Grateful Jubilarians of 2022

Gratitude is a hallmark of our Sisters as we celebrate significant milestones in our lives as Sisters of St. Joseph.  This year was no exception as many of us gathered in joyful celebration on June 11th to honor our jubilarians of 60, 70, 75 and 80 years of living and serving God in prayer and good works in many and varied ministries as the Spirit beckons. 

Please join us in giving thanks to God for the life shared and the faith commitment of our Jubilarians of 60, 70, 75 and 80 years - as Sisters of St. Joseph.

Sister St. Bride - 80 years | Sister Nora - 60 years | Sister Kathleen - 75 years |

Sister Mary - 60 years | Sister Doreen - 70 years | Sister Veronica - 60 years |

Sister Wilhelmina - 70 years | Sister Yvonne - 60 years

Sister Yvonne Parent, celebrating her diamond jubilee, expressed gratitude on behalf of the celebrants:

With Thanks

With a spirit of deep gratitude, we thank all who have travelled with us through this journey of sixty, seventy, seventy-five and eighty years.

Our parents, siblings, cousins, and friends who have loved us through all the stages of life.

Our Sisters in community, who have taught us to pray, to ritualize loss, and to celebrate God's abundant blessings.

Our colleagues in ministry, who have encouraged us to mature our gifts and talents for the good of the world.

Our God, continually calling us into deeper relationship and drawing all things into Divine Mystery.

For all - we give thanks.

-Shared by Sister Jean Moylan, a Sister of St. Joseph for 55 years

Vote!

We Can Do Better

Whatever your political leanings are it’s time to exercise your right and responsibility to cast your vote in the 2022 Ontario Provincial Election. If you have not voted yet the polls are open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. tomorrow. Our democracy needs stronger support than the 2018 turn out of 58%. Ironically, this scant voter turnout was lauded with the hope that there was a rising trend of increasing citizen engagement. Not a very high passing grade for citizen engagement. There however remains much room for better turnout and greater participation in our democracy.

As viewers of the daily news, we witness the many sacrifices and challenges that Ukrainians endure and undertake to protect their countries democracy. Can we not do so little by taking time to exercise our freedom and value our democracy by casting our vote?

Each voter helps create the final percentage of voter turnout. Be sure to add your voice and your ballot to the count and the 2022 election results.

Sister Nancy Wales, csj

Image: Unsplash/Element5Digital

A Day for Trees

National Love a Tree Day – May 16, 2022.

With every tree there is a story. Tree Day was actually started quite recently by the people of Hyderabad in India. On 15 May 2016 the group Hyderabad Rising rose to protest against the government's plans to cut down thousands of trees around the KBR National Park, to make way for an expressway. Thousands of people of people from all walks of life rallied to protest. Successful, millions of trees were planted as the city residents became more devoted to and appreciative of their trees. It is now a recognized “Tree City of the World” by the UN & World Arbor Day.

But trees also become intertwined with our lives.

Some years ago, at our local St. Michael’s church, an old and respected maple tree was standing in the way of a parking lot. There was a great uprising from parishioners when the pastor announced that the maple tree would have to come down. The old tree held so many memories for the people. They had come to the venerable tree often to have pictures taken at significant and special occasions in their family - First Communions, weddings, funerals and reunions. The old maple tree was a part of their own family history, it had been with them and witnessed the most significant milestones in their family’s life.

An arborist was consulted to assess the health of the tree. It was reported to the congregation that the old tree was failing and there was concern that a branch might fall or the tree might collapse and cause injury to someone or a car. Insurance cost now became part of the concern and rationale. Eventually the pastor said that it would have to come down but in a nod to the concerns, a new tree that was 15 years old would replace it, planted to the side of the parking lot. We did lose old the tree and were consoled by the arrival of a new one was planted for the future generations. But that old maple, still in the hearts and treasured family photos of many had taught us a lesson. That tree is now kin to us all.

Sister Linda Gregg, csj

A Tapestry of Love

Happy Mother’s Day

This Sunday families gather, many virtually, to celebrate our Mothers.  We want to celebrate these wonderful women who gave us life, and whose lives were spent in selfless giving and loving.  What we might say today with our words is important but less important than what these women have said with their lives.  Their actions show us what love really looks like.  Were they perfect?  No, they were not, but their responses to us, their children, created a tapestry of love full of meaning and memories that influence how we live today. 

“a tapestry of love full of meaning and memories that influence how we live today

There is a song sung by the Wailin’ Jennys called the “Parting Glass”.  After my mother had died, my large family went back to mom’s home to be with each other.  As we so often did, we started to play music filled with memories and had a very strong sense of my mother’s spirit with each of us.  We started sharing stories of my mother and realised that those stories and memories will never leave us.  She is still with us.  So we asked my brothers and sisters who play musical instruments to play something to mom.  Then we found a bottle of wine and poured a wee bit of spirit in each glass and sung this song called the “Parting Glass”.   This might have been my mother's wish to each of her children. So whether our mothers are alive or gone, I ask you to lift a glass to your mothers and say thank you for so much.

-Sister Joan Atkinson, csj [re-posted]

Alleluia! Christ Has Risen!

Christ has risen, Alleluia!  Alleluia!  Alleluia!

After this holy time of preparation during Lent, we burst with the spirit of Easter joy which will carry us forward as we share the truly Good News with a world that is sorely in need of good news.  How will you celebrate this Easter?  A joyful Easter liturgy?  A quiet day with a chocolate bunny?  A gathering with family or friends?  An Easter hike?  Hopefully, there is some way for each of us to experience that sense of Easter joy which is a gift from God.

For myself, Easter Sunday will start with mass at the Cathedral in Hamilton, followed by coffee with some of the Sisters.  In the afternoon, I will join my family in a long standing family tradition of an Easter Egg hunt and Easter Quiz at my brother’s house.  Being COVID times, it will be held outside.  [A side note:  As this will be the first time we are gathering in over two years, we will meet the new babies in the family who arrived during the COVID pandemic including one little fellow who arrived at the very start of the pandemic in January 2020 and whose name is Cove.  No, it is not short for Covid.  His father is Irish so he was named after the city of Cobh in Ireland but knowing that most people would not know how to pronounce Cobh, they decided to spell it as it sounds.] 

This joy we experience as an Easter people who recognize and rejoice in the Resurrection needs to be shared with whoever crosses our path.  How it is shared can be summed up in the words of one of our wise Sisters:

‘The most important thing is loving the person in front of you’.

Amen.  Alleluia!  Alleluia!  Alleluia!

-Sister Nancy Sullivan, csj

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Image: Unsplash/Bruno van der Kraan