community, spiritual life, women

A tiny dose of perspective

JOY journal
While I was interviewing nuns ranging from age 45 to 101 for this piece, I was intrigued. I am not a Roman Catholic, but I discovered that church ladies are church ladies. We all kind of look, think and behave alike. Seriously. 🙂

Today’s Weelunk magazine post takes a look at a community of nuns that has been serving in Wheeling, W.Va., since just before America’s Civil War in the mid 1800s.

It’s a concise but sweeping piece that covers everything from how the nuns/nurses coped with a hospital swamped with wounded and sick soldiers from both sides of the conflict to how their numerically dwindling community is functioning today. If nothing else, it provides some perspective on our current troubles.

You can link to the story here.

Be well and blessed, blog friends!

A note: Given that we, like most of humanity, are confined to home and I continue to work as a journalist, my blog activity is becoming erratic. I’ll try to keep up with posting, reading and responding to comments as well as I can, but I suspect some things are going to fall through the cracks.

Published by JOY journal

After a long career writing for local newspapers — and, on rare occasions, for publications such as The Washington Post — Nora's word life is now focused on blogging and occasional writing projects of special interest. Also the author of several books, Nora lives in Appalachia with her husband and a goodish dog named Finn, who is delighted whenever the family's two adult daughters are home from college.

12 thoughts on “A tiny dose of perspective”

  3. What a delightful history! And you tell it so well. Thank you for this voyage into the past. My hometown in Ohio had nuns in full black habit when I was a girl and I think they mostly were in education and health care at the Catholic hospital.

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    1. Thank you so much! 🙂 In all honesty, this was the first time I actually sat down and talked with a nun. These women are all really lovely women and Christians. It was a pleasure.

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  4. Fascinating article Nora! The painting Angel of Mercy is quite a powerful image. After reading all the wonderful things the Sisters of St. Joseph have done for Wheeling it’s a sobering thought to think that the current trend away from taking religious vows could bring an end to such rich work.

    On another note, I just finished Dune Girl or should I say devoured Dune Girl in less than a day. I loved it! It reminded me so much of Jan Karon’s Mitford series in that I felt like I had stepped through the pages and into Waverly Shores, getting to know and enjoy each character like a neighbor.

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    1. Wow, Beth! Jan Karon is one of my favorite writers. I will tuck that one into my heart. 🙂 Speaking of neighbors, the artist who did Angel of Mercy is literally our neighbor. She did a painting of our house that hangs above our piano. She also did a fool-the-eye painting of a butcher’s counter at a local vet’s office that is hilarious. She’s really talented.

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