Home ...by Sr. Julian

I bet many of us have different ways of saying “Home.” “Home is where the heart is.” “A place called home.” “My house is my home.”

One of our Sisters is creating a new home and a Sister who has been staying with us has returned home.

Sr.Therese Gonnville, OSB

Sr. Therese Gonneville has moved to St. Joseph Residence in Seattle. This wonderful place is full of religious women of many orders, and is managed and staffed by the Sisters of Providence. Sr. Therese is creating a new home for herself there.

At St. Joseph residence, Sr. Therese has immediate access to nursing and medical care. Already, Sr. Therese is developing friendships at her new home and is engaged in many social activities with her housemates there. Of note, our Sr. Therese is also busy helping many other Sisters with little things they may need, including a listening ear. Sr. Therese is happy and joyful--we her community know this--and now her new community at St. Joseph experiences this!

 Below: Sr. Therese at St. Joseph Residence--with a picture of her patron, St. Therese of Lisieux.

 Sr. Baptista Khati is originally from Kenya. She is a member of the Sisters of Mary of Kakamega, and has been in the United States teaching in Oregon for several years. Since June of 2023, she has been here in Lacey, living with us at St. Placid Priory, pursuing an extensive and demanding Chaplaincy course at St. Peter’s Hospital. She just graduated! We are very proud of her.

Sr. Baptista with certificate and her superior

Now, Sr. Baptista will visit her family in Kenya, and then receive her new assignment. We wish it could be at St. Peter’s Hospital so she could live with us again! More likely, Sr. Baptista will return to Oregon and provide Chaplaincy services there. Ideally, she will be able to practice in a hospital near where her community members live, so she can be living at home with her own community again.

Two of her Sisters with Sr. Baptista

Home can be a place of love. Home can be a place where a person is able to get what they need. Home is a safe place. Our prayer is that both Sr. Therese and Sr. Baptista experience home in all these blessed ways.