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The year was 1968 and that summer I would become invested with the habit of the Sisters of Notre Dame. What would my classmates and I wear? This was an important question—and an unusual one that hadn’t needed to be asked for decades. Vatican II allowed a seismic shift in the manner in which apostolic…

I came across a few names for animal congregates recently and decided to research others beyond the more familiar ones like pride of lions and school of fish. Do you know the group name for these? Answers are at the end of this blog. 1 hyenas 2 zebras 3 porcupines 4 rabbits 5 buffalo  6…

Over a year ago I wrote a blog and an article for SNDUSA which told of my practice of holding up my coffee cup and addressing God with “Cheers!” I still often do that; however, the coffee prayer has cooled in starting my morning praise. I wonder whether it’s too familiar an address. Of course,…

Have you ever heard the old song that goes “The more we get together, the happier we’ll be”? Well, that’s certainly true for us Sisters of Notre Dame after two years of limited visiting and traveling. This summer our sisters are putting extra effort into creating opportunities to get together. On Wednesdays, for examples, the…

The best gift to a grieving person is a listening ear and heart. An ear to hear the words of grief and loneliness. A heart to help bear the love that gathers as a lump in the throat, as a sea pouring from the eyes. As I lead grief support groups and meet persons in…

Memory is such a gift! Can you imagine always needing to re-learn the multiplication tables, state capitals, and the Our Father? Memory serves me very well as I recall July 2021 when my sister and I toured the national parks of Colorado and Utah. I’m not one to take many photos, but I did collect…

A highlight of the summer for most Sisters of Notre Dame is the celebration of Sisters’ jubilees. Once there was a study done about longevity, and it found that consecrated religious tend to be a group with long lives. This year’s jubilarians attest to longevity in religious life as one sister celebrates 75 years as…

Occasionally I just walk between the stacks in a library rather than ordering a book online. The most recent book that jumped out at me was The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation. On August 4, 1944, Anne Frank and her family were found in the Annex. They were placed in the last…

We sisters are extremely blessed to make an annual retreat of six full days. Counting arrival and departure days, that’s eight days. What do we do with all that time? Well, that’s partly up to the sister but mostly up to God—at least if we let God give us the direction, the companioning director, and…

Memorial Day commemorates those Americans who have given their lives during war beginning with the Civil War. I hope that we will take a moment amid picnics and outings to pray for these many military personnel. I also hope we remember those whose lives have been lost in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, as…