We have a national holiday today as it is Memorial Day in the United States. We are invited to the other RSCJ community tonight for prayer and dinner to celebrate Sophie. It seems fitting that my blog entry today be the final entry in Sophie's Journal; it sums up te main thrust of Mother Barat's direction to the novices. In her notes for the last conference she said: "After having outlined all that God has done for us, the graces He unceasingly showers on us, especially the profusion of graces He has just given us in the retreat, I added that we should regard ourselves as the most despised of all creatures if we were not fully determined to detach ourselves from all, even ourselves, and to make the most generous sacrifices for our Lord which are necessary to respond to the greatness of our vocation. In the world, when it is a question of some human success, people make great sacrifices to succeed; what would they say, then, if we, Spouses of Jesus Christ, are cowardly in pursuing His interests?"
The excerpts from the Journal of Sophie have allowed us to glimpse her spirituality as it developed at the beginning of her government of the Society as Superior General. Centered on the Heart of Jesus, her spirituality was full of joy and freedom at this time. She stressed the importance of prayer and the interior life because she was convinced that without this foundation union and conformity with the Heart of Jesus was not possible.
2 comments:
I have enjoyed reading your blog. I have been reading excerpts from Barbara Bowe's book today. Another examplar of the fierce love of Christ by the RSCJ.
I had a short stay at Kenwood in the early seventies and it had a profound influence in my life.
http://crownedknot.blogspot.com
Dear Maria,
I love Barbara Bowe's book on the Biblical Foundations of Spirituality; she went to Kenwood, too. I use her book in the International Online Certificate Program in Spirituality Studies. You Love and prayer, Helen
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