The Great Reformer

As most of my readers probably know by now, I am a great reader of all Pope Francis writes and have read many of the biographies that have been written about the Pope, but now I have still another to recommend.
It is a well-written book by Austen Ivereigh, a British writer and journalist. The title of this contextual biography is "The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope." With Notes and Index, it I over 400 pages and I have only read a third of the book, but I am enjoying it very much and learning a great deal at this point about Argentina as well as more about Francis. I do continue to read The Pope App each day and recommend that again, too.

Here is something to reflect on today with no connection to the book recommendation:

Jean-Pierre de Caussade reminds us: “What God arranges for us to experience at each moment is the best and holiest thing that could happen to us.”

The Future of Community

We all come from a place of pain
and a place of peace
and the sharing is a renaissance

It's all right to be human, hungry, hurt;
and it's all right to have joy, serenity, hope.

Trust opens our mouths to tell the truth of our pain;
trust opens our hearts to the balm of love;
trust opens our eyes to the thread of light
         That weaves us into one.

This Poem is from a collection of poems by Carol Bialock, rscj.
I went to school with Carol who was a senior when I was a freshman at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Charles and then at Maryville; then we were in the novitiate together and later she came to Chile and now we are again together here in Oakwood.

The sixth month...

Sometimes we need perspective that only time can give. I think it is good to look back over our life from time to time. I usually did this monthly in preparation for spiritual direction. Yesterday, I realized that this is the sixth month of being in unusual circumstances (I have enjoyed good health and taken it for granted). I have been in the hospital for almost a month, then rehab, then out to Oakwood to recuperate and spending another 100 days in isolation and on antibiotics to try to get rid of an infection that kept returning. Yet, looking back over these months, I am aware of so many graces.
I am going to share with you what I wrote in my Journal yesterday: Graces received
- a deeper, more intimate and constant relationship with Jesus
-a felt presence of the Trinity, Mary, and sometimes my parents surrounding me
- my love and need for community
- the value of silence and solitude for contemplation
- an increased love for my vocation to he Society of the Sacred Heart
- deeper trust in the Heart of Jesus
- further confirmation that I am to pipe a song of joy to Jesus

I could continue, but that is what I wrote yesterday in prayer.

Another RSCJ went home to God...

Just across the hall from me was a good friend Sister Pat Thro. She wanted to go to heaven and God took her peacefully this morning while we were at Mass praying for her.
This is the third death since I came to recuperate at Oakwood. Pat was several years behind me but we both went to the Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Charles. We took a seminar together at St. Louis University and then I got to know her when I would stay in her community in St. Louis. She was so welcoming when I arrived here. Having her just across the hall was wonderful, at least when I was not in isolation.
I guess a death so close makes us all realize that we are here on earth only for a short time. I am thinking of death but more about living to be happy to greet Jesus when we do die.

Third Sunday of Lent

Lord, you have the words of everlasting life... Jesus speaks to us in so many ways each day. Am I attentive to His voice?

Yesterday was the first Saturday of the month and, here at Oakwood, we pray an "Act of Consecration of the Society of the Sacred Heart to the Immaculate Heart of Mary".  I was so struck by what we say, that I felt I should copy it here for you.

Holy  Mary, Queen of Virgins, we come today with confidence and love to consecrate ourselves to your Immaculate Heart.
You are the Mother of Fair Love. In you is all hope of life and of virtue.
Grant us this day the desire of our hearts by giving us
  A love strong as death, which will separate us from all that is not God;
  A love so generous in its conformity to the good pleasure of God, that it may transform us and I give us new life;
  A love so ardent that it may enkindle the souls of those confided to our care;
  A love so insatiable that all work and suffering may be as fuel to feed its flame until our last breath.
Mother of Holy Hope set your Divine Son as a seal upon our hearts and upon our arms, that we may, after your example, live and act by Him and for Him alone.
Intercede for our Holy Mother the Church in all her needs.
Save all who put their trust in You.
Bless our Society so devoted to You and to your Son.
Be the stay and support of our Central Team, and grant that we who are united with you in love on earth may bless you and rejoice in you for all eternity. Amen.

God is not aloof from us...

It is time to look again at the Pope's Lenten Message:

Lent is a time of renewal for the whole Church, for each communities and every believer. Above all it is a “time of grace” (2 Cor 6:2). God does not ask of us anything that he himself has not first given us. “We love because he first has loved us” (1 Jn 4:19). He is not aloof from us. Each one of us has a place in his heart. He knows us by name, he cares for us and he seeks us out whenever we turn away from him. He is interested in each of us; his love does not allow him to be indifferent to what happens to us. Usually, when we are healthy and comfortable, we forget about others (something God the Father never does): we are unconcerned with their problems, their sufferings and the injustices they endure... Our heart grows cold. As long as I am relatively healthy and comfortable, I don’t think about those less well off. Today, this selfish attitude of indifference has taken on global proportions, to the extent that we can speak of a globalization of indifference. It is a problem which we, as Christians, need to confront.
When the people of God are converted to his love, they find answers to the questions that history continually rises. One of the most urgent challenges which I would like to address in this Message is precisely the globalization of indifference. 
Indifference to our neighbor and to God also represents a real temptation for us Christians. Each year during Lent we need to hear once more the voice of the prophets who cry out and trouble our conscience.

