New Years Themed Blog Quiz

Howdy everyone! I know the blog has been a little quiet.  After a great week with my Dad and then a wonderful Christmas with my sister and her family, I've been in my room working on my non-school-related to do list.  While I have not checked everything off, I am happy to say that some of the biggest items are done, others are in progress, and I'm starting to think of the others.

But for now, it's time for a break! One of my "young nun" friends is coming into town tomorrow night for a few days.  It will be good to see her, visit, see a few sights, and just generally hang out.  In fact, this blog quiz I think pretty much sums up our New Year's Eve plans, although dinner out might also be part of the plan!

You Should Stay Home for New Year's Eve

By the time New Year's Eve comes around, you are usually exhausted. You just need to rest. That doesn't mean you won't celebrate, but you'll definitely be toasting the new year in your own low key way. You'll reflect on the year that's passed and make plans for the year to come. And when the clock turns over at midnight, you'll be cheering along with anyone else. You'll just be in your pj's!

How Should You Spend New Year's Eve?

Blogthings: Free Quizzes for Everyone

Blessings of Peace and Joy in the New Year! 2013. Hard to believe.

Margaret Anna Fridays - On Peace & Reconciliation

It's a tradition on this blog to share some words of wisdom and inspiration on Fridays from the founder of my religious community, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace.  Known in religion as Mother Francis Clare, Margaret Anna Cusack was a prolific writer in her day. 

Christianity, being a religion of peace, its disciples were necessarily preachers of peace, hence the first effort in any country was to reconcile quarrels, to compose differences, and to avert wars. The peaceful arts came to be cultivated when they came to be honored; and war, except for a just cause, to be looked upon as evil, and not as glory.         ~M.F. Cusack, History of City and County of Cork, 1875

Merry Christmas

I often post more serious blog posts or prayers on Christmas. This year, I decided to just post a somewhat silly electronic Christmas Card for all my bloggy friends, featuring my cartoon me. Enjoy!

Blessings of Peace & Joy this Christmas

 

Remember Haiti

A few years ago, Haiti was high on our consciousness.  As usually happens, we forget bit by bit, but the people living in Haiti are no less in need of our assistance, presence and prayers.  I just watched this marvelous little video that features one of our CSJP Sisters, Sister Ann Crawley, who has been ministering in Haiti since a few months before the earthquake.  One of our CSJP Sponsored ministries, Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, NJ, has also recently announced a commitment to this mission in Haiti.


Please keep the people of Haiti and the CRUDEM Foundation/Hopital Sacre Coeur in your prayers.  If you are financially able and are looking for a charity to support this holiday season, I recommend visiting the CRUDEM website to learn more.

Be Peace

In the first reading (1 Mi 5) for this fourth Sunday of Advent we hear:

"He shall stand firm and shepherd his flock by the strength of the LORD, in the majestic name of the LORD, his God; and they shall remain, for now his greatness shall reach to the ends of the earth; he shall be peace."

In our Christian tradition of course we believe this is Jesus. Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, will be our peace.

I believe that we in turn are called to be peace. We all seem to see a bit more clearly these days how much our world is in need of peace. In our families, schools,  church, society, and of course between nations. As the saying goes, peace is not merely the absence of conflict. It is so much more ... an active compassionate love, a mindful intentional presence, a positive and constructive way of being that seeks the common good.

How can you more intentionally "be peace" this Christmas season?

Margaret Anna Fridays - Son of Justice

It's a tradition on this blog to share some words of wisdom and inspiration on Fridays from the founder of my religious community, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace.  Known in religion as Mother Francis Clare, Margaret Anna Cusack was a prolific writer in her day.  Here are some of her thoughts on Advent:

Jesus is coming as the Sun of justice.  Oh, let us beseech Him to ripen the fruits of grace in our souls: alas! perhaps the little plants of grace have hardly yet commenced to germinate.  But, beneath the rays of this powerful Sun, they will shoot forth and multiply rapidly. ~ M.F. Cusack, Mediations for Advent & Easter, 1866

Everything Old is New Again

I am visiting my Dad this week in DC, spending the week with him at his retirement center. We sold the family house about 8 years ago. Since then, or really since my Mom died 9 years ago, going "home" hasn't quite been the same. I am sure lots of you other "adult children" know what I mean!

