One of the most beautiful–and the most challenging–parts of my work as Director is listening to the many questions that our guests, volunteers, and staff have. All of us are asking, Why do so many people fall through the cracks in our society? What programs, what connections, could make a meaningful difference? What is possible for us to offer to someone in crisis? What is the best thing to say or give to someone who has faced decades of hardship? What is the right thing for us to do? How do we best use the resources we have?

 

These questions don’t have simple, satisfying answers. But they spark our imaginations and guide our footsteps. As the poet Rainier Maria Rilke wrote, “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. … The point is to live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.” Every day at Emmaus, we are trying to keep those questions alive, not abstract and philosophical.

 

As a Benedictine Sister of Erie, I live by the ancient Rule of Saint Benedict, wisdom from the sixth century meant to help people grow toward holiness. In the text’s third chapter, Benedict writes that all significant issues should be brought to the whole community, so that everyone, regardless of age or social standing, can share their insights. And so at Emmaus, it is a gift to be able to ask these important questions about hunger and poverty in conversation and collaboration with many, many voices. In this issue, you’ll read about connections we’re forming with other members of the Erie community as we move into our future, a future that we believe will have abundance, dignity, and care for our whole human family.

I am grateful to be asking these questions with you.

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In peace,

Sister Val

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**To read the most recent issue of The Companion, head over to the Newsletter page.

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