Each one of us has a place in god's Heart!

He cares for us...he seeks us out whenever we turn away from Him...

His love does not allow him to be indifferent to what happens to us...

And how do we act? Am I indifferent to the plight of others? Am I part of the "globalization of indifference?

First Friday

i woke up at 5:30 and realized that I had left my window wide open last night. I closed it and went back to bed to think about all the First Friday's in my life that stand out because of different ways we celebrated each First Friday when I was a child at the Academy of the Visitation, then my two years at St. Roch's, the Academy of the Sacred Heart for High School and then Maryville where the Mass was obligatory unless the Dean of Students gave permission to be absent. Here at Oakwood, the Mass is at 9:30 instead of 9:00 so the Children of Mary can be present. The mixture of childhood memories ( white veils, procession with banner, red sashes, hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls!) still influence me today, but now it is a special day for me to honor the Heart of Jesus and tell Him of my love and let myself be loved by Him.

Why am I alive?

Do you ever ask yourself why you are alive when so many die? I woke up last night pondering this question because I was really ready to die and I am sure it was the power of prayer that kept me alive and a miracle that I am now well. God must want something from me still - God seems to have arranged things so that my life is more contemplative. As much as I want to get back to Miami, I realize that God is planning things so that I now will be here for Holy Week and Easter and then still have more time here before our meeting with the Central Team in Grand Coteau. And then I have another ten days in Coteau. We have the oldest Sacred Heart school in continuous existence in the Society of the Sacred Heart. I love the school, the grounds, the Jesuit retreat house, and the work we do there and have done since 1822.

Time and Space for God

"Through all stages of our life our prayer invites us to the depths of God."  This is another quote from the Chapter of 2008 that makes me stop and ponder. The depths of God - infinite deepness. How do we descend into the depths of God? I am sure my entrance is through the Heart of Christ. I do have a personal relationship with each membe of the Blessed Trinity and it is in quiet prayer that the descent into the depths happens. I only know that it is not my doing and it is pure grace.

"Giving time and space for prayer will help us to be the heart of God in our world."  That is true and essential. I will end my reflection on the priority of Contemplation with one more quote that I find consoling:"The desire for interior life finds a home in us and draws us to abide in God."
To abide in God is bliss!

In the secret place of the heart...

Again the Chapter of 2008 has led me to pray and reflect on our priority for contemplation. I remember having a visit with my Provincial as I began my 80th year of life. I told her that I thought the time had come for me to retire from the University. She said,
"But, Helen! What will you do?"
I replied that I hoped to become more contemplative! And I think I have and it is pure gift. I also still find myself daydreaming or thinking without taking the time to be still. The Chapter document says:"..we are called to stop, to choose silence and to open and let ourselves be opened to our inner depths where the Spirit of God allows us to feel, see and understand life and reality with God's heart. When we allow our bodies to be silent, our senses awaken and we are able to hear the voice of the Spirit within us. Then in the secret place of the heart the Spirit gradually transforms our feelings and responses, and draws us into an intimate relationship with God."
Let us explore the secret place of the heart today and there we find the Heart of Jesus opens for us to entr and descend into the depths.

Rooted in the Heart of Christ

The Chapter of 2008 has Contemplation as a priority and begins by saying that we are women rooted in the heart of Christ. I keep thinking about that phrase, "rooted in the Heart of Christ" and what that means for me. It is where I am planted. My roots go deep into His Heart where I find all I need.
I drink of the life-giving water; I draw out His Love to give it to others. Because I am rooted in Love, I stand firm through storms and even earthquakes.

I leave this phrase for you to reflect on your own experience of being rooted in Christ.

Encounter with Jesus

The Transfiguration is one of my favorite Gospel readings. Peter, James, and John were used to the very human Jesus who had called them, eaten with them, walked the dusty paths with them, etc. Now Jesus invites them to climb the mountain with him. They follow Jesus up the mountain and witness his transfiguration. It is an encounter with Jesus who is divine as well as human.

We are all invited to a personal encounter with Jesus. The Pope began his "Evangelii Gaudium"
saying:
"I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation is not for him or her” (EG, nr. 3).

This means that the ultimate purpose of evangelization is not the transmission of a doctrine, but an encounter with a person, Jesus Christ. The possibility of such a face to face encounter depends on the fact that Jesus, risen, is alive and desires to walk next to every believer, as he really walked with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus; more than that, as he was in their very heart, when they returned to Jerusalem, after having received him in the broken bread."

During Lent we encounter Jesus and, when we take time to be aware of the Presence of Jesus, we realize that Jesus is with us and walks with us even when we feel discouraged.