Sisters of Saint Joseph of Annecy

Sister Raymonde Marie’s thanksgiving

“Signs by the thousands, hints of your Glory, signs by the thousands, God in our history”                                                                                

Indeed this is what has brought us together to praise the Lord through this Eucharist,   in the evening of this Thanksgiving Day. Yes, all together, we praise the Lord, our Father, for the simple homely family of Nazareth – Jesus, Mary, Joseph – who lived in prayer, attentive and available to the Lord and the service of their brothers.ray6

We praise the Lord, our Father, for his boundless love for each of us. He sent his Son Jesus, the Christ, to redeem us from sin and allow us to become the sons and the daughters of the Father, with Him, and to live by his love.

We bless Jesus Christ for the sacraments he left with us to guide us on his way.                        

I bless the Lord, our Father, in Jesus Christ, with you and also for you :

ü  For the priests who are present, for the Rev. Urban, who has presided this Eucharist, and all the diocese priests.

ü  For all the persons I met on this land of Africa : those who are at work, in their families, diseased or already with God, and all of you that are present here.

ü  I bless the Lord in Jesus Christ for you, sisters, and those who are in communities and in the whole Saint Joseph's family.

Each and all are signs of God in our life ;

ü  in the love and in the joy I received through you,

ü  in the discoveries we made together, along the paths we proceeded on together,

ü  in the shared sorrows,

ü  as also in the errors, the weaknesses and even in the faults, the received or bestowed forgivenesses, that have been welcome in our Lord's mercy.ray7

I bless the Lord in Jesus Christ for all your incentives, your support in the more difficult moments. They really are signs of hope and life you have aroused around you and in me. They are visitations and thanksgivings in daily life, hence the choice of the gospel. Thanks to each of you all !

Today I acknowledge I sometimes hurt some of you through attitudes, lacks of attention, inappropriate words, personal ways of doing things and also through heartlessnessray8 and other manners. Then, to each of you and to those who have stayed with their families or in communities because of the mission or the working life, through all of you I ask for mercy.

My life, though indigent and awkward, in all that I have endeavored to be, in all the love and joy of Jesus Christ I attempted to receive or to give, I commit it in the hands of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ only is my great hope and you are in Him my hope for life to more and more impregnate your lives of consecrated persons, priests and lay persons to make Jesus Christ known.

Now our roads are going apart, not for dispersion, but to carry on along our way following Jesus Christ. These years I have lived with you will stay vivid in me.

Jesus Christ, through his Holy Spirit, is walking with us and has given us Mary as our Mother and Joseph as a Caretaker, to live our daily life and keep attentive to the Holy Spirit in Mary and Joseph's attention and humility, always looking for God's will.

May Jesus' Spirit plough in us the love and intimacy furrow with Him.

May the Glory of God shine over the world
when God will,
as He will
and may we all share his love around us.

ray9