Lent is a time to continually die to self and to begin anew every day. I have come to that understanding more and more over the years and even more so since I have been here at the convent.
I began this Lent full force with a Lenten promise I made to God and myself. It lasted a week and a half. With other pressures/"priorities" the past couple of days, it has fallen away. I pray before I go to bed at night, and last night I realized that I was going to have to recommit myself, fully relying on the strength of Christ.
Now imagine my excitement at mass today, when we sang "Ashes," a song typically used on Ash Wednesday. "We rise again from ashes, to create ourselves anew." I sang this two weeks ago, ready to begin Lent. Singing it again today, I was not only comforted by our merciful Father, but even more inspired to start again.
Then I had to smile, because the third verse was so perfect for our snowy/rainy weather that we are having in Spring:
Then rise again from ashes,
let healing come to pain;
Though spring has turned to winter,
and sunshine turned to rain.
The rain we'll use for growing,
and create the world anew,
From an offering of ashes,
An offering to You.
May your Lent be a time of renewal, growth, and rising everytime you fall.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
The People of Japan are on Our Hearts and in Our Prayers
If you are reading this from Japan, please know that at the Motherhouse we have been watching the news and praying for all of you throughout the day. Intentions are offered at our community prayer times as well. It is heart wrenching to think about all the lives affected by this disaster. God bless you and your loved ones.
Psalm 42 seems like a good prayer for this situation.
Psalm 42, New American Bible
"As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God.
My being thirsts for God, the living God. When can I go and see the face of God?
My tears have been my food day and night, as they ask daily,"Where is your God?"
Those times I recall as I pour out my soul, When I went in procession with the crowd, I went with them to the house of God, Amid loud cries of thanksgiving, with the multitude keeping festival.
Why are you downcast, my soul; why do you groan within me? Wait for God, whom I shall praise again, my savior and my God.
My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you From the land of the Jordan and Hermon, from the land of Mount Mizar.
Here deep calls to deep in the roar of your torrents. All your waves and breakers sweep over me.
At dawn may the LORD bestow faithful love that I may sing praise through the night, praise to the God of my life.
I say to God, "My rock, why do you forget me? Why must I go about mourning with the enemy oppressing me?"
It shatters my bones, when my adversaries reproach me. They say to me daily: "Where is your God?"
Why are you downcast, my soul, why do you groan within me? Wait for God, whom I shall praise again, my savior and my God."
Psalm 42 seems like a good prayer for this situation.
Psalm 42, New American Bible
"As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God.
My being thirsts for God, the living God. When can I go and see the face of God?
My tears have been my food day and night, as they ask daily,"Where is your God?"
Those times I recall as I pour out my soul, When I went in procession with the crowd, I went with them to the house of God, Amid loud cries of thanksgiving, with the multitude keeping festival.
Why are you downcast, my soul; why do you groan within me? Wait for God, whom I shall praise again, my savior and my God.
My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you From the land of the Jordan and Hermon, from the land of Mount Mizar.
Here deep calls to deep in the roar of your torrents. All your waves and breakers sweep over me.
At dawn may the LORD bestow faithful love that I may sing praise through the night, praise to the God of my life.
I say to God, "My rock, why do you forget me? Why must I go about mourning with the enemy oppressing me?"
It shatters my bones, when my adversaries reproach me. They say to me daily: "Where is your God?"
Why are you downcast, my soul, why do you groan within me? Wait for God, whom I shall praise again, my savior and my God."
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Spring Break at the Motherhouse
It is Spring Break at Silver Lake College! Since we have the week off of classes, we have been able to do a few extra fun things this week.
On Monday, everyone on the novitiate team went to the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help. "[The recent] declaration [of church approval] makes the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help at Champion the first and only Marian shrine in the United States that is on the site of an approved apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary" (http://www.shrineofourladyofgoodhelp.com/). It is now on the same level as Fatima, Lourdes, and Guadalupe. It was so nice to go there and have a holy hour. Everyone enjoyed it. There was even a dog there that I made friends with.
Last night, the postulants invited us over to their homeroom for a Mardi Gras party. We first had a Mardi Gras parade in St. Rita's (health care center/infirmary), and later that night we headed back the the homeroom. We played a quick game of Skip-Bo, a few of us danced to Mardi Gras music, we hit a piñata that Rose made, we did the Limbo (Sr. Pamela Catherine won!), and ate paczkis and chips and salsa. It was a lot of fun!
It snowed last night and this morning, and it is perfect packing snow, so in a little bit, Sr. Pamela Catherine, Sr. Therese, and I are going to make a snowman! It will be Sr. Therese's first snowman, because there isn't any snow in Vietnam. We have been waiting for snow like this so that she can experience this timeless activity for people in colder climates.
Since it is Ash Wednesday, tonight we will have an "atmosphere of quiet" at the Motherhouse. After evening prayer, we will grab our "bag suppers" and eat on our own. We can spend the evening in prayer and go to bed early if we wish. I am looking forward to the time of solitude.
I hope that you find time to do something fun this week, even if you are not on Spring Break!
