On All Souls Day, we gathered for a Memorial Service, during which we prayed, not only for the Visitation Province Sisters who died during the past year, but also for the fourteen Sisters who died at Andrews since we took residence here almost five years ago. (Sisters Margaret Kelly, Marie Bernice Arsenault, Georgina Hughes, Dorothy McCarron, Alfreda Rogers, Margaret Arsenault, Mary Cummiskey, Angela Shea, Elizabeth McCarron, Kathleen Chisholm, Joan O'Connor, Theresa McCarron, Clemmie McCarron and Florence O'Keefe). Their photos were displayed and a candle was lit as each name was read. We are grateful for having had them in our midst. We remember them fondly and we rejoice at their New Life in the presence of the loving God they served so well!
Sister Bea Baker will go to El Paso, Texas on Thursday November 8 to volunteer for 8 days at the Annunciation House for Immigrants. Recently immigration officials have been releasing large numbers of migrants seeking asylum to shelters along the border, and these shelters lack the personnel and funds to deal with this influx. In response, LCWR has asked its congregations to send donations and, where possible, sisters; because of Bea’s generosity, we are able to do both. We are very grateful to her and suggest that all of us pray the following blessing, composed by Sister Rosemary Sullivan, each day Sister Bea is in El Paso.
The issue of water – as sacred and as a human right that so many are deprived of – has been frequently mentioned by sisters and associates as a way to live out care for our common home and going to the peripheries. JPIC is currently preparing for several upcoming actions around protecting water. And so we were very happy to receive the news that the CCCB recently released a statement on water. It is quite a good document and it is helpful to have such encouragement for action on water to come from the Bishops. Council of Canadians Chair Maude Barlow said in an e-mail message, "Always glad to have new and important voices on this issue and the Bishops represent one of them." You can read the full statement here: https://www.cccb.ca/site/images/stories/pdf/CCCB_Drinking_Water_2018.pdf
