Hey Everyone,
I just wanted to write a quick apology for those of you who are getting notifications that say I've added a new post when I haven't. I'm still trying to figure out how to work Blogger. Apparently the "enter" button publishes whatever draft you're working on. I'm gonna figure it out soon! I have 3 different entries I'm in the middle of and I hope to publish at least one of them soon. Sorry again!
Love,
Gina
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Friday, September 2, 2011
My Awesome New Digs
Here's a tour of the Cabrini Retreat Center.
You turn off of Golf Road onto our driveway, and these are the first things you see.
The retreat center is shaped like an "L." When you walk in the front doors, the quests floors (3 floors, 72 single rooms in total), cafeteria, chapel, lounges, and rec/meeting room are to the left.
So to the left is:
And THIS is my absolute favorite room- our giant walk in freezer! It's not my favorite just because it's where the Italian ices live, but because when you close the door a long, loud whirling noise escapes that makes you feel like you're walking through an arctic wind. It cracks me up every time. Noreen says I'm easily amused.
The Main Hallway:
If you go right, you have a couple of our offices, a personal kitchen, and the "fireside suite" which is rented out to the guests and doubles as my living room and dining room. Up the stairs from the fireside suite is where Colleen and I live. The fireside suite, the kitchen, my office, and the bedrooms upstairs were all apart of the original convent. Colleen put a welcome sign on the stairs for us so that we feel like we have a front door. Lol.
The Fireside Suite/My Living Room:
My apartment:
My bedroom:
Outside there is a fountain, a little gazebo, a bunch of secluded benches, stations of the cross nailed up on trees in a great circle (the sun was glaring so I am not going to put pics of them up now, but I'll get to it). The Cabrini Retreat Center LOVES statues, too. They're everywhere. When I'm feeling mischievous I think I'll move some of them around and hide them in places Noreen and Colleen wont expect to find them. Mwah ha ha..
The pool: We have a heated pool. Colleen and I have made a pact to go swimming every day. And she's gonna teach me water aerobics!
The only other things I haven't got pics of yet are the chapel and of Sr. Bridget's house, which is also on the grounds. But I'll get to them soon!
This weekend is going to be very busy for us. There's a new group of young adults coming in who pretty much only speak Spanish, so this is going to be a test for Colleen and I to see how much Spanish we can remember. Unfortunately, every sentence I make in my head is half Spanish and at least half French. ... but practice will make perfectly. Chrissy, one of our staff members, speaks Spanish fluently so she will be here tonight to help us with check in but for the rest of the weekend we're on our own! I'm pretty excited about it.
We've been up to quite a lot, mostly of an exploratory nature.Colleen and tried to get library cards at two different libraries but were rejected because we don't have a utility bill with our names on it. :'(. We went shopping for our uniform polos, went out to eat with the staff member, assembled my bike which came in the mail yesterday, moved a bunch of furniture around and we hosted "Taco Wednesday" for the Loyola students. Noreen had assigned Colleen and I a parish and a school to look after. I don't know what parish I have yet, but she decided that because I'm a Loyola grad I can take Loyola High School, which is the group of kids that comes most often to the Retreat Center. They've been coming for over 40 years and think they run the place, Noreen says. Ha ha. Typical, typical. Anyway, I'm excited to be working with their campus ministry department and just got awesome news from Gina Scarpello, the CMC Director- at the end of September Colleen and I will be going to represent the CMC at the University of Notre Dame AND DePaul! This means I am going to South Bend! I think I'll try to stop in and visit Dr. Pecknold! :D
Ah.. and that isn't even the half of it.
Colleen and I plan to join an adult group at Old St. Pat's in Chicago and we hope to go visit the other sisters in the area someday soon. We've met Sr. Bridget and Sr. Alfonsina, but we have still yet to meet Srs. Benigna, Joaquina, Joan McGlinchey and Joan Marie. Sr. Alfonsina and Benigna live in the Guadalupe Community of southwest Chicago and work at St. Anthony's Hospital and the other sisters live in Our Lady of Grace Community in north Chicago in Lincoln Park (a BEAUTIFUL area). I know a little less about them, but I believe they work at St. Joseph's hospital and work in immigration offices.
Also, turns out I have a long lost cousin who lives right across from Loyola University Chicago, not too far from Our Lady Peace community, so I hope to meet up with him and ... lots of catch up. I haven't seen him since I was 4.
Ok, that's plenty for now. More this weekend!
