Our Lady of Sorrows

One of my community took our computer to be looked at on Monday and it is not back yet so I did not write yesterday, the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows; today I am trying with my laptop as I wanted to share a thought from the conference given for the opening of my Probation (five month contemplative period at the Motherhouse in Rome before my final profession); we began on this feast in 1959 and the miracle is not just that I still have the conference, but that I found it to pray over just before the feast! The other astonishing thing for me was that Reverend Mother de Valon said that there were three dispositions needed to make a good probation: a transparent soul; a determined will; and a filial heart. If you remember I shared my light for this year, even to posting a poem, about the call to be transparent. I think it was at the end of December and I have tried to be transparent for God, self, and others this year. Now I realize that I was being called to this back in 1959!! Here is a quote from the conference: What is a transparent soul? It is a soul open to the light. This light will be given you by Our Lord in you hours of prayer, recollection, reflection; you will also be given some direction that you will receive with a heart both simple and docile...Always tend to transparency; it is the sign of a balanced soul accustomed to live under the sight of God. The translation from the French is mine and I think I like integrated being instead of the more literal "balanced soul" but I feel that Our Lady was and is speaking to me about transparency fifty years after this conference.
The conference is very strong and ask that the wounds of Christ be imprinted in us. It ends by telling us that the world has need of us to pass on the love we have received from Jesus. May the Mother of Sorrows teach us to contemplate the Source of this love and to draw forth and pour out this love for souls.