St. Philippine Duchesne

Next week, on November 18, we celebrate the feast of St. Philippine Duchesne. She was a great pioneer saint and I want to share with you an excerpt written by Jane Cannon who is the alumni director at St. Charles. Some of the alums, including myself, adopt one of the eighth graders each year and write to them for the feasts that are celebrated by children of the Sacred Heart all over the world. Here is what Jane has summarized about the beginnings of the present Academy of the Sacred Heart:

"Starting Over in St. Charles"
The Religious of the Sacred Heart were only in St. Charles for one year (1818-1819) and then moved to Florissant, where they stayed until 1828, when the Jesuits invited them to come back to the log cabin, which was situated near the new stone church that the priests had built. This is what happens the day they came back.

Mothers Duchesne, Octavie, Mathevon and O'Connor got up at 3:00 a.m. to prepare for their trip to St. Charles. Bishop Rosati had arrived from St. Louis on horseback and joined them in time to board the ferry for the trip across the river. They caught site of St. Charles by eight o'clock.

As they walked up the street from the river toward the log cabin (Duquette Mansion) the women of the town looked out the windows of their houses and waved to welcome them. One lady dance in the street and cheered for their arrival. Others were at home preparing dinner for their welcome.

When they reached the cabin a man accompanying them crawled through a window to open the door since there was no lock on the door. Here is how one of the nuns described their new home: 'The house was built of poor boards, badly joined and offering no exterior attractions. Six rooms, or rather six hovels, without windows, without flooring, without doors, composed our little palace. A cave basement under the hours was the abode of all the animals of the village. The sheep, the pigs, etc. found their place there regularly and made human sojourn in the house intolerable by the odors which came up from their hovel.'"

This will be continued tomorrow as I think it makes us admire what the first Religious went through to establish a school that is still educating children today!

Another Week

Our air-conditioning unit for our house broke down again last Friday. Because of the hurricane in the Gulf, we have been having some breeze. We are concerned about New Orleans and the gulf coast; I think it is to hit sometime tonight or even tomorrow. It is true that the hurricane season lasts until December 1, but one begins to relax once we are into November. This has been a good year for Miami and we are grateful, but I hope this present hurricane will not do damage to anyone.
Reflecting on hurricanes makes me think how little we can control them. We all have some minor, inner hurricanes at one time or another, at least it seems to me going by my own experience. They just blow up into a storm; sometimes we are aware of the gathering forces that are swirling around in us. We seem to have no way of stopping them and suddenly they are full-blown hurricanes ready to do great damage to others. We need to cry out to the Lord for only He can help us when we feel rocked by the storm inside. I am usually a very calm, peaceful person, but find that unexpected forces still spring up and can easily lead to an inner hurricane without the help of God who has the power to say, "Peace, be still!" Then calm returns.

This is not what I intended to reflect on today. I was praying over the water that flowed from the temple and became a river and made the trees give fresh fruit each month... well, maybe I needed to calm an inner hurricane before beginning a busy week.

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time - The Widow's Mite

Today's Gospel (Mark 12:38-44) has Jesus sitting opposite the treasury and observing how the crowd put money into the treasury. He says nothing but observes. He sees the rich people putting in large sums; he sees the widow putting in two small coins worth a few cents. Then, he calls his disciples to himself and said to them, "Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood."
What does this mean for me?

After reading the hymn given in Magnificat for the evening prayer, I thought it worth copying here for you:
Where Temple offerings are made,
And knowing he must die,
Our Master, resting in the shade,
Watches the world go by.

Some offer silver, others gold,
Some what they can afford;
Some give,k in order to withhold,
And some to gain reward.

A widow passing by, who scarce
Can scrape enough to live,
She finds two pennies in her purse,
Gives all that she can give.

How deeply moved is he by this,
He leaves us in no doubt;
And he himself will die for us
Before the week is out.

Make Gratitude Your Personal Attitude

I love the name of the title of the 25th Chapter in Paul Coutinho's Just as You Are: Make Gratitude Your Personal Attitude. I also like the entire chapter, but will just give a few excerpts here:
"When gratitude becomes our way of life and our inner attitude, then we will always look for something to be grateful for. And so for those who are in love with God and are grateful, bad things can never happen to them. They will see the gift in negative things that happen, and this experience will bring out the best in them. They are able to realize the more real things in life and see life for what it really is and not the passing illusions that cause so much suffering and take away our joys and happiness. When we focus with grateful hearts on the positive things in life, we find that these parts of our lives keep growing, and then we have more and more things to be grateful for."
I am still trying to live this and think the key phrase here is "for those who are in love with God and are grateful".
Paul also says: "Gratitude at its core is an awareness of gifts and the presence of God. When gratitude becomes our way of life, then we will be praying all the time and always will be happy. This is good for our spiritual, our psychological, and even our physical lives. And with gratitude as our personal attitude, we will be in union with the Divine every moment of our waking and sleeping hours."