Today I rented a car to take my Dad back up to the town where I grew up and he lived for 40+ years. We had lunch with the ladies who lunch, longtime friends of my parents.

This time we tried out the newly remodeled version of the Chinese restaurant that was my only chinese restaurant for the first 18 years of my life. We ate there or got take out almost every week growing up.  All others continue to be measured for better or worse in comparison to the Golden Pavilion.  Except that even the Golden Pavilion, in its reincarnated "Asian Bistro" form, is now also compared to the old Golden Pavilion, my standard bearer.

It passed. They still had old favorites on the menu. Dad enjoyed it, as did our friends, as did I. As the saying goes, everything old is new again!

Justice Shall Flourish, Peace Forever

Today's Responsorial Psalm fits our day and time so perfectly:

Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.

For he shall rescue the poor when he cries out, and the afflicted when he has no one to help him. He shall have pity for the lowly and the poor; the lives of the poor he shall save.

Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous deeds. And blessed forever be his glorious name; may the whole earth be filled with his glory.

Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.

I am visiting with my Dad these days, which means I am listening to nonstop news on the radio.  As you might imagine, most of it is focused on gun violence and the recent tragedy. As a person of faith, I find myself calling on God in prayer hoping that this will be a conversion moment for our society.  That our hearts broken open by unspeakable violence we are finally able to see the unspeakable violence daily in our midst. Did you know that in 2008 55 children were killed by gun violence each week in the US? How many children are abused each day? Hungry? Kilked in war. I am most surprised these days with how surprised people are by recent violent events. I think we have become numb to the violence we nurture daily.  We cherish life as Catholics, and I pray we are moving to a broader and all encompassing understanding of what that means. The message of valuing life and human dignity is so needed today. So to is action in support of life, justice and peace.

And so I pray. That we will stand with the God of Justice on the side of the lowly, poor and afflicted. That we will work for justice and peace, sharing God's love, for the Glory of God. Amen

Family Time

The nights are getting darker and darker.  The lights of the season shine bright.  The shopping malls are buzzing.  The airports equally so.  Must be the Christmas Season.

I'm having a family Christmas in different acts.  Today I went with my big sister and her little guy to Navy Pier to visit with Santa.  It was apparently a serious consultation as you can see from the photographic evidence.


We then had some less serious fun at the Winter Wonderland exhibit (that's me and Ash pretending we are elves) and Children's Museum. I also pretended I was a butterfly today and had a pretend snowball fight with a two year old. Enough said.

Tomorrow I am headed to the airport to visit my Dad in DC.  I'll be there until Saturday, coming back to Chicago to spend Christmas Eve with Ash and his Mom and Dad.  I'll be interested to see what he convinced Santa into putting in our stockings this year.

On Retreat - Dorothy Day

Tomorrow I'm heading to an Advent retreat day focused on Dorothy Day at the Brother David Darst Center.  Can't think of a better way to spend the day.

In Dorothy's words:

If we could only learn that the important thing is love, and that we will be judged on love--to keep on loving, and showing that love, and expressing that love, over and over, whether we feel it or not, seventy times seven, to mothers-in-law, to husbands, to children--and to be oblivious of insult, or hurt, or injury--not to see them, not to hear them. It is a hard, hard doctrine. I guess we get what we need in the way of discipline. God can change things in a twinkling of an eye. We have got to pray, to read the Gospel, to get to frequent communion, and not judge, not do anything, but love, love, love. A bitter lesson. 

Video: Praying with St. Joseph

I had a great creative prayer time this evening with Joseph. Pray for us St. Joseph.

