Graciousness

Greetings from Sacred Heart Convent, our CSJP regional centre in Rearsby, Leicestershire, England. My visit to what really feels like my UK home has been lovely so far. From when I saw Sister Kathleen's shiny face at the airport arrivals hall to the welcome I received from the Sisters here at Rearsby I have felt loved and embraced by their gracious hospitality. Even though it has been six years since I was last here as a novice, the people and place are familiar and once again I feel right at home. Perhaps I felt most at home after dinner when my assistance in washing up and putting away the dishes was welcomed. I now even know where some of the dishes belong!

At mass and office in the chapel, I loved hearing the cultural nuances between our two English speaking provinces. I had forgotten how instead of saying our straightforward "We pray to the Lord ... Lord hear out prayer," across the pond they say "Lord hear us," followed by "Lord graciously hear us." Or "Lord in your mercy," followed by "Hear our prayer." To me both formulas used here in the UK speak volumes to the love and care God has for us which is lost in the US version. Somehow ours seems more about our wants and needs and less about God's gracious love and care.

Those are some of my middle of the night jet lagged this thoughts. Now to try to get back to sleep!

UK Bound

Tomorrow evening I head to the UK to spend some time with my CSJP Sisters across the pond. I haven't been there since my wonderful three month sojourn as an apostolic novice.  I will only be there this time for two weeks, but I am so looking forward to seeing our Sisters and Associates in the UK.  I'll also see some of my US CSJP friends as well who are also making the trip.

My first stop will be our regional center, Sacred Heart Convent in Rearsby, Leicestershire.  Our house there (pictured to the right) is located in the countryside on the outskirts of a quaint village.  It is such a lovely spot, and the women who live there are just as lovely.

After a few days at Rearsby, I will join 40 other CSJP Sisters and Associates for a contemplative retreat experience.  Our CSJP Congregation has made the commitment this year that every Sister and Associate who is able will attend one of three congregation retreats.  The other two retreats in the States took place during my spring Semester, which is why I have the wonderful opportunity to head to the UK to join the last retreat there.  From everything I've heard, I am sure it will be a transformative experience.

After the retreat, I am heading down to London to spend a few days with our Congregation Novitiate.  This also happens to be the same house where I lived for my three months as a novice so it will be like coming home in a way.  I'm really looking forward to visiting with Sister Alexine, who I lived with as a novice and who is now the novice director, and also getting to know the three women who have joined our Congregation as novices.  I'll also be doing a technology workshop of sorts with them, but I'm most excited to just be spending some time with them.

My two weeks will be over before I know it! I might blog from the UK, depending on how technology and timing work out.  If not, rest assured I will share all about it when I get back.

(Almost) 41 year old me to 20 year old me

My nephew (the baby in this 1992 family photo) turns 22 today. I was 20 when this photo was taken (I'm the one with the glasses).  This crazy realization got me thinking about my 20 year old self verses my (almost) 41 year old self.

Yes I have more grey hairs, wrinkles, scars, and some extra pounds.  Yet I also have much less anxiety which weighs you down more than you'd ever know unless you have had anxiety as a travelling companion in life on a regular basis.

When this photo was taken I was finishing up my sophomore year in college, studying political science.  I had no idea what I would be doing with my life when I graduated.  I ended up of course with an 11 year stint as a bureaucrat before making the unexpected leap and entering religious life. Now I'm studying Theology and Ethics. I have no idea what I'll be doing with my life "career" wise.  What I do know is that I am a Sister of St. Joseph of Peace and my life and community will be rooted and grounded in that reality for the rest of my life. That my friends is a wonderful feeling, even if there are many unkowns up ahead.

I'm wearing my first pair of eye glasses in this photo.  I've had many prescriptions since as my eye sight has shifted and worsened.  Truth be told I now need a reading prescription in addition to corrective lenses.  But in many ways, I see the world much clearer now. My lived experience to date, the things I've learned and the people I've been honored to meet have given me a much better understanding of the world, systems, etc... Yet, I also know and accept that really I do not know much of anything.

The me in this photo wasn't so sure about God or that Jesus guy.  She'd given up on organized religion as unable to answer her questions and complicit in much of the suffering in the world.  The me writing these words today still has questions, more probably, and still has problems with suffering in the world.  But I also realize that for me at least it makes more sense to bring my questions to community, to share and hold that messy tension with others and to open my heart to God and God's people. Do I have all the answers? By no means.  But the life of faith is less about knowing or believing in my experience and more about risking and vulnerability and joy and wonder and awe.

20 year old me would probably fall on the floor laughing or snort her exacerbation at 41 year old me.  Yet here I am, wondering what 60 year old me will think about  (almost) 41 year old me in a few more decades.  Time certainly does pass quickly!

End of the Semester ... Summer Begins

Well folks, believe it or not the semester is finished, and along with it my first year of study at Catholic Theological Union!  It's been a great year and time has really flown by. I've been able to study and research incredible and important topics from human rights abuse to racism, climate change to reconciliation.  I've really appreciated being a little bit older as a 40 year old grad student with some life experience to bring into the academic mix (even if the 40 year old state of my little grey cells makes studying a little challenging!)

