Portugese snow

My dear Friends

I am sitting in the local library and the young man next to me has just said that there might be 'nas'-he was Portugese and with the help of my French, I intuited that this meant snow. The Blog has acquired a Portugese feel in that 2 young men, Portugese speakers, have commented and given me their Blog address-thank you, guys!

2 nights ago, rather tired and on the bus coming home, I met a charming young Portugese woman. We had a deep conversation, mainly in the cold when we got off the bus, but it relates to an important dimension of The Little Sisters of Joy. Hospitality is everything, it goes right back to Abraham and the angels. He was standing outside his tent one day, when 3 men came along, with the message that his barren and aged wife Sarah would bear a son. Sarah laughed and so the child was called Isaac, from the Hebrew root to laugh.

In the heat of the day, Abraham gave these men hospitality. Something to eat. Convivium, congeniality. My new Portugese friend can't understand why people in this country and in many Western countries, don't enjoy their food or talk to each other slowly and lovingly while they are eating. In a Jewish family like mine, we did enjoy each other's company when we were eating, especially on the Sabbath. And we always blessed the food, no matter how little, and sang the grace after meals,

'Those who are sowing in tears, will reap with shouts of JOY!'(Psalm 126)

On 15th August 1999, the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, I wrote the beginnings of a Rule of Life for my future Sisters. Hospitality was very prominent, and this was welcomed by the powers that be in Toronto-and Canadians are naturally hospitable people. I made the point in the Rule of Life (a dcument putting down how we live together, when we pray, eat etc and our 'charism' - really a gift of the Holy Spirit and the defining ethos of the community, in our case JOY. )

My Jewish aunt, disabled and poor, would always welcome strangers at her table-we can always put a little more water in the soup, she would say!

Auntie Belle is long gone, but certainly not forgotten.

I wish you JOY, in your Friendships, in your sitting down together, in your eating and your sharing.

Shabbat Shalom from
Sister Gila