Touchstones

Last Friday, my novitiate classmate professed perpetual vows, the same vows I professed last November. 

"In response to God's call to seek justice, to love tenderly,  and to walk in the way of peace, I ... vow to God, poverty, celibacy, and obedience for life according to the Constitutions of the Sisters of St Joseph of Peace."

Our Constitutions are our touchstones. They express the very best of who God calls us to be as followers of Jesus living vowed religious life. As a pontifical institute, our Constitutions were approved by Rome. Yet our vows are to God, according to these Constitutions.

Over the next few posts,  or as long as it feels like a good space to blog from, I am going to share some of these Constitutions and my reflections on them. And so I begin, at the very beginning.

"Peace is God's gift to us,
Given in Christ,
A gift we experience and enjoy now,
Though not in its completeness.
We believe that peace
points beyond itself in hope
To the fullness of time."

May we live peace, believe peace, and grow together in hope.