***Update: Here are the snowpeople that Sr. Therese, Sr. Pamela Catherine and I made!
(Photo courtesy of Sr. Julie Ann)
On Monday, everyone on the novitiate team went to the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help. "[The recent] declaration [of church approval] makes the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help at Champion the first and only Marian shrine in the United States that is on the site of an approved apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary" (http://www.shrineofourladyofgoodhelp.com/). It is now on the same level as Fatima, Lourdes, and Guadalupe. It was so nice to go there and have a holy hour. Everyone enjoyed it. There was even a dog there that I made friends with.
Last night, the postulants invited us over to their homeroom for a Mardi Gras party. We first had a Mardi Gras parade in St. Rita's (health care center/infirmary), and later that night we headed back the the homeroom. We played a quick game of Skip-Bo, a few of us danced to Mardi Gras music, we hit a piñata that Rose made, we did the Limbo (Sr. Pamela Catherine won!), and ate paczkis and chips and salsa. It was a lot of fun!
It snowed last night and this morning, and it is perfect packing snow, so in a little bit, Sr. Pamela Catherine, Sr. Therese, and I are going to make a snowman! It will be Sr. Therese's first snowman, because there isn't any snow in Vietnam. We have been waiting for snow like this so that she can experience this timeless activity for people in colder climates.
Since it is Ash Wednesday, tonight we will have an "atmosphere of quiet" at the Motherhouse. After evening prayer, we will grab our "bag suppers" and eat on our own. We can spend the evening in prayer and go to bed early if we wish. I am looking forward to the time of solitude.
I hope that you find time to do something fun this week, even if you are not on Spring Break!
***Update: Here are the snowpeople that Sr. Therese, Sr. Pamela Catherine and I made!
(Photo courtesy of Sr. Julie Ann)
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Worth Viewing and Pondering
To continue last Wednesdays's reflection, I want to share with you all a powerful video that really says it all:
I have nothing more to add. God love you.
I have nothing more to add. God love you.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Why Did God Make You?
A lot has happened since I last posted, two weeks ago. Certainly, a lot has happened throughout our world. Riots, peaceful protests, an earthquake....If you are reading this from New Zealand, please know of the many prayers for you from me as well as the rest of the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity. We are well aware of the events of the world because we make the effort to know about them, and we carry them with us to prayer.
Within my personal life, I traveled with the postulants and other sisters to attend the First Annual Feminine Genius Conference at St. Pius X in Appleton, WI. It was based on Pope John Paul II's apostolic letter, "On the Dignity and Vocation of Women." It was a wonderful conference, and I just wanted to share some reflections based on the talks.
One of the first things they shared at the conference was that God created us for a purpose. They asked us a question from the Baltimore Catechism. It is the only question in that particular catechism that I actually know the answer by heart, so I was able to respond:
Question: Why did God make you?
Answer: God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next.
-Baltimore Catechism
The postulants and I were smiling because Sr. Judanne had taught us all that question and response. I think it is a crucial thing for everyone to know, because it helps to answer our search for meaning, and reminds us of the value of our own lives. What matters is not power, prestige, wealth, or "success" in the eyes of the world. Love is what matters.
One of our society's images of "success" is to look a certain way. As we are in the middle of "Love Your Body Week," I include a paragraph from the Catechism of the Catholic Church that helps us to see how obsession with our exteriors is unhealthy and is counterproductive to our purpose in life:
"If morality requires respect for the life of the body, it does not make it an absolute value. It rejects a neo-pagan notion that tends to promote the cult of the body, to sacrifice everything for it's sake, to idolize physical perfection and success at sports. By its selective preference of the strong over the weak, such a conception can lead to the perversion of human relationships" (CCC# 2289, emphasis mine).
Here is a Christian song that follows the same theme: "More Beautiful You" -Jonny Diaz
We need to love what God created and nurture it, because God loves us as we are. Do we call God a liar when He tells us that we are beautiful? What about when He tells us that He loves us no matter what?
Our "feeling" of God's love does not make it real or not real. God is love. God is goodness. That is His nature. He cannot act in contradiction to His nature, so there is NOTHING that will remove us from His love. Nothing!
"For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." -Romans 8:38, NAB
"As far as the east is from the west, so far have our sins been removed from us." -Psalm 103:12, NAB
As Catholics we are blessed with the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We don't go to confession because God needs it. God doesn't need it. We go because we need it. There is something incredibly consoling about hearing the words, "I absolve you from your sins..." and something even better about the graces that come with the Sacrament! God desires to heal us; He desires to set us free!
Satan wants to hold us in slavery to sin. He manipulates us by saying, "I know what you did! I know who you really are!" And he is wrong. The Devil does not know you. No matter what you have done, whether it is lying, stealing, abortion; anything, you are a child of God, and God wants you to be free because he loves you more than you can imagine! We can find this freedom through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. (By the way, our sins are not as unique as we think they are. The priests have heard it all and they won't be surprised.)
There are no sins that are greater than the grace of God.
God bless you.
Within my personal life, I traveled with the postulants and other sisters to attend the First Annual Feminine Genius Conference at St. Pius X in Appleton, WI. It was based on Pope John Paul II's apostolic letter, "On the Dignity and Vocation of Women." It was a wonderful conference, and I just wanted to share some reflections based on the talks.