Love,
Gina
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The entrance from Golf Road.   |
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| Front entrance. |
So to the left is:
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| Statue of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini |
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| One of three lounges for the guests. |
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| The cafeteria! |
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| My favorite room- the Kitchen! This is LC and Dirk's territory, but I hope to spend a lot of time in this room. So far so good! :D |
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| Colleen and I admiring the facilities. |
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| Our first pizza made from scratch in our reliable ol' oven... |
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| It cooks better than it looks. |
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| Main hallway |
The Fireside Suite/My Living Room:
My apartment:
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| The stair landing. Welcome to our home! |
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| The yellow carpet seems a bit much at first, but I have already grown quite fond of it. |
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| The closet is huge! |
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| The view from my window to the right. |
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| The view from my window to the left. |
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| the hallway from my bedroom door, which leads to the bathroom, a few closets, the living room and prayer room. |
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| Colleen in the living room. :D |
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| The prayer room. |
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| We are trying to learn Spanish, so Colleen has started labeling things. |
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| Our CAR! ... for official business only, unless I'm fillin' the tank m'self. |
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| St. Anthony |
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| St. Joseph and baby Jesus |
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| Mary's Shrine. |
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| View from where Mary is, inside the shrine. |
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| Pear tree!!! We also have peach trees. :D They're delicious. |
The pool: We have a heated pool. Colleen and I have made a pact to go swimming every day. And she's gonna teach me water aerobics!
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| Colleen doin' some laps. |
This weekend is going to be very busy for us. There's a new group of young adults coming in who pretty much only speak Spanish, so this is going to be a test for Colleen and I to see how much Spanish we can remember. Unfortunately, every sentence I make in my head is half Spanish and at least half French. ... but practice will make perfectly. Chrissy, one of our staff members, speaks Spanish fluently so she will be here tonight to help us with check in but for the rest of the weekend we're on our own! I'm pretty excited about it.
We've been up to quite a lot, mostly of an exploratory nature.Colleen and tried to get library cards at two different libraries but were rejected because we don't have a utility bill with our names on it. :'(. We went shopping for our uniform polos, went out to eat with the staff member, assembled my bike which came in the mail yesterday, moved a bunch of furniture around and we hosted "Taco Wednesday" for the Loyola students. Noreen had assigned Colleen and I a parish and a school to look after. I don't know what parish I have yet, but she decided that because I'm a Loyola grad I can take Loyola High School, which is the group of kids that comes most often to the Retreat Center. They've been coming for over 40 years and think they run the place, Noreen says. Ha ha. Typical, typical. Anyway, I'm excited to be working with their campus ministry department and just got awesome news from Gina Scarpello, the CMC Director- at the end of September Colleen and I will be going to represent the CMC at the University of Notre Dame AND DePaul! This means I am going to South Bend! I think I'll try to stop in and visit Dr. Pecknold! :D
Ah.. and that isn't even the half of it.
Colleen and I plan to join an adult group at Old St. Pat's in Chicago and we hope to go visit the other sisters in the area someday soon. We've met Sr. Bridget and Sr. Alfonsina, but we have still yet to meet Srs. Benigna, Joaquina, Joan McGlinchey and Joan Marie. Sr. Alfonsina and Benigna live in the Guadalupe Community of southwest Chicago and work at St. Anthony's Hospital and the other sisters live in Our Lady of Grace Community in north Chicago in Lincoln Park (a BEAUTIFUL area). I know a little less about them, but I believe they work at St. Joseph's hospital and work in immigration offices.
Also, turns out I have a long lost cousin who lives right across from Loyola University Chicago, not too far from Our Lady Peace community, so I hope to meet up with him and ... lots of catch up. I haven't seen him since I was 4.
Ok, that's plenty for now. More this weekend!
Love,
Gina
Monday, August 29, 2011
Site Introduction
Hey everyone!
I'm absolutely exhausted right now, but excitement and joy are keeping me going! The anticipation has been so great that my two week orientation feels like it took two MONTHS. I've decided that for my year at Cabrini Retreat Center I am going to try at least once a week to update this blog, keeping you all abreast of what's going on with me.
Tonight is my first night in Des Plaines. We don't pronounce it the French way. It's a suburb Northwest of Chicago, and is a pretty diverse place from what I've gathered so far. My parish community is predominantly Filipino and there are a lot of Korean and other Southeast Asian folk around- Colleen and I are looking forward to exploring the community tomorrow and scopin' out the nearby restaurants even though we'll be livin' on a modest budget. It seemed to me that we passed "every kind of delicious" on the drive to the retreat center. But here I think I'll stop myself from a digression about food.
