God’s Gifts

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charism, contemplation, Dominicans, Franciscan Sisters, ministry, Sisters of St. Joseph, st. dominic, the great love of God, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

When I was young and feeling called to the religious life, it was a rather simple choice of where I would find a home. I had been educated since kindergarten by the Sisters of St. Joseph, having made only a slight detour in junior high to the Franciscan Sisters. In those days, many of us chose the familiar unless drawn to missionary work or some specific ministry like nursing. Even in the founding stories that I heard about the Sisters of St. Joseph, there was never much talk about the charism, the particular gift of God to the community. Later I learned and am now confident that the focus of my life is that of the charism expressed as “the great love of God.” One might think that is the goal of all religious communities and that is true, of course, but how that is lived out from day to day is what adds specificity to the life path.

Today is the feast of St. Dominic, founder of the Dominicans, known the world over as the “Order of Preachers.” The power of Dominican preaching flows from their life. As franciscanmedia.org explains, it “organically links life with God, study, and prayer in all forms with a ministry of salvation to people by the word of God.” In other words, “to pass on the fruits of contemplation or to speak only of God or with God.” As someone who loves words and the power they hold in how they are spoken, I am always happy to listen to Dominican priests and nuns in liturgy or a retreat where they embody the words that they are speaking for the benefit of their listeners. Clearly, it is the constant reflection on the Scriptures in the silence where God speaks that resounds in the life of these preachers. Then, as a result, they themselves become that gift of God to the world.

Persistence

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blessing, faith, persistence, prayer, silent listening, Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, the great love of God, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today’s gospel (LK 11: 1-13) is about the efficacy of prayer, a truth which has been evident throughout the 14 days of our gathering as a Congregation (see recent posts). Our theme: “Called together for the life of the world” was evident throughout our deliberations as we paused often to listen in silence for the direction of God’s Spirit speaking among us. How can we best serve our neighbors throughout the world in times of violence and destruction? How can we be a force for good in the complexity of today’s world?

When we were called together – six women in Le Puy, France in the 17th century – it was to serve the needs that were evident in the culture then. Our world is very different now but our call is the same: to be the Congregation of the Great Love of God wherever and however we see the need. We seek to move about in our world, seeking to be instruments of unifying love.

Today we go home, having had palpable evidence that together we are committed to the task and willing to serve the world so in need of hope. Here we were 100 Sisters. We return to nearly ten times one hundred and add our lay associates and many ministry partners to the list of those who join us on the journey. We take with us the words from Luke where Jesus said, “Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door shall be opened to you…”

May we know the blessing of all that we awaits us!

God’s Artistry

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diversity, prayerful deliberation, reflection, the great love of God, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, travel, viewpoint

Yesterday, I spent a great part of the day flying – not as I do by desire, like the birds – but in planes. I am most conscious of wonder when I am on such a trip. Everything seems clear from 35,000 feet up. From Binghamton to Los Angeles is about the farthest one can fly in the continental United States and I spent much of my time looking out the window. On the first leg of the journey just as we touched down at 6:45 a.m. in Philadelphia, there was the brilliant red-orange sun announcing a new day. Soon, as the day came to fullness, there were what looked like patchwork quilts, perfectly shaped with tiny specks in the corners of the squares. Those were the farms of the Midwest with the farmhouses and barns those minuscule accents to the fields. Later the windswept deserts and the mountains rising out of the clouds, some spattered with what looked like black bugs that turned out to be evergreen trees dotting the peaks of the West, fairly took my breath away with color and shape. At one point I was reminded of my geography lessons about erosion as I looked down to what seemed a carving or an unfinished jigsaw puzzle that I knew to be the work of the long-ago glaciers. Always above it all was the vast clarity of the pure, “true blue” sky that always calls me to ponder light and the perfection of goodness.

I am grateful for these days that allow such reflection – in addition to the observance of the great diversity I saw drinking my first (and only!) coffee of the day in the Philadelphia airport. People of all age and description, traveling alone or with children, weighed down with luggage or swinging their arms, free of burdens…I take them all with me – as well as the visuals from the plane – as I go to three days of prayerful deliberation with Sisters of St. Joseph looking to the future of how we will continue our mission of being “the great love of God” in our world.