In the Shadow of His Wings

Sponsa Christi February 2nd, 2013

O what a most glorious day!  Words cannot express it…Blessed be God! Alleluia!

I must share with you the moving homily preached by our Fr. Rodger Hunter-Hall.  I will leave you in suspense regarding a photo…I’m terrible aren’t I?  Also, I don’t have a photo yet but I do have a homily…

Presented to the Lord and Consecrated by the Spirit

Your Excellency

Dear Brothers in the Sacrament of Holy Orders

Mother Prioress

Dear Sisters

Dear friends in Christ:

In the life of a monastery like Saint Joseph’s, today’s event is truly a milestone, an event for the history book. Professions happen just infrequently enough that, each time one occurs, it truly grasps the fullness of our attention. It calls each of us to reflection; it lifts our eyes and focuses them, for these all too brief moments, on a distant horizon…a horizon where time and eternity come together.

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Tags: Feast Days, Profession of Vows, Spiritual Motherhood

• Bride of Christ , Catholic Vocations for Women , Cloistered Life , Passion of Jesus , Passionist Spirituality , Passionist Vocations for Women , Redemptive Suffering , Saint Paul of the Cross , Scripture Reflections
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Sponsa Christi April 30th, 2012

Scripture Reflection for the 4^th Sunday of Easter

find these readings here at USCCB website.

Acts 4:8-12

Ps 118

1Jn 3:1-12

Jn 10:11-18

Sister Rose Marie started us out with a question this week. “What do you think St. John means when he says, ‘We shall be like [God], for we shall see Him as He is?’ It seems like he is saying that because we shall see Him, we shall be like Him.” Usually, as Sr. Mary Andrea pointed out, we think of it the other way around: we shall see God in heaven, because we will have been made like Him. Perfection in God’s image and likeness is the prerequisite for heaven, so to speak. But St. John turns it around. We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

Her question started a glorious discussion about the power of God’s being. Sr. Cecilia Maria suggested that since God is Life Himself, so creative and regenerative in His very essence, perhaps merely being in His Presence changes us into Himself. Perhaps seeing God as He truly is, is a bit like standing by a fire: if you stand close enough, you become fire yourself! Our discussion continued: perhaps this is a hint at what Purgatory is. If when we die, we have not yet become like God, perhaps the sight of Him in all His Holiness, Power, and Beauty transforms us into His perfect likeness!

Sr. Mary Veronica had a beautiful suggestion: St. John may mean something more than physical sight here. “To see God” may well take on the deep implications of the Biblical “know,” implying profound communion between two beings. When we see God as He is, we will know Him, and that knowledge will by its very nature bring about the intimate communion of spousal love. Knowledge between God and the soul renders each into the other!

The other half of our sharing focused on our call to communion with Christ Jesus, our Good Shepherd. Sr. Cecilia Maria was captivated by Jesus’ statement, “I will lay down my life for the sheep…. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own.” We are baptized into Christ, and we are called to the same reality, the same powerful and heroic choice! When I am hurt, when I suffer, when I must die to myself in the course of my day, I have a choice: I can be a victim and say, “woe is me,” or I can freely lay down my life for the sheep. Jesus looked like a powerless victim in His Passion, but He turned around and chose it. He chose to die for me and for the whole world. I must do the same! Our chaplain preached a beautiful homily on this call: we are all called to be Good Shepherds in our own lives; we are all called to lay down our life for the sheep entrusted to us. And as contemplative nuns, the whole world is the flock in our care!

Sr. Mary Andrea connected this reality with the psalm. “We bless you from the house of the Lord!” the psalmist sings. Since we are the house of the Lord by our baptism, we are called to be a blessing for the world wherever we are! We dwell in communion with Christ; we always and everywhere must live His life of redemption for the world.

