Beds and More Beds and VISTA Hospitality

The Dominican sisters come through, again.

We are all aware of the generosity of the Dominican Sisters of Peace leaving the convent so lovingly cared for and well furnished. We reap the benefits daily and so do the guests of our activities.

We continually find that the house has many hidden blessings: Just the other day, we put out a blurb looking for donations of jars and supplies for our upcoming Canning Class. A generous parishioner donated a number of quart-sized jars, and to finish it off we were still looking for some pint sized ones. We were told there was a stash in the basement--we went down and discovered a whole assortment of pint-sized jars!

The only thing missing was that we had a number of unfurnished bedrooms--the beds had been distributed years ago. The Dominican sisters left us about 10 beds, and our group added a few, as well. We were still looking for a half-dozen beds to fill out the 21 bedrooms so we could host larger retreat groups.

We got a call from St. Mary's Catholic Church in Lancaster, OH. Their beautiful convent had also closed, and they offered us first dibs on the furniture. We accepted the offer and took home six beds. They not only offered us the beds but also helped us take them apart, too.

The timing could not have been better: Just two days later, we hosted a large group of Ohio Campus Compact AmeriCorps*VISTA members who were in town for trainings and workshops (they gave us permission to mention them). In this day and age of severe budget cuts and financial recession, outreach groups need to help each other and come up with creative ways of sharing resources. We were glad to provide hospitality for them and trade ideas.

These VISTA members are placed at colleges and universities across the state setting up service-learning programs, coordinating volunteers and developing service-oriented infrastructure between their institution and their communities.

We talked about the Catholic Worker, toured the garden and Erin gave a presentation on the Ohio Benefit Bank.

Every available bed was taken! Thanks to St. Mary's in Lancaster and to the Dominican Sisters of Peace (again)!