Thanksgiving Preparation

We need to remember the first Thanksgiving. The early settlers and the Indians were united in thanking for the harvest that allowed them to feast. We take so much for granted. We only need go to the store to find all we need. Of course, there are still many in our own country who have not the money to celebrate with the kind of feast we associate with Thanksgiving. Let us remember them and be grateful that so many offer to help feed the hungry and our soup kitchens welcome volunteers. My own nephew and his wife will be helping to feed all who come to the St. Vincent de Paul place in Oakland.
Please pray for our twelve young religious in Rome who have begun their long retreat before final profession.
We will have Mass at 11:00 and then a turkey dinner with many invited guests.
I would like to pass on a recipe that is found online from the Ruth and Chris Steakhouse: it is for a sweet potato casserole and we had it last year and I promise you it is worth making - it does not need to be for this Thanksgiving, but you will not be sorry if you look up this recipe.

Two days before Thanksgiving

We have so much to thank for and I hope we do not need to wait until Thanksgiving to realize it and thank God for His many gifts. I think gratitude is something we need to cultivate; and we can learn to thank for the smallest things in life as well as the big ones.

Our prayer board is full of requests for prayers; it is great when we see a note thanking us for praying and letting us know the outcome of prayers for a particular intention.

What do I want to thank for this Thanksgiving in my own life? Take some time to reflect on your life today and even jot down what comes to mind to make sure you keep thanking the Lord for all He does for us.
we have put a large sheet of paper on the Bulletin Board where each may add what they are most grateful for at Oakwood. I wonder if each family could just share this way before Thanksgiving?

The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Our Lady, according to tradition, was presented in the Temple at a very young age. We really know nothing about this feast, but it has always been important for the Society of the Sacred Heart as we celebrate its beginnings on this day. It was on November 21, 1800 that the Society began with the first vow ceremony. St. Madeleine Sophie was twenty-one years old, but she would be the one to soon lead the Society; she was elected the first Superior General and she governed the Society until her death in 1865.
We always enjoy remembering this birthday of the Society on this feast of Our Lady. When we honor Mary, she points us to her Son.
"Do whatsoever He tells you."  That is what she so often says to me so then I need to turn and discern with Jesus what it is He wants me to do.

The Kingdom of God

Jesus preached about the reign of God, but He was humble and simple and chose simple men to be his followers. He wants us to follow Him and work for Him, but His way is not that of the rich and powerful. He leads us with reins of kindness. We are to follow Him as He continues to call us to a humble, simple life that is full of love and compassion.

Yesterday was also the end of the year of Mercy, but it is not the end of the need for mercy. We are all called to live the Beatitudes and Jesus has told us that we will be blessed.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful... let us renew our lives so that the kingdom of God is established first in each of us and then let us spread His Love and Mercy to all.

Feast of Christ the King

Images of Christ the King really do not appeal to me, but I love the idea that He is King of the whole universe. I am writing today as we are having Mass at 5:00 PM because of the meeting of the Western Region of our Province. It is always a joy for all of us to be together for prayer and sharing and, besides working to see how we can organize our region so that we feel connected to the entire Province yet can take care of so many things in our own region. I love seeing friends and just taking time to talk about the calls of our General Chapter. I know that I am called to live more humanly and also to embrace silence and try to deepen the contemplative side. We are both active and contemplative; I think that at this time in my life I am called to pay attention to God and spend more time in deepening my relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I want to live in gratitude and joy by realizing that all is gift. I think the Kingship of Jesus calls us to surrender ourselves completely to whatever He wants and to realize that all we do or do not do is really important as we are all involved in the evolution of the Cosmic Christ. 
To prepare for Thanksgiving I copied this from Holley Gerth on In Courage:
Who in your life are you thankful for? Think of at least one person.
2. November 19th – What is a memory that brings you joy? Look back and see God’s goodness in it all over again.
3. November 20th – How have you seen God answer your prayers this year? Pause and reflect on one “yes” you are living in now.
4. November 21st – When do you feel joy? Pay extra attention to one happy little moment in your day.
5. November 22nd – Where can you see God’s hand in your life? Consider one way He is taking care of you.
6. November 23rd – Why did Jesus come for us? Revisit His extraordinary love.

Feast of St. Philippine Duchesne

The entire United States/Canada Province is united this week end in three regional meetings. We are fortunate to have our region meeting here so we are able to stay put and receive all those who are coming. I am on the welcome committee and will be greeting all this afternoon as they arrive. We have prayer to open the week end and then we will all have supper together. The week end is quite full so I am trying to prepare my blogs ahead.

The General Chapter spoke of a different images and the one that reminds me most of St. Philippine says that the Society of the Sacred Heart is like a family that decides to set sail in order to look for new life, a new land. It takes with it the part of its heritage that is essential. Philippine kept the little band in America united with the Society in France. Today, we are in about 43 countries, but still united. We have much to thank Philippine for today.

Eve of Philippine's Feast

Philippine Duchesne died at St. Charles on November 18, 1852, leaving the reputation of a saint. Father Gavan Duffy wrote this about her:

"What have we learned from her? The value of a steadfast purpose, the success of failure and the unimportance of our standards of success; the power of grace released by deep, divine desires and simple duty daily done; the old, unearthly, stark, unwelcome fact that God is the workman, we the tools, so that He often takes His own way, not ours, producing wonderful results entirely beyond our ken--but only if the handle of the tool is smoothed and rounded to His hand by sacrifice and prayer."

