Upon my delayed arrival at the New Orleans airport, from visiting family in Ohio, what a joy it was catching sight of Sr. Caterina with a group of the girls who had just flown in to attend the Vocational Retreat that we hosted at our sisters’ convent in Southern Louisiana. Despite feeling exhausted from back-to-back trips, I was very excited about our Vocational Retreat on Aug. 2-4, 2024 with the theme being on Spiritual Direction.
 
 It was a joy getting to know the girls throughout the retreat; spending time all together adoring our Lord exposed in the monstrance, praying the Liturgy of the Hours, participating in daily Mass (celebrated by Fr. Andre Melancon - parish priest in the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux), having communal meals, and even learning with them during the talks, homilies, times of sharing, etc. Also, having myself present/available for the girls and helping them when questions arose concerning religious life etc., filled me with joy.

An awesome highlight during the retreat was hearing Sr. Susanna give a talk that Sr. Veronica (our Servant Mother General) gave some time ago in Italian about spiritual direction in the book of Tobit –with particular focus on Tobiah and the angel that accompanied Tobiah. Beautiful points were made such as Tobit and the angel giving Tobiah advice that were based upon Scripture, how the angel changed from calling Tobiah “Boy” to “Brother,” and how Tobiah respectfully questioned the angel in order to have a better understanding on how to go about the instructions that the angel had given him.