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Advent: Seeking the Lord

In this beautiful season of Advent, the Church encourages us to watch and wait eagerly for the coming of Christ.  Not only do we prepare for the commemoration of His birth at Christmas, but we are also called to seek His presence here and now.  With the eyes of faith we are able to see the stunning reality of His constant presence, and we begin to realize it is God who is always waiting for us – waiting for us to turn to Him.

What better time to ask ourselves how to seek God, to ask what our vocation might be?  Fr. Stefano Manelli, FI, helps us to keep the eternal realities before our eyes in the midst of a season with many distractions:

“Young people who read this, consider yourselves.  Do not be dazzled by the lure of creatures of by thoughtless impulses and feelings.  Look ahead, look to the far future, think of eternity.  ‘What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and then suffer the loss of his own soul?’ (Mt. 16:26)  One indication you have of a calling is to appreciate the value of the soul you must save and sanctify, by going wherever you could best be assured your spiritual life would grow and mature to the full stature of Christ (cf. Eph. 4:13).”

Welcome

Welcome to our new Vocations Blog! It seems fitting to us that our first post is on the Feast of St. Andrew, the “Protoclete,” Greek for “the first called.” The Gospel tell us that Our Lord saw Andrew and his brother Peter casting a net into the sea, and he said to them, “Come and follow me; I will make you into fishers of men. And they dropped their nets immediately, and followed him” (Matthew 4:19-20). How perfect for our first post!

The idea for this blog came from the young women who have attended our Monastic Experience Weekend, who suggested that we have something specifically addressed to young men and women our age. (The seniors in the community are turning this project over to the younger generation!) We hope to post quotations and insights on vocations, as well as community news from our perch. But we also hope that this blog will be a help to anyone who reads it, because all of us – single, married, religious – are called to follow Jesus.

The older members of the community talk about a day in 1979, back when they were our age. October 1, 1979, to be exact. They all piled into a bus and drove into Boston. It was pouring rain, but nobody minded. Pope (now Saint!) John Paul II was in the USA, and he was celebrating Mass on Boston Common. His homily made a deep impression on them, and we’d like to end with some of his words:

And, as a last word to all of you who listen to me tonight, I would say this : the reason for my mission, for my journey, through the United States is to tell you, to tell everyone—young and old alike—to say to everyone in the name of Christ: “Come and follow me !”

Follow Christ! You who are married: share your love and your burdens with each other; respect the human dignity of your spouse; accept joyfully the life that God gives through you; make your marriage stable and secure for your children’s sake.

Follow Christ! You who are single or who are preparing for marriage. Follow Christ! You who are young or old. Follow Christ! You who are sick or aging; who are suffering or in pain. You who feel the need for healing, the need for love, the need for a friend—follow Christ!

If you’d like to read the full homily, here’s the link.  And, even better, if you’d like to actually hear St. John Paul giving the homily in his powerful voice all those years ago, you can watch it here. The part of the speech we included here is at the beginning of the clip. And don’t miss the umbrellas!

Sr. María Isabel Gómez’s Simple Profession

Sr. María Isabel Gómez professed her simple vows on April 29, 2016.  Here she reflects on monastic profession.

I PROMISE BEFORE GOD FOR THREE YEARS

A day of joy! The joy of the Gospel, that is the giving one’s self over to God. I can hardly find words to express the day and the depth of meaning in the actions I took that day. The following is my feeble attempt to describe what the Holy Spirit has unfolded for me. This is not where I am, but rather what I discover is the hope and aim of monastic life.

The rite of profession first began as it always does, with a question, a question that not only recalled the name given to me on the day I became a novice, but also gave a glimpse into the future: “Sr. Maria Isabel you have responded to God’s call, what do you ask of him?” Isabel means House of God. I recalled Abraham, Peter, even Jesus himself, who received names “pronounced by the mouth of the Lord” (Isa 62:2). Names given by God in Scripture reveal God’s mission for the person. And I am called House of God, a daunting mission that only God’s mercy can fulfill in me. My first profession felt like a great step toward God’s mission. For what is a house? According to the Oxford English Dictionary it is “A building for human habitation, especially one that is lived in by a family or small group of people.” If it is God’s house, then it is his human habitation, where he lives with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. His house means his rules, his way, his manner, his design; it is owned by him! This is what Christian life is: letting God be God.

I was next shown the Rule of St. Benedict and asked: “Are you resolved to commit to its demands?” What are those demands for me? St. Paul says it in one sentence: “To walk in a manner worthy of the calling you have received” (Eph 4:1). To me this has meant, and will continue to mean, that I allow transformation to occur continually in me without hindering it. That is, to go from a city girl who would walk around exploring the streets of the Bronx and Manhattan to a cloistered nun walking up and down our driveway, keeping within the enclosure. From being spinned and twirled by my cousins on the dance floor to a life of silence and chanting God’s praises. From being present and active to my family at every birthday, baptism, wedding, gatherings of cousins to being fully present to them through prayer. From being a teacher in charge of a classroom of twenty-five or more little ones to giving up control and turning everything over to God. As I responded “I am” to the question, I was keenly aware that there is a long journey ahead.

The momentous point of the ceremony then arrived. I uttered the words, “I, Sr. Maria Isabel, promise for three years before God and his saints stability, conversion of life, and obedience.” I turned everything over to God, in the presence of witnesses, entering “the mystery of transformation, the mystery which is at the heart of all the vows”(Path of Life by Br. Cyprian Smith). Stability: the transformation from my rootedness in other things or people to a rootedness in God alone. Conversion of life: the transformation of my old life to monastic life. Obedience: the transformation of my mind and will to God’s mind and will. Overall, it is a promise to work towards “a transformation of the will from the pursuit of self to the love of God”(Smith, 55). This is the task of every Christian. If we remain stable, not running from the transformation this life in Christ is offering us, but instead remaining faithful to the life, then conversion can occur. And in so doing, we enable our souls to be in constant openness to the transforming power of the Trinity. It is quite a journey I embarked upon that day!

Love of God, that is what everything always boils down to. This life, the Christian life, is all about a journey, a struggle to learn to love, love like Christ. That is the transformation that must take place in each of us. I ask that you continue to pray for me that I may live all this this life offers, that I may persevere in this journey of love. I pray for all of you, all of the world, that you too may remain in this journey and that we together may come to the perfect love of God.

Sr. Emmanuel Wade’s Solemn Profession

Sr. Emmanuel Wade received her monastic consecration and professed her solemn vows on January 30, 2016.  Here she reflects on monastic profession.

  Solemn profession is quite a paradox: it is both a funeral and a wedding, a finish line and a starting line, a death and a birth. To follow Christ in monastic life is to embrace both elements as two sides of the same coin.

In the weeks before and after my profession, I witnessed the death of two people who were close to me—the foundress of my religious community and a parent—and this experience was a source of much-needed grace. The passing of these loved ones was a response to the prayer: “Lord, make me know the shortness of my life, that I may gain wisdom of heart” (Ps 89 [90]:12). Simply observing the brevity of life on earth and the fleeting nature of things gave me renewed vigor to commit myself to God in a more radical way. It also led to the realization of our connectedness in Christ; in a sense, the suffering and death of one imparts life to another. As one body of Christ, we are the repercussions of his dying and rising to a new and blessed existence.