Anna’s Sacred Space

Their attraction grew into trust, and love led to commitment.  A young couple began planning life together that included a child. How excited they were when they found out that they were to be parents. They kept this precious secret to themselves as they savored the nine months ahead. Too soon their joy turned into fear as they learned that their precious baby had serious health problems. Sick at heart they were shocked and in turn angry, scared, tempted to terminate the pregnancy.  Communication between them that had been open and honest, became secretive and protective, each trying to sort out their feelings of fear, blame and shame. He became busier spending hours away from home.  She was confused and protective of the life growing inside her wondering what the future held for them as parents and their helpless and sick baby.  Would she be up to loving and caring for this baby with multiple and demanding health needs. What would the baby look like? She wanted this child no matter; he was fearful, his manhood on trial, he kept a tight hold on his emotions.

Anna arrive one bright December morning, weak and compromised, and was rushed to the neonatal ICU. Then began the day to day constant care to keep her alive.  She spent every waking hour in the hospital just being present to Anna who was hooked up to machines and tubes, looking on this mite of a baby with complicated nursing needs. She was fearful to even hold the baby with a nurse present. He didn’t want to visit at all. Soon her mothering instincts couldn’t be contained as Anna clutched her finger and looked into her eyes as she struggled to breathe.  Over the door she wrote “Welcome to Anna’s Sacred Space”.  Even the doctors responded to this invitation.  Five months later, and well prepped, they took Anna home.  They took turns caring for this beautiful child with countless health needs.  He grew in respect and love for his daughter who underwent painful procedures and tests utterly relying on these two adults for protection and love.  She took pride in introducing her Anna to her grandparents. Four months later on a routine visit to the hospital to reinsert a dislodged tube, Anna spiked a temperature, her heart started racing, and in spite of all medical interventions Anna died. Her stunned and disbelieving parents became steeped in grief.

As I stood at the bedside in the ICU unit holding hands with Anna’s faith-filled and grieving parents, they shared the beauty and meaning of Anna’s life for them as they understood it at this time. He said my life is changed forever; although she never spoke a word she taught me about trust, love and endurance. She spoke about the gift and privilege it was of caring for someone, their baby, who trusted that she would be there for her at all times. Their quiet grief was painful to watch, the only answer was presence.

The funeral two days later was a testament of their fidelity as they walked behind the little white casket down the aisle of the church hand-in-hand as they gave their daughter back to the creator who had gifted them with this precious angel for nine months.

- Sister Ann Marshall, csj

Welcome to Our Home

More than once in my travels, I’ve heard an interesting adage concerning hospitality in a business or other endeavor. It explains that upon crossing the threshold of such a place, the attitude of the first person that one meets conveys an enduring impression of the whole enterprise and what occurs there.   Often, I recall this statement in reference to the reception area of our Sisters of St. Joseph London residence.  Countless times a day, the large, glass front doors slide open to admit a variety of people who enter our home for various reasons. 

If you happen to arrive at our residence during the week, you’ll be greeted by a smile and cheery, “Hello.  How may I help you?” from Natalie, our main receptionist and Sister Paulette who fills in for Natalie during breaks and at lunch time.

Although visitors describe our home as a haven of tranquility, the action at the front desk is often brisk with the comings and goings of Sisters and visitors.  Natalie and Sr. Paulette are up to their task taking incoming and outgoing calls, routing and rerouting people arriving for meetings, staff members arriving and leaving, taxis and Voyageur transportation waiting and our dependable driver taking Sisters to appointments and a host of other duties.

Sometimes Natalie’s and Sr. Paulette’s shining interpersonal skills are stretched to the limit when sizable gatherings occur in our spacious front foyer next to the reception area. For example, the Intergenerational Choir of around 70 singers gathers in the foyer to socialize before and after weekly sessions in the acoustically resonant chapel.  Often, Sisters and guests at festive occasions make the wide-open foyer ring with the laughter and joy of happy meetings. On Sundays, neighbours join us for liturgy of Eucharist. Our congregation associates attend special celebrations and meetings; the list continues.  All these events begin in the well-used foyer under the far-seeing eyes of our trusty receptionists.

