First Friday

 Time seems to disappear and we need to remind ourselves that we have all the time there is! We are expecting one of our Sisters to arrive today and complete the Westwood Community as we will be eight now, but we still have a guest room (very small room) here and there is space in Rosewood for guests. The problem is that we are not allowed yet to invite guests to stay. I think we may be having a visit from an  RSCJ in September and then we have another funeral on September 9th so we may be more open for that. It is better to be safe than sorry. 

Now, this morning I heard another bit of wisdom from the Dominican, Father Xavier. He said that recollection is about "having a sense of God's loving life and light" - the sunlight is always there but we do not always realize it. No matter what, dawn will come and God is in all. I cannot quote him exactly but the idea is that God is always with us and we can turn to Him.

I love First Friday and find that I often go back in memory to even childhood - I do not remember what we did to make First Friday special at the Academy of the Visitation, but my two years in 7th and 8th grade at our parrochial school are remembered because the day started with the entire school at Mass in the Church and then we had hot cocoa and doughnuts in the basement of the Church before going to class. When I was at the Academy of the Sacred Heart for my four years of high school, we had Mass in the morning and then a special Benediction in the afternoon. When I was in Chile, I taught the high school to sing in English, "When the battle rages fiercest..." and we had an honor guard and banner and processed into the Chapel. I think we did that when I was in high school but I made it a bit more in Chile. The students had to work to win the honor of wearing the red sashes and walking behind the banner of the Sacred Heart. (It is years since I have thought of this!)