Love Letters and Cultivating Relationships

Every Saturday when I arrive at my first communion class, this little girl runs to the car and presents me with a little note.   I smile every time.  More often than not she gives me an idea for a future lesson!  But I am also deeply touched that she takes the time to write the note, decorate it and give it to me.  

So, before I begin the lesson, I sit and converse with her and the others about their lives, how their week was for them, their joys and sorrows, in their families and at school.  

It is my hope that taking the time to cultivate real relationships with these kids, and to encourage them in their little acts of kindness and love is providing a model for them to value and cultivate other relationships in a world where, as Pope Francis has indicated, people have become so increasingly connected by the media, yet at the same time confess to becoming so increasingly isolated.  

What drives you more in ministry, completing the task or cultivating the relationships? 

Gail Jagroop, OP

Woodbrook, Trinidad