If you repeat things sometimes it sounds like you actually have more to say...
Well folks, I have been as busy as a little bee since I got to Austin but I am having SO much fun! If you want to see a little taste of what I've been up to, check out http://gravatar.com/videsusa. I've finally been putting those photoshop skills to good use! Thanks WSULA! Also, feel free to friend me on any of the sites you stumble across if you click the above link, because it makes me feel good and like all my hard work hasn't been in vain :P Also because VIDES is a fabulous organization.
Love!
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Austin, Here We Come!
Hey yo,
So on Monday I will be heading north. My "sister" has a doctor's appointment in Austin and she decided that she feels strong enough to stay up there afterwards so we will be making the one-way trip on Valentine's Day. Once there, I will be working more intensively with development issues for VIDES and helping out with the Oratory at the parish, among other things I'm sure.
Most of the sisters are heading out for a retreat for religious this afternoon, so I have some quiet time to myself which I plan to use for packing and sharing a few more stories of these delightful ladies with you all.
Last night there was a Spurs game on and, not being a big basketball fan, enthusiastic nuns aside, I decided to go see what was going down in the other room. One of the sisters and I had started this tradition of meeting up in the activity room after the "good-night" and watching a movie together while doing quaint domestic tasks like needle-work and mending. We watched "The Waltz King" about the Strauss family, a movie about Mary appearing in Syria, nice, wholesome gems. She always turns the volume waaay up and then asks "Is this good for you? I have a hearing aid so I am fine but if you need it louder you can turn it up." :) So last night I went in there and sure enough she was getting her stuff set up and she had the newspaper with her. She said we could watch a movie or there was something that she had seen in the paper, "a premiere" which we could watch too. We scanned the page for awhile until she found it again..."Ah, the 40 year old virgin, look, three stars!" "Look, rate at R" I yelled. "Huh?"
Fortunately she is sweet-natured and accommodating so when I pulled out another movie she was willing to acquiesce. ...And then I realized just how much swearing is in "Return to Me." Oh well, she liked the cute animals.
Yesterday at breakfast one of the sisters told us this story about when she had to sub in a classroom for another teacher. They were talking about Epiphany and how the three wise men came to see baby Jesus because he was going to be the king of the Jews, and how Herod stopped and questioned them on their way because, you see, he was also the king of the Jews and was nervous about there being another king. One of the kids interrupted and asked "What kind of Jews, apple jews or orange jews...?"
Well, that's all for now. It's been beautiful and lovely and I love the sisters so much but I feel ready to go. Another sister came up to me this morning while I was drying the dishes in the kitchen and singing "Remember When It Rained" at full volume and said "Don't make me cry. You are leaving us?" "Yes." "Why you want to leave us?" "It's time. I will miss you, I love you all so much, but we'll see each other again." "Okay." "Okay."
Hugs and love,
Mary
So on Monday I will be heading north. My "sister" has a doctor's appointment in Austin and she decided that she feels strong enough to stay up there afterwards so we will be making the one-way trip on Valentine's Day. Once there, I will be working more intensively with development issues for VIDES and helping out with the Oratory at the parish, among other things I'm sure.
Most of the sisters are heading out for a retreat for religious this afternoon, so I have some quiet time to myself which I plan to use for packing and sharing a few more stories of these delightful ladies with you all.
Last night there was a Spurs game on and, not being a big basketball fan, enthusiastic nuns aside, I decided to go see what was going down in the other room. One of the sisters and I had started this tradition of meeting up in the activity room after the "good-night" and watching a movie together while doing quaint domestic tasks like needle-work and mending. We watched "The Waltz King" about the Strauss family, a movie about Mary appearing in Syria, nice, wholesome gems. She always turns the volume waaay up and then asks "Is this good for you? I have a hearing aid so I am fine but if you need it louder you can turn it up." :) So last night I went in there and sure enough she was getting her stuff set up and she had the newspaper with her. She said we could watch a movie or there was something that she had seen in the paper, "a premiere" which we could watch too. We scanned the page for awhile until she found it again..."Ah, the 40 year old virgin, look, three stars!" "Look, rate at R" I yelled. "Huh?"