Much to think about and, before Philippine was canonized, we celebrated our "Beata" on this day so it still seems right to do that now.

St. Philippine Duchesne

I seem to be preparing for the Feast of my dear Mother Duchesne on Friday, the Western Regional Meeting this week end and the Feast of Christ the King on Sunday to close the Liturgical Year. And then the next Sunday is Advent and that means only four Sundays before Christmas. I think Philippine would tell us to just be calm, find time for more prayer, and you will be prepared without anxiety, fuss, or frustration. Remember that each of us has all the time there is -24 hours every day!

This picture is one of my favorite of Philippine. It depicts her as being very grandmotherly and I think that is the way I always thought of her as a child. She was a loving grandmother to all of the children at the Academy of the Sacred Heart and we felt very close to her. She prayed long hours lost in God. I think I will ask her in these days to help me sit in silence with the Lord and be peaceful. The Lord can take care of the world and all our needs. We need just to be with Him and let Him love us!

Marching for Peace

On Mondays and Fridays, I drive myself to Physical Therapy and work on gaining strength and also work at balance as it is important so I will not end up as so many do with a fall that breaks a hip or worse. I read in Spanish to one from Colombia; we began in the summer and now I go to her room as she fell, hit her head and broke her wrist. She is still suffering from the fall and has had to postpone her trip to Colombia.
What I started to say is that after an hour of intense physical work, I came home for lunch and joined some of the community in a march for peace planned by the students. I think the students were mostly seniors; some parents and teachers were also there. We began with prayer and each was given a safety pin. I asked what it was for and was told to keep me from fear; the safety pin symbolizes safety. We were rather quiet but marched out of the front gates and lined the busy road waving our signs. Mine said, "Respect others"; others were "Love not hate", "Unity" etc. The students were animated and the we waved at the cars and shouted the slogans about "love not hate" and "love conquers fear" and I cannot remember the others. We found some of the drivers honked and waved as they passed us.
I returned to the house with one who uses a white cane as she is legally blind but can see things when she is quite near to them. She gets lost outside but is good about finding her way around the house when inside.
It was a gorgeous day and I think we all felt that we were doing something positive.

Preparing for St. Philippine Duchesne's Feast

Friday is the Feast of St. Philippine Duchesne. Philippine was one of the early Religious of the Sacred Heart who left France and arrived in America in 1818. She opened the first house of the Society at St. Charles, Missouri. From very humble beginnings, her fidelity, abnegation, and great love attracted others to the Society and soon foundations were being made in Louisiana. Her great desire to go to the Indian missions finally came true in 1841.

I did not start this blog to talk about Philippine, but what I want to do to prepare for her feast. There are only four days and I need to let her spirit of prayer and her humility invade my own life. I also need to keep realizing the calls of our General Chapter as this Friday begins our Western Region Meeting - each Region is meeting from Friday evening to Sunday noon. Our Region is mostly concentrated here, with Redwood City, and San Francisco but we also have San Diego coming and Seattle. In all we will be about 99 at Oakwood and all will have meals here. Glad I do not need to worry about that!

The call to embrace silence is one I shall try to deepen this week as it is so important for our interior life. I was part of the retreat for the Associates last Saturday and was impressed by their lives of prayer and service. They have inspired me to reach out to others.

Gratitude

As we approach the end of the Liturgical Year and Thanksgiving, I am going back to writing down three things that I am grateful for each day. I think that when we are grateful, we have both hope and joy. I just feel so grateful for so many things and think the Lord loves to hear me thank Him and even make a point of writing down some of the things that I am grateful for each day.

Today I meet with the Pauline Group of eight RSCJs who accepted the invitation to share on some of Paul's letters. We only meet once a month for an hour but it gives us time to have five minutes of silence followed by sharing of anything that struck us in the Letter, Galatians this Sunday. It is really more to share our experience of what may resonate with Paul's letter and is not a theological or biblical study.

Paul was a grateful person. I suggest we concentrate of being thankful for the daily gifts and joys as we prepare to celebrate our national holiday of Thanksgiving. Some families even share each night during dinner what each one has been grateful for that day. It helps us to welcome the good things and be on the lookout to express our gratitude.

Retreat Day for Associates

This Saturday we will have a retreat with our Associates who will renew their promises at Mass. I was invited to spend today with them and I am happy to do so. Saturday we always honor Our Lady by singing the Salve Regina at the end of the Mass. It makes me think of the many days when I was sacristan in Rome for Mater's Chapel and prayed daily in front of the first Mater who worked so many miracles and special favors for so many. I am praying to her for the peace and calm she had and continued to keep. If you think about it, Mary really had a difficult life - from the moment she said "Yes" to God, but she stayed calm and her focus was not on herself. Joseph did not understand and was ready to put her away, until he was told differently in a dream. Then there was the journey to Bethlehem, not an easy one when she was due to give birth soon. And you can fill in the rest - a need to flee to another country to keep her child safe. She certainly feels for those who today are having to leave their homes and country to seek safety for their children. Let us ask Mary today to aid all the refugees and to help us receive even more immigrants into our country and stop the separation of children from their parents.