Devotional Knowledge and the Incarnation

 This past Thursday was the Feast of the Annunciation. It’s always a big day for us as our founder Fr. Thomas A. Judge, CM  cherished the  day in which the  “Word was made flesh and dwelt among us”.
This is the big salvation event when God gives the gift and grace of himself to Mary and to us. Knowledge of the mystery of the Incarnation; to know that God is with us and loves us so much that He became a part of us in the Lord Jesus was central to Fr. Judge. He urged that our knowledge of that mystery be a devotional knowledge. Devotional knowledge of the Incarnation means you know and understand the Incarnation (as much is as humanly possible). But it doesn't end there; that knowledge animates, inspires and bears fruit. You try to regularly pray about the Incarnation and put its meaning into practice. There is an end product that shows up in your behavior and actions.

Fr. Judge said, “The answer must be individual and personal. It may work around our
practice, it may bring us out of bed more promptly in the morning. It may make us more zealous in our morning  prayer and meditation, it may make us more alert and Eucharistic in the chapel and at the altar... It may increase fraternal charity in our relations with one another. It may show us more zealous and urge us to strive for a better knowledge of the value of the human soul and make us
forget ourselves that we may think more of God and do more for His honor and glory. In other words, its expression may be a greater piety and zeal or fraternal charity or self-sacrifice.”

Our Blessed Mother Mary, as a young, poor but faithful woman was able to place her trust in God’s gracious gift of love and accept this amazing gift of being the mother of the son of the Most High. She is certainly our model in how to respond wholeheartedly to our Lord.

For the Missionary Servants of the Most Blessed Trinity, the Annunciation is the day we make perpetual profession of vows or final vows. We also renew our vows every year on March 25th. This year the Feast was particularly joyful as our Sr. Christine Ma made Perpetual Profession of Vows and Sr. Janet Santibanez renewed her vows for one year.

Such a day reminds me of the “inexhaustible reservoir of God’s love for us”. It underscores the great graces God showers upon us.

For more on the Annunciation try Creighton University's Catholic Comments podcast at: http://cct.creighton.edu/?cat=16

Open to Transcendance

A few weeks ago I read the article "Open to Transcendance" on the St. Louis University Liturgy site:  http: //liturgy.slu.edu/5OrdC020710/theword_engaged.html   It's been on my mind ever since.

 The other day while flying I sat next to a woman who had lost all her material possessions in Katrina. Her home and her business were destroyed. I had the great grace to hear her journey from  anger and sadness  in the wake of her loss to joy and trust in God. She credits her change to the time she spent in front of the Blessed Sacrament. Over a few weeks the presence of the Lord gave her peace.

Her then temporary home in the city where she moved for refuge after Katrina happened to be very near a Church with 24 hour adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. She knows this to have been no accident. She recognizes that she is not the one in control and that she is powerless. And that is okay with her as she knows that she can trust in God to lead her everyday.

I hope to continue to keep both the article and "the lady on the plane" in mind during Lent and beyond.  I hope to keep their knowledge that it is only by God's great love and grace that I have life.
As Paul said: "But by the grace of God I am what I am.." 1 Corinthians 15:10.

...every economic decision has a moral consequence.

We had an electrical problem Sunday morning which caused two of our three buildings on Solly Ave. Philadelphia to be closed. So those of us who live in the two closed buildings moved to the spare rooms at our Motherhouse building. This is where our retired sisters live and where the main chapel and dining room are. We had  all we needed and more.

It was inconvenient, but how fortunate we are to have a place to go. In light of the situation in Haiti the inconvenience becomes a mere trifle.

I know life is unfair but it seems to me that we need to do much better at making our earthly existence more equitable. The plight of the Haitian people, who had bare subsistence before the earthquake and have had that destroyed, cries out to us.

I've been gradually reading Caritas In Veritate, the most recent encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI. It's not exactly an 'easy read' but well worth the effort. I am reading it a section at a time as its’ density takes some time to digest.

In Chapter 3  Fraternity,  Economic and Civil Society, Pope Benedict reminds us that God is our source, our creator, the reason we exist. We cannot divorce any human activity from that basic truth. Everything we do needs to connect to that truth. He says "every economic decision has a moral consequence."

 Economic activity seems to be carried out by many without that connection. Applying this connection to our own lives means we must be much more conscious about so many of the seemingly small economic choices we make every day.  It means being generous with our wealth, attending to the source of the goods we buy and being mindful of the impact of our economic choices.

Does the soft cotton shirt I have come from child labor in India?  What’s it mean to that child if I don’t buy it? Finding out the answer to that question means some research and I want to just ignore it as I’m busy. But now I think I can’t ignore it.

The inequalities of this world which we see so evident in the earthquake in Haiti surely cry out to heaven of our self-centered greed and selfishness. Haiti's people and land have been raped over the centuries leaving the country with little to withstand natural disasters.

All those little decisions made by many people over the centuries have so negatively impacted the people of Haiti.

With this awareness that every economic decision has a moral consequence I know I don’t want my little choices to be part of anything of that nature.This is going to mean some changes.

Thanksgiving

Okay I started this at the time of Thanksgivining week and never did post it. It's never too late to say thanks.


Thanks be to Thee, O God, that I have risen today,To the rising of this life itself;May it be to Thine own glory, O God of every gift and to the glory of my soul likewise.

Celtic prayer 

When I give thanks to God it's usually for the good people, events and things of my life. I know I have a superabundance in my life. My list for thanksgiving is a mile long.

The truth is that I have likely profited as much or more from the events and things in my life that I may have viewed as negative or at least not what I would have chosen. 

