Signs of Hope and the Inbreaking of Grace

Something beautiful for God:

“Thirteen-year-old Olivia Connealy is sometimes asleep when a religious sister from the Servants of Mary, Ministers to the Sick, arrives at her home in Lexena, Kansas, two nights a week to offer respite care and prayer, according to her mother, Amanda Connealy.

But sisters who’ve cared for Olivia often tell Amanda and her husband Casey that as soon as they enter, the girl’s playful personality appears, Amanda said.

Though unable to speak, “Olivia opens her eyes like, ‘Okay, let’s talk,’” her mother said.

For the past four years, members of the international religious institute have provided overnight care for Olivia, who became disabled during an epileptic seizure and continues to experience seizures, Amanda explained. Olivia is one of many thousands of sick and mostly dying patients worldwide who the sisters have served in their own homes since their institute’s founding in 1851.”

“It’s just been a joy having them in my home — and ‘joy’ really is the word that comes to mind when I think about them,” Amanda said, adding that the family’s three other children have also been blessed. “Especially in light of their ministry of being called to sit with the sick and the dying, [the sisters] enter into homes where there is exhaustion and grief and they bring this light.”

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