Shhhh!

Beginning Friday we'll be in retreat preparing for the great feast of our holy Father St. Dominic on Monday the 8th. So, your Magnificat says it's just a memorial? No way! For OP's world wide it is a Solemnity, a day of fraternal communion and celebration and the tradition is that we even let the FRANCISCANS celebrate the Mass on this day. At least some places, mostly priories, invite the "Franks" to be the main celebrants.

We will be having conferences by our brother, Fr. Kurt Pritzl, OP, dean of Philosophy at Catholic University of America and a long time friend of our community. We're looking forward to this and he teased us by sending an overview of the talks which will be based on the testimonies of the brethren at the canonization process.

We're praying for COOLER weather and much needed rain. What not to do? It's a bad idea to put a thermometer in your cell and then announce, "It's 98 degrees in my cell right now!" BAD IDEA!

We try to accept this hot weather cheerfully. Not always easy! A/C in the professed and novitiate community room along with in the Choir for a good part of the day is a grateful relief. They're not much help in such heat but we do have little fans in each cell. "Now when I was a young sister we didn't have fans at all...." Hard to believe, but it's true. Fans only became something affordable about 15 years ago!

We try to remember all those people who have to deal with the heat: the elderly, the homeless, the people whose jobs require them to be out in the sun...It makes all the difference!