Coming Together to Share
Life and Laughter.
Coming Together to Share
Life and Laughter.
After struggling with schedules for a while, we, the Dominicans of St. Catharine with Vietnamese background, chose the second weekend of August 2006 for our second gathering. Although some of us couldn’t make it, we had to go with that schedule and kept the ball rolling. Finally, six of us showed up for this gathering. The theme of our gathering weekend was “ Walk Hand in Hand.” With this theme, we encouraged each other to be open to sharing, speaking the truth and listening. Marybeth Irvine’s Lake House was the meeting place for this gathering.
On the first night of our gathering, the group was divided into two because the bad weather caused a flight delayed. One group stayed at the Lake house, while the other was in Louisville at Hilltop. However, with the theme in mind, we kept in touch by phone and invited one another in the same group to set up the agenda for that night.
We were together most of the time for the rest of the weekend. However, we didn’t follow St. Augustine’s rule: go to bathroom in two; and all of us were grateful for disobedience! We gave and received from each other our laughter and tears, advice and confusion, hopes- dreams- courage, along with frustration or desert times. We also shared our visions and feelings relating to the Cluster process and prayed for it.
On Sunday, we had Mass with sisters in the Sansbury Care Center as the sign of our unity with our Dominican Family. After mass, we had lunch with Sr. Hue Le. We also took time to say “ Hello” to sisters in both the Motherhouse and Care Center.
The most impressive and challenging part of our time together was building the trust, openness and courage among us. We spoke with love so that others could hear. We discussed what we should do to support each other, come closer, help each other grow, and finally accept each other for who she is. It was not easy at all. However, like “ the seed which falls to the ground, unless it dies, it remains just a grain of wheat, but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” ( Jh 12:24), we encouraged ourselves to be open and took courage to do so for the sake of our mission, our group and Dominican Congregation.
We were grateful for the time together laughing, joking, and eating Vietnamese food along with the produce from our Motherhouse garden. We were grateful for singing and sharing in our own language. So, this gathering had a tremendous significance for all of us to become refreshed and to be who we are. We were also grateful to Mary Beth Irvine with her generosity in offering us her beautiful Lake House. We appreciate our Dominicans who have supported and prayed with us. With all of that, we say thank you and may peace be with you always.
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