Mississippi Sisters

The St. Francis of Assisi Parish and School marquee announces the Fall Festival and the events around the convent and school indicate its nearness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mrs. Scott annually attains art pieces for our Silent Auction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Principal asked the Faculty and Staff to help fold, roll and band, with size visible, endless numbers of T-Shirts which will be used as prizes during the festival. All are new shirts with a sports logo, donated by a benefactor from the Fox Valley.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday found the four Sisters selling raffle tickets in front of Walmart and Market Place, our local grocery store.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many might envision the life of a Franciscan Sister of Christian Charity to be placid and prayerful at all times.  Here’s visual proof that this is not always so.  Though our activities are many, they give the opportunity for many joys.  This being Hispanic Heritage Month, our school is involved in many activities highlighting the culture of our Spanish-speaking people.  The local 4-H office volunteered to come and do a paper flower making project with our Pre-K through Grade 2 students.  The only thing brighter than the tissue paper layers were the smiling little faces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sense of taste was educated in the Hispanic flavors as our Pre-K and Kindergarten students experimented with the taste of tamales.  These were hand made by two of the

parents from the class.  After the children read Too Many Tamales they enjoyed tasting the real thing.  Classes also enjoyed tasting Mexican strawberry water, straberry pastries as well as tortilla chips and salsa from a local Mexican restaurant owned by parishoners.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dismissal time at school involves much more than just walking out the door.  Sister Maria Goretti leads her first and second graders in praying the Act of Contrition.  They can’t possibly leave without singing in praise of the God who has been with them throughout the day.  They join in singing A Gift For You.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sister Judy honors St. Mattew, the tax collector on his feastday by doing some money counting of her own.  Though she doesn’t deal with taxes, she helps the cafeteria staff by counting snack money collected from student patrons.  Prinicpal, Mrs. Lewis and the cafeteria ladies are strong believers in the maxim that “many hands make light work”!

One does not live on bread alone, but it surely doesn’t hurt to have such delicious homemade delicacies as this bread.  Sister Annette left her hand and heart prints on these golden treasures fresh out of the oven.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As any given day winds down to a close, we all gather in our convent chapel for prayer.  The lovely Franciscan art is complemented by the theme word for our year, blessed.  We hope to support one another in remembering how truly blessed we are in so many ways along our daily journeys.

So, as you can see, life at St. Francis in Greenwood is never dull and everyone lends a color to the rainbow of activity in God’s sight.

 

 

The Latino community of St. Francis Parish sponsored a “Kermes” this past Saturday as a fundraising event to benefit St. Francis Parish. A “Kermes” is a Mexican festival, this one being very family-oriented and placed right in front of the Sisters’ Convent!

 

This particular celebration coincided with Mexican Independence Day (September15-16). It was titled ” A Mexican Evening”. The evening featured delicious traditonal foods.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ricos Elotes was made as we ordered. It is found at every corner food store in Mexico. The cooked corn has a stick  “handle” inserted and is then brushed with mayo and a sauce (spicy or not!) and sprinkled with Mexican cheese. We all attest it was delicious!

Some of the men are preparing meat and tortillas for a “Street Taco”. A street taco can be toped with any number of items of choice; onions, tomatoes, cilantro, and sauces of varying heat…!

It was a delight to see some of our former students who readily shared how their education was progressing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everywhere we looked there were smiling faces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My first “bouncer” experience!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everyone enjoyed their time at the Kermes and went home having shared in the richness of the Hispanic culture.

The sisters had the shortest distance home that evening, front lawn to front door.

Kindergarteners seems to be the perfect age to teach and to enjoy, all at the same time. Here we see Sister Kathleen taking her class out on this  beautiful sunny afternoon to water the tomato plants they have put in and even named. The seedlings are now addressed by alphabetical names:  Adam, Barbie, Connor, DeeDee, Edgar and Francine.  The box garden had been an upper grade project last year, but this year the Kindergarten will enjoy the adventure of nurturing plants.

The watering is a big adventure today. Making sure each plant gets a drink and continues to grow is filled with wonder. A warning to the wise though! There are fire ants living in the far corner of the box bed. We need to stay away from them as they can be nasty.

 

What is this growing in our next box bed? A squirrel has been here doing his own planting!

 

A pecan nut! And it is growing into a potential tree. Our squirrels plant or hide these nuts every where, but not always in the right places.

These two boxes are a little different from the first. They are supposed to be self watering. Here we see Ashley adding water to the bottom of the box to provide continual moisture for these two tomato plants.  The rest of the classs looks on in wonderment.

 

Allison is giving the second box a good supply of water for these plants. What a fun time it is being in Kindergarten! Being outside and watering, learning about more of God’s creatures and watching things grow!

The Third Sunday of Easter held much happiness for the 22 First Communicants in Greenwood Mississippi. The first mass was at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish  with 6 happy First Communicants.

 

 

The second mass of the day was the 11:00 at St. Francis. The two Communicants here attend St. Francis School and as the day of their First Communion came closer, the two children counted down the moments until they could recieve Jesus with the rest of us.  It only seemed right to sing with them, “This is the day!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At 1:30 we had the celebration of First Communion at the Spanish mass. This community celebrated with 14 children, thus bringing the total number of First Communicants for the weekend to 22. The church and the city of Greenwood is blessed to have so many of its children happy and excited about their reception of the Lord’s Body and Blood. May this joy carry them through the ups and downs life will bring them as the Lords love grows and deepens in their hearts.

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                          God calls you…We invite you.