Sometimes I pray over the Constitutions of the Society of the Sacred Heart; it is important for me to do this regularly as I am called to try to live all that they say. This Jubilee year has made one paragraph especially meaningful to me and I have asked all those who made their final profession with me in Rome fifty years ago to pray over the same #116 that reads in English as:
"When old age makes it impossible for us to continue in a full-time apostolate, we look for new ways of manifesting the love of Jesus. We are called not only to accept the love and service of others, but to give to others the love that we have drawn throughout life from the Heart of Christ. This may be the most contemplative period of our life, keeping its prophetic and apostolic power through the truth and depth of our relationships and the joy with which we bear witness to the fidelity of God's love."
Some days I stay with the idea of looking for "new ways of manifesting the love of Jesus" but today I am struck by the two ways we keep the prophetic and apostolic power of our vocation: "through the truth and depth of our relationships and the joy with which we bear witness to the fidelity of God's love." I have felt the call more profoundly to attend to the quality of my relationships and to bear witness with great joy to the fidelity of God's love. I think this is touching on the vocation within a vocation that most of us discover at some point in our lives. Mine has been to pipe a song of joy to Jesus and I continue to find new ways of doing this.
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