Inviting St. Joseph to be with us in times of struggle and uncertainty

I admit to feeling a little bit weary of late.  Part of it is the fact that post-yucky-cold-thing, my asthma is still acting up a bit.  Part of it is recovering my energy after putting lots of focus into end of term assignments.  Part of it is facing the reality of my gigantic to-do list.  And part of it is simply our wounded and broken world.

My guess is that today, with the latest news of a tragic violent act and the innocent death of school children, on top of news of tragic violent acts daily all over the world, I may not be the only one feeling a bit weary.

Given our general state of weariness and the fact that it's Advent, I'd like to suggest spending some time with Joseph.  You know, that Joseph.  Husband of Mary.  The faithful one who flew in the face of societal convention and stuck with Mary, believing her story, trusting in God.  The one who helped raise Jesus, fled with his family into Egypt for his safety, taught him some useful life skills, and looked for him when he was lost.  And that's just what made it into the recorded story.

Despite his key role in our Christian story, most of us tend to forget Joseph when it comes to Advent and Christmas.  Fr. James Martin wrote a great article to that effect on slate.com a few years back which I rediscovered recently via Facebook.  It's worth a read.

Yesterday morning during my prayer time, my weariness reared its head. And then, looking at my icon of St. Joseph of Peace,  I remembered this line from the Constitutions of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace.

From the beginning of the congregation
Joseph was chosen as our patron
because he is a model of peace.
His courage to live a life of faith
inspires us to trust in God's abiding love
especially in times of struggle and uncertainty. (CSJP Constitution 36).

We certainly live in times of struggle and uncertainty on a grand scale, and each of us in our own lives may also face certain struggles and weariness from time to time.

And so did Joseph.  I'm spending some special time walking with Joseph these days, and invite you to do the same.

Margaret Anna Cusack, the founder of my religious community, wrote of Joseph: "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."  Hence, she chose Joseph as the patron for her new religious community, St. Joseph's Sisters of Peace.  We all need peace in our lives, in our world, in our hearts.

Please join me in asking St. Joseph, model of peace, to pray for peace in our violent world.  That we may welcome the light of Christ into our hearts.  That we may trust in God's faithful love in times of uncertainty and be beacons of hope in times of anxiety.  That we may grow together in love and participate in the in-breaking of love and compassion into our weary world.  St. Joseph, pray for us.

Margaret Anna Fridays - Devote our Advent to Mary

It's a tradition on the blog to feature words of wisdom and inspiration from the founder of my religious community, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace.  Known in religion as Mother Francis Clare, Margaret Anna Cusack was a prolific writer in her day.  Here are some of her spiritual insights on Advent:

Let us go to Mary.  Let us devote our Advent to Mary.  Let us consecrate every thought, word, and action to Mary during this holy season; and then, on the blessed Christmas morning, she will place her Infant in our arms; nay, rather, she will lay Him down to rest in our hearts ... Advent should be a tie of special devotion to Mary. ~ M.F. Cuscak, Mediations for Advent and Easter, 1866

Retreat Day in the City Part 2 - Wandering

After my quiet morning at the Art Institute, I went wandering a bit around the city. I stopped off at the "bean" in Millennium Park.

Where I took the requisite "self-portraits."

Then I found my over at the Christkindlmarkt in Daley Plaza where I looked at the crafts and had some yummy German food before heading home.

I'm planning to finish my quiet day with, well, some quiet time with God, reflecting with gratitude on this day and praying for everyone who crossed my path.

Peace

Retreat Day in the City Part One - Art

I decided that I needed to take some time to just be with God today ... in the City.  I haven't had a chance to explore Chicago much since I arrived this summer, and one of my favorite ways to be present to God is to be silent with my camera in the midst of the hustle and bustle of life.

I started out my day at the Art Institute of Chicago. I bought a student membership as my Christmas present to myself, so I can go back whenever the mood and free time coincide over the next year.  That gave me some freedom to just go where the spirit moved me today, rather than feeling like I had to see the entire museum in order to make my admission fee worthwhile.

