Special people, blessings

We just celebrated several birthdays of sisters with whom I minister here in NJ. There are several of
SSMs celebrating birthday this month. This led me to thank God for His creation of us and of
 of people who cross our lives. One such person in my life is Amalia Frances Rose Streitel, aka Mother Frances, the Foundress of my religious community. Amalia was born on November 24, 1844. It was a dreary, gray day.  As was the custom, she was baptized that same day. In spite of no sun, the room lit up like a Christmas tree and the priest quoted Scripture, asking: “What will this child turn out to be?”   As mind-bottling as her baptism is her life with God. The same is true of each of us, even if the room in which we were baptized did not burst into unexplainable light! More tomorrow!

Happy Birthday, Mary--a woman who cooperated with God's plan of salvation

Today we celebrate the birthday of our Blessed  Mother. No ordinary birthday, to say the least.

Here is a woman who always said “yes” to God’s plan of salvation. Her “yes” was not an easy yes.  She risked her life when she said “yes” to the incarnation, to allowing God to use her womb to give human form to His Son, whom He was sending into the world to carry out His plan of redemption. He was not going to lose any part of His creation. His love for us was too great to let that happen. Yet, God has given each one of us a free will. We can say “yes” or “no” to our salvation and to what it takes to choose that which leads to eternal life with God, to eternal happiness, to eternal peace and, in the meantime, to peace with ourselves, with others and with God.

 Mary believed in God. She accepted His plan and did not ever thwart it. She sums it up at Cana when she said to the servants: “Do whatever He tells you.”  Do I do whatever God tells me? Do I even take time to inquire of God what His will is for me or do I just plow ahead each day doing my own thing? And when obstacles come—I don’t get my way—do I simply rant and rave, become quarrelsome instead of stepping back, taking time to reflect and pray about the situation that I am ranting about?

A mini-retreat opportunity

I just completed a mini-retreat on Mother Frances, the Foundress of the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother. I am very excited about it. I will be offering this retreat (two hours in length) here at Our Lady of Sorrows Convent, 9 Pocono Road, Denville, NJ, on Sept. 17th from 10:00 to noon.  I will be using the Mother Frances DVD, section I, "Her Childhood."  We will view this section of the DVD three times, listening to what happens within our deepest self as we view the scenes and listen to the narration.  It is awesome, let me tell you.  We will then reflect on how our childhood compares to Amalia's (similarities/differences), imagine ourselves being a member of Amalia's family and what that might be like for us. We will then imagine that someone creates a DVD of our childhood: what would be the environmental, the family, and the religious/spiritual highlights.Finally, we will imagine what  the author would say about us as children. The retreat experience will end with us writing a thank-you letter to God, expressing our gratitude for our childhood, its memories and highlights. If interested, call me at 973-627-0424 or email me at ssmvoc@gmail.com.

God's compassion and blessing

September 7—Today’s responsorial psalm reminded us that God is compassionate toward all of His works. That means that God is compassionate toward you and me. God understands the challenges we face as human beings to live as Jesus lived: being nonjudgmental; caring toward the oppressed, those who are crippled emotionally and/or physically, the hearing impaired, the mentally challenged, the needy, ourselves, children and adolescents when they test our patience.  Jesus says to us in today’s Gospel: “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” We might translate that into “Blessed are you when you know how dependent you are on me.” To be compassionate as Jesus was we need His intervention; we need grace.  Neither do we develop a sense of compassion without being in relationship with others. Therefore, to put on Christ, we need one another as much as we need God. We do not grow spiritually in a vacuum or by isolating from others and from the challenges of life.  Being poor in spirit and therefore blessed means that we depend upon the Lord and one another, that we believe in the goodness of God, in our own goodness and the goodness of others.  For me, this brings me to the foot of the cross, begging for God’s mercy and His help and thanking Him for the grace of redemption .

