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Showing posts from July 24, 2016

On Celebration

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Attending a number of significant celebrations during the last couple of months has both buoyed me up and made me think about the role of celebrations in my life.  My older brother died on May 11; his wake and funeral were held a week later.  In mid-June, I attended the first profession of one of our novices, and a week later I returned to the Mound for a morning ceremony expressing gratitude toward the out-going leadership team and the afternoon installation ceremony of our new leadership team.  Last weekend, I was back at the Mound to celebrate with our 50- year Jubilarians. As are the wakes and funerals of our Sisters, my brother’s wake and funeral were celebrations of his life.   Dozens of details from the grandsons who carried his casket to the young granddaughter who played taps at his grave reflected the good life Tony had lived. In common with many ordinary good people, he and his wife concentrated on raising good children.   They, in turn, have continued to raise good chi

Will you come away and pray with me?

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The title for my blog offering this month is an adaptation of Jesus' request to the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane to stay awake with him.   I am not Jesus, who was entering into his Passion, but we know that many people in our world face the terror of crosses just as profound as his. I have written here before about the Iraqi Dominican Sisters and Friars whom I have known for many years and of their lives filled with terror even as they care for those who are also devastated. August 6 th  will be the second anniversary of the invasion of the Nineveh Plain of northern Iraq by Daesch (ISIS) and the exile of so many to the Kurdish area, Jordan and beyond.  The US Dominican Iraq Coordinating Committee (I am a member) has invited all to join in a nine day novena of prayer and solidarity for our family in Iraq.  It starts July 29 and concludes on August 6 th  the Feast of the Transfiguration. Here is the novena in English: http://domlife.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/