Busy Week

Sister Anne, Jen, Sister Marcia, Sister Barbara, myself

Well it has been almost a full week since I last posted and many things have occured. On Friday I facilitated a junior retreat for LeBlond High School on "The Road to Emmaus". It was a full day retreat and went very well.

Friday night, a friend of the community, Jen, came to stay the night in the guest area. A group of us played Mad Gab (Bible addition). If you haven't played this game, you really need to find it. The basic premise is to read what is written on the card and your team tries to guess what the phrase is (see picture) it is harder than it looks but lots of laughs!

"Pray for those who mistreat you"

---------------------------------- "A Drop in the Bucket"

Saturday was a pretty quiet day with bell practice as the only major activity. I started to feel a cold coming on so I just stayed in my room and started taking cold medicine. By Sunday morning my voice started to give out and my sinuses were clogged. I was the fourth person in my living group to come down with a cold this week. We try to stay in our rooms but there is only so much you can do. Each of us has different symptoms: some no voice, some coughing, some sinuses, some aches and fevers, etc. Mine is mostly sinus problems. Irritating but not terrible.

Sunday afternoon I spent some time with a Confirmation group from Topeka which ended up being a nice afternoon. Luckily the cold medicine worked and I was able to give them the tours of the monastery and talk a bit about church history.

Today was another busy day. This morning I went into Kansas City and gave a vocation talk prior to the diocesan Chrism mass. It was a nice gathering of high school students, their campus ministers, seminarians, Fr. Mitchel and myself. The morning consisted of a talk about evangelization, an explaination of the Chrism mass and a sharing about vocations. After the morning events, we all went upstairs together and attended the Chrism mass. The church was full and most of the priests from the diocese were in attendance for it is at this mass that the diocesan priests renew their promises. The mass had a beautiful choir with wonderful brass (which I love to listen to) unfortunately I still do not have my singing voice back so I had to be content with listening. Which actually is very pleasant in and of itself! So all in all a good day.

From here we begin our final preparations for the Triduum. It is my favorite Liturgical season of all and the liturgies here at the Mount are outstanding. Say some prayers for our Liturgist Susan who is having to adjust around all those catching colds. It is stressful enough planning the liturgies, assigning roles to each of the sisters and practicing so the liturgies are well done without all of us getting sick on her. She does a great job and we are lucky to have her skill and dedication.

May the cold and flu season soon end and may your final preparations for Easter be filled with peace.