Meditation: a gift of incredible value

The Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother, according to their Rule or Constitution, set aside a minimum of 30 minutes each day for meditation upon the Scriptures or another source of spiritual nourishment. This morning I meditated on the first reading of today’s liturgy (Col.2:6-15). What an awesome reading in which we are reminded that we share in the fullness of the diety in human form in Christ Jesus.  We share in the fullness; we do not, obviously, possess the fullness. But even to share in the fullness of the diety is awesome.  How is it that we are given this gift? St. Paul  tells us that, on the cross, Jesus took our transgressions upon Himself, obliterated them,  removed them, nailed them to the cross.  All that causes death was nailed to the Cross with Christ and all that causes new life in God was raised to life with Jesus. In baptism, we, too, die and rise with Christ. The self that was alienated from God and the things of God by sin and selfishness, greed and lust for power, prestige and worldly pleasures—the allurements of the world, worldly philosophies and ideologies—was buried with Christ at our baptisms.  We rose with Christ through the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. The self that rose with Christ is a new self. We put on Jesus Christ in baptism.  We are now rooted in Christ Jesus.  Our hearts have been circumcised , that is, we underwent a spiritual circumcision, not a physical one.  Our hearts, not a physical part of our bodies, were changed by baptism into Christ.  By dying and rising with Christ in our baptisms and through the faith that was given to us in baptism,  we are now spiritually dead to sin, selfishness, worldly philosophies and ideologies, jealousies, lusts for power, prestige and popularity, fear of death (saving the self, not losing it in love, in truth, in purity). We rose with Christ transformed into new persons, reconciled to God and to one another. What a grace!

Vocation: a precious gift from God

I am preparing for our monthly renewal day--every month Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother set aside a day for prayer, spiritual reading, reflection and discussion. This coming year, my local house community has chosen the first Sunday of each month for this experience.  As I prepare to lead this Sunday's day of reflection, I am reading an article in the HORIZON magazine, a resource for Vocation Directors.  I am at awe as I read about one religious community that numbered 10 sisters, the youngest being in her late sixties,  had made a decision to no longer accept candidates, who sent an 80-year-old sister to the Orientation Program for New Vocation Directors sponsored by the National Religious Vocation Conference (NRVC). Puzzled that she would be attending this orientation program since her community had made the decision to cease accepting new candidates, the Director of NRVC asked her the obvious question: why are you here, then?  Her response was:  "Because we have chosen not to accept, does not exempt us from the responsibility of promoting what is most precious to us, which is the gift of our vocation. Even though my community will some day no longer be here, my community will live on in other communities through the men and women I hope to send to them. This isn't about my congregation. It's about the church. It's about religious life."  What a privilege as Vocation Director for the U.S./Caribbean Province of the Sisters of the Sorrowful to promote what I so strongly believe in: that all vocations are a call from God, a gift from the Almighty, and, above all, a gift that uniquely fits the person to whom God gives it!  I want young men and women to find that treasure. I did!

Believing in the face of tragedy

September 1, 2011: The sad news about Hurricane Irene abounds here in the Eastern States. The good news is that the flood waters are receding.  Thousands of businesses have sustained considerable losses and are wondering how they will survive. Just as God witnessed the dire straits of the Israelites in Egypt and called upon someone to take up the task of leading them out of a destitute situation, so, too, God is sending persons to help. God cares as much today for persons devastated by nature’s fury as He cared for the Israelites oppressed by Pharaoh’s cruelty. God weeps, I believe, with those who weep and is stirring up the hearts of neighbors across the country to reach out in compassion to provide in whatever ways possible.

As we deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, today’s Scriptures are consoling. They tell the story of Peter being asked to cast his net into the deep. He objects, saying “Lord, we worked hard all night long and caught nothing,”  but if you say so, we will try again. People’s nets are not only empty, they are ripped apart by Hurricane Irene--that for which families worked hard all their life has been snatched from them .  What they “caught” over time is gone, swept away in the flood waters. “Try again! Start over, find another way”—“cast into the deep” are probably not happy thoughts right now! 

 In times of disasters like this one, the only thing most people have to cling to is their faith in a caring, merciful  God.  That was true of my parents, who, as farmers, often struggled to make ends meet. That was certainly true when bills piled up as cancer ravaged my mother’s life and stole it from her a month after she turned 50, leaving four elementary-grade-school children without a mom.  Hours before she died, my mother writes to me: “When I get out of here (Sacred Heart Hospital in Tomahawk, WI), I am going to get a job so we can make ends meet.” In the face of death itself, she did not give up hope. Many people whose livelihood has been destroyed by Hurricane Irene are saying:  “We will survive. We will find a way. It may be tough for a while but we will come out of this.”  What strength rises within the depth of one’s being, where the human spirit meets the Spirit and the power of God.  What inspiration people with faith and trust are to a world marred by tragedies.