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Tag Archives: discernment

Still On Hiatus

22 Saturday May 2021

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discernment, listen, live, love, prayer, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

As I sit in the quiet on another glorious, sunny morning (May is definitely the best month of the year!) I find myself still undecided about the future of my blogging effort. Here is my status this morning, a clue to put in my bag of evidence or a piece of the puzzle, you might say.

We Sisters of St. Joseph have a Community Day or Weekend each year. It’s a sort of homecoming when we all—or as many as possible of us—gather to sing and pray and reflect on some aspect of our life together. And we celebrate (rather boisterously at times) our connection with one another. We have been deprived of this privilege last year and this one because of Covid 19. Last year we did nothing and we felt the lack. This year we decided on a “virtual” event as we have become somewhat adept at gathering in this way and have found that, while not perfect, it is somewhat satisfactory.

Today is our chosen day and I have been asked to participate in the opening prayer. Much of the prayer is taken from our Constitution and my part includes the following:

WE LOVE FREELY. WE LIVE SIMPLY. WE LISTEN ATTENTIVELY.

That sounds exactly like how I should be proceeding in the discernment of what comes next. So, be advised that I am still here, still aware that you are with me on this journey of life and willing to wait for what comes next. Some of you have already given me your suggestions about what you see as a way to move forward with what is important to say in a blog now and why. I am grateful for your support. Stay tuned…

Ancestral Connections

05 Wednesday Feb 2020

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discernment, Hearts on Fire, Jean Pierre Medaille, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

We Sisters of St. Joseph have a long history that began in mid-17th century in France. The kitchen where the first six women sat to envision a new way of serving God is still there, a pilgrimage site for all of us. In those days women always needed the validation of a male spiritual director to strike out on their own. Happily, our foremothers chose a brilliant and holy Jesuit priest named Jean Pierre Medaille for that role. As I sit in meetings this week working with a small group of my Sisters to formulate a process for discernment of our immediate future, I am grateful for the spirit of Father Medaille which guides our work.

I offer this prayer today from a small book of prayers from the Jesuit priests. The language may call for updating but the sentiment is true and strong in its call to us for who we are to be.

So act, good Jesus, that, in my relationships with whatever neighbor and in all I do for the furthering of your Father’s glory and the salvation of others, I form myself on your pattern: that I be a genuine reflection of your moderation, gentleness, humility, patience, graciousness, tireless zeal, in a word, of all your virtues; and, in order to engrave them in my soul, live eternally in me. (Hearts on Fire, p. 92)

Pay Attention!

13 Friday Dec 2019

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attention, discernment, Isaiah, law of the Lord, meditate, psalm 1, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, truth, wisdom

Today it seems that we are once more being called to attend to messages that offer us clear directives for good living in a succinct and understandable way. I use the plural “messages” but in the end I see all three readings as constitutive of an overarching theme.

Isaiah (48: 17-19) proclaims God’s willingness to teach us what is for our good if we would hearken to God’s commandments. (The rewards are all nature images – beautiful and worth your time to read.) Next, Psalm 1 tells us that if we meditate on and delight in the law of the Lord, we will prosper (again – interestingly – with nature images).

What this says to me is that we’re called to a consistent and steadfast attention to discernment of what is for our good and what is not, if we are to learn wisdom. It doesn’t help to observe the practices of others and thereby judge them. Truth is the measure of what we learn in the silence of our hearts. After the advice of Isaiah and the psalmist, we hear Jesus speak in rather stark language about this. Listen to what he says.

“To what shall I compare this generation? It’s like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another, ‘We played for you but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said, ‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is vindicated by her works.”

What do you make of all this?

