Mar 18, 2015 |
By Josephine.
“Most women who leave the convent leave the Church.”
I was shocked to hear this statement when I told a young man whom I had just recently met that I had been in a convent for a bit. I couldn’t imagine losing Jesus on top of my perceived “loss” of the convent and all my Sisters.
The way he said it, so matter-of-factly, and the way he looked at me, like I might lose my faith in Jesus too, scared me and put me a bit on the defensive. I don’t like that statistic, whether it’s true or not. Just because someone finds out that a particular community wasn’t their “fit”, or religious life wasn’t their calling, does not mean they are going to lose God.
We must build our foundations strong on Christ so we can weather all storms; we must stand firm on Jesus, our Rock. All God’s people are called to be “like gold refined by fire”, and the fire that we withstand with Christ as our Strength makes our faith in Him stronger, if we allow it.
Let us use our hurts, struggles, and feelings of rejection to help us grow closer to God and His Church, and thereby “win” Jesus; do not “lose” and fall away from God, from Jesus, from the Church, from Love.
Jesus is our True Lover and Friend still. He stands by us through thick and thin, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. If we lose, it is because we rejected Him; if we win, it is because we accepted Him and His Will for us.
And Christ is present in all of us, so we must stick by each other, all other women who have had similar experiences. We need to hold on to one another and build each other up. Let’s turn that statistic into a lie! Not all women who leave the convent leave the Church. We must be living examples of that.
Leonie, St. Therese’s sister, left two convents before she entered the Visitandines where she ended up staying! We all have our own paths to follow to find God’s Will for our lives, remain faithful, and He will show us true love, joy and peace.
~Pax vobiscum~
Jan 22, 2015 |
By Misericordia.
Today, as we celebrate the gift of Life we pray in a special way for the unborn children who are vulnerable to the threat of abortion. We also lift up mothers who have suffered from abortion or who have been pressured to do so, and that the rights of women may be respected – including the right to give birth to their child and the right to raise their children in a safe environment. We also pray for those who are involved in abortion and any attacks on the dignity of life, that the Lord will open their eyes to the gift of their own lives and those around them.
In today’s world we see so many attacks on life. We have heard most recently about the attacks on Christians in the Middle East and other atrocities. And even in our own country there are victims of trafficking, all kinds of abuse, domestic violence, euthanasia, mistreatment of the poor, the sick, and the disabled.
What can we do? What can I do? Where do we start and how can I even make a difference?
A simple answer came to me when I was visiting my family for the birth of my nephew. As I watched my sister, her husband, and their new son I was struck by the simplicity and the overwhelming beauty of life and love. I saw in the love of my sister and her husband the pouring out of the love of our Heavenly Father and the love of the Son returning it all back without reservation. Out of that love was born a new person, who embodies that love between them, as the Holy Spirit is created out of the love of the Father and the Son.
And if there could be so much love on earth, in one small hospital room, between
three people… how much more does the love of God surround us? As my sister looked down at her son, just seconds old, the pain was now forgotten. Only he mattered. And she didn’t hold the pain against her precious little one. That pain only made her more in love with him, and the suffering only made him belong more intimately to her who had waited nine long months to hold him in her arms.
Isn’t this a reflection of the love of Jesus for all of us? After he
poured himself out upon the Cross for us, he didn’t look at us with annoyance, shame, or guilt because we had “caused” him such pain. Rather, it only brought us closer to His Most Sacred Heart, and it only strengthened His love for each of us.
How precious must we be to God! How precious must you be to Him! Experiencing His love gives us the context to celebrate the gift of life and to reverence each life no matter the circumstance.
Even the greatest sinner and those who commit acts of violence, even they are looked upon as precious, and they especially are deserving of our love and prayers. So must we dare to love! Without reservation and without counting the cost we love even those who have hurt us. We can love them because they too are children of God.
I realized the truth of each person’s preciousness in the Eyes of God and how close He keeps each of us to His Heart as I looked down upon my nephew, only a few minutes old. The Lord will never let go of us even when we feel abandoned and alone. For any of you who have left Religious Life and feel that you have failed God, remember the mother who does not cease loving her child when he cries as an infant, or when he screams and has temper tantrums as a toddler, or when he gets in trouble or struggles with addiction as a teenager, or when he loses his job as an adult, or even if he fails to be there when she is dying. Her love is always and forever.