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Sponsa Christi April 24th, 2012

Scripture Reflection for the 3^rd Sunday of Easter

Acts of the Apostles 3:13-15, 17-19

Psalm 4:2, 4, 7-9

1 John 2:1-5

Luke 24:35-48

“Last week and this week I have been captivated by the fact that the risen Jesus is recognized and defined by the wounds of His crucifixion,” Sr. Cecilia Maria began as we reconvened for our Sunday Scripture discussion. In this week’s gospel, Jesus reassures His troubled disciples that it is truly he by showing them His pierced hands and feet. Last week, St. Thomas declared that he would not believe unless he saw and felt for himself the wounds left by the nails and the lance, and Jesus came to satisfy his desire.

What makes these scenes so remarkable is that none of the disciples, save St. John who was on Calvary, would have known the crucified Jesus. They knew Him by His voice, miracles, walk, visage. Yet He shows them His wounds, and by them they recognize and believe in Him. “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself!” Why? Why the wounds?

Sr. Mary Veronica phrased the mystery this way: God chose to retain and glorify the wounds of His shameful and bloody crucifixion. He didn’t have to. He could have wiped them away entirely, just like He could have avoided the Passion in His work of salvation. But He didn’t. He suffered, and He chose to remain wounded even in His glory for all eternity (as Sr. Mary Andrea reminded us).

Jesus Christ – and therefore God, who is Love Himself – chose to be defined by His wounds. This should give us great hope and consolation! God did not only enter into our suffering, but He made it a part of Himself and then glorified it.

This means that we can meet God even and especially in the parts of our life that hurt the most, the wounds of our own existence. This gives an extraordinary dimension to our own resurrection and eternal life. In heaven, God will not remove from us our wounds from physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual sufferings. No, but He will glorify them! Our ugliest sufferings and trials will, in Christ, become the most beautiful parts of us, just like Christ’s glorious wounds shine with the brightest radiance.

Sr. Rose Marie helped us to see the consolation and assurance Christ’s wounds gave to the apostles, and that they can give to each of us. What was the disciples’ reaction to Jesus as he appeared and said to them, “Peace be with you?” They were startled, terrified, troubled, questioning, incredulous, amazed! And for good reason: the vast majority had abandoned or denied Him, and they were cowering from fear of joining Him in His fate. Seeing Him alive would have confirmed their earlier conviction that He truly is the Messiah of God…and God’s people had killed Him. Surely they were thinking in their hearts, “What will He say now? What will He do now? We are in trouble. We blew it.” But Jesus comes with peace, and the assurance: look at my hands and my feet, and know that “it is written that the Messiah would suffer.” This was planned, and I did it for you! Peace be with you.

May we each discover the peace that flows from Christ’s glorious wounds! May we recognize Him in them, and may we discover, as Sr. Rose Marie stated so poignantly, that Christ’s wounds mark the way to heaven.

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Sponsa Christi April 13th, 2012

Well, I just found that I did not publish this last Thursday as I had thought! bummer!  Well, perhaps it will still be an inspiration to some…

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As we begin the Sacred Triduum this evening I am bringing you the Formation Sisters reflections on the readings from the 5th Sunday of Lent.  Be blessed!

Scripture Reflection for the 5^th Sunday of Lent

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Psalm 51:3-4, 12-15

Hebrews 5:7-9

John 12:20-33

This week we were all captivated by – as Sr. Mary Veronica eloquently put it – the pathos of the heart of Christ, expressed not only in the Gospel but in all the readings. They all take us deep into the mystery of God’s covenantal love for us, a love which reaches its climactic fulfillment in Jesus Christ, Love Incarnate.

Sr. Mary Andrea highlighted Jeremiah’s narrative of God’s poignant and tender promise of His new covenant, in which He will heal the very roots of our infidelities and make it possible for us to truly be in intimacy with Him. “I will be their God, and they shall be my people…. All, from the least to the greatest shall know me!”

The psalmist fervently prays for Him to accomplish this work: “A clean heart create for me, O God; renew in me a steadfast spirit!” But it is St. John and the author of Hebrews who really paint for us the stunning portrait of Jesus Christ upon the eve of consummating this new covenant.

