Casa Loreto July 2020 What’s happening An update INSIDE THIS ISSUE Grounded! Locked Down! Cocooned: Maybe GROUNDED, LOCKED DOWN, COCOONED! We Were Caterpillars……………………………...1 MAYBE WE WERE CATERPILLARS Six months in Rome…………………………….….3 Presentation Manor and Covid………………..4 Covid 19—Prevention and sensitization…….5 A voice from Ghana…………………………….....6 Keep social distance… to encounter………...7 Our graduates have come back to help……..8 A time of patient waiting………..……………..10 Another frontline worker……………………....11 Excerpts from Manila…………………………….12 Helping Kibera families……………………......13 Covid prevention in a small island………..…15 Great gratitude to Cecilia O’Dwyer…….…...16 Lockdown in Llandudno……………...…….....17 My experience in Peru…………………………...19 My experience in the border………………....20 A nurse’s call…………………………………………21 An invitation to prayer……………………....…22 My memories with God, always in the way……………………………………………………..22 A suitable time to travel and explore new landscapes…………………………………………...25 Congratulations to Anita Braganza…………26 Be merry and doubt not your Master……...27 Our mid-term break vaulted us around the world. Still we were Darjeeling Mary Ward Social Centre…......28 into the privileged but arduous naïvely making our 2020 meet- New residence in Entally……………………….29 work of tallying the leaning for ing schedule and finalizing Sisters turning 100 ……………………………….29 union in late January 2020. By flight bookings to the next visit- Candidates, Novices and Temporary Pro- then, we know now that Covid ation, consultations, ELM, GC fessed……………………………………………..…..30 19 was rapidly making its way prep and Union. A new joint CJ IBVM office in Rome ……..41 Thank you for the care…………..………….….41 The death toll and illness on over- story of the paschal mystery. burdened hospitals were hitting Sunday we were with Jesus in a crisis levels in other places but new kind of Alleluia; ourselves here in Casa Loreto we prayed women outside the tomb with our feverishly for those people. And own stories of life and resurrec- then like something out of a sci- tion. ence fiction movie planes were grounded, schools closed, work- We could wonder about how you ers stayed home, stores closed, all were living these times. We could businesses halted as death num- share your stories across the In- bers skyrocketed. stitute. Those stories rained down hope for an opportunity to The cost of hand sanitizer and give meaning to this era. We face masks quadrupled and the could feel the energy returning to act of going outside required doc- communicate in different ways umentation. We were locked and to reach into the isolation to down. This may well be the expe- find meaning, hope and even mis- rience of many of us. Traumatic sion. as that may seem, the poor were stranded, homeless, neglected It drove us to think beyond the and abandoned by society and flight cancellations and the inabil- PANDEMIC LOCK- ity to touch the wounds of Jesus DOWN IN ITALY starvation threatened more omi- nously than the vicious virus. ourselves. The doubts began to dull, and the dream of a new way Following the outbreak of Here in Casa Loreto we gave our- began to unfold. This new way coronavirus disease 2019, the selves a daily schedule where we found us listening with two ears Italian government con- talked about the condition in our and one heart. It invited us to firmed the country's first world, Institute business and grow wings instead of crawling cases of the disease on 30 even our personal lives. around in one hundred different January 2020, when the virus directions. It invited us to trust was detected in two Chinese We read and listened to the news tourists visiting Italy. the mystery and possibility of new and anticipated with a certain life that will emerge out of the awe—when will this be over? A third case was confirmed news and realities of death. on 7 February, with the pa- We tried to plan. We stopped We gradually began to “zoom.” tient being an Italian man planning. We had momentary evacuated from Wuhan. We didn’t want to start with zoom distractions in our Friday evening because the universe and this vex- The first lockdowns began theme nights. We tried to discern ing virus was somehow demand- around 21 February 2020, the best ways to engage, to care, ing that we stop. As we open back covering ten municipalities of to reach out and to survive. into the business of moving for- the province of Lodi in Lom- We had daily liturgies. They were ward, have we changed much? bardy and one in the province spectacular. The reflections gave What next, butterfly? of Padua in Veneto, and af- wings to our imagination. Our fecting around 50,000 peo- Eucharist was thanksgiving with a ple. concentration on our world with On 9 March 2020, the govern- names and faces and plans to ment of Italy under Prime make more evident the presence Minister Giuseppe Conte of God in everything. imposed a national quaran- tine, restricting the move- Holy Week—Thursday we were ment of the population except with Jesus at table. Friday we for necessity, work, and were with Jesus in our world of health circumstances. suffering. Saturday we were with Jesus conquering death in the “We tried to discern the best ways to engage, to care, to reach out and survive.” 