Fortunately she is sweet-natured and accommodating so when I pulled out another movie she was willing to acquiesce. ...And then I realized just how much swearing is in "Return to Me." Oh well, she liked the cute animals.
Yesterday at breakfast one of the sisters told us this story about when she had to sub in a classroom for another teacher. They were talking about Epiphany and how the three wise men came to see baby Jesus because he was going to be the king of the Jews, and how Herod stopped and questioned them on their way because, you see, he was also the king of the Jews and was nervous about there being another king. One of the kids interrupted and asked "What kind of Jews, apple jews or orange jews...?"
Well, that's all for now. It's been beautiful and lovely and I love the sisters so much but I feel ready to go. Another sister came up to me this morning while I was drying the dishes in the kitchen and singing "Remember When It Rained" at full volume and said "Don't make me cry. You are leaving us?" "Yes." "Why you want to leave us?" "It's time. I will miss you, I love you all so much, but we'll see each other again." "Okay." "Okay."
Hugs and love,
Mary
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Nuns are fun...!
Something very exciting happened here a few days ago...we had snow!!! By which I mean the ground was dusted in a 1/4 inch of powder and resembled frosted flakes. Everybody was really freaked out about it, but I couldn't for the life of me understand the fuss. I asked one of the sisters when the last time they had snow was, she said: "1985." "Nuh Uh. No way. Really?" "Yes." Everybody was really concerned about the ice too; having just driven on a fair bit on my way down here I felt like people were over-reacting, but then I read in the paper that there were 500 accidents in those 2 days. Maybe I should have stopped being snarky and started praying...
The sisters here are a class act. We have been having a lot of fun because, as Catholics, we have an important feast day at least several times a week. The sisters actually celebrate them. We decorate, and reflect and eat special food...it's all rather fabulous. These last two weeks have been Big though: Laura Vicuna (a "blessed" Salesian pupil in Chile who gave her life for her mother's virtue), then Francis de Sales (one of our patrons, our namesake and a doctor of the church), the conversion of St. Paul, Sts. Timothy and Titus, St. Thomas Aquinas (another d to the c), then DON BOSCO (our founder, along with M. Mozzarello), the Presentation of Our Lord (in the temple-used to mark the end of the Christmas season, and there is a Mexican tradition involving a plastic baby in the King's cake (from the 12th day of Christmas) where the person who gets the baby has to throw a party...the animator got the baby and tamales were enjoyed by all), then St. Blaise (we had our throats blessed) and finally St. Agatha, one of many virgin martyrs in the early church. Man, it's been an exciting 2 weeks! Oh and did I mention there have been 3 birthdays so far? And we just celebrated the Chinease New Year and our Vietnamese sisters prepared a wonderful feast...basically it's a party all the time.
Okay, not really. There are a lot of very serious aspects of being here, we spend a lot of time in prayer, entrusting ourselves to the Lord, and many of the sisters have very real and prohibitave medical conditions that set the tone of everything we do here. But at the end of the day, it's all about having joy in the Lord and delighting in the good things he does and continues to do for us.
The mental enrichment programs are going well, the sisters really seem to be getting something out of it and I really enjoy the time to get to know them better and challenge my own mind and laugh with them about how silly we are. Rather than treating it like school, I really have tried to make it something that is meaningful for them personally, and the sisters have responded with such grace and appreciation for my efforts.
Most of all, I feel that the community has really welcomed me here with open arms. I felt instantly at home, probaby due in part to the time I spent with the Salesians in El Salvador. One of the sisters told me that she was praying for me, and at first I kind of scoffed (like, "why are you praying for me?") and then I caught myself and she explained, "No I'm serious, you gave up everything to come here and help us and be with us." "Thank you" I said.
I am blown away by thier gratitude, generosity and sweetness.