The retreat center is called Cabrini Retreat Center and is sponsored by the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (MSC), which is an order founded by St. Frances Xavier Cabrini. Mother Cabrini was a third order Franciscan until she established her own order. I still have a lot to learn about Sacred Heart spirituality, but from what I've gleaned of the Missionary Sisters so far, their spirituality seems very Ignatian; that is, they love the Spiritual Exercises and books by James Martin about the Jesuits and Jesuit spirituality. Only fitting, I suppose, as Mother Cabrini chose the names Frances Xavier for herself. ... But I think I'll save an entry for Mother Cabrini another day. There is too much.
The Cabrini Retreat Center was built in 1956, originally as a place of rest for the sisters (MSCs). Today, it is the only retreat center in the Archdiocese of Chicago that welcomes high school students. As such, CRC hosts many Kairos retreats for young people, so I'm gonna be kept real busy! :D
Colleen and I live on the second floor of the old convent, which is quite literally attached to the retreat center. Guests can reserve my living room as a space for activities or meetings, and up the stairs is my home sweet home. Yes, this means that I can literally roll out of bed and down the stairs to work if I wanted, though I'm sure it would be uncomfortable. :D If I keep rolling, I eventually end up in our giant kitchen, our cafeteria, and then the breezeway that leads to our INDOOR POOL!!! ... awesome, innit?
So tonight I've basically picked my room, rearranged some furniture, unpacked, and modeled a replica of Mother Cabrini's habit for Colleen. Tomorrow the retreat center is empty, so the two of us plan to play marco polo and hide-and-go-seek in an effort to familiarize ourselves with the place a little more. The grounds are BEAUTIFUL and will definitely be explored soon, as well.
Colleen and I also met most of the staff today, whom I also intend to write about at length when I have time and energy to do them justice. The sisters and the staff here are BEAUTIFUL people and they're almost as excited to have us as we are to be here. We're going to get on so well! I am truly blessed.
Well, I'm goin' to bed.
Peace and Love,
Gina
Oh, also, please ask questions if you're curious or I'm not making myself clear! I love to talk about what excites me, anyways!
And stay tuned!!! SOOOOO many more pictures coming!
I'm absolutely exhausted right now, but excitement and joy are keeping me going! The anticipation has been so great that my two week orientation feels like it took two MONTHS. I've decided that for my year at Cabrini Retreat Center I am going to try at least once a week to update this blog, keeping you all abreast of what's going on with me.
Tonight is my first night in Des Plaines. We don't pronounce it the French way. It's a suburb Northwest of Chicago, and is a pretty diverse place from what I've gathered so far. My parish community is predominantly Filipino and there are a lot of Korean and other Southeast Asian folk around- Colleen and I are looking forward to exploring the community tomorrow and scopin' out the nearby restaurants even though we'll be livin' on a modest budget. It seemed to me that we passed "every kind of delicious" on the drive to the retreat center. But here I think I'll stop myself from a digression about food.
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| Me, Colleen, Kim, and Kathleen (the missioners) with Sr. Christine Marie at Cabrini College, Radnor PA for orientation. Also, there are two other missioners, Roxanne and Crystal who were with us in spirit during orientation. |
The Cabrini Retreat Center was built in 1956, originally as a place of rest for the sisters (MSCs). Today, it is the only retreat center in the Archdiocese of Chicago that welcomes high school students. As such, CRC hosts many Kairos retreats for young people, so I'm gonna be kept real busy! :D
Colleen and I live on the second floor of the old convent, which is quite literally attached to the retreat center. Guests can reserve my living room as a space for activities or meetings, and up the stairs is my home sweet home. Yes, this means that I can literally roll out of bed and down the stairs to work if I wanted, though I'm sure it would be uncomfortable. :D If I keep rolling, I eventually end up in our giant kitchen, our cafeteria, and then the breezeway that leads to our INDOOR POOL!!! ... awesome, innit?
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| "Bless you, my child." - Sister G, keepin' us all in stitches during dinner. :D |
So tonight I've basically picked my room, rearranged some furniture, unpacked, and modeled a replica of Mother Cabrini's habit for Colleen. Tomorrow the retreat center is empty, so the two of us plan to play marco polo and hide-and-go-seek in an effort to familiarize ourselves with the place a little more. The grounds are BEAUTIFUL and will definitely be explored soon, as well.
Colleen and I also met most of the staff today, whom I also intend to write about at length when I have time and energy to do them justice. The sisters and the staff here are BEAUTIFUL people and they're almost as excited to have us as we are to be here. We're going to get on so well! I am truly blessed.
Well, I'm goin' to bed.
Peace and Love,
Gina
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| Me modeling a replica of Mother Cabrini's habit. |
And stay tuned!!! SOOOOO many more pictures coming!
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