Through thick and thin, Natalie and Sr. Paulette display good humour and hospitality while exemplifying grace under pressure.   Natalie’s many years of business administration and Sr. Paulette’s four decades as a school principal followed by twenty years as a child and family counsellor have been perfect backgrounds for their task of extending peace, kindness and information from their perch in the little reception area.

Many of us have had the experience of entering an office area where the receptionist fails to nod and greet us. The work at hand seems to be the priority and I am not. However, a busy person on the phone who establishes eye contact, smiles and nods to acknowledge our presence can lift our spirits and relax our bodies as we wait patiently for assistance.  In today’s often hard-nosed world, let’s not forget that simple gestures of kindness and positive regard for others can increase faith and help to make the world a more pleasant place to live.

Let’s make all our encounters times of gracious welcome and friendly hospitality.

 - Sister Jean Moylan, csj

A Labour of love

Several months ago one of our Associates who is my very dear friend Therese Lecuyer asked a favor of me.  She requested that I make a large double-bed sized quilt in memory of her late husband.  Since this was something very new for me, I considered it a big challenge.  On the one hand I considered it was a delight to do it for her but when she sent me a huge number of her husband ‘s shirts to work with, and when I first received them, I asked myself, ‘What on earth am I going to do with ALL these shirts?’  I continued to stretch my imagination and my gifts of creativity kept surfacing and probing and nudging me with many new ideas including colors, patterns, even the weight of the padding was to be heavier and requiring different new steel needles.  At times I wondered if the machine might be necessary because the thickness of the padding caused some of the steel needles to break.  However, I did not break but steadfastly persevered and have now completed my work with a sense of confidence and competence as I now know my success is not only making a quilt but designing one and the photo of this beautiful quilt will show that it is ‘a precious gift’ and a beautiful labor of love.

Therese, herself, has been very ill and is presently in the Metropolitan Hospital in Windsor.  I trust the quilt will warm her body and her spirit as it brings to mind the joyous memories of their love that is forever.  I love them both and I am very appreciative of continuous learning and creating quilts and having successfully met the challenge of ‘designing’.  Growth is a gift of God and can best be summed up in the following Poem and Praise entitled ‘The Master Weaver’.      - Sister Florian

THE MASTER WEAVER

Our lives are but fine weavings,

that God and we prepare,

each life becomes a fabric planned,

and fashioned in his care …

We may not always see,

just how the weavings intertwine,

but we must trust the master’s hand,

and follow His design.

For He can view the pattern,

upon the upper side,

while we must look from underneath,

and trust in Him to guide.

Sometimes a strand of sorrow,

is added to His plan,

and though it’s difficult for us,

we still must understand.

That it’s He who flies the shuttle,

it’s He who knows what’s best,

so, we must weave in patience,

and leave to Him the rest …

Not till the loom is silent,

and the shuttles cease to fly,

shall God unroll the canvas,

and explain the reason why.

The dark threads are as needed,

in the Weaver’s skillful hand,

as the threads of gold and silver,

in the pattern He has planned.

Remembering SANTA ROSA DE LIMA PERU

Nuestra Santa:    SANTA ROSA DE LIMA PERU

Rose of Our Lady

Delicate flower of Lima

Bless this day and protect our nation

               Listen to the poor

               Who fight for justice and peace 

               And strengthen their hope.

               Inflame the faith of all people. 

Patron Saint of the Sick

She had an open door ready to receive and assist anyone in need. Father Melendez who wrote of his memories of her remembered: she did not distinguish between the Spaniard, the stranger, the Indians, the blacks, whomever was poor she attended to their need.

Patron Saint of the National Police of Peru

Rosa was sensitive to and became aware of the injustices present in her world. At the age of 11 she recognized the suffering of and the injustices endured by her father who became a miner and who worked in slave-like conditions along with the indigenous people.