2 SIX MONTHS IN ROME Every year UISG (International Union of Superiors General) organizes a 6 months’ course for formators attended by sisters who help women to understand their vocation better. This year there were 5 CJ/IBVM sisters coming to Rome to attend the course: Bernadette Lepcha IBVM, Chetana Gregory CJ and Pratima Tudu CJ all from India, Rosaline Mganga IBVM from Kenya and Selvi Adaikalam IBVM from Australia. They arrived in a cold January, ready to start their course at the begin- ning of February. The first weeks were spent getting to know one another, the sisters in the CJ Generalate, where they were all hosted, and the sisters in Casa Loreto. Everything was going fast: in the formators’ course there were 44 reli- gious from 26 different countries and the exchanges were extremely interesting and enriching. Life in the community at the CJ Generalate and the mentoring of both the CJ and IBVM leadership teams was em- powering. In addition to all this, on the 2nd of February, the feast of the Presenta- tion of the Lord, they were able to participate in the Pope’s general au- From left: Chetana, Selvi, Bernadette, Pratima dience for Consecrated people… Nothing could be better! Sitting: Rosaline Then the news about Covid 19 and its spread across Italy started getting more and more serious and on March 9 a national lockdown was de- clared. All five sisters were worried about their families and their communi- ties at home and about the people in Italy. They were also very confused about what would be happening to the activities already sched- uled.Luckily the course was quickly reorganized with lectures online. Selvi says “This period of lockdown was such a great experience for me to get to know a lot more about myself and about living in a community and sharing so much with other sisters, realizing how much we have in common, no matter if we belong to IBVM or to CJ”. “The Course of Formators’ Training Course was enriching and self- transforming but one thing I missed was listening and learning from the sharing of the experienced formators who were there in the course, because the online course did not give this opportunity.” says Berna- dette. With Jane Livesey CJ and Noelle Corscadden IBVM Pratma adds she was particularly happy about the communion she felt with her family and the entire world because being able to go slower and find more time for prayer and meditation led to a state of deeper connection which was enriching to her. Chetana recalls that hearing of the loss of humanity due to Covid 19 was a great concern for her. But, on the other hand, it was a quiet time in which to bond with self, God, community and nature. It also offered an opportunity to appreciate the true gift of digital technology to carry on with the online classes and benefit much from it, although they missed celebrating the differences of interculturality in person. Rosaline says she is grateful to God and her leaders for giving her the opportunity to do this course which has helped her go deeper into her life and to be affirmed and challenged. The community experience with the CJs was rich especially as we move towards union; the community In the chapel at the CJ was very supportive especially during lockdown. Generalate All of them are now spending their last days in Italy visiting holy places like the Sanctuary of Loreto the Basilica of Saint Antony of Padua and more, waiting for the restrictive measures for lockdown to change and allow them to get back home. 3 PRESENTATION MANOR AND COVID Gordon Perrault, Executive Director of Presentation Manor (Scarborough, Ontario, Canada) follows all the directives from the Min- istry of Health. He also believes that his first priority is the health and well-being of the two hundred residents and of the staff. He is always pro-active so—doors locked — no visitors— no non-essential workers no leaving the property and temperatures taken twice a day. As a result, no resident at our Retirement Home contracted the Virus. However, we did have a few setbacks. After one set of testing a P.S.W. tested positive for the Virus — so complete lockdown for 14 days for all of us no leaving your room day or night, meals delivered to you, tem- PRESENTATION MANOR peratures taken, mail delivered to your door and needed medication given.