Tuesday, December 11, 2012

A Visit With The Nuns

Yesterday was my mother’s 83rd birthday. She is pictured above.  Like a good son I called her and wished her well. She is the last of the parent’s for my wife and me. My mother is the only person in my family who is older than me. It was also the anniversary of the death of Thomas Merton. Merton was a monk and writer who lived in the same monastery as I did although we did not live there at the same time. I would list him as one of the primary influences in my life. Much of what I know about the contemplative life I learned from Merton’s writings.

Last Friday I took a day off from work and spent the day with my good friend, Fr. Dennis. Although he is retired, he still does priestly duties for parishes and religious communities when needed. One of his occasional activities is to say mass for the Sisters of Charity at Nazareth in Bardstown. Last week he was saying mass for them all week so I went with him on Friday. The Sisters of Charity recently celebrated their 200th anniversary as a religious community. They are a very impressive group of woman who are out there in the world doing real ministry with real people. In my opinion, religious women are usually more on the cutting edge of ministry than men. After mass Dennis and I had lunch with the nuns. They fed us well and the nun I sat with challenged me with some engaging conversation about the priesthood, the church, and politics. When I told her I worked for a healthcare company she immediately questioned me about healthcare reform. We also discussed modern day theologians. She was certainly one of the community’s intellectuals. I love to be around smart people. I also met another nun who told me about her attempt to make bourbon balls. She wasn’t happy with the finished product because she thought they weren’t strong enough. Her solution was to inject each one of them with additional bourbon using a hypodermic needle. Nuns can be very resourceful!



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