These women are funny too. One of the sisters dances to the ABCs with pom poms for the kids she teaches. On her birthday she wants to have it "high key" and plans to seranade the community with mariachi music. Another sister was telling me about her youth in Egypt and how she used to get in trouble for goofing in class and have to write lines. So she started writting the lines ahead of time; she would finish her homework (sometimes doing a wrong copy and a right copy for extra effect) and go straight to writing "I will not misbehave" 100 times so that she could whip it out directly after she got in trouble. We did a skit when the Provincial came to visit about excercising our prayer muscles and the ad-libbing was hysterical...so was watching them groove to "Go Make A Difference" with light up batons. And almost all of the sisters love the Spurs, they gather 'round the set and cheer and even stay up late (9:30!) to watch the games on the west coast.
The moral of this story is I'm having a very blessed time here, and I hope you are all doing well also.
Love love love
m
ps everybody knits (or crochets) :)
The sisters here are a class act. We have been having a lot of fun because, as Catholics, we have an important feast day at least several times a week. The sisters actually celebrate them. We decorate, and reflect and eat special food...it's all rather fabulous. These last two weeks have been Big though: Laura Vicuna (a "blessed" Salesian pupil in Chile who gave her life for her mother's virtue), then Francis de Sales (one of our patrons, our namesake and a doctor of the church), the conversion of St. Paul, Sts. Timothy and Titus, St. Thomas Aquinas (another d to the c), then DON BOSCO (our founder, along with M. Mozzarello), the Presentation of Our Lord (in the temple-used to mark the end of the Christmas season, and there is a Mexican tradition involving a plastic baby in the King's cake (from the 12th day of Christmas) where the person who gets the baby has to throw a party...the animator got the baby and tamales were enjoyed by all), then St. Blaise (we had our throats blessed) and finally St. Agatha, one of many virgin martyrs in the early church. Man, it's been an exciting 2 weeks! Oh and did I mention there have been 3 birthdays so far? And we just celebrated the Chinease New Year and our Vietnamese sisters prepared a wonderful feast...basically it's a party all the time.
Okay, not really. There are a lot of very serious aspects of being here, we spend a lot of time in prayer, entrusting ourselves to the Lord, and many of the sisters have very real and prohibitave medical conditions that set the tone of everything we do here. But at the end of the day, it's all about having joy in the Lord and delighting in the good things he does and continues to do for us.
The mental enrichment programs are going well, the sisters really seem to be getting something out of it and I really enjoy the time to get to know them better and challenge my own mind and laugh with them about how silly we are. Rather than treating it like school, I really have tried to make it something that is meaningful for them personally, and the sisters have responded with such grace and appreciation for my efforts.
Most of all, I feel that the community has really welcomed me here with open arms. I felt instantly at home, probaby due in part to the time I spent with the Salesians in El Salvador. One of the sisters told me that she was praying for me, and at first I kind of scoffed (like, "why are you praying for me?") and then I caught myself and she explained, "No I'm serious, you gave up everything to come here and help us and be with us." "Thank you" I said.
I am blown away by thier gratitude, generosity and sweetness.
These women are funny too. One of the sisters dances to the ABCs with pom poms for the kids she teaches. On her birthday she wants to have it "high key" and plans to seranade the community with mariachi music. Another sister was telling me about her youth in Egypt and how she used to get in trouble for goofing in class and have to write lines. So she started writting the lines ahead of time; she would finish her homework (sometimes doing a wrong copy and a right copy for extra effect) and go straight to writing "I will not misbehave" 100 times so that she could whip it out directly after she got in trouble. We did a skit when the Provincial came to visit about excercising our prayer muscles and the ad-libbing was hysterical...so was watching them groove to "Go Make A Difference" with light up batons. And almost all of the sisters love the Spurs, they gather 'round the set and cheer and even stay up late (9:30!) to watch the games on the west coast.
The moral of this story is I'm having a very blessed time here, and I hope you are all doing well also.
Love love love
m
ps everybody knits (or crochets) :)
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