December 2, 2009

The first week of Advent is almost half over. How can it be? The Little Blue Book reflection for Monday said:

“God does things through us that we ourselves cannot do, or even measure. And God does them often in ways we don’t understand…Let God do what God wants to do through me. That is the path to greatness—no matter what my age, no matter what my condition. O Lord, let me let You do what You want to do through me today”.

We wait for the coming of Jesus. And God waits for us, too. May we recognize Jesus when He comes to us…and may we let God’s work be done through us.

Sister Fran made the lovely ceramic Advent Wreath that we have in the Motherhouse Chapel. It fits perfectly inside the green wreath.

When visiting on second floor in Clare Residence yesterday I saw a most unique Advent calendar in their dining room. It is a tree made up of little bird houses. And in the hole of each birdhouse is a piece of paper with an Advent reflection for that day. After the reflection is read at breakfast time it is posted near the dining room door so it can be read and pondered on during the day. The bird house for December 8th is painted blue in honor of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the patronal feast of our religious community. Thank you, Elizabeth, Rita, Cheryl and all who helped make this unique calendar. I also notice that Sr. Antonette has been busy painting lovely Christmas designs on the windows. Today the little gingerbread people that I talked about last week are part of the decoration near each door on the floor…and the Christmas tree is full of white lights and little gingerbread people—really cute. Yes, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.


This week, too, the housekeepers decorated the outside poles with green garlands and red ribbons. I hung a couple strings of lights outside our house yesterday, too. Now, let it snow!

We had a bilingual Mass this morning—part in Spanish and part in English. Today is the anniversary of the deaths of Sister Maura Clark, Sister Ita Ford, Sister Dorothy Kazel and Jean Donovan, who were martyred in El Salvador in 1980. Nine months before this Archbishop Oscar Romero, also of El Salvador, had been assassinated. Martyrdom is not a thing of the past. It happens now-a-days, too. God, give courage to those who bear witness to their faith by giving their lives.

On Sunday I went over to Linden Hill’s to tour the Musser and Weyerhaeuser mansions. What wonderful history of our town in these two buildings. This year’s theme continues to follow the Wizard of Oz connection between Laura Jan Musser and Margaret Hamilton, who played the Wicked Witch of the West in the movie. A Christmas tree in the Weyerhaeuser House was decorated with items made by Sisters Marguerite, Loretta, and Bernita. And under the tree is a little two-car wooden train made by Sr. Sharon. I looked only at items on the first floors, but all floors were open to visitors. What a treasure these buildings are to Little Falls.

Last week I mentioned the trees that we could fill with leaves mentioning the things we are grateful for. Here is a picture of two of the four trees that were in the sanctuary at Mass last Thursday.

Happy Advent and God bless you.
Sister Mary Lou