"Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if anyone hears my voice and opens the door to me, I will enter her/his house." (Rev. 3:20)   Will we have room in our inn? Yes! God is with us in the here and now. The liturgies of these days are filled with such hope.

We've received many blessing during this month and year. I will talk about a few of them.

Your response to our annual appeal is amazing -- and heart-warming. We thank you for your generosity to our Common Ground Garden ministry, retirement fund and other ministries.  

Your ornaments with your prayer intentions are placed on Christmas trees here at the monastery and at Saint Scholastica Convent and are included at our Eucharist during Advent and Christmas. As I read through your prayer intentions I was inspired by your candid, beautiful and heartfelt concerns. At the end of the Christmas season the ornaments are given to the Sisters; they will pray for your intentions throughout the year. If you had your e-mail or phone number on the ornaments, you might also get to hear from this Sister. We feel privileged to pray with you for your concerns and to give thanks for blessings.  

Again, thanks to all of you who gave through Give to the Max. We just got the final report and check! We're amazed and grateful for the fantastic results.  

On December 16, the final report of the Vatican's investigation into religious women in the U.S. was published. Personally I felt hopeful and grateful for the readiness to further open dialogue and collaboration. It felt like a unifying experience among those involved. Dialogue and working out our differences is something that our lives ought to model. It is what our families, communities, government and world need. It's something that we continue to work on.

Here is some good news for people 70 1/2 years or older:

The Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014, which includes an extension for 2014 of the IRA charitable rollover, was signed December 19 by the President and is now law. This legislation is retroactive to January 1, 2014, and applies to qualifying transfers completed by December 31, 2014.  

As we come to the end of another year, we give thanks to each of you for your prayers, friendship, support, volunteer work and participation in our liturgies and programs. Daily you are included in our prayer. As we move into 2015, may each of us take to heart Pope Francis' message of living the Gospel in joy with mercy and compassion!