communitas et caritas

In an attempt to keep up with this blog, I'm going to do the RGBP thing... From their website :  This Friday Five will post while I'm at the beach which for me is more than a vacