My balloon touched down briefly in Chicago, but now I'm landed safely at the IHM Motherhouse (aka Mothership) in Monroe, MI. I have been treated with great kindness and as if they have just been waiting for me to get here. I am writing this from the library reading room on Sunday evening. (see picture at right)
Saturday I was invited to attend Sr. Julie's Mission-group meeting. Seems that all the community members are divided into small groups called Mission groups (I think). And this is how they do their governance: rather like states within a country. The Sister Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary of Monroe, MI (IHMs) aren't divided into separate provinces - this is the core of who they are, although they are in ministry all over the world.
This is their "home," and they always speak of coming back to the Motherhouse as "coming home." It's huge and beautiful - but it does have a great sense of welcoming and gathering, in spite of its magnificence. The whole building was renovated recently. I'm told it was the largest institutional green-renovation in the world, and they've won all sorts of awards for the work that was done here. And it's a teaching building, so they've built into the building itself a philosophy and a blueprint for how green renovation should be done.
The order has historically been a teaching order - but their educational focus has always been seen broadly - so no matter what their mission (teaching in schools and colleges, tutoring in the inner city, running the A Nuns Life Ministry , or working in foreign missions, helping the elderly with conservatorship and management issues, or whatever else they do (and I don't yet begin to know what that is), it all fits under the broad definition of education/teaching. I do know that in the mid-60's a decision was made to send one sister out of 10 to university to study theology, so they have several world-class theologians among them.
So right now my official position here is one of "hanging out with the sisters." Tomorrow I will meet with a volunteer coordinator - and, I think, with the Associate Director. And things continue to unfold.
. . . . . more later. (and more still to come)--
