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The Seventh Annual Associate Gathering, entitled Communities in Harmony ...Celebrations of Faith, was held at Villa de Matel April 29-May 1, 2011. The picture above was taken in Galveston in front of the Grotto that was once at St. Mary’s Hospital, the original hospital run by the CCVIs, and later at St. Mary’s Orphanage. The Grotto is now at Holy Family School, located on the grounds of the former Ursuline Academy. It was the Ursuline Sisters who offered hospitality to the first three CCVI Sisters when they arrived in Galveston until their new home was built. The Saturday bus tour, led by Houston Associate Linda Macdonald, provided a very enjoyable opportunity to visit and remember the people, places and events that were significant in the early days of the CCVIs. One of the first stops was at the cemetery where the group placed flowers at the marker listing the names of the Sisters who are buried there. The Galveston trip followed a leadership meeting on Friday, which was open to all Associates who could attend. Facilitated by Maureen Bacchi, this was a day of prayer and sharing around our gifts and our hopes for the Associates. We are in a time of changing leadership and Associates focused on ways to use our gifts for the good of the Associate community as well as others to whom we minister. We talked about discernment as it related to leadership roles and needs. Sister Ruth Robles gave her thoughts on prayer and discernment and the group watched a video related to faith sharing. Associates saw a need to further develop skills of faith sharing at our meetings, and this will be looked at in upcoming planning sessions. The Gathering social times were enjoyable, and as always, they reinforced our sense of all being part of a special Community. On Sunday morning, after a presentation to the CCVIs about the Associates, the group shared thoughts and feelings about how we live our values, and how we might work on issues related to our value of Community in the coming year.
