Being Present

It's been a while since I've written an entry and I apologize to our readers for the delay.

As I sit here and think about what has been going on in my Ursuline life, I realize that right now there has been a lot of medical concerns. One of our sisters had double knee replacement. Another sister had a melanoma removed and we are still awaiting the results. Plus a third sister is suffering from severe loss of memory and mobility. Well it's been a bit of challenge and sad, I also realize that God is calling me to be with those in pain.

I'm a real problem-solver and task-oriented person. I want to figure things out and take care of them all right away. But with these sisters and their medical issues, I am unable to do anything but pray, be present to my sisters, listen to their concerns and remind them of God' s love and care along with mine too.

It has been a real humbling experience to just have to be with them in their pain. I'm going to have to keep sitting with it and see what lessons God is trying to teach me. Instead of running to take care of the situation, I have to just be with it.

Where in your life do you find you just have to be and not do?

Jeannie Humphries, osu

Being with other women religious/sisters/nuns

Here it is the start of Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend.   For the past ten years or so, I've attended Giving Voice's Retreat for Women Religious in their 20s and 30s.  We met in Florida a few times and the moved to meeting in Arizona.  It has been a wonderful experience for me. I've met so many peer sisters who I can truly relate to and have fun with. Plus I get to share with them this mysterious thing called a call to religious life. It's hard to make sense of it at times; but being with others who also feel called helps.  I am unable to attend this year since I turned 40 in May 2011.  I am too old for this gathering and let me tell you being too old for something in the nun world is a new experience for me.  I'm usually one of the youngest or the youngest at a gathering. But now with Giving Voice-instead there I'm either in the middle of the age group or too old!!  Amen!!

This weekend once again a group will be gathering in Arizona for prayer, reflection, sharing and hang out time.  I'm so jealous and wish I could be there.  I just texted Jessi, a Presentation Sister to tell her to have fun and that I miss her already.  But it is not my time to be there.

Instead my friend Susan, a Sister of St. Joseph of Peace who is just a little younger than me and I will be going to New Orleans to celebrate her perpetual profession of vows and share some bonding time. We both realized that this Giving Voice gatherings are so important and wanted to keep getting together. This weekend will be fun.

New Orleans is where the first Ursulines went to in the United States and there is so much history of our congregation there.  We will be staying at one local living community with 2 of my Ursuline Sisters and visiting another community connected to Our Lady of Prompt Succor shrine. So I will see some of my nuns. Yeah!!

Also I will get a chance to visit with my former principal boss from St. Philip Neri School in the Bronx, Brother John Casey, a  member of the Congregation of Christian Brothers.

It will be a weekend of renewing relationships.  Thank God for friends to share the journey of life with me. 

Jeannie Humphries, osu

Praying Together

Here it is 7 am on a Saturday morning.  I'm up and getting ready to hit the shower so I can start my day.

Today is filled with two different prayer gatherings.  First, I'm going to be co-hosting and attending a retreat day for young alumnae from the classes of 2000-2011 from the Academy of Mt. St. Ursula. We have about 60 young woman say they are attending.  GREAT!!   We've had two other retreats and they have been so meaningful. What the young woman share and how they pray and are so open to God's Spirit truly inspires me!!  I am so looking forward to today.  I'm proud of our woman graduates from AMSU and count myself blessed to be one of them.  This event is from 10am-3pm in the Bronx.

Then from 4pm-7pm or so, I'll be with different Ursuline Sisters (many from the former St. Angela's community in the Bronx and one that I lived with and ministered with in Malone, NY) and we will share some prayer and conversation time together.  It's a form of faith sharing-we'll listen to some songs, poetry and the Word of God together. Then we'll each take some to reflect individually and come back and share our insights.  I'm really looking forward to this time together. It makes me feel connected to Angela, my sisters and God!  The experience truly reminds me of why I entered religious community.

I hope all my readers have a nice day. What do you have planned for this Saturday?  How do you enrich your soul?  Prayers and blessings to all of you!!

Sr. Jeannie Humphries, osu