Every August the Community gathers to receive a blessing from the Prioress upon their individual ministries for the coming year. The opening hymn for this year’s service was Wake the World with Dawning Joy. It is based on the words of Pope Francis to the Consecrated Religious of the world.
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Then we chanted our Evening Prayer psalms, followed by five short scripture readings proclaimed by five different Sisters about gifts. Our response was to ask God’s blessing as we share our gifts with each other and our world.
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Left: A basket of some Sisters’ ministries; flowers from the Monastery gardens; from our African Sisters, a gift of candles and candle stands.  |
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Sister Beverly Raway, our newly elected Prioress, shared an inspiring as well as a challenging message with us. Then she anointed each Sister with holy water and a blessing as she called her staff forward. They committed themselves to serve; and the Community, with raised hands, blessed Sister Beverly and her staff.
At the conclusion of Evening Prayer we sang the last two verses of Wake the World with Dawning Joy. The last part of each verse called us to
wake the world …
with abiding words of faith with uplifting words of hope
with prophetic words of love with unending words of joy