday evening during retreat, instead of having a conference, we had a Synagogue Sabbath service.  It was quite surprising that it seemed so familiar.  It was an enlightening and moving experience.  On Friday we had a scripture service - adoration of the cross, similar to the Good Friday service.  Afterwards, in connections with our Vows class where we are studying celibacy, a married couple from the CFM (Catholic Family Movement) came out to speak to the novices.  They presented a realistic and inspiring picture of Christian marriage, with its ups and downs.  Christian parents have quite a job to do in today’s world, and they have fewer guidelines to help them. ...

...This is so exciting you will hardly believe it.  ...Anyway - I just wanted to tell you that I will be going on a little trip on Thursday - up to Wisconsin - about a nine hour drive.  Three of us novices and two professed sisters, Sr. Rita Miriam and Mother Columba will be going to Delavin to open up our summer house there.  It came as quite a surprise to me, too!  We will be busy working, but it is going to be a wonderful experience.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, a Presbyterian doctor is going to discuss the “pill” with us.  It should be interesting.  Yesterday Sr. Georgianna’s parents called because it was her birthday.  Her Mom told her that the Pope had okayed the pill.  Everyone was excited and listened to the news this morning - but nothing was said.  Somebody was playing a joke on someone, I think!

Tomorrow will probably be the last evening we will be teaching at Greeley.  We might be going in the following week for an evaluation session.  It seems like we just started and there is so much more to do, as I guess there is in every work you do.  One of my students, Lola, who is studying to be a nurse’s aide, is taking her finals this week.  If she passes, (and I’m pretty sure she will), she will graduate a week from Friday - from nurse’s aide training.  She hopes to get her high school diploma and to become a registered nurse eventually.  She only completed the 7th grade, but she really works hard.  I think she can do it.

This summer we will be working in the inner city, with and through the pastor of St. Bridget’s parish.  He is “in” on everything connected with the inner city.  He wrote a comment for the Ave Maria article about this next summer and the inner cities around the country.  We may be doing home visiting, recreational work or anything that needs to be done.  St. Bridget’s is located near one of the high rise projects in the city.  We pass it on the way to Greeley.  They don’t look like a very good place to grow up and live in.  There is a possibility, but nothing definite as yet, that we may live in the city if we can find a place.  The program will probably last about six weeks. 

In the meantime - or in between time - I have some studying to do.  We have two term papers due - one is due the 15th of May.  We are also having ecumenical studies within our classes.  The postulants are preparing a symposium on Judaism and the religions of the East.  We are looking into the Protestant communities.  I am studying the Society of Friends - the Quakers.  If time allows for it, we may have outside speakers.

I can hardly believe that in less than four months we will be at the Motherhouse.  Time keeps moving - faster and faster it seems!  I guess if we stopped to think about all we missed - we miss a whole lot more!

We heard a tape by Fr. Cooke on Belief and Unbelief  last week.  One thing which impressed me, and that I have not heard presented before in the same way is:

         The difference,  and the only difference between Christianity and any other philosophy or message or code of ethics or way of life - is CHRIST - The Risen Lord is a person - here and now - for us.  We encounter a diving Person on a personal level.  This isn’t an easy thing to believe.  This is the challenge of the Christian gospel.  Christian faith is the personal acceptance of a person, contactable at the present moment.  We must be willing to expose ourselves as believers - to be willing to be discovered as persons identified with Christ.  We have to try and break the tendency to create or build God in our imag

e and likeness, instead of the other way around.  In regards to agnostics or atheists, we have to accept the validity of their arguments.  They are sincere and honest in refusing to accept a false Christianity.  They force us to purify our own beliefs.  I can think of the Father as a Person because of Christ - not HOW He is, but WHO He is.  We cannot conceptualize the Father because He is inconceptual.