The tough things; times of grief, loneliness, pain and ill health have opened me up to God's love and helped me to be more compassionate towards others.

I don't know that I can greet every circumstance with faith, trust and acceptance like Job.

         "The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away.
         Blessed be the name of the LORD." 
But I do know my life is not mine but a gift from God. I hope for the grace to always know this.

 

Missionary Zeal

I'm really happy at the news of Fr. Damien now St. Damien. As a little girl I read biographies about anyone and everyone and I remember being so impressed by the life of sacrifice and zeal led by Fr. Damien. I had little knowledge of what leprosy or Hansen's disease was about but it was not something I would want to mess with and I thought he was a true follower of Jesus.

In preparing prayers for some meetings later this month I've came across this writing of Fr. Judge,

What are we going to do this coming year... to show a good and thankful heart to Him whence every good gift comes? The answer must be individual and personal. It may work around our practice, it may bring us out of bed more promptly in the morning. It may make us more zealous in our morning prayer and meditation, it may make us more alert and Eucharistic in the chapel and at the altar... It may increase fraternal charity in our relations with one another. It may show us more zealous and urge us to strive for a better knowledge of the value of the human soul and make us forget ourselves that we may think more of God and do more for His honor and glory.

I was thinking about St. Damien and the North American martyrs, Jesuits who flung their lives into the mission to the Native Americans & Canadians. Their lives were full of missionary zeal and it it makes me wonder about following Christ as a missionary today, am I flinging my life gladly into the service of God and the Church?

In visiting our Sisters I see ample evidence of the virtue of missionary zeal. I'm visiting one of our Cenacles now where four sisters live a life which may not seem as romantic and cool as going off to wild, dangerous place but in fact they steadily follow a pattern of daily service and prayer in order to build up the faith of the people they serve. Each one serves in a different ministry from adult faith formation to social service ministry to the Latino population but in each I see a spending of self in the service of God.

Their generous service and joyful attitude gives glory to the Triune God and surely is a spur to my living of our life as a Missionary Servant of the Most Blessed Trinity.

A good missionary = a good listener.

“The Missionary is one who goes out-“Go into the whole world “ That going out, that gathering, is the work of the missionary and that is the difficult part. It is not difficult to get teachers, but it is difficult to get missionaries. Why? Because there is the exhaust of self, because there must be more sacrifice of self. Our spirit demands a spirit of charity, and you understand what charity is-love of God and your neighbor.” Thomas A. Judge, CM

A missionary died this past week. Sr. Andrea Marie Stim of the Incarnation went home to God after a life spent for others.

I love our MSBT wakes as one hears a much fuller story of the person's life. At her wake I heard some of the following about Andrea:
Her father was a Byzantine priest
She met our Community when she, a Marywood college student, volunteered on the MSBT North Alabama missions during the summers.
She felt so called to become a missionary sister that she went through the rough process of transfering from the Byzantine Catholic rite to the Latin rite.
She was a good listener.
She loved her family and they loved her.
She was a social worker that through most of her life taught religion and did home visiting after hours.
She was a generous listener.
She had several bouts with serious illness and a near terminal accident in which she had her legs crushed between two trucks in NYC. She recovered from them all until the last bout with cancer.
She studied Spanish while at Catholic Charities in NYC and had a special love for the mostly Puerto Rican families she served.
She was a good listener who would not so much give you advice as to affirm your better thoughts and ideas, thus gently leading you in the better direction.
She always missed the ritual of the Byzantine rite and when she could often attended Mass in Byzantine Catholic Churches like St. Mary Catholic Church of the Byzantine Rite in NYC.

Hers was a life of going out for God to others. At one point someone made the comment "she was a good missionary but she was also a good listener too."
I wanted to get up and say, Hey! a good missionary = a good listener. Being able to be present to people and really, really listen to them in a way that lets them know they count, that they are children of God to whom its a privilege to listen, that is the key ingredient. In my humble opinion.
So Andrea, thanks for your patient, gentle listening and keep praying for us now that you're with the One who made you and loved you into being.

A wise Latina

I'm really glad that the Senate has confirmed Sonia Sotomayor as a Supreme Court Justice. God bless her and may she be guided by the Holy Spirit as she uses her knowledge, education and experience to make decisions, write opinions and carry out all the other tasks of a Supreme Court Justice.

I don't know the new Justice Sotomayor except through the media, so I can't say if she is wise or not, but I have known quite a few "wise" Latinas. The phrase brings to mind my old friend Doña Juana. This wise woman lived in lower east side Manhattan. She survived on under $450.00 a month of Social Security. After years of poor factory pay this was her retirement fund. She considered herself blessed to have faith in God, family and friends and a project apartment.

She was a client of Catholic Charities mainly because she could not read or write much and needed a little help with forms from time to time. Compassionate and caring, She sent many people to Catholic Charities who needed our services. But for lack of education, Doña Juana would have made a fine Supreme Court Justice.
A few times I had the pleasure of accompanying her to appointments. As we walked through the streets Doña Juana would stop to greet many along the way. She seemed to be friends with people of a variety of backgrounds, colors and languages. At the same time she knew the parts of the neighborhood where one did not linger and knew the individuals who were violent of into dealing drugs. She was pretty shrewd.

Doña Juana is in heaven now. I'm sure she is proud that a Latina from NYC is a Supreme Court Justice. I'm just as proud of Doña Juana who despite her lack of advantage was a wise, caring
woman, rooted in her faith in God and love for her neighbor. Perhaps you can keep Justice Sotomayor in your prayers Doña Juana.