St. Francis/St. Emma Ministry ~ by Cathy Woodson

"Silent of peace... Silence of soul... experience of the divine in today's world. Breathe the wonder beauty of the silent stillness..."

St. Francis/St. Emma Newsletter, June 2007

On Wednesday evening, the adult faith formation continued the week with a wonderful journey led by Sr. Maureen Carroll, SBS, CFRE and Sr. Angela Lyons, SBS, from St. Francis/St. Emma in Powhatan, VA.

We moved into the evening with a reflection bringing to memory our own time and place with God's natural gifts.

From the reflection, we moved into the life of St. Katherine Drexel, the ministry of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, and the ministry of St. Francis/St. Emma (past, present, future). The sisters gently moved us to a greater understanding of earth/human oppression and ministry.

Several parishioners have connections to St. Francis/St. Emma. Our own, Frances Pope, shared her memory of the beautiful chapel located on the grounds. She was there in the 1980's on a Cursillo retreat, and she too had a genuine glow as she asked about the condition of the chapel. Mary Walker shared with us that her father's St. Emma diploma has been restored, a wonderful keepsake for the family.

We have so many gifts among us and I am in awe with all the discoveries we experience each time we come together. St. Elizabeth Women's Retreat will be held at St. Francis/St. Emma and I hope we will be able to have many to go and experience the beauty and peace of this sacred land. Visit the website and take a look at this great gift, http://www.francisemma.org/.

A note a song erupts

within a world alive

enfleshed with sound filled with silence

Breathe the wonder beauty or

the silent stillness

and remain again captured

receptive of the hymn unheard...invisible

be soul

a music score flamed

and forged by presence

more real than life itself...

Reality is no more no less a

silence masked in meaning

full and free and wild.

Sr. Angela T. Lydon, SBS

Francisemma.org