All Saints Day
I love this feastday. It is a great day to reflect on people in our lives who were instruments of God's grace for us. Also I like to think of the various images of what a saint is that have been active in my life. I guess when I was small it was the statues that conveyed some kind of a notion of saints. They had delicate features and were solid, I might say stoic, and definitely they were pious. That image has been shattered for me as the years have passed.
I remember when I was a novice there was a statue of St. Aloysius in our study room. He may have held a lily (I'm not sure of that) but his head was back and tilted to the side, his eyes rolled to heaven, his hands folded. I do remember a day when I looked at the statue and thought it did not portray what I wanted to be. I have never been very pious even though I long to be close to God. Anyway, I think my aunt Lou is a better image of a saint for me than what that statue depicted. She was good and kind, thoughtful of others, a rabid Cincinnati Reds fan, careful with material goods, loving of children, forgiving, always concerned about my mother, generous with her time and what little she had. She did have a picture of the Sacred Heart over her mantle and there she always kept a vigil light burning. I think that if she had been short on cash, it would not have been the purchase of vigil lights that she would have forgone.
At any rate, as I think of it today, it is the gospel from this morning's mass that tells me about what a saint is--the sermon on the mount! The poor in spirit, the one who acts for justice, the one is meek and humble, etc. I hope that I can be among the blessed discribed in the gospel.
Happy Feast Day!
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Friday, October 31, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Notes from Life
The other day, the woman who administers our website, gave me an email she had received from a woman who spoke of all the Sisters of Divine Providence she had known as a child and young woman. It just so happened that she was a boarder at a boarding school where I taught when I was very young. It was my first assignment. I had charge of the girl boarders as well as teaching high school math and science.
Anyway, I was surprised at all the memories it brought back. I remembered the woman quite well and lots of other things about that time in my life. I won't say that the first years of teaching or living in community are easy, but when I remembered the time it was all sorts of good things that came to me. And not just that year, but all the years. Sometimes I just go about my day and try to keep up with life, community, prayer, other relationships. But yesterday I took a little time to remember and it was gratitude that filled me.
Gratitude for the people I have met, the people who have become important in my life, the ones who have supported me (and there are many), and the ones who were comforted by my presence. My life is full of blessings. I think of how shy I was as a child and how narrow in my thinking. This religious life has been one of openning up and seeing the world anew. I am so grateful for my call and my life and how I have become who I am.
So what about discernment? It requires taking some time to look beyond the present moment with its struggles and responsibilities in order to have a long view. Where have you been and what has been the deepest longing in your heart? What is God's dream for you?
The other day, the woman who administers our website, gave me an email she had received from a woman who spoke of all the Sisters of Divine Providence she had known as a child and young woman. It just so happened that she was a boarder at a boarding school where I taught when I was very young. It was my first assignment. I had charge of the girl boarders as well as teaching high school math and science.
Anyway, I was surprised at all the memories it brought back. I remembered the woman quite well and lots of other things about that time in my life. I won't say that the first years of teaching or living in community are easy, but when I remembered the time it was all sorts of good things that came to me. And not just that year, but all the years. Sometimes I just go about my day and try to keep up with life, community, prayer, other relationships. But yesterday I took a little time to remember and it was gratitude that filled me.
Gratitude for the people I have met, the people who have become important in my life, the ones who have supported me (and there are many), and the ones who were comforted by my presence. My life is full of blessings. I think of how shy I was as a child and how narrow in my thinking. This religious life has been one of openning up and seeing the world anew. I am so grateful for my call and my life and how I have become who I am.
So what about discernment? It requires taking some time to look beyond the present moment with its struggles and responsibilities in order to have a long view. Where have you been and what has been the deepest longing in your heart? What is God's dream for you?
Monday, October 27, 2008
Providence
Saturday we had a meeting to hear about the summer total congregation meeting in France. The day included reports on what the various provinces of the congregation saw as the important events of the last five years and also what they saw as the direction we need to go in the future.
It was a fruitful day and one filled with hope. At the meetings in France, the discussion of the points which came from all over the world, centered on the need to live more intensely what we call our four fundamental virtues: poverty, simplicity, charity and abaondonment of Divine Providence. In terms of our ministry there was a strong emphasis on working with those who are on the margins where we are. For us that seems to be immigrants. There was a lot of discussion of "throwing in our lot" with them or sharing in whatever ways we can their life and struggles.
I find all this exciting as well as challenging.
Saturday we had a meeting to hear about the summer total congregation meeting in France. The day included reports on what the various provinces of the congregation saw as the important events of the last five years and also what they saw as the direction we need to go in the future.
It was a fruitful day and one filled with hope. At the meetings in France, the discussion of the points which came from all over the world, centered on the need to live more intensely what we call our four fundamental virtues: poverty, simplicity, charity and abaondonment of Divine Providence. In terms of our ministry there was a strong emphasis on working with those who are on the margins where we are. For us that seems to be immigrants. There was a lot of discussion of "throwing in our lot" with them or sharing in whatever ways we can their life and struggles.
I find all this exciting as well as challenging.
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