Serving with Sisters Means Many Graces!

This summer a group of young ladies joined the Carmelite Sisters for a very unique experience called “Serving With Sisters”  They spent two weeks immersed in  Carmelite Spirituality while serving with the Sisters in our apostolates: healthcare, retreats, and education.

We wanted to share a few moments of grace with you from this incredible two week program. During the two days of volunteering at Santa Teresita, they spent time with residents in both the Manor and Cottage.

On the first day the young ladies helped us bring about 30 residents in wheelchairs to the green field. After clipping individual sun umbrellas on all the wheelchairs to give the residents shade, they ran around the field pulling kites in tow to make them fly for the residents. During the social, they threw around beach balls, blew bubbles, and served the residents popsicles. The residents were all smiles and the young women reminisced afterwards about the humorous comments that they heard as they were running with the kites. One elderly lady yelled out, “Put your hair in a braid!” as she watched the young woman’s hair go every which way.

The following day in the Cottage we had introduced some of the young ladies to individual residents who we knew would enjoy company.  Residents and volunteers sat together and chatted for at least a half an hour, and from the hallway I observed the joy on the faces of the residents and the visiting girls.

“She had so much to share! She kept going and getting more photos and things to show me,” said one young lady.

Another, who is studying to be a music therapist and sings opera, told me that she found out that the resident she visited had been a soprano singer in Hong Kong when she was young. Both were very excited about this discovery.

The next morning the ladies in the Cottage were all smiles when I brought up the girls. The consensus was, “They were darling!”

We can’t decide who got the most out of this whole experience: the residents, the young women who volunteered, or the sisters who witnessed the graces!