Her Life Story

On the 20^th of April 1586 she was born. Her father was Puerto Rican and her mother from Lima. She was baptized with the name of Isabel Flores Oliva, however her black caregiver started to call her Rosa because of her beautiful features like a rose.   Rosa lived in her parents home choosing a life of helping those in need.   She loved nature and enjoyed tending the garden.  As well she built a hermitage in a corner of the garden and began a life of solitude dedicated to her spiritual routine.  At 24 she chose to wear the habit of the Third Order of St Dominic.  She died the 24^th of August in 1617 at 31 years of age and canonized in 1671. She is venerated as patron saint of Peru as well as all of Latin America and the islands of the Philippines.

Remembering Saint Rose of Lima today

• Every church, chapel or school in Peru that bears her name will honour her with processions, novenas and fiestas
• Many little girls carry her name
• Tourists visit her Lima home, hermitage and garden and write prayer intentions to drop into the well
• The National Police Force include her their annual day of celebration   
• On the bulletin board in the Chincha Church her name in large colourful letters has been a reminder of the August 30^th date when she is remembered in the Peruvian Liturgical calendar. 

Assisted by details from Un Santo Para Cada Dia  Mario Sgarbossa and Luis Giovannini

-  Submitted by Hermanas Gloria, Maria y Mabel

August 30th marks the commemoration and public holiday in Peru, of Saint Rose of Lima, or Santa Rosa de Lima in Spanish. Saint Rose was the patron saint of Peru and the rest of the indigenous people of Latin America and the Philippines. The beautiful patron saint was born in 1956 in Lima to Spanish Colonists and was known for her piety and chastity. Today she is celebrated across Peru, with a national holiday declared in her name!
 

REMEMBER – CELEBRATE – BELIEVE

In a recent reading of Embers – One Ojibway’s Meditations by Richard Wagamese, I was struck by the following passage from his writings. 

“Missing someone is feeling a piece of your heart gone astray… there’s a gap in the everyday things around you…You seem to move a little less gracefully… and you now move out of gratitude for the gift of their presence in your life…”   

In the courtyard at Boyle Street Community Services located in the inner City in Edmonton, folks gathered to remember and recall the life of Vegas – a community member who died. In the centre of the circle was a bowl of sage burning which would be used by the Elder to smudge each of us who gathered as well as the offering of food which was to be left for the spirits following our time together.  The gathering was about the Boyle Street Community sitting in silence to ‘fill the gap’ they were feeling from this death of a friend. Not a lot of words were used but the sense of accompaniment was evident as I too was invited into the Circle.  Stories were told of Vegas  -  a friend, a card player, a man of few words and a man who had overcome his alcohol addiction after many years – and his time with the Boyle Street Community was the ‘gift of presence'.

The following evening Sister Kitty and I attended the Annual Memorial sponsored by CEASE (Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation).  This was the 30^th year that CEASE has organized this Memorial Service to gather and remember those who have lost a mother, a daughter, a sister, a partner, a relative or a friend from sexual exploitation and/or an abusive relationship.  A litany of over 150 names is read and silence is evident as people tear up remembering special relationships as the name of their loved one is spoken aloud.  The simplicity of this gathering is highlighted when balloons are sent skyward wishing peace and freedom to those who have died… and the line from Embers comes alive – “now you move out of gratitude for the gift of their presence in your life…”

On Sunday, Kitty and I gathered with some members of the Scarboro Community of Boyle-McAuley who knew and loved Father Rene Fumoleau, to recall and remember times they shared with Rene on his visits to Edmonton. Again, the theme of ‘being a gift of presence’ came through as stories were shared, some of his poetry was read and words that he spoke while in their presence came alive in recalling his passion for the people of Northern Canada for so many years and his commitment to social justice for many years.

These three events struck me as a connection with the circle of life and a deeper realization that I, we, are part of the sacred energy - moving, growing and  bringing everything into harmony. 

Contributed by Sister Ann MacDonald, csj