So I visited the Chagall windows ....

I spent some time with Klee ....

And of course Seurat ...

I also found myself serenaded by one of the security guards who told me that her favorite painting (at least in that particular gallery) was The Feast in the House of Peter by El Greco.

She sang a song to me by her favorite gospel singer, "Alabaster Box" by Cece Winans. She then explained to me how in the painting, she thinks Peter is complaining that she wasted the expensive perfume on Jesus, but Peter doesn't know the transformation that the love of Jesus created in her.  It was an unexpected, unsolicited yet lovely moment in the museum.

On my way out of the museum, I stopped to take a photo of one of the festive lions standing guard.

Margaret Anna Fridays - Advent

It's been a while, but it's a tradition on the blog to share some words of wisdom and inspiration on Fridays from the founder of my religious community, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace.  Known in religion as Mother Francis Clare, Margaret Anna Cusack was a prolific writer. Here are some of her spiritual insights on this season of Advent:

Oh, what a holy, beautiful, peaceful light is the light of the Infant Heart of Jesus! How it longs to come forth and manifest itself to all, to console, to instruct, to illuminate! Are wel, also, longing to receive this light? Are we praying with our whole hearts that it may come to us, and that we may be prepared to receive it? However great our spiritual enlightenment may be, we are still, in some measure, 'sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death.' But the light is coming, already we can see dawn upon the mountain. ~M.F. Cusack, Meditations for Advent and Easter, 1866

On Doubt

"We too often forget that Christian faith is a principle of questioning and struggle before it becomes a principle of certitude and peace.  One has to doubt and reject everything else in order to believe firmly in Christ, and after one has begun to believe, one's faith itself must be tested and purified.  Christianity is not merely a set of foregone conclusions." ~ Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, 1966

I ran across this quote from Thomas Merton while doing research for a paper on the intersection of his spirituality of peace and the ecological spirituality he was developing when he died in 1968.  I find it humorous that this quote is in a book with a Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur, "official declarations that a book or pamphlet is free of doctrinal or moral error." Official permission to doubt, then!

Questions and doubt play a huge part in my own spiritual journey.  Before I was a Sister of St. Joseph of Peace, before I was a church geek, I was an agnostic bordering on atheist.  I had so many questions, about this Jesus guy, about the institutional church, about a group of people who seem so sure of themselves, who think they know what happens after life, etc... etc... etc...  Then, somehow, through the deep grace of God's incredible love, I found my way back to the Church of my childhood.  Except that I was an adult, no longer a child, and I had to live into my questions  Thankfully I found a parish community where I felt like I was in the company of people who were questioning and struggling, rather than people who felt like they had all the answers.  This enabled me to live and grow into this experience of being an adult Catholic.  Having permission to question, I began to find answers not in books or rote prayers or dogmatic statements, but in the lived experience of God's love, in our shared Christian story, in the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus.

I've still got questions. My questions are my friends.  They keep me interested, they keep me engaged, seeking, growing in love and relationship with God, with my fellow travelers, with my own heart. And for that, I am very grateful.

Finals

So the end of the Semester is approaching.  I've still got French for a couple of weeks. But the rest of my classes here at CTU are wrapping up with multiple papers due next week and a final this Wednesday.  Surprisingly, I'm feeling like I've got it fairly under control and not at all like Kermit (via Mary is My Homegirl Tumbler):

Mary Is My Homegirl on FINALS

We'll see how I'm doing on Saturday night, which is when I'm hoping my final gigantic paper will be finished.  That one is on Thomas Merton's ecospirituality and how it intersects with his spirituality of peace.  Should be fun. I've also got a philosophy final Wednesday and a philosophy essay to pull together.  Plus I need to go back to my Trafficking/Reconciliation and Prudence/Conscious Consumer papers to fine tune them and get them ready to submit.  Unless of course I'm feeling like Helena Bonham Carter (at least I think that's who this is, again via Mary is My Homegirl Tumbler):

