Presence

Guest Editorial

By Sr. Suzanne Marshall, O.L.M.
May_Jun 2014

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Thank you!

We can never thank Scarboro Missions enough, but we keep trying! Our Lady’s Missionaries is grateful for all the friendship and support we have received from everyone at Scarboro Missions over so many years. We are especially grateful to Kathy Gillis, editor of Scarboro Missions magazine, for working with Sisters Lorie Nuñez and Christine Gebel on this issue.

For the past 65 years of our existence, Our Lady’s Missionaries have depended on your support. We are grateful that our families, friends and benefactors continue to hold us in prayer and gift us with monetary donations. Thank you for all your contributions including that received from estates, donations in lieu of flowers at the time of death, parish collections, the Ladies’ Guild annual donation and the Catholic Women’s League. All donations are tax deductible. Please note that government regulations are such that we are not able to receive donations for ministries in countries where we no longer have Sisters present, namely: Guyana, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Brazil.

To be fully present to one another and to all others has always been a deep aspiration for OLMs. Not that we have succeeded, far from it. But we find this desire expressed in our Constitutions, Chapter Directional Statements and at annual meetings where we search to give expression to the yearning of our hearts.

What is this presence for which we all long? Humanly speaking it is our deepest need. We know how much we desire to be accepted, appreciated, may I dare say loved? We want to be seen as being of worth. Without this recognition our life can feel meaningless.

Studies show that when infants are not nurtured they fail to thrive. People who volunteer with Out of the Cold programs and drop-in centres know that it is not enough to give their guests good food, clothing and perhaps shelter for the night. They need to feel valued and respected. They want volunteers to listen to them, eat with them, “waste time” with them.

And God yearns too for our presence. In our time of prayer God wants our whole hearts not so much our thoughts and words but us, just as we are, deeply loved, deeply treasured.

Nigeria

All of our Sisters and especially those who have lived in Nigeria for many years weep for the daily destruction and death taking place there. Please pray for peace for which the people of Nigeria thirst.

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