How much more then is the love of God, who loved us into being?
Jan 13, 2015 |
During finals week at college last year, as I went through the familiar feelings of being overwhelmed and unmotivated at the same time, I couldn’t help but recall my final week at the convent. It is weird to think that in a little more than nine months I have had my first three real jobs, started going to college, become involved in teaching Catechism, and gained a lot of self-knowledge.
That week before I left the convent was the worst week of my life. I cried too much, my heart was breaking, and it didn’t feel like anything was real. In that last week of college, however, I discovered that I have learned numerous life lessons since leaving. I still miss the convent, and I’m still discerning religious life, but I’ve learned to accept the end.
The end of my first convent experience, which I wasn’t expecting; the end of my first semester of college, which I was expecting and was even looking forward to; the ends of some jobs that I had when I found something better. With all these endings, I have learned also to look at the beginnings. I’ve started my Total Consecration to Mary, which has been great as I’ve always felt closer to Jesus than Mary, but I’m beginning to grow in my love, appreciation and dependence on her. When I first came back to the world I also made a promise to myself that I would not initiate my discernment into the religious life for a while, but I believe God has begun to force a community into my path that I think He definitely wants me to take a look at.
I’m starting to see new beginnings springing forth from all the endings that I experienced last year. This is something I think we should all know and accept: that in the all the sadness of these endings, God will raise up new beginnings filled with light and joy. We just need to trust in Him through our darkness – and when we start seeing the light again!
Trust in the Lord with all your heart; on your own intelligence do not rely – Proverbs 3:5.
Josephine was a postulant for six months before discerning that God was calling her back to the world to attend college. She is still discerning religious life but is open to married life, too, if that is what God is calling her to. She loves to read, write poetry, sing, cook, go thrift store shopping, and she likes to laugh a lot! She is grateful for the opportunity to reach out to others who are going through the same situations as her.
Jan 6, 2015 |
By Misericordia.
“On the feast of the Epiphany, as we recall Jesus’ manifestation to humanity in the face of a Child, may we sense the Magi at our side, as wise companions on the way. Their example helps us to lift our gaze towards the star and to follow the great desires of our heart… They teach us not to be deceived by appearances, by what the world considers great, wise and powerful. We must not stop at that. It is necessary to guard the faith. Today this is of vital importance: to keep the faith. We must press on further, beyond the darkness, beyond the voices that raise alarm, beyond worldliness, beyond so many forms of modernity that exist today. We must press on towards Bethlehem, where, in the simplicity of a dwelling on the outskirts, beside a mother and father full of love and of faith, there shines forth the Sun from on high, the King of the universe. By the example of the Magi, with our little lights, may we seek the Light and keep the faith. May it be so.”
This passage is the closing paragraph from last year’s Epiphany homily by our Holy Father, Pope Francis. It highlights a couple of themes that help us in our journey as seekers of the light that is Christ.
As we have just recently celebrated the Solemnities of the Nativity and Mary, the Mother of God, which points out for us the humanity and the divinity of Christ, respectively. In this feast we see the humility of His humanity and the glory of His divinity collide. The Magi show us that as we journey towards the Light we will encounter uncertainty and darkness. But He does not leave us to ourselves to “figure out” how to find Him. He gives us certain lights and revelations to lead us closer to him.
When the Magi finally reached the Child Jesus, they believed His divinity in spite of His ordinariness. How often do we doubt that God can work in our lives, or that He is really present in our situation? Do prevent Him from shattering our worldly perceptions of “success,” “greatness,” and even “holiness?”
I’ve found myself put limitations on the love of God, and my thoughts are often something like this:
- Well, now that I’m not a sister anymore, He doesn’t love me the same or look at me the same…or…
- I can’t trust my discernment anymore…or…
- My life doesn’t really mean anything since I don’t have a mission or purpose…etc.
