God's Gift of Freedom and Protection

Today's Entrance Antiphon reminds each one of us that  "the Lord became [our] protector. He brought [us] out to a place of freedom; he saved [us] because he delighted in us."   We could rewrite that as a personal message, the Lord saying to each one of us:  "I  am YOUR protector. I bring YOU out to a place of freedom; I save YOU because I delight in YOU." We might recall the many times that the Lord has protected us from disasters on the highway, from serious illnesses that attacked others and took their lives, from job losses suffered by co-workers, from abusive marriages, from mental illnesses, from suicidal thoughts or actions, from making disastrous mistakes in choosing a partner in life. Or, we may think of the times that God brought us out to places "of freedom": out of serious depressions, out of thoughts of suicide or debilitating anxiety, out of disasters from which we thought we'd never recover.

On the other hand, we might simply ponder deeply the phrase "I delight in YOU." The God of the Universe delights in us.  The Creator of all humankind delights in you and me personally. The God who created the galaxies, the sun and the moon, the stars, the earth with its oceans and landscapes, its trees and wildlife, its seasons, night and day delights in you and me personally! God so delights in you and me that the Almighty, the Holy One, has taken up residence in each one of us! With His Presence, God anoints us as His Beloved. With His Presence God strengthens us, purifies us, makes us holy, sustains us and reconciles us to Himself when we fall into Satan's trap, as did Adam and Eve before us.  Our God is a God of relationships, drawing us into an intimate relationship with Himself and with one another, showing us the way of Love!

God be praised and glorified by our lives of love and unity!

VITA CONSECRATA: CONSECRATED LIFE

VITA CONSECRATA: CONSECRATED LIFE

In a few weeks we, the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother, will be celebrating many of our Sisters'  jubilees, similar to anniversaries when we speak of married men and women. In religious life, we call “anniversaries” “jubilees.”  This year the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother will be celebrating the jubilees of 20 Sisters, one of whom is celebrating 75 years of religious life, ten 60 years, eight 50 years and one 25 years.  What, you may ask, is it like to have given one’s life to the Lord for 75, 60, 50, and 25 years and having no children, no grandchildren  and having given up the joys of being a devoted wife, experiencing the gift of having a devoted husband and adoring children and grandchildren?  This is a woman religious speaking, of course.  Some husbands, children and grandchildren are not adoring or devoted while others are. Married life is not a bed of roses; it too comes with thorns!

So what are we celebrating? God’s faithfulness. The many times we have come through the turbulence of life and experienced Jesus sleeping in our boats and, at our invitation, calmed the churning waters. We are celebrating the times that Jesus walked through the “wheat fields” of our lives and quenched our hunger with “grains of wheat,” that others felt we had no right to glean.  We are celebrating the many times we sat at Jesus’ feet, as did Mary Magdala, listening to His every word, enjoying an intimacy that no one can take from us, and, “yes” being at the foot of the cross of other’s people’s lives, as Mary stood beneath the cross of Jesus. We have done so when we sat at the bedside of the sick and dying, caressed the handicapped, mentally or physically challenged, or bullied child in our schools; welcomed the drug or alcohol-addicted individual in our treatment centers.  We are celebrating the times we went to "empty tombs," looking for Jesus and when "the gardeners" of life whispered our names and we recognized Jesus and "yes," were sent out by Him to proclaim the resurrection.   We are celebrating the many children God sent us as gifts of His love, examples of courage, pillars of hope. The 75, 60, 50, and 25 years of consecrated life have been an awesome experience of a faithful, loving, caring, forgiving God, to whom we have given everything of ourselves and our lives. The joy of that giving has no bounds here or in eternity. That is why "jubilee" celebrations are so, so special.

Discernment: How God Directed the Israelites

In Exodus 40: 16-21, 34-38, we are given information of how the Israelites knew God’s will for them. A “cloud covered the meeting tent and the glory of the Lord filled the Dwelling….Whenever the cloud rose from the Dwelling, the children of Israel would set out on their journey. But if the cloud did not lift, they would not go forward; only when it lifted did they go forward.” A cloud was seen during the day and “fire was seen in the cloud at night…by the whole house of Israel in all stages of their journey.” This was the presence of God in their midst. God also gave them the Ten Commandments and wrote the Law in their memories: “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts” (Jer. 31:33).

The Israelites did not go forward unless the cloud lifted. Imagine you and I heeding the clouds in our lives as a message from God not to make major decisions at that time, not to go forward when our minds are foggy, when we feel confused, when we really don’t know what to do or what to think. That is the time to recall Isaiah’s advice: “By waiting and by calm, you shall be saved; in quiet and in trust your strength lies” (Is. 30: 15). Also, then, imagine us following the directives of the Lord when “the cloud is lifted,” knowing that it is time to move forward , to implement a decision about which we are clear.

Like the Israelites, God dwells in our midst, in fact, God dwells in the very core of our beings. We are Temples of the Holy Spirit. God’s law is also written on our hearts and inscribed in our minds. The Holy Spirit lives within us “to infuse our knowledge with divine grace and guide us with divine creativity and wisdom” so that we, too, are able to stay on the right track on our journey to the Promised Land of Eternal Life with God (See The Word Among Us, July/August 2013, p. 51).