It's officially summer now in terms of the academic calendar, however, which means a little break!  I'm staying based in Chicago this summer but have a variety of exciting things on the horizon, mostly all religious life related.

Next week I head to spend a couple of weeks in the UK with my religious community, first for a community retreat and then to spend some time with our novitiate community which is now in London.

In July I head west for our National Giving Voice Gathering of sisters in their 20s, 30s, and 40s.  I'm on the planning team for this 4 day conference, so there will be lots to do between now and then!  It should be an amazing time to gather with peers and ponder mission and ministry in the 21st century.

Afterwards I'm headed north to spend time with my groovy sisters in Seattle and friends in Portland.  It will be nice to visit the Pacific Northwest for a while.

August holds another nun meeting.  I'm also planning some quality family time with my big sis and her family, my niece who will be coming to Chicago, and with my Dad over Father's Day weekend.

Community, religious life peers, family.  I've also got some work to throw into the mix, and some relaxation and prayer time.  It should be a good summer and renew and reset my brain for another year of courses come the fall!

For now, I'm celebrating the end of the first year tonight by taking advantage of student discounts to the Opera to see a production of Oklahoma!  Can't wait! :)

Peaceful Mother's Day

It is hard to believe that my Mom passed away almost ten years ago.  In addition to being an awesome Mom and a great friend, she inspired me by her love and concern for all God's creatures. In her honor, today I continue my bloggy tradition with this re-post.

How many of you know about the original pre-hallmark meaning of the day? Read Julia Ward Howe's Original Mother's Day Proclamation from 1870. Here's a teaser:

"Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be that of water or of fears! ... We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says "Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."

You can also listen to the entire proclamation in this video:


Somehow that meaning has gotten lost over the years.  But it is so very important and needed today in a world where so many families are torn apart by violence.  Domestic Violence.  Street Violence.  Violence of war, poverty and oppression.

So, in the midst of final paper writing, I will be spending some time in prayer this Mother's Day in thanksgiving for my own mother who rests in eternal peace, but also in solidarity and love with mothers in war torn countries and the mothers of those serving in the military. This continues to seem to be the most appropriate way to mark the day.

Happy Birthday Margaret Anna!

Today is the birthday of Margaret Anna Cusack, known in religious as Mother Francis Clare, the founder of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace. She was born on this day in 1829.  Next month we will celebrate Founders Day on June 5, the day she died.  But today is her birthday.  I like to think that her attention is intensely focused on us these days, as we go about the mission she founded us to serve.  As she wrote in our original 1884 Constitutions:  "The very name, Sisters of Peace, will, it is hoped, inspire a desire for peace and a love for it."

When I was a novice, my class created a video that tells the story of Margaret Anna Cuscak, the founding story of the Sister of St. Joseph of Peace, the courageous response of our Sisters to the Second Vatican Council, and the ways we live out our founding mission today.  It was a labor of love. Enjoy!



Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace Charism Video from Margaret Anna Cusack onVimeo.

Happy Birthday Margaret Anna!

Happy St Joseph the Worker Feast Day!

From time to time, someone will ask me who who St. Joseph of Peace was (the patron of my religious community). I usually explain  that the "of Peace" was more of an attribute than a place, and that the title refers to the St. Joseph, husband of Mary and foster father of Jesus. The carpenter man.

Our founder Margaret Anna Cusack chose Joseph as our patron because she believed he was a model of peace:

"No doubt we may point to St. Joseph as the great model of every virtue, but it would seem as if peace was his crowning grace. In peace he fulfills all the Divine commands, many of which required from him the exercise of the greatest self-sacrifice; and in peace he submitted to the cruel injustice of Herod."

Or, as our CSJP Constitutions say:  "“His courage to live a life of faith inspires us to trust in God's abiding love,especially in times of struggle and uncertainty.”

Today is the feast of St. Joseph the Worker. And yes, this Joseph is the same one as well. But as tradition tells us that he was a carpenter, hence the title worker.

Pope Pius XII instituted the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker on May 1st in 1955. This was in the midst of the cold war, and was no doubt in response to the observance of May 1st in most of the world, and especially cold war era communist countries, as May Day, International Worker's Day.

While this Feast Day is a relative late comer to the liturgical calendar, it is nonetheless an important one in the Catholic Tradition. Catholic Social Teaching has a strong respect for the dignity of work and rights of workers.

Yet the workers' rights cannot be doomed to be the mere result of economic systems aimed at maximum profits. The thing that must shape the whole economy is respect for the workers' rights within each country and all through the world's economy. ...

Created in God's image, we were given the mandate to transform the earth. By their work people share in God's creating activity....Awareness that our work is a sharing in God's work ought to permeate even the most ordinary daily activities.

By our labor we are unfolding the Creator's work and contributing to the realization of God's plan on earth. (On Human Work, John Paul II)

To each of us who shares in God's creating activity through work .... Happy Feast Day!

To all of those who are living through times of struggle and uncertainty, let's pray for the intercession of Joseph.  May we too be inspired by his courage to love.