Ministry |
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Sister Pat O'Toole, an elder in our congregation and a resident of the Motherhouse, began composing occasional e-mail letters to a large network of friends this past year. Her compositions drew numerous responses from friends and her mailing list grew. Readers increasingly commented that her correspondence served as a great source of wisdom and inspiration for them. It is now our pleasure to share with a broader audience Sister Pat's prose. We hope you, too, will enjoy her beautiful observations, insights, experiences and reflections.
August 4, 2008 Dear Citizens of the Universe on the planet Earth: reporting to you of our love for and interest in this home at Unfortunately, not everyone is surrounded by such a supportive group. In these times of terrorism, global warming and depressingly glorified atrocities on the evening news, I would like to suggest a simple device or gimmick for cultivating our own little wellsprings of peace and happiness within the circles of our families and friends. Participants need nothing more than a calendar or date book and a pen. For an entire month, choose a topic that will help increase your awareness of the beauty and blessings that do indeed surround us but that are easily overlooked. For instance, you could spend a month focusing on things that make you smile, and at the end of every day, you would jot down at least one thing that day that did make you smile (or that should have made you smile, in any case!). The next month you might choose to focus on little bits of beauty that you notice on the way to or from work. At the end of the month, you could then review your calendar, and choose to share a few of your observations and reflections with others, and in this way, everyone is helping themselves and their loved ones to foster a "habit of happiness" (is there a nun pun in there?). What I mean to say is that we can consciously choose to increase our awareness of the really positive things in our lives, and we can help others to do the same. Such a simple thing, really. I do hope you will join with me in this new endeavor, and please share with me any fruits of this exercise. I would love to hear from you (I could write that joy on my calendar!). Speaking in a roundabout way of beauty, we are coming to a conclusion on the renovation of our rooms (I am back in my own once again). It was sometimes noisy with jackhammers and such, and one of our elevators was non-functional for a while, but most of the confusion about meal trays and locations of the sisters has been resolved. We are now enjoying the beauty of freshly painted walls, new lighting, et cetera. Let us thank God and praise Him for His goodness to us and let us be a testament of joy, peace, happiness and beauty! With Joy, Sr. Pat O'Toole
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