One of the first things they shared at the conference was that God created us for a purpose. They asked us a question from the Baltimore Catechism. It is the only question in that particular catechism that I actually know the answer by heart, so I was able to respond:
Question: Why did God make you?
Answer: God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next.
-Baltimore Catechism
The postulants and I were smiling because Sr. Judanne had taught us all that question and response. I think it is a crucial thing for everyone to know, because it helps to answer our search for meaning, and reminds us of the value of our own lives. What matters is not power, prestige, wealth, or "success" in the eyes of the world. Love is what matters.
One of our society's images of "success" is to look a certain way. As we are in the middle of "Love Your Body Week," I include a paragraph from the Catechism of the Catholic Church that helps us to see how obsession with our exteriors is unhealthy and is counterproductive to our purpose in life:
"If morality requires respect for the life of the body, it does not make it an absolute value. It rejects a neo-pagan notion that tends to promote the cult of the body, to sacrifice everything for it's sake, to idolize physical perfection and success at sports. By its selective preference of the strong over the weak, such a conception can lead to the perversion of human relationships" (CCC# 2289, emphasis mine).
Here is a Christian song that follows the same theme: "More Beautiful You" -Jonny Diaz
We need to love what God created and nurture it, because God loves us as we are. Do we call God a liar when He tells us that we are beautiful? What about when He tells us that He loves us no matter what?
Our "feeling" of God's love does not make it real or not real. God is love. God is goodness. That is His nature. He cannot act in contradiction to His nature, so there is NOTHING that will remove us from His love. Nothing!
"For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." -Romans 8:38, NAB
"As far as the east is from the west, so far have our sins been removed from us." -Psalm 103:12, NAB
As Catholics we are blessed with the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We don't go to confession because God needs it. God doesn't need it. We go because we need it. There is something incredibly consoling about hearing the words, "I absolve you from your sins..." and something even better about the graces that come with the Sacrament! God desires to heal us; He desires to set us free!
Satan wants to hold us in slavery to sin. He manipulates us by saying, "I know what you did! I know who you really are!" And he is wrong. The Devil does not know you. No matter what you have done, whether it is lying, stealing, abortion; anything, you are a child of God, and God wants you to be free because he loves you more than you can imagine! We can find this freedom through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. (By the way, our sins are not as unique as we think they are. The priests have heard it all and they won't be surprised.)
There are no sins that are greater than the grace of God.
God bless you.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Finding Meaning; Finding God
It is COLD today! I am so thankful that my New Testament class is in the Motherhouse so I don't have to go outside. I hope people who are homeless have someplace warm to go to, but I know that generally they don't have warm places during the day. A couple of people I've met who are in this situation have told me that they cope with cold winter temperatures by "thinking warm thoughts" so they think about being by a fireplace, or being at the beach. It sounds like a good way to go.
Last weekend, those of us in formation watched an excellent movie called The Human Experience.
It is a very powerful documentary about finding the meaning of life in the midst of suffering. The preview for the film is below. (Disclaimer: there are some graphic images at the beginning of the trailer.)
Another thing that that has been enriching is the Franciscan Spirituality class that we are taking. It is kind of like a retreat, and I am really getting to understand Franciscan spirituality on a deeper level. It is also affirming, in that I can see more and more that I am in the right place.
May God bless you on your journey.
Last weekend, those of us in formation watched an excellent movie called The Human Experience.
It is a very powerful documentary about finding the meaning of life in the midst of suffering. The preview for the film is below. (Disclaimer: there are some graphic images at the beginning of the trailer.)
Another thing that that has been enriching is the Franciscan Spirituality class that we are taking. It is kind of like a retreat, and I am really getting to understand Franciscan spirituality on a deeper level. It is also affirming, in that I can see more and more that I am in the right place.
May God bless you on your journey.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Ice and Snow, Bless the Lord!
Yesterday those of us in the formation program and a few of the other Sisters in our community started a Franciscan Spirituality class. We all loved the first class. I am looking forward to the rest of it. It is a month long; two afternoons a week. Our professor is a Franciscan, from the same order as one of our chaplains. They have a really cool habit...it looks like St. Francis' habit, well, before he had to get it patched up.
In other news, today was a Snow Day! What a blessing! Shoveling was kind of funny because Sister Pamela Catherine and I shoveled some steps that looked more like a hill. It's the priests' steps so I had this image in my head of them sledding down it...but we shoveled it anyway. We didn't want them to get hurt.
I hope and pray that your February is getting off to a good start!
While you are online, please check out this new video about our Community. It's great!
http://www.fhcm.org/heritage-of-hope.asp
In other news, today was a Snow Day! What a blessing! Shoveling was kind of funny because Sister Pamela Catherine and I shoveled some steps that looked more like a hill. It's the priests' steps so I had this image in my head of them sledding down it...but we shoveled it anyway. We didn't want them to get hurt.
I hope and pray that your February is getting off to a good start!
While you are online, please check out this new video about our Community. It's great!
http://www.fhcm.org/heritage-of-hope.asp
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