Reception Day 10/15

Thank God for friend's emails after I read my mother's email about how she cried when she read my email as I sounded so sad in it. Yes, I have moments of homesickness but I'm not going to die as she thinks I will. There is such a joy unbounded here that it makes me silly sometimes and the sisters prove it. As I was coming out of chapel, Sister P from Haiti was taking off her robe and she started dancing and clowning around in front of the mirror as she had caught my eye and she was trying to get me to laugh out loud. These Haitian sisters are a real riot---if you can understand what they're saying.

Today is the feast of St. Theresa of Avila, the Chief's birthday and my two dear friend's daughter's birthday. It is also my reception into the community and the long awaited day where I move up from the guest/infirmary 2nd floor to the closed/community only 3rd floor. It's rainy in again. Did I move to Seattle or what? The sun has been hiding all week.

In about 2 hours I'll put on the jumper. In my mind, I've associated it with the cassock and it seems better in my mind to imagine myself in a cassock rather than a jumper. Last night I was measured for my cross and since "I'm hefty in the bossom" I need a longer one than most so that the cross doesnt stick straight out and poke someone in the eye. It's about 930am and I've been asked to think about the word desire as it is a word that appears in every service that takes you up to the next level in this life.

A funny thing happened before compline last night, I finally listened to Avenue Q's gay republican puppet sing "my girlfriend lives in Canada" and the line where he shouts "I cant wait to eat my girlfriend's ---well you get it...I hope " had me in stictches and downright snorting aloud in my room. Thank God we have 15 minutes of silence before the service begins or else I would probably be in trouble.

Apparently, on the downlow, the raunchy and absolutely inappropriate Tony Award winning musical Avenue Q has quite a big following here. It's not out on the general music library but if you ask it will arrive inside your mailbox in an envelope. The big news of the day is that sisters are petitioning to get cable as we are missing out on all sorts of things like the History Channel and Discovery and in my mind I donate some money so I could watch MTV 's "my super sweet sixteen party". Clearly, letting go of some things is easier said than done.

Anyway, I've got to go pack up my last few things.

Prayer of St Theresa--
(Here's my favorite one---and I keep hearing "you be my hands". I do believe there is a statue somewhere in the world where Jesus stands with outstretched arms and has no hands or feet. Supposedly it's created on the philosophy that we are here to be His hands and His Feet!)

Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours; yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion looks out on the world, yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now. Teresa of Avila


As always my friends, you are with me in spirit.

Much love,
Monk_1975