According to Hebrews, Jesus “offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.” The “loud cries and tears” of the Lord have always captivated Sr. Mary Veronica. How rich is the heart of Christ! The full spectrum of His human virtues and passions includes fervent intercession, profound reverence, unstinting obedience…and heart-wrenching grief and majestic joy.

Sr. Cecilia Maria pointed out that in the original Greek, when Jesus says, “I am troubled now… Father, save me from this hour,” He is actually quoting the Greek text of Psalm 6:4-5: “In utter terror is my soul…Lord, save my life!” What a mystery of suffering! Sr. Rose Marie was similarly intrigued by the seeming contradiction of Jesus’ fear and confidence in the Gospel.

We found an answer to the contradiction in the eternal reality of God’s covenantal love. Anne and Sr. Cecilia Maria focused upon Jesus’ words, “It was for this purpose that I came to this hour…. When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all to myself.” Jesus trembles from fear, yes, as the time of His Passion draws nigh, but He trembles also from the strength of His loving longing for union with His beloved people…a union which will finally be accomplished at “this hour.”

Since the dawn of creation, God has yearned to gather His people to Himself, into the embrace of His love. Jesus gave voice to this elsewhere in the Gospels when He cried, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem…how often have I yearned to gather your children as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings…but you would not!” This hour of Jesus Passion will finally accomplish His purpose: upon the Cross, Christ Jesus will gather all of us to Himself.

It is consummated!

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Sponsa Christi March 20th, 2012

Can you believe we just passed the mid-point of Lent? Laetare Sunday brought us organ and violin prelude, rose-colored vestments, flowers by the tabernacle and images of our Lady, St. Joseph and St. Paul of the Cross. The smell of the jonquils by the Pieta statue (statue of our Blessed Mother holding Jesus after he was taken down from the cross) was a foretaste of resurrection glory!

Scripture Reflection for the 4^th Sunday of Lent

2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23

Psalm 137:1-6

Ephesians 2:4-10

John 3:14-21

The readings this week call us to a deeper understanding of God. We all have heard that God is our Creator and Redeemer, but the terms are so familiar that we can forget what that means in our lives – in your life and in my life. This Sunday we are challenged to open our eyes to see God as He wants us to see Him.

St. Paul in our epistle beautifully sums up our relationship with God: “We are His handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.” Wow! Anne and Sr. Cecilia Maria found great consolation in this second reading. God continually creates us in His Son! Not only did He create us “once upon a time,” but through our whole lives He forms us, teaches us, guides us, admonishes us, calls us back when we wander, and heals us when we hurt ourselves. Why? Because He has prepared good works for us to live in, and He just can’t stand it until we are able to live fully in that goodness! Everything that exists, everything that happens is a gift of God for you. He had you personally in mind when He created it, so that it would help you grow into the good works He has prepared for you.

Our first reading relates to us how this beautiful providence looked at the time of the Babylonian exile of the Hebrew people. “Early and often did the Lord … send His messengers to them, for He had compassion on His people,” the Chronicler tells us. God wants not only to give us His gifts, but to have us keep them always! He seeks to teach us how to live in those good works; when we are unfaithful, in compassion He cries out to us to return. Sr. Rose Marie highlighted for us how the justice of God is always related to His mercy, and that when we think God’s justice is “punishment,” we are forgetting who God really is. God does admonish us, in the hopes that we will hear and return to the good works He created us for, but His justice is not punishment. He knows that on our own we cannot live in His good works. How could He punish us for not doing something we are incapable of doing? No, He has mercy and gives us His own justice, His own strength, His own Son.

Yes! “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.” This Sunday’s gospel sings once again that well-loved verse and celebrates the largess of our tremendous Gift-Giver. God created us in Christ Jesus for His good works! He loves us so much that He gives us everything we need to live in His goodness; we have only to open our hearts to receive His gift. Sr. Mary Veronica kept returning to this mind-blowing reality. He GAVE His only begotten Son! He did not just send, He GAVE His Son to us!

