Hurricane Katrina

I haven't posted here for this past week, mostly because I have been posting elsewhere. We have organized our Pauline response to this tragedy. So I'll direct you to the places on our website that describe what we are doing, and also to a new blog we have started: www.transformingtheworld.blogspot.com. Right now I'll just post there for a few days.

http://pauline.org/

Hurricane Victims are asking for the Bible and Books of Comfort: http://www.daughtersofstpaul.com/katrina/help.html

Canticle of New Orleans:
http://www.daughtersofstpaul.com/katrina/canticleofneworleans.html

A kids to kids project is coming in a day or so.

Let us pray together for those who have suffered so much.
Sr. Kathryn

Katrina

To find the light of tomorrow, we must grasp completely the darkness of today--the depths of its suffering to ourselves and to others. In the depths of the darkest hole we discover that God is deeper still.

(c) Daughters of St. Paul

Katrina

Who has my child? Where is my spouse? Did someone rescue my parent? Are they alone? Have they died? Are they suffering somewhere? Are they lost? The internet forums after Katrina listed countless pleas for knowledge of the whereabout of loved ones. Countless pleas that people at specific addresses be rescued. These worries will tear at people's hearts and haunt their nightmares for the rest of their lives. We can connect with these loved ones still. If not in person, if not in cyberspace, we can always hold their hands in the sacred space of the presence of God. We can still reassure them with the words we would have said if we were there. We can offer them comfort, holding them in our arms, washing away their tears. For wherever they are, God has them, and in God we can always meet them.

(c) Daughters of St. Paul

Katrina

As a nation, we are experiencing our vulnerability as never before. Vulnerability in the face of the forces of nature and in the face of human error. We feel powerless to solve a situation so big and so tragic, and to rebuild millions of lives. Even as many rise to help restore life to those who have lost so much, we all know that life cannot return exactly to it was. But it can become more than it was. "I waited, I waited for God, then he stooped to me and heard my cry for help. He pulled me up from the raging waters, lifted me from the mud. He set my feet on a rock, and made my footsteps firm. He put a fresh song in my mouth, a song of praise and of joy."

(c) Daughters of St. Paul

Katrina

How do you have it out with God? I know a friend who did. "Where were you?" she asked weakly, her eyes filling with tears. "Where were you when I needed you in the hospital? Where were you when my brother died? You left me all alone." Her accusation hurled into the darkness almost frightened her. But nothing happened so she continued. "In fact where were you two years ago when my younger brother died, and two years before that when my sister died." There. It was said. God had been notified of exactly how she felt. Broken. Alone. Rejected. Often we are ashamed of our anger and pain. We apologize for angry words and stifle cries of sorrow, pushing our hurt out of sight. We try to make peace with ourselves without the anger and the crying-these somehow seem unacceptable to us. But these are never unacceptable to God.

(c) Daughters of St. Paul

Katrina

What is deeper than the disappointments, deeper than the injustices, deeper than the tragic losses of life? What explains the unfairness of life and how do we live with this mystery? These are questions the whole country is asking. We want to have new eyes to SEE the deepest Reality at work in the world and in our lives. Only then will everything else fall into place. Life doesn't become easy. We aren't spared disaster. But the believer knows that God is with us in our moments of grief and pain.

(c) Daughters of St. Paul

Fleeing New Orleans--A Prayer

The Will of God--Your Holiness

Cologne at Home--WYD Vigil Celebration, Boston, MA

Since we couldn't go to World Youth Day this year in Cologne, Germany, we had our own World Youth Day celebration: Cologne at Home. We began with some Praise and Worship, continued with an hour of adoration before the Eucharist (which was the central theme of Pope Benedict XVI), and then watched the World Youth Day Vigil on video, listening especially to the Pope's address to the young people. Below are some pictures from Cologne at Home. Further down in the blog you can find links to the Holy Father's talks to the young people at World Youth Day.

Sr. Margaret Michael and Sr. Helena led us in the hand motions for Yes, Lord, in our Praise and Worship warm up.
(c) Daughters of St. Paul

Sr. Rebecca led us in song (at the mike) together with the novices and postulants who are musicians.
(c) Daughters of St. Paul

Sr. Carmen, Sr. Karen (at the keyboard), and Kelly provide some of the music.
(c) Daughters of St. Paul

Postmistressses of God