Celebrating the feast of the Sorrowful Mother with fellow Sisters

September 15^th is the feastday of the Sorrowful Mother.  We Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother celebrate this feastday on the third Sunday of September.  Those of us here in NJ gathered for a festive dinner in the garden room of St. Francis Residential Community. It was great to get together and hear each other’s stories and offer support.   Sister Thomasina’s  biological sister Ehrentrudis, a widow and grandmother of four lovely grandchildren, is visiting from German y; she was our dinner guest.  Sister Thomasina, of course, is delighted to have her with her for a few weeks and says “I’ll put her to work in my office”—Sister Thomasina is a social work who is extremely generous in her service to the poor in Sussex county. Two of our sisters’ convent home was flooded during the hurricane. In visiting that home this week, I was appalled by the odor of mold and, being allergic to mold, my voice was almost silenced in less than five minutes.  Unable to fathom how the sisters living there are surviving in this environment day and night, I invited them to move into the convent where I live.  Another sister stated that the basement of Sacred Heart Church in Rockaway was flooded by the hurricane and that, some of her teachers (she is a principal of a school in the area) have difficulty taking their children to Mass during the week. The mold interferes with their ability to breathe.   These “hurricane” stories are prolific here in NJ, many families and businesses suffering serious damage to their property and significant trauma to themselves.   Please pray for everyone effected by the hurricane and that persons will continue responding compassionately to their need for help from Fema and other sources.