Two Posts in One

I really wanted to get both of these posts in before Christmas...so I'm putting them into one post!  Don't worry, I'll separate them so you won't get confused :-)

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“Wherever you go I will go…”

In my current vocation, the sub-vocation of being a friend is a very important one to me.  I love finding time to foster friendships.  At this point in most of our college lives, we aren’t able to go spend money and eat at a restaurant to chat, but there’s plenty of opportunities of meeting at each others’ houses to do meaningful activities like baking and playing games…something in which we can talk and catch up on life and share a fun activity at the same time.  Though finding time to do these things can be especially hard at this point in our lives, with conflicting break schedules, conflicting job schedules, and conflicting social and family lives even, when time does present itself, I love to take hold of it and treasure it.  At school it usually looks like this:  one or two of us are studying in one room in the evening, and then another one joins in, and then maybe another one, and before we know it it’s way past when we thought we would be going to bed, but we don’t want it to end because we never have time to do that with our school work and crazy lives.

Recently, I was watching to a Life on the Rock episode featuring Sarah Swafford.  Before she talked, they did a short interview with a Nigerian priest interning at EWTN.  Nigeria has many, many vocations coming from it right now in the religious life and priesthood, and when asked why, he said that a persecuted Church is always a strong Church…it is comfort that is the seed of destruction in the Church.  I started thinking of this in terms of my friendships.  When a friendship noticeably starts suffering is when I go out of my way to make sure I put effort and care into that friendship…it is when I become comfortable in a friendship that I begin to not find time to meet with that friend, or simply ask how they are doing on a regular basis.  I guess that’s part of the message of Advent:  don’t get comfortable.  Be awake, be ready, have oil for your lamps, be joyful, be prepared.

I’ve been reflecting a lot lately on the Book of Ruth, and specifically on the friendship of Naomi and Ruth…and how far I have to go in my friendships.  Ruth’s friendship was so unconditional.  It transcended conditions because it was infused with love and loyalty.  I am all too guilty of thinking of friendships as exchanges…they shared that much information with me and went that deep, so in exchange I share this much of my life.  While there is certainly balance in friendship, there also needs to be trust and vulnerability.  I can only imagine how uncertain Ruth was of her future, but none of that mattered too much because Naomi had been such a caring mother-in-law that Ruth could only think about being a loyal friend in return.  Her loyalty blessed Naomi more than either of them could ever dream.  And Ruth is one of a few women named in the genealogy of Jesus, so great was her blessing.

I want to be a Ruth friend.  I want God to bless my friendships with spiritual fruits which will be pleasing to Him…I want to lead my friends to Heaven.

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Well, I finally put the news in letters (I wanted some close friends to find out in a way other than a media source) and on Facebook, so now I’ll go ahead and blog about it…I’m a part-time CNA!

I’ve been praying for a position with the Little Sisters for months…really since I volunteered there last spring.  When I first went on my discernment retreat in October of 2010 with them, my pull towards the medical field was disappearing, and I was questioning myself on whether I’d really stick with that emphasis through college.  Seeing the joy of the Sisters in their work, though, helped me glimpse just how I want to use faith and medicine in my future line of work.  Volunteering there for a whole week confirmed it even more for me, and I realized that it would help a lot if I got certified as a nurse’s aide.  Whenever I first mentioned it to Sister Amy, she was thrilled and said she’d try to get me in as soon as I returned to school.

Well, I got to school, and there was no position to be had.  There were simply no open positions for me to fill, and so I began waiting and at the same time searching for other positions, and eventually broadening my search to anything, not just nursing homes.  And so, I got in with Pottery Barn Kids.  Just as seasonal help, so I fully believed that, once January hit, I would again begin searching for work.

And so, the Sunday right after finals, I went to visit the Little Sisters, thinking I was going to be wrapping boxes with the residents (I think I even blogged about that before I went, come to think of it).  I got there and found Sister Amy, who informed me that there had actually been a couple of groups of entertainers there that afternoon and I would not be needed to do that original wrapping idea, but that it was still good that I had come, because Sister Maria Catherine was wanting to speak with me.  Now, if I haven’t explained how the Jeanne Jugan Center is set up, it’s divided into 4 floors.  The first is for more independent residents who can still come and go (there’s also a separated set of apartments for independent living).  The second floor is for residents who can move around less, but are still pretty healthy for the most part.  The third floor is the infirmary and has many of the sicker and more elderly residents, and the fourth floor has the convent.  My interactions have mostly been on the third floor, volunteering in the infirmary, where Sister Amy is in charge, while Sister Maria Catherine does more with the second floor.  Which is why I was puzzled at first why Sister Maria Catherine would want to visit with me specifically.  So, of course, Sister Amy went on to say that there was an empty position and Sister Maria wanted to talk to me about starting as a CNA there!

I’m still struck with a little disbelief.  I had really begun to think that that door of my life was closed and, for whatever reason, God was just not calling me to work there.  I knew that Sister Amy Kristine was working hard to get me in there, but just how hard, I soon came to learn.  I found out that the Mother Provincial who at one point had visited the Jeanne Jugan Center had found out that they were trying to hire me, and SHE insisted to Mother Rose Marie and Sister Amy that they should get me working there!  Sister Amy worked her scheme all the way to Mother Provincial!  Woah!!  Sister Amy said that, after that, the push to get me in was even more intense, and they were finally able to hire me.

So, I’ve been filling out paper work and got my physical and drug screen and am just about ready to start.    I’ll be working every other weekend, both Saturdays and Sundays, from 3pm to 11:30pm.  My first day will be December 31^st (I get to spend New Year’s Eve working…I’m actually really excited about it!!).

I guess I’m using this post to celebrate…but also to say thank you.  I know there were a lot of friends with whom I was confiding my hopes and despairs about job-searching, and all of the prayers are what helped me to this.  St. Joseph is amazing, and although I’m impatient and was always complaining about how slow he was in helping me…he was helping me all along, by helping me learn acceptance of God’s will and timeline and denial of my own.  So, friends, thank you for your prayers.