Associates Day 2006

Our annual gathering of Associates and Sisters was full of excitement as associates from the emerging congregation joined us for the weekend. Associates from Wichita fell in love with the hills of West Virginia, and those from LaGrange marveled at the wonderful hospitality they received. The associates from Nazareth and Tipton found they had to buy more film, there were so many photos to take back home! The lone associate representing the Medaille Congregation was energized by the huge number of ideas exchanged. But the associates from Tipton had such a wonderful time that they have volunteered to host associates and sisters from the new congregation at their community center next July!

Sr. Pat Byrne, CSJ, was our presenter for the day. Her topic was The Universal Call to Holiness in the Writings of Father Medaille. Sr. Pat brought such life to our early documents and clarified many questions both associates and sisters raised about our early history and the place of the “agrege,” or as we call them now, associates.

As we move closer to becoming one new congregation, the threads that have united us as sisters and associates will begin to take on the look of a lovely new patchwork quilt.

-Sr. Mary Clark

L to R: Mary Ann Ryan, Associate; Paula Drass, CSJ; Pat Byrne, CSJ