Thursday, May 3, 2012

Prayer: Diane Dennie, S.S.J.


While I am here at our Motherhouse, I have found some wonderful ways to 'wash feet' - sort of. Each morning I go to Samaritan Wing (an area of our house that offers 'assisted living' to resident sisters and priests). They come together in a dining room for breakfast. There are about 10 sisters and 3 priests there to serve. Several of the sisters are former college professors who taught me. My 'job' is to tell them what is available for breakfast and serve them what they want.  This morning, one of the sisters who has dementia and difficulty speaking, grabbed my hand and held it tight.  So I bent over and kissed her forehead. Another sister at her table said, "I'll have one of those too!"

I also have been driving for sisters who can no longer drive themselves - taking them to appointments or shopping - this is fun too.  Once I spent an entire day at the hospital with a sister who was having ambulatory surgery - she has some memory problems and cannot always speak for herself - so that was my job. She is someone I never really knew before, but now we are great friends!  In fact, she is someone I serve breakfast too and if she can't get out the words to say what she wants to eat, she just smiles at me and says, "You know."

One day I heard her say something that I thought would be good advice for lots of people: "I'm just going to be quiet - too many words are falling out!"

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