Last week of March

The 10 ½ inches of new snow last Tuesday/Wednesday made for many big snow-mountains at the ends of all parking lots. Snow from parking lots and roads on campus has been piled in the field behind the barn all winter. It is a long mountain range.

I wonder how long it will take for all that snow to melt. Ice cycles.

Last Friday evening we had a wonderful concert by the St. Cloud State University Chamber Wind Band and the Symphony Band. One number that we enjoyed immensely was Rhapsody in Blue with piano soloist Junko Masuda and clarinet soloist Samantha Riehle. They moved a baby grand piano into chapel for the concert. The piano soloist used all the keys on that keyboard! Eleven students from the Little Falls High School band were privileged to join the 26 University players for a few pieces. We are so lucky to have such great events right here at the Motherhouse. We invited them to come again.

Last Wednesday we invited Carl Vaagenes, CEO of Unity Family Health (UFH) Care and St. Gabriel’s Hospital in Little Falls, to lunch at the Motherhouse. Carl has accepted the CEO position at Douglas County Hospital in Alexandria. Carl has been at St. Gabriel’s for over 10 years. We wanted to thank Carl for his good leadership at UFH. His biggest accomplishment was his leadership in building the new hospital. We thank you, Carl, for your leadership at the hospital and we wish you well in your new position.

On Saturday, Sister Maristell was the presenter for the full-day Lenten Retreat day for about 50 Associates, Sisters and friends. We all marvel at her mastery of the power-point presentation to add to our understanding of her topic. Thank you, Sister Maristell, for sharing your truth and talent with us. We are grateful.

Tomorrow we will celebrate Sister Alice Doll’s 90th birthday. Some of her family members will come to join us in this celebration.

On Thursday we will have another bilingual liturgy in remembrance of Cesar Chavez, a Mexican-American, who worked with farm workers in California. The Franciscan Sisters celebrate bilingual liturgies four times a year in keeping with our commitment to our Hispanic brothers and sisters. For many of us it a good challenge to learn some Spanish in order to sing the songs at Mass.

Friday evening through Sunday we will have a marriage encounter at St. Francis Center (used to be St. Francis High School). We have many and varied activities at the Center.

I see on the weekly calendar an item for Saturday for Seeds of Kindness from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. I’ll need to find out more about what that is. More about this, too, next week.

Next Sunday we will have an Oasis-Share-A-Meal fund raiser concert in our Chapel.

The end of March is coming soon so the Food Shelf Drive will end soon. Thanks for all who support this drive. Every department has a donation box.

Please keep us in prayer as we prepare for election of new leadership Sisters for our Community the weekend of April 8th to 10th.

This morning Sister Ruth Lenter made fresh donuts for lunch.

God bless you. Keep safe. Pray for the needs of the world.

Sister Mary Lou