Let us be grateful today for everything God sends us for all is gift!

Just As You Are

Just As You Are is a another book by Raul Coutinho, S.J. The subtitle is "Opening your life to the Infinite Love of God". Paul also wrote How Big Is Your God and I know I have quoted from that in the past. His new book depicts how being in love with the Divine is God's gift and is always available to anyone who is looking for it. He speaks of God as the Divine seducer who never gives up; God wants us to live in union with him and seduces us. However, falling in love demands our cooperation, too. Paul Coutinho says that "If you want it, you'll find it. In fact, love will find you."
His Chapters are quite short so I am in the third part of the book tititled "Being in love with God" and Chapter 25, "Make Gratitude Your Personal Attitude:.
More on that tomorrow! I will now add this new book to the list of Spiritual Reading that is so full of good books that I hope all of us make time for good reading!

Reflections on my visit to St. Louis

It is a week since I left St. Louis and its autumnal beauty. The trees were so colorful and I loved just driving around looking at the reds, yellow, and orange leaves as they still clung to the trees. I had forgotten how beautiful this season is in St. Louis. Actually, it was rather misty most days but that was nice, too, as it kept me from being cold. I had my Scottish sweater with me and it was perfect and I never used the gloves I had searched for when packing in Miami!
My week was something of a pilgrimage. It began at St. Charles with prayer in the shrine where St. Philippine Duchesne is buried; then I made a visit to the little room where she lived the last ten years of her life after returning from the Indian mission. Since I went to school at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Charles, I enjoyed just drinking in the wonderful spirit that permeates the whole atmosphere.
Then, of course, I was off to see one of my childhood friends who has always been a good and close friend. She lost her husband in April and this was the first time I had to visit with her. She is a lovely person and coping better than I thought and we still laugh a great deal together. We met three times for visits while I was in St. Louis; I also saw other dear friends and just driving around my hometown brought back many memories. One day I visited the new Provincial Offices, St. Louis University; went to Mass at the New Cathedral (something I did daily while studying for my doctorate), and visited the Society of the Sacred Heart United States' Archives. I found many letters that I had written from Chile in my file there. I also was invited to the area meeting on Sunday and so was able to see most of the rscjs that live in the area. I stayed in a very welcoming community that is almost like a second home since I have been visiting and staying there for the past 23 years! Amazing to think that I have now been 23 years in Miami and am still working at St. Thomas University!!

"My forgetter's getting better..."

This was sent to me and I am passing it on as I cannot remember who sent it:

"Forgetter Be Forgotten

My forgetter's getting better,
But my rememberer is broke
To you that may seem funny
But, to me, that is no joke!

For when I'm 'here' I'm wondering
If I really should be 'there'
And, when I try to think it through,
I haven't got a prayer!

Oft times I walk into a room,
Say 'what am I here for?'
I wrack my brain, but all in vain!
A zero is my score.

At times I put something away
Where it is safe, but, gee!
The person is is safest from
Is, generally, me!

When shopping I may see someone
Say 'Hi' and have a chat,
Then, when the person walks away
I ask myself, 'who the heck was that?'

Yes, my forgetter's getting better
While my rememberer is broke,
And it is driving me plumb crazy
And that isn't any joke!

A breath of compassion...

We used this prayer adapted from "Prayer of the Cosmos" in community this week and I liked it enough to copy it here: (Sorry but no image today as I could not open it)

Jesus said: from the deepest part of yourself, let love be born from the rays of the One that shines around you...
Let this come from your whole heart-
The center of your life; your passion, courage and audacity-
And touch your whole subconscious self- that instinctive soul within...
From this self liberate your whole energy and life force to flood your entire mind with love.
This is the most important command- the first creative movement that empowers all others. The second is like it: Draw a breath of compassion for the one mysteriously drawn to live near you; love them as you love the self that dwells within.

The last lines fascinate me.

All Souls' Day

This is a picture of the cemetery at Grand Coteau on our convent grounds; it is where I wish to be buried if I did in Miami. I could be cremated and the ashes taken there and buried with many RSCJs who have died before me. This is the Feast to think of all those who have died before us, but especially those who are not yet in heaven rejoicing with God for all eternity.

My thoughts this morning are again from Rossetti's book When the Lion Roars; the fourth chapter talks about the mystical journey as a "life that focuses on being, rather than on doing. Mystics are friends of God. This is a source of joy for us. Rossetti, after quoting Jesus who calls us friends and says that he has chosen us, tells us that God himself finds joy in us!

He also says: "All friendship includes some degree of self-revelation or the friendship cannot grow. God continues to reveal himself to us; he calls us friends. We must learn to do the same." After speaking about the transparency we are called to have with God, Rossetti ends the chapter with these lines that I just want to say a big AMEN to: "Our greatest gift and our everlasting joy is our friendship with God."