Our western area of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace held a Fall Assembly yesterday and today - a grand experience of community as it always is, a time to catch up with each other, and celebrate, and learn, and pray, and grow. Our main subject was vocations to religious life and how we can encourage them; we learned from Sister Charlene Diorka, SSJ, about studies of recent vocations and about some of the ways we can be welcoming and inclusive of seekers.
We also got a first look at a new CSJP website that will be unveiled in May - there's a photo of Jane Kortz, CSJP Associate, checking it out - and we heard about plans for a new home health center at St. Mary-on-the-Lake that will give better care and comfort to our most senior sisters.
We celebrated some of our existing and enduring vocations with a Jubilee dinner honoring this year's 10 Jubilarians, celebrating from 80 years (Sr. Cecilia Marie Gri) to 50 years in religious life as Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace. We ate well, we talked a LOT, we joined in the eucharistic liturgy, and we danced. As always, being with my sisters reminds me what fun it is to be part of a group of women that knows how to pray and how to celebrate.
Now it's time to go home, to my other home in Suchitoto. My bags are packed with vitamins and Titebond III glue and new stationery and Apostilles and dictionaries (gifts from Eleanor Gilmore to some Salvadoran friends), the wheelchair is wired together for the journey, and Eleanor is taking me to the airport in a few minutes. Sister Peggy will pick me up on the other end. I'll miss the hot water and sleeping under a quilt and seeing the sisters and at least some of my Seattle friends; I look forward to the heat and the lemon tree and the market and my Salvadoran friends. ¡Hasta pronto!
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