It’s easy to doubt that God can work in the ordinary brokenness of life… except this is EXACTLY where He desires to dwell. He loves us the same, whether we are a religious or a lay person. Although our relationship may feel different, we are still the same Beloved Daughter in His Eyes.
Let us be like the Magi on the Feast of the Epiphany. Let us follow Him into lands unknown to us, to places too seemingly ordinary for the Presence of God. Most importantly, let us realize the Presence of God in our own hearts that dwells in us during our earthly pilgrimage.
We also celebrate today the Feast of Saint Andre Bessette, 9 August 1845, 6 January 1937: a Canadian religious brother and one of our Leonie’s Longing patrons. Saint Andre, pray for us!
Jan 4, 2015 |
By Dee Bernhardt.
My beloved speaks and says to me: “Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away”…
Song of Songs 2:10
As a single lay woman working full-time in church ministry, I have often had my vocation questioned… “So, when are you going to commit?” or “You just haven’t found the right man to marry yet.” or “When are you going to get a real life?” Often, parish members assume that I have suffered some terrible trauma that caused me to remain single. Yet, I am single because my greatest joy is in serving many others, and I love best when I love broadly. And over the past thirty-plus years, I have experienced that my deep passion for loving and serving others meets a very deep need, especially in the young adults I encounter on college campuses through campus ministry and the ministry of spiritual direction.
In a sense, I belong to a sisterhood because I actually have seven sisters (and three brothers) in my family of origin. When thirteen of my friends all decided to join religious orders upon graduation from college, I wanted to fit in and do it too. I tried. I realized that I already had a community of sisters by birth, and that was enough sisterhood for me. By God’s grace, I became one of the first lay ministers in the United States as a campus minister, and I have been in that role ever since, growing in ministry over time.
John Cardinal Henry Newman once wrote a short poem encapsulating the call to holiness for the laity:
I sought to hear the voice of God;
I climbed the highest steeple;
But God declared: “Go down again.
I dwell among the people.”
In our lives, we all seek the high steeple at times. Sometimes, we even make life commitments which encompass that idea of a “higher calling.” But when we consider the incarnation of Christ and the reality of our world, we realize that there are different callings, none of which is higher than any other. In fact, if you’ve ever read “Hope for the Flowers,” you know that the top is often the most disappointing position of all!
In our church, vocations to religious life and priesthood are often seen as the top. Bearing in mind that the humble parentage and birth of our Lord clearly exemplify simplicity and humility, we come to recognize that our inner dispositions determine how we hear the voice of God, which then influences our attitudes toward external life choices. Every lifestyle and vocation requires sacrifice; every one inspires joy. Each lay person (single or married), religious woman/man and/or priest believes strongly and doubts often; lives deeply and survives shallowly; loves fully and fails miserably. This is our human condition – which binds us all in the mystical body of Christ.
Dee Bernhardt is the Assistant Director of Campus Ministry at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Center, West Lafayette, Indiana.
Dee holds a Master of Science in Religious Education degree from Marywood College and a Master of Arts in Christian Spirituality degree from Creighton University. She holds professional certifications in Campus Ministry from the USCCB/CCMA and in Spiritual Direction/Directed Retreats from Creighton University.
She has served as national and regional advisor for a total of over 18 years on NCSC leadership teams, and believes in the empowerment of communities to bring the Church to life in higher education.
Dec 9, 2014 |
By Pinkie.
It looked sad. Bare. Lonely. Exposed. Vulnerable. Near death. Like a phantom.
On my daily walk I noticed the neighbor’s bush had been seriously cut back. It was springtime and it had been pruned. It looked more like a collection of sticks than a living plant.
Would it survive after a hack job like that? It didn’t look like it to my untrained eye. Was the homeowner trying to kill his/her bush? Not intentionally.
Could he/she have made a mistake? Was it pruned too much? Possibly.
I know how I felt pruned too severely when I returned to the world from the convent. I could only moan, “Why Lord?”
I would meditate on John 15 (the vine and the branches) and wonder if I was the pruned vine or the rejected junk thrown into the fire. It felt as though I could be either and that was not comforting.
