more goodbyes

2011 is proving to be a year of many endings and goodbyes for me. I was told this past week that the Sisters would be moving the end of April. For many years, they have lived in a very, very beautiful place which their order owns but can no longer afford to maintain. So, the time has come for them to make changes. The first step is to relocate. They found a lovely senior development several miles outside of St. Paul. The next step will be to find a buyer for the property, no small task, given today's economic situation. None of this came as a surprise to me. They had announced last fall that they would be doing this. I'd been praying that a Catholic organization would buy it to use as a retreat center or to develop it into senior living--independent, assisted, nursing care. Either of these might have allowed the Sisters to stay in their home. However, this was not to be...

I will miss the Sisters very much. I've been playing and leading the singing for their morning Mass twice a week and a couple of times a month on Sundays for over 6 years. It is there that I received the call to begin a new religious community. It is there where I felt supported and loved by all. It is there where many prayers were said for me for many different reasons over the years and many prayers were answered as a result.

I love them all so much! I was thinking the other day that love can be painful. However, I still hold onto the old adage that it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. In this case, I have grown spiritually in many ways, having known the Sisters. After thinking about the pain of goodbyes, I decided to view it from a different angle. It was something my sister Mary taught me. (Maybe I've already shared this with you...I hope not!) Once she had been at a meeting at a very expensive home on a lake and, afterward, I asked her if she was jealous of the people who lived there. The way she described it had sounded so lovely! She looked horrified and said, oh, no. She had been thrilled to have been there for a time so she could bask in the beauty of it all. That's how I see this situation. I am so thrilled to have been among the Sisters for these years, to experience the beauty of their Community and to be with them as we prayed together. What a blessing it has been for me! What I've had with and from them is far more than the pain of saying goodbye to them. And, one good thing is they aren't so far away that I won't be able to go visit them once in a while. It just won't be the same.

Isn't it interesting how things rarely stay the same in life? It can be a challenge to keep up at times but mostly there is great beauty in change, if we but look for it. And, along with the beauty, there are always blessings. Our Lord certainly doesn't allow changes in our lives and then leave us to fend for ourselves over them. I thoroughly enjoy how He brings blessings into my life, especially during times that are challenging for me. To me, it's proof positive that He is here, ever present. It always makes me appreciate and praise Him even more!