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.

The value of community living

Yesterday I was engaged in three meetings, all of which make me proud to be an SSM: one with my local community, another with the two combined local communities here in NJ and another at the parish where another sister and I worship and serve on Sundays.  My local community met for renewal, at which we reflected upon one of the virtues of Mother Frances, namely that of prudence.  We were amazed at the way our Foundress practiced this virtue and the number of persons who gave testimony of this fact.  She was prudent in all of her dealings whether conducting community business with the laity or priests associated with the community or assuring that the values of religious life and community building were being respected by the sisters.  What an example to all of us. What also inspired me during this meeting was listening to each sister share the highlights of her summer experiences. Not only did the experiences touch me but so, too, did the respect given each sister.  The meeting of the combined local communities focused on the positive impact of the visit of our general superior with each member of the province. She, too, is a woman of great prudence  who also lives a deeply spiritual life.  We concluded that meeting with a resolve of how we here in NJ can continue to improve our ways of living out the charism of the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother.   The two sisters with whom I live closed the day by attending an ecumenical prayer service at St. Matthew’s Parish in Randolph, NJ,  to commemorate the anniversary of 9/11 and pray for those who lost their lives on that day and the survivors of that day who carry the burden of grief to this very day.