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~
Feb 2, 2015 |
By AfterEpiphany.
A short while ago the Leonie’s Longing blog featured an article called “A Year of Not Me” This article invited the reader to reflect upon his or her interior response to the commencement of the Year of Consecrated Life.
It is both easy and tempting to become immersed in questioning one’s own identity before God; our Plan A had involved living the consecrated life and now we’re all “stuck with” Plan B.
At the time I read the article my response was that “A Year of Not Me” was an invitation to go beyond myself, to put aside for a time whatever suffering had arisen upon returning to the world, and to focus on serving others.
The Feast of the Presentation (which has about to be finished for me in Australia, but which is still in progress for those of you on the other side of the International Date Line) is an obvious day of significance, perhaps THE day of significance, in this special year for those living the consecrated life.
Now we know that the feast is often also referred to as Candlemas, and there is a great deal of emphasis on light: Jesus Christ is proclaimed as that light to enlighten the Gentiles in the Nunc Dimittis prayer of Simeon. Well this is going to blow your mind.
Who are the Gentiles?
Well, in the LITERAL sense, they are those outside of the Jewish faith.
Who were the Jewish people?
The chosen people of God, those who had been set apart for Him.
What does it mean to be consecrated?
To be called by God, to be set apart for Him.
So perhaps it isn’t too big a jump to consider that one possible allegorical sense of Simeon’s prayer is that those of us who are not consecrated are the ones to be enlightened here.
This feast is for us, too!!!!
Where does that leave us? In this year of “Not Me” I’m sitting here asking Christ, our Light, to enlighten me, a Gentile, as I meditate upon this special event in His life. One thing that jumps out at me as I ask for light is this: I cannot avoid suffering. Even His much beloved and blessed Mother found her heart on the pointy edge of a sword, even after her “yes,” her obedience, her total life of service and undivided love for Him.
And so I return to where I began: the grief and loss of my former Community? My confusion over who I am before God now that He has called me back out to the world? Those occasional feelings of frustration at the mess of it all, the complication of figuring out what life in His service now means? He shines like a spotlight, focused on His Mother, showing me exactly what to do with that suffering. It is real. It can’t just be dismissed. But in this year of “Not Me” it just doesn’t have to be the focus. My life doesn’t have to be about that. My life is about Him. And He and His Mother are both models of obedience, humility, service and authentic love.
Lord, now you let your servant go in peace;
your word has been fulfilled:
my own eyes have seen the salvation
which you have prepared in the sight of every people:
a light to reveal you to the nations
and the glory of your people Israel. (Luke 2:29-32)
Dec 11, 2014 |
By Misericordia.
Last week one of my friends who is a religious brother told me his vocation story. He described the many graces and providential happenings that led him there and at one point said, “Our Lady was ‘mantling’ me.” I had never thought of there being a verb for Our Lady’s mantle but it stuck with me the rest of the week.
One of the most striking parts of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is her mantle. The whole image is filled with symbolism, and there are many books on the meaning of every square inch of the tilma, but what I think is most important is how she relates to us personally, how she loves us as our mother.
She also teaches us how to approach God in our humanity. Her peace and tranquility is the perfect balm to our anxious hearts, that often question whether we are “doing things right.” Sometimes it is hard to know if we are doing the will of God. We don’t have enough to offer yet, but maybe once we get figure things out, then we will be sure?
But then again, to whom did Our Lady appear? Did she appear to a Bishop? To a priest or religious? To a person of high nobility?
No, God ordained that she should come to a poor lay man, Juan Diego, to help her Catholicize all of Mexico. And so we see clearly:
Lie #1: I’m not good enough yet.
Truth #1: God doesn’t need us to be “good enough” in worldly standards to accomplish His Will. He accepts us as we are, so we should too!
Another temptation for many in the spiritual life, especially for those who have left the convent, is to think we have somehow failed the will of God, and therefore are unworthy of serving Him. But let’s look again to Juan Diego, who downright avoided Our Lady.
Did she (and the God who sent her) abandon Him and find someone else? No, she hunted him down! This brings us to:
Lie #2: I have failed God, His Will, my vocation, etc.
Truth #2 Part 1: God is bigger than all of those! He can work in and through our biggest mistakes and glorifies Himself most in our greatest weaknesses and failures.
Truth #2 Part 2: Our Lady reaches out to the poor and lonely, as Christ the Good Shepherd tended those who had fallen astray. Both are attracted to the outcast, and do not consider it a burden to rescue us and carry us back to the fold.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, by being one of us, being lowly and poor herself, encourages us to accept our own limitations, confident that God can work in and through them. Her apparitions prove to us that her love and protection, which come from God Himself, is extended regardless of where we are and what we have done. The first step is to accept that TLC from our Heavenly Mother unashamedly, as it has its origin in the Love of God, Our Heavenly Father.
All of life is a gift from God and we can never repay Him. One of his greatest gifts is His own Mother that he sends to guide and comfort us in our earthly pilgrimage so that we can persevere, unafraid of where His Will leads us. Today, on this beautiful Feast Day, let yourself be mantled! Recognize that your prayer, your daily work, everything that you do is protected in the shelter of her mantle, close to her Immaculate Heart, which beats- in unison with the Sacred Heart of Jesus- with love for each of you.
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?
Dec 3, 2014 |
It’s easy to become sentimental about the beauty of the holy habit, so here instead is a little tribute to the ones that are… kind of oddball. I’m not talking about things that are unusual-but-cool, like
or
but more like
(Congregation of Notre Dame de Montreal)
(School Sisters of Notre Dame)
(Unknown)
(Unknown)
(Sisters of Misericorde)
(Holy Cross Sisters – well, they had to be in here somewhere!)
and my personal favourite…
(Sisters of Providence of St Vincent de Paul. They were still wearing this habit in 1954.)
Have a good day, Leonie’s Ladies!
Image credits:
Most of these images were found on Pinterest, pinned by Dawn Southall and zakony-na-swiecie.blogspot.com.
Nov 29, 2014 |
By Mater Dolorosa
Hearing the announcement from Pope Francis that 2015 will be a year dedicated to consecrated life initially left me with mixed emotions. Obviously, this will be a great grace for the Church. It will be beautiful to pray for those in the consecrated life and it will create more awareness about consecrated life. And I am confident that my former sisters are very excited!
However, I can’t help but feel a little left out. You see, a few years ago I was in the convent going about my normal Monday when I was called into my superior’s office. To my great surprise I was asked to leave the community. And even though it’s been a few years, my heart is still confused by this. Initially, it seemed that hearing about this
special year reopened those wounds.
And yet, I don’t believe that is the entirety of what is going on in my heart…
Jesus always calls us to greater healing and wholeness. Yes, hearing this announcement did stir up feelings and emotions. But this “stirring” in my heart is also a beautiful opportunity to let God into those hurts and receive more healing. In these moments, when I feel left out and when my life feels meaningless, I have to reach out in faith. When I have the courage to let God be the only thing that I possess He fills my heart with the knowledge that I belong to Him.
He is enough for me.
Now I look back and see how much I have grown and healed. This announcement is not so much salt in a wound but rather a reminder of the healing balm the Lord has placed in those wounds.
How about you? How does this announcement make you feel? God bless!
Our Lady of Guadalupe, by being one of us, being lowly and poor herself, encourages us to accept our own limitations, confident that God can work in and through them. Her apparitions prove to us that her love and protection, which come from God Himself, is extended regardless of where we are and what we have done. The first step is to accept that TLC from our Heavenly Mother unashamedly, as it has its origin in the Love of God, Our Heavenly Father.
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.
By Mater Dolorosa
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