Have you received Him? Do you live in Him?

Sr. Mary Andrea brought our attention to a message common to all the readings this week: God gives us all these gifts so that He might be our abiding companion. “May his God be with him,” acclaims the first reading about every Hebrew. “May thus and so happen to me if ever I forget you!” cries the psalmist in exile from his land and his God. God creates us “that we should live in [His good works],” teaches St. Paul. And finally, the gospel reminds us that God gave us His own Son so that we might have “eternal life” with Him.

Did you know that eternal life can start now?

It starts as soon as you begin living in the goodness God created you for!

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Sponsa Christi March 18th, 2012

I’m going to try something new. For a while we have been posting the novitiate scripture sharings in the Novitiate Corner on our website. Now I’ll be posting them here too.

I hope you find them a source of inspiration!

Scripture Reflection for the 3^rd Sunday of Lent

Exodus 20:1-17

Psalm 19:8-11

1 Corinthians 1:22-25

John 2:13-25

“Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a piece of fine art depicting the cleansing of the Temple?” we asked ourselves this Sunday. How powerful it would be to see the anger, grief, holiness, and majesty of Jesus Christ as He confronts the people who have been making His Father’s house a marketplace! Our whole discussion centered upon the Gospel passage and its meaning, both in the context of Jesus’ earthly existence and of our own lives.

Sr. Rose Marie brought a reflection from the opening pages of Pope Benedict’s Jesus of Nazareth, which called our attention to Jesus’ “going up to Jerusalem” for the feast of Passover, which is the context of His cleansing of the Temple. Much more than being simply a physical ascent (which it is), it symbolizes the Christ’s ascent to the Father through the course of His life, His ascent to “loving to the end.” As Jesus goes up to Jerusalem and drives the vendors out of the Temple courts, He is illustrating in symbol what He does with His life and passion. Through the Cross, Jesus “goes up” to the true Temple, not made by human hands – His glorified body – and cleanses us to be part of it.

Sr. Mary Andrea brought a similar insight: Jesus tells us, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” How shocking! Of course we know that He is speaking of His body, but not merely His physical body which rose again on that first Easter morning. He speaks too of His mystical body, the Church; He raises her with Him into the glory of His Father’s love. But He is also speaking of you and me individually. He can and He does transform us into that Temple not made by human hands. But we each have a part to play. Even as He cleansed the earthly Temple, Jesus asked for help from the dove-sellers, “Take these out of here!” He asks us to help Him cleanse our Temple courts of all that keeps us from being true and living tabernacles of the Holy Spirit.

Sr. Cecilia Maria was intrigued at how the Gospel story illustrates St. Paul’s beautiful verse from the second reading, “The foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” As Jesus drives out the vendors, He is using human strength and is actually acting like the powerful Messiah so many awaited, but His human power is useless to convince anyone that He is the Christ. This is true not only of the cleansing, but also of His miracles and even His transfiguration. People still asked for a sign, and they saw folly and instigation, or at best wonder-working, in His actions. However, Jesus points to His Passion and Resurrection as the sign which will be given. The Crucifixion, Death, and Resurrection are certainly foolish and weak by human measures! Yet through the ages, they have been stronger than all human strength and wiser than all human wisdom.

Anne and Sr. Mary Veronica expounded upon the poignant last paragraph of our Gospel. “Jesus would not trust Himself to them because He knew them all….” Alas for our fickle human nature, that renders the same souls who begin to believe in the Son of God to turn upon Him three years later and to condemn Him to death! Christ comes to me every day, every hour, and He longs to give Himself to me. Can He trust Himself to me? Am I open enough to receive Him? Do I welcome Him as King of my heart no matter what; do I cling to Him, no matter what that means and no matter where He leads me?

Let us each love Him to the end, that He may abide in us and us in Him forever!

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