Works of Which Women Are Capable

29 Friday Dec 2017

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capable, Congregation of the Great Love of God, discernment, diverse, needs, religious community, Sisters of St. Joseph, Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, strong women, teaching, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, visiting, voices, women, women religious

acsjpixINTRO: As I opened to the Catholic Bishops’ website this morning to find the lectionary readings for today I began to sing because the heading was “The Fifth Day in the Octave of Christmas.” I expect that you, too, are immediately singing now: “…my true love gave to me five golden rings.” That may be a little hokey but even a little more far-fetched perhaps is my follow-on thought that five golden rings might signify a 50th anniversary, the year that I have just completed as a Sister of St. Joseph. (Sorry, it’s actually how my mind works!) I was recently asked to talk about what that means so at the risk of posting the longest message you will ever have from me, see what follows here if you are interested.

Women religious have been living for hundreds of years by looking deeply into the eyes of the dear neighbor and seeing the radiance and love of Christ reflected there. To be that love in the world is the reason the Sisters of St. Joseph came to be.

It began with six women sitting in a kitchen discussing the world situation – the immediate world of 17th century France, that is. They saw the poverty and tension visible in the lives of the people of their town, Le Puy en Velay, and decided they had to act. They chose to divide the city up according to need and then went out to meet those needs, visiting prisons and teaching young women to make lace so they would have a way other than prostitution of earning money to feed their children. The Holy Spirit was surely guiding these ministries and continued to do so when the first call came from the United States for Sisters.

In 1836, another small group of six women sailed for St. Louis to teach the deaf and the Native Americans in the surrounding area. In the 180 years since then that the Sisters of St. Joseph have ministered in the United States, times have changed significantly as have the needs of the world. After nearly two centuries of ministry in this country, first building and serving in schools and hospitals, Sisters have now returned to the Spirit of our founding mothers whose vision was to do all the works of which women are capable and which will benefit the dear neighbor. “All the works of which women are capable”…That’s everything, right? We now still serve in schools on every level from daycare/pre-school to universities. We are nurses and healthcare providers of every kind but also artists and spiritual directors, house parents for the disabled or the homeless, musicians, lawyers, officers of organizations, and those whose primary ministry is prayer. We are strong women, not bowed by adversity, who make their voices heard for justice. We are also kind women, peaceful and caring of the poor, and caring as well for this beautiful world in which we live.

We are diverse lovers of God. Oh, yes! We are diverse! In becoming the Congregation of the Great Love of God, (a moniker that we often call on to define ourselves at our best), we have come to understand that diversity does not mean division but rather gives the possibility for growth at every turn so that we can grow together for the good of the world. Religious life is an awesome call, but it is just that: a call. And it is a mystery.

Most Sisters today would be able to speak about their call to some extent, but at the heart of things, definition is impossible. Why, for example, of the 45 young women in 1966 who were discerning their role in life, did five of us who entered the Sisters of St. Joseph move to the novitiate, take temporary vows, all the while continuing to discern the rightness of the call, and then take the step of professing lifelong dedication to God. Why us? If asked we might have to say: “It’s a mystery.” And it is God’s grace that has allowed it to unfold.

Today the life of a woman religious seems not so dissimilar from that of other women and in some ways that is quite true. We are indistinguishable these days from other women in our dress, our activities – and we work alongside other women and men in any number of professional roles. There are also many women I know who are not Consecrated Religious whom I consider much holier than I, although it is useless to judge that. Though the outer framework of our lives seems much like that of others, however, there is a significant difference. There are many women and men who cherish their faith and our religious rituals and whose love of God and prayer life are extraordinary, and yet the fullness of their lives does not abide in a religious community. Some of us, however, after an extended period of discernment come to the conclusion that religious life is, as one writer has expressed it, “the native country of their soul and nothing else can finally satisfy them.” I believe I can say with certainty that after fifty years of living the life, we would most assuredly agree with that statement.

