cleaning

I was doing some spring cleaning at our convent today, since I have a break from my receptionist and aide duties. The time was a wonderful reprieve after the chaos of the residents’ shopping day, a meeting, aide duties, and more yesterday.

Who’d have thought that cleaning house could be called a break? 🙂

Anyway..

In the coarse of my cleaning, I noticed a little poem that I copied out years ago, probably when I was still in Rugby. The author is unknown, but it is a beautiful, touching reflection that I would like to share with you. It still hangs on the door to my bedroom.

I hope it touches your heart as it did mine.

He comes as a companion of the lonely;
a faithful friend who cares and understands.
He comes as a physician to the hurting,
with tenderness and healing in His hands.

He comes as a protector to the helpless,
a shepherd who calls all His lambs by name,
a father who sees every child as special,
whose gentle heart loves each, both well and lame.

He comes, the consolation of the suffering,
the light that breaks through darkness and despair.
He comes and we discover that His presence
is the loving answer to our every prayer.

Isn’t it great that “He comes” to us in our neediness?

Some days we long for a companion, a friend. At other dimes, it’s a physician, a protector, a shepherd, and a father that we need. Sometimes, we feel the need of His consolation in suffering and His light against despair.

~ Always, we need His presence…and He comes. ~

.Sr. Christina M. Neumann

I was at home cleaning and doing a bit of laundry this afternoon. I hadn’t planned to do washing, but our top altar cloth in chapel had a soot stain I was trying to remove.

I had applied a series of treatments to it, starting with an overnight setting with OxiClean, followed by treatment with other chemicals, including alcohol and bleach. The final step, I hoped, was to wash it in the machine.

So home I went and put it and some other white items in the machine. Meanwhile, I went to work cleaning. We had decorated for the upcoming celebration of Christmas the other evening, and there was evidence of this in the tinsel that lined the carpet in places.

While I was doing my cleaning, a song somehow came to mind that I learned back when I was involved with my parish youth program. Some of the words include: “Sing to the Lord a song of praise; with new hearts bless His name.” Amidst vacuuming, sweeping, and dusting, it’s good to lift the heart and mind in prayer, praise, and gratitude. (I could, after all, be wheelchair-bound and unable to do this cleaning.) Thinking of, or listening to, such music as this song can help put words of thanks and praise into our hearts and minds.

When I tried searching for the full lyrics later, I realized that it is based on the very psalm that I am preparing to sing for our Mass Christmas night: Psalm 96.

Prayers would be appreciated that I can make it through that psalm of praise despite my nervousness at the amount of people present. (I have never led the psalm for as large a group as we expect Thursday.). We end up hauling chairs and scurrying around to help seat a little over a hundred people in our chapel for the occasion each year.

Sr. Christina M. Neumann, OSF