Mary is My Homegirl's Advice Regarding Final Papers:

More Discerning Women

I started this blog eight years ago this month, believe it or not.  At the time I was just starting the journey of considering religious life and discerning with my religious community.  As I said in my first post:

I've searched the blogsphere myself, looking for the "What should Susan do with her life website" to no avail. I have, however, been lucky enough to stumble upon the stories of others who have been able to stop and listen to what God might be calling them too. I've benefitted from the struggles, the sharing, the hopes, the fears of complete strangers. And so, I figured it was worth the risk to start documenting my own journey in the hopes that it strikes a chord with someone else. Gives someone else the thought that it's not so crazy to listen to that voice deep down inside that won't go away, the idea that maybe there's something more to this life thing. 

Readers of the blog followed along on my journey through inquirer, pre-candidate, candidate, novice, and temporary professed Sister. Now of course, I'm a boring perpetually professed Sister and graduate theology student. The discernment journey is all there in the archives for folks who are interested of course.  And I'm still a discerning woman, discerning each day how best to live fully and respond to God's incredible love for me in service of our broken world.  I still try to share my musings from time to time. This blog is part of who I am now and how I relate to the world.

I thought regular readers might be interested in some blogs I've discovered of young women who are discerning religious life.  It seems that more and more women are listening to that still small voice inside and saying yes!  Given the theme of Mary's yes that is such a great source of reflection for me each Advent, I thought I'd point out some of these blogs so you can hear the stories of young women saying yes to religious life.

• My friend Amanda is a postulant with the Daughters of Charity.  She blogs at Drink Deeply my Daughter.
• My friend Juliet recently professed first vows as a Religious of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  She blogs at Communitas et Caritas.
• I've gotten to know Colleen through a mutual friend.  She is a novice with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Philadelphia and blogs at Wandering in Wonder.
• And just today I discovered the blog of Tracy who is in her first year of formation with the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati.  She blogs at Diary of a Sister in Training.

Please keep these women and all discerning a religious vocation especially in your prayers this Advent.

If you are someone who has been thinking that maybe, quite possibly, perhaps God might be calling them to a religious vocation, remember that my email box is always open.  There's a link to my email in the side bar.  I'm not a vocation director or anything, but as someone who has followed her heart into religious life and found such joy, I'm happy to share my experience, be a listening ear or support others on their journey in any way I can.

Blessings of Advent Peace
Sister Susan

Advent waiting

How on earth did it get to be the first Sunday in Advent? The start of our Church year snuck up on me with everything going on in my life. All the more reason to pause and be intentional during this special season of waiting.

I took some time this morning to set up my prayer space for Advent. I always have a prayer table which includes sacred to me objects: my copy of my perpetual vows and profession cross, pictures of our community founders, icons of Jesus and St Joseph of Peace, a statue of Mary that belonged to my mom. For Advent I added a purple hued scarf of my grandmother's, advent candles and a small nativity set from the Holy Land that was given to me by the folks at Pax Christi in London when I ministered there as a novice.

Mary and Joseph are waiting for Jesus. He won't appear until Christmas.  This is the season of anticipation after all.

Blessings of Advent peace to you all. May you find ways to create space and time for waiting these Advent days. Peace.

Remembering

Today is December 1st.  If my mom had not passed away nine years ago, she would have turned 78 today.

Of course I still miss her, especially on days like today.  But I also know that she is present to us in so many different ways.  This morning when I woke up, I thought of her and wished her a Happy Birthday.  And then promptly asked for her to be with me and help me finish writing my term paper today! She was always interested and supportive in our studies after all. 

Most of my pictures of mom are print and not digital.  This cropped photo is from our illustrious family portrait when I was a baby.  I love it for two reasons.  One, my sock is falling off.  Two, she has that twinkle in her eye and that knowing smile/smirk that I knew well.  Captures her essence perfectly, and with 70s style.