Like so many people, we are undertaking our ministries in a different way during these days of pandemic. Srs Geraldine and Teresa are Chaplains at the two FCJ Schools in Limerick – Laurel Hill Secondary School FCJ and Laurel Hill Coláiste FCJ and are now getting used to new ways of being in touch with their school communities – through virtual assemblies, Zoom meetings & online platforms for sharing prayers and messages.
Finding ways to keep in touch with students and staff has never been more important as we seek to be channels of hope and strength for our communities.
Srs Sofi and Ramona are also getting used to new forms of technology as their English studies have moved to online classes.
As a community, we need to stay mainly inside our house and so we have found new ways to reach out to our community of older sisters at Maryville Residence FCJ and the other households in our street.
We share a garden with our sisters at Maryville and so, whilst we cannot visit them inside their home, we are keeping in touch by leaving letters and homemade cakes in our very own post office – the garden shed! We were even able to adjudicate their Easter bonnet competition, which took place in the garden, by standing a safe distance of more than two metres away from them. We are very mindful of the wonderful team of carers we have at Maryville Residence and so a few weeks ago we made masks for each of them, to help keep them safe, as well as sending each of them a homemade Easter card to let them know how much we appreciate them.
In terms of our outreach to the local area, we have placed a sign in the window letting everyone (including our postman) know that we are thinking of them, and we recently delivered hand-made cards to each house in our street, assuring them of our prayers at this time. It was great fun delivering the cards – and a lovely way to meet some of our new neighbours.
Enwrapping and underpinning all of these new ways of living out our call to companionship is our daily prayer, both personal and communal, for the needs of our world.