I continued to walk past this bush and I noticed its steady growth and recovery. Eventually it started sprouting buds so I took a picture. I wanted to be reminded of this rebirth, of this growth after looking utterly hopeless and forlorn.
By the end of the summer, the bush was massive and it was hard to believe it was chopped to nothing roughly six months ago. This change was gradual and happened over a long period of time. But it did occur, even though the changes day to day were imperceptible.
It is the same for me. I do not feel much different today compared to yesterday. Sometimes I even feel worse. Two steps forward, and one step back, etc. I am confident I do not look outwardly different today compared to yesterday, just like the bush. But that time period is too small.
God has given me glimpses of my growth and recovery from that extensive pruning when I look at larger chunks of time. Often I don’t recognize it but the reality is that I am trending upward. When I reach certain milestones they help me take a moment and do a direct comparison.
How about you? Do you try and stay focused on the bigger picture? How do you do that? How do you encourage yourself and others day to day?
By Misericordia.
A simple answer came to me when I was visiting my family for the birth of my nephew. As I watched my sister, her husband, and their new son I was struck by the simplicity and the overwhelming beauty of life and love. I saw in the love of my sister and her husband the pouring out of the love of our Heavenly Father and the love of the Son returning it all back without reservation. Out of that love was born a new person, who embodies that love between them, as the Holy Spirit is created out of the love of the Father and the Son.
three people… how much more does the love of God surround us? As my sister looked down at her son, just seconds old, the pain was now forgotten. Only he mattered. And she didn’t hold the pain against her precious little one. That pain only made her more in love with him, and the suffering only made him belong more intimately to her who had waited nine long months to hold him in her arms.
poured himself out upon the Cross for us, he didn’t look at us with annoyance, shame, or guilt because we had “caused” him such pain. Rather, it only brought us closer to His Most Sacred Heart, and it only strengthened His love for each of us.
Even the greatest sinner and those who commit acts of violence, even they are looked upon as precious, and they especially are deserving of our love and prayers. So must we dare to love! Without reservation and without counting the cost we love even those who have hurt us. We can love them because they too are children of God.
to His Heart as I looked down upon my nephew, only a few minutes old. The Lord will never let go of us even when we feel abandoned and alone. For any of you who have left Religious Life and feel that you have failed God, remember the mother who does not cease loving her child when he cries as an infant, or when he screams and has temper tantrums as a toddler, or when he gets in trouble or struggles with addiction as a teenager, or when he loses his job as an adult, or even if he fails to be there when she is dying. Her love is always and forever.
How much more then is the love of God, who loved us into being?
During finals week at college last year, as I went through the familiar feelings of being overwhelmed and unmotivated at the same time, I couldn’t help but recall my final week at the convent. It is weird to think that in a little more than nine months I have had my first three real jobs, started going to college, become involved in teaching Catechism, and gained a lot of self-knowledge.
The end of my first convent experience, which I wasn’t expecting; the end of my first semester of college, which I was expecting and was even looking forward to; the ends of some jobs that I had when I found something better. With all these endings, I have learned also to look at the beginnings. I’ve started my Total Consecration to Mary, which has been great as I’ve always felt closer to Jesus than Mary, but I’m beginning to grow in my love, appreciation and dependence on her. When I first came back to the world I also made a promise to myself that I would not initiate my discernment into the religious life for a while, but I believe God has begun to force a community into my path that I think He definitely wants me to take a look at.
I’m starting to see new beginnings springing forth from all the endings that I experienced last year. This is something I think we should all know and accept: that in the all the sadness of these endings, God will raise up new beginnings filled with light and joy. We just need to trust in Him through our darkness – and when we start seeing the light again!
By Misericordia.
By Pinkie.
I know how I felt pruned too severely when I returned to the world from the convent. I could only moan, “Why Lord?”
By the end of the summer, the bush was massive and it was hard to believe it was chopped to nothing roughly six months ago. This change was gradual and happened over a long period of time. But it did occur, even though the changes day to day were imperceptible.
God has given me glimpses of my growth and recovery from that extensive pruning when I look at larger chunks of time. Often I don’t recognize it but the reality is that I am trending upward. When I reach certain milestones they help me take a moment and do a direct comparison.
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