Community Days 2019 was kicked off with a talk by Sister Kathy Neely, OSU, on Migration Causes in Honduras on July 16 at 7 pm in the library. Her reflections on her participation in the reverse caravan this past spring were eye-opening and revealed many insights on the plight of our brothers and sisters in much of South America.

Due to construction in the east wing, all of the remainder of Community Days events were held in the Sacred Heart Model School dining room, which was a very nice space for our group.

On July 17, the 75-page annual report was presented in PowerPoint format, which was created by our Director of Communications, Kathy Williams. Highlights from the report covered July 1, 2018-June 30, 2019 and included reports on our Jubilarians, service projects with Bellarmine students, Sister awards, including the Monsignor Horrigan Distinguished Service Award from Bellarmine University, our sponsorships and ministries, the Associates, the Angela Merici Center for Spirituality, the “Year of Ursuline” celebrating the 50th anniversary of Ursuline College’s merger with Bellarmine College, as well as updates from Archives, Communications and Mission Advancement.

July 18 was a full day of Chapter Planning with a guest facilitator, Donna Fyffe, along with time for reflection and prayer.

On July 19, the community took a walk down memory lane with a slideshow of photos from the east wing of the Motherhouse, along with other areas. Laughter, memories and anecdotes were shared, and it was a lovely moment to pause and look back for all of the community. That afternoon, several employees, Associates and friends were invited to small group sharing to dream, reflect and offer ideas for the future.

July 20 was the Associate-planned Community Day, which included a lively session led by Lisa Steiner on forming our thoughts on what the Associates are and where they are headed in the future. It included small groups writing headlines and a couple of sentences on an imaginary news story featuring the Associates three years from now. The Associate Covenant signing was held that afternoon, followed by a group photo for the DOME magazine.

July 21 was the date of our Jubilee Mass, and we celebrated our Jubilarians:
Sisters Jamesetta DeFelice, Julienne Guy, Donata Kokot, Jane Stuckenborg: 70 years
Sisters Catherine Franze and Lorna Weiler: 60 years.

After lunch, we held our Missioning service for our Sisters and Associates. The staff’s Missioning Service was held the following week. The theme for this year’s missioning was: “Gospel Women and Men, Disciples All,” and an image of Lydia was used for the card.

It was a wonderful week of laughter, love and reflection.