As older sisters we don’t get out much, so every three months Sister Henriette Danet comes to lead us in an “in-house” day of reflection. We are 6 communities … Plonéour, Saint-Évarzec, Guidel, Quimperlé, Bignan, Ploërmel … and we also invite the neighbours and Associates. No pens, no paper, not even a book! Instead each time, a slide show, a film or a good dose of humour help us to reflect.

Our last day was during Advent. In this season we ‘wait’, we expect something, but what are we waiting for? What are our expectations in old-age?

Our biological curve

decreases

But our spiritual curve should increase, as it does with the great figures in the Bible: Jeremiah, Abraham and Sarah, and a beautiful list of so many women, who were biologically sterile and yet made fertile by God.

So, instead of waiting for the “great passage”, let’s wait for the coming of the Child! What emotion when we heard several among us say: “I was waiting for death, but now I am waiting for something else”. This something else could well be the promise of God who is coming towards us. Along with Jeremiah, “let’s put on our belts!” God is coming to us in the form of a Child.

” The Word of God dwelt in man, and became the Son of man, that He might accustom man to receive God, and God to dwell in man ….”

Irenaeus of Lyon, Against Heresies III, 3, 20.