 

The Weight of Evidence

12 Saturday Mar 2016

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condemn, discernment, guilt, innocence, Jesus, John, judge, judgment, justice, law, Nicodemus, Pharisees, psalm 7, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

ajudgeBoth the psalm and the gospel in this morning’s lectionary remind me of a basic principle of law in the United States of America, i.e. “innocent until proven guilty.” We are still in chapter 7 of John’s gospel where people are divided about Jesus. As yesterday, they are convinced he cannot be the messiah because he comes from Galilee but the guards say to the authorities, “No one has ever spoken like this man!” The Pharisees are still resistant asking, “Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?” (as if position alone yields probity.) It is Nicodemus that enters then and asks my question: “Does our law condemn a man before it first hears him and finds out what he is doing?” Would that this question always be raised at moments of personal and/or public judging in our lives!

The psalmist turns the job of judging over to God, as in psalm 7 he cries out: Judge us, judge me, judge everything and all that’s in your care. Weigh me on the scale of innocence, according to your law, and as you establish justice, bring evil to an end. For this I know, you are the source of justice done, the fairest judge of all. You know what’s in the human heart to the very secrets of the soul. You are also the great protecting one, you shield the good, defending all that’s true. (vs. 8-11)

The faculty of judgment in the manner of discernment is essential to our lives in assessing what is beneficial and what is not – from what we ought to eat, to wear, to spend our money on, etc. When judging moves into the public arena, however, where we begin to assess the intelligence, worthiness of respect, good character – or any other quality – of another person or the rightness in a situation, we ought to be sure we have spent the time and energy it takes to really make an informed judgment. And, in truth, we would be better off leaving that kind of judgment to God, letting love be the measure of our lives. I will try today to notice how quickly I move to judgment in my thoughts throughout the day and I will try to keep those thoughts to myself for the benefit of all!

Love Is The Answer

08 Friday May 2015

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Acts of the Apostles, appointed you, bear fruit, Christian, difference, discernment, disunity, Father, I who chose you, John, love, new era, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

unitylove(Acts 15:22-31)
After the Council of Jerusalem had come to a conclusion (see posts of 5/6&7), the leaders wrote a letter to “all the brothers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia of Gentile origin” to tell them that “it is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us not to place on you any burden beyond these necessities” which consisted only of dietary rules and those concerning unlawful marriage. In order that the message would be clearly communicated to everyone in the same manner, they sent representatives to the communities to deliver the letter. Thus the discernment was completed and a new era began which opened up the possibility for anyone to become Christian regardless of their former affiliation or way of life.

Coincidentally (perhaps) the gospel reading for this morning (John 15:12-17) includes the following: “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.” May our prayer for today be one of wideness of heart so that difference need not mean disunity and that we may come to embrace all others for the sake of love.

Collaboration

06 Wednesday May 2015

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Acts of the Apostles, Christianity, discernment, ecumenical, mosaic law, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

ecumenicalAs a result of missionary work by St. Paul and his companions, there were many non-Jews who embraced the message of Christianity. Inevitably, as in any growing organization, questions of correct practice began to emerge. In today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles (15:1-6) we see the serious question: Must the Gentiles first become Jewish (i.e. follow Jewish law/practice) in order to become Christian? The questions were about the necessity of circumcision and other tenets of Mosaic Law. This moment in history was a crucial one and occasioned the first “ecumenical” (or “whole church”) council – the 23rd of which was the monumental Second Vatican Council of 1962-1965 that transformed the Roman Catholic Church in many ways.

Today’s reading stops short of the decisions of the Council of Jerusalem (stay tuned) but the important line for me was the last of today’s text: The Apostles and the presbyters met together to see about this matter. In times of confusion or disagreement about serious issues, whether in family, church or in any organization, we can do no better than to come together in a stance of discernment to find the best direction in which to proceed. Discernment is not about the strongest person or group prevailing. It is about deep listening to one another in trust that all have the good of the whole in view, allowing a solution to emerge from the silence that accompanies the conversation. It is, if allowed to be so, a holy thing to experience, as the result may be something that no one in the group has foreseen that arises from the common spirit existing deep within each and all of the participants. It is the way of the heart.

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