7.08.2008

everyday awareness

My daily life these days is governed by a gigantic to do list. It's filled with many things I need to do or want to do before I leave the Novitiate House at the end of the summer. Books to read, craft projects to finish, filing, packing, etc...

Perhaps that's why I so struck by this quote that one of our Sisters shared this morning at our common prayer. It's from an Interview with Sr. Marcia Allen, CSJ from the Summer 2008 edition of the Occasional Papers of the Leadership Council of Women Religious (LCWR):
A mystic is available to and for the moment. So I believe that we are called to this kind of everyday awareness. We're called to an altertness that moves beyond the stuckness we feel in the overwhelming plethora of the trivia, the endless minor tasks that pile up on us day after day. We're called to see them as not something to get past, but as the mystery that life gifts us with at any particular day or hour. Each thing is a piece of the mystery of how God is acting in the world, and God, as Eckhart says, is from all eternity lying in labor giving birth. In every moment God's energy is acting or longing to act in favor of creation. The question for us is, "How will we cooperate with this gift?

Definite words to ponder as I begin to tackle my to do list this day. Perhaps I should shift that ... as i begin to cooperate with my to do list? :)

Sr. Marcia Allen, is presently serving on the staff of Manna House of Prayer, a spirituality center in Concordia Kansas. She was recently elected president of her community, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia, Kansas - no relation to my Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sister Marcia Allen, CSJ, is an amazing woman -- prayerful, contemplative, funny, mystical, a real community woman. I've met her a few times when she's been with our IHM Sisters in Monroe.

Thanks for posting this, Susan.

Mollie said...

Ooh, I love that! I am feeling quite overwhelmed by things-to-do at the moment. From now on, I'm making a list of "Ways I Need to Cooperate With God's Creative Love." I feel better already.