Today is sunny and bright

How can it be that we start the month of June tomorrow! Today is sunny and bright and I love it. We had about an inch and a half of rain over the past weekend. The Mississippi River is really moving right along now! A few weeks ago, I saw rocks at the bottom of the dam that I’d never seen before. They are talking about flooding north of Little Falls. We won’t have any here. May we continue to have sufficient rain during the growing season…free of damaging storms.

We have had many events happen since I last wrote my blog. Tuesday evening Sister Eileen Theis, age 84, went to heaven. Her Wake will be tomorrow evening at 7 p.m. and her Funeral will be Saturday, June 2, 2012 at the Motherhouse Chapel. May she be enjoying Life with the Lord. God bless you, Sr. Eileen, for all the good you’ve done your many years as a Franciscan Sister.

Tuesday evening, also, our Employees, Associates, Volunteers, friends, family members and supporters had a prayer service “Celebrating the Sisters.” They extended gratitude to the Sisters for their many ways of ministering both here in Little Falls and throughout the world. They sang a blessing over us. It was a most meaningful service and brought tears to the eyes of many of us. Thank You.

Sunday, I attended the 17th Memorial Service at the Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery at Camp Ripley. This cemetery opened in 1994 and already has over 4,300 burials there. The Richfield Symphonic Band adds a very special touch with their beautiful music. I am always touched during the laying of the Wreaths and to see the veterans stand when their branch is called. This Cemetery is one of the top four most beautiful Veterans Cemeteries in the nation. Thank you, Veterans for your service to our country. We remember you.

May 24th, was Graduation for the Continuing Education Center. This program takes place at what used to be St. Francis High School—ground floor and one room on 1st floor. Their class motto is “Remember yesterday, Dream for tomorrow, Live for today!" A good motto for each of us. There were 16 graduates this year. Birchell Renae Brummer received the scholarship from the Franciscan Sisters.

Last week we also had an afternoon treat of Banana Splits to celebrate our Senior Sisters—That’s nearly everyone who is on Campus!

The St. Francis Music Center had a recital of their little dancers. They are so cute and they had such a fun time performing their little recital pieces.

Half a dozen Sentence to Serve men came one day to pull rhubarb. And the next couple day Sisters were busy cutting the rhubarb and getting it ready for freezing. I saw many 5-gallon pails heading toward the freezer. Long after the rhubarb growing season is over, we will continue to have tasty rhubarb desserts.

Sr. Ruth had a plant sale. Many happy customers stopped by to get her beautiful tomato plants.

God bless you. Travel safely. Sister Mary Lou

Praise be to God for the rain

Praise God for the 1¼ inches of rain we received over the weekend.  Things were starting to look pretty dry.  I am amazed at how full of leaves all the trees are already.  I have two outside my window that always take a long time to get started, but they are catching up really fast now.  I can’t imagine living in a place where there are few or no trees.

Last week was a busy week.  Monday evening our Franciscan Community Volunteers shared with us some of the activities they have been involved in the past 8 months in the St. Cloud area.  These three women and two men have been a great blessing for our Church and the areas of their volunteer labors this past year.  Now they are taking applications for next year’s group of volunteers.

Tuesday, the Feast of St. Isidore, we had the blessing of lawns, gardens, fields and the orchard.  We gathered outside the east convent door after Mass where Fr. Dalseth blessed the water and lead the prayers.  Then, Sisters Ruth and Helen took the water to sprinkle the lawns gardens and orchard.  Lord, give us a good growing season and protect us from violent storms. 

Tuesday evening we had a great Volunteer Appreciation party. Kathy did a marvelous job of making us believe we had taken a trip to Hawaii.  St. Francis Hall was decorated as I’ve never before seen it decorated.  Beautiful!  LOTS of Volunteers and Sisters ate Hawaiian foods, listened to Hawaiian music, enjoyed a skit and the dancing that followed.  Thanks, Kathy to you and your helpers for making it such an enjoyable night.

We had two gatherings to show our appreciation to two employees who will be leaving us.  On Tuesday it was for Jennifer, who will be moving to Colorado.  She’s been a blessing for all she’s done in both our Volunteer and Health and Rec Departments these past 8 years.  Thank you, Jennifer.  As a gift Jennifer received a set of St. Francis pictures drawn by Sister Jean.

Wednesday we honored Sandy.  We will all miss Sandy, too.  She’s been with us for 21 years taking care of our sick and elderly Sisters.  She got a pack of balloons—one for each year she’s been employed here.  Sandy will be receiving a statue of St. Francis for her garden.  Thank you, Sandy for being a faithful and loving friend.

Thursday evening several of us Sisters went to Maple Island Park (a few blocks north of the Convent) for the Take Back the Night event honoring the many women, children and men victims of sexual and physical abuse.  They had a garden of little paper flowers to represent the 305 victims the Hands of Hope group helped this past year.  Patty Wetterling  was the speaker.  She speaks from her heart as she tells of the many programs in place now that were not there when her son Jacob was abducted 23 years ago, and never found.  Then, 65% of abducted victims were found.  Now it is 97%.  For the 3% it is still an awful thing.

May is Senior Citizens Month—that includes almost everyone living here at the Motherhouse in Little Falls.  Wednesday afternoon we will celebrate us “oldies” with a Banana Split Party.

The puzzlers finished another hard puzzle of coins.  It took quite a while to accomplish the task.

This coming Sunday we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost.  May the Holy Spirit guide and direct you in all you think, do and say.  Wear red, too.

Peace and blessings, 

Sister Mary Lou