Celebrating Visitation in Kingston
On Sunday, May 29, Congregation of Notre Dame associates and sisters gathered at Providence mother house to celebrate the feast of the Visitation. As the strains of Carey Landry’s song, “Companions on the Journey” reminded us, “We have been gifted with each other.” And indeed we were gifted with the creativity, spontaneity and joy of our Associates who prepared and led us in a beautiful prayer service in which we reflected together on the place of Elizabeth in the Visitation event. She was portrayed as having a “walk on part” in the drama that was unfolding before her, and yet was integral to the deeper reality both she and Mary were living together. Within this context a new Associate, Mary Carr was welcomed and made her first commitment, then followed the Associates renewal of their commitment, and the commitment of the Sisters to Associates. The celebration continued with refreshments and ongoing “visitations.”
On Tuesday afternoon the CND sisters of the city gathered together at Providence mother house for their renewal of vows framed in a simple and moving prayer service prepared by Sister Denise Bérubé. Following the prayer, the Sisters went out and enjoyed a special meal at a nearby restaurant.
Book Recommendation
The Power of Quiet in a World Full of Noise by Thich Nhat Hanh goes beyond the noise of traffic, TV, chatter etc. "Noise" applies to all our senses e.g. time spent in front of a monitor surfing the net or liking or commenting on posts by our dozens if not hundreds of Facebook "friends" or scrolling through Twitter feeds so we can retweet. Woven throughout the book is his core mindfulness teaching of the practice of breathing in, breathing out. This leads to deep listening, inner stillness and connection with our now no matter what or where our circumstances.
Sharing a Resource
At the RAC conference this past weekend in Halifax, we watched this video of Carol Zinn, ssj, on livestream (from 25 min and following). The first part is the history of religious life: cycles of birth, growth and decline, but the next part is quite powerful. Here is the link. http://livestream.com/dominicanuniversity/events/4769537
