Cécile Kabe, Sister Hospitaller of the Community of Paris, tells us how they are living their relationship with the residents of our center “Sainte Germaine”, located in the French capital, during the pandemic caused by Covid-19.

Hospitality Roads

The pandemic period is being a particular time and a difficult experience for us, sisters, and especially for the residents of our centers, with special needs, who require a lot of attention and closeness.

In the face of the health crisis caused by Covid-19, and due to the health instructions imposed on the social health centers in France, the Sisters were not authorized to enter the center and provide assistance to residents as we are used to doing. Despite this prohibition of contact, in our constant concern for the well-being of those most in need, we reinvented ways of hospitality to approach and accompany our residents, give them courage, share their suffering, alleviate and comfort them.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the sisters of the Paris community have strengthened our prayer life; intensifying moments of personal and community prayer to fight, together with the entire Hospital Community, against the Coronavirus, destroyer of human life. With a special character, we have placed next to the altar of our chapel, in which we used to celebrate the Eucharist together with the residents, the statue of Saint Germana, protector of our center in Paris, we daily pray a novena, followed by a prayer, for the intercession of “Saint Germana” and “Saint Emilia de Villeneuve”, asking the Lord to protect the residents and be the balm of their “living images”.

In this difficult situation, we verify the love and mercy of God in our lives, because we live moments of fraternity despite the difficulties, we draw closer to each other through prayer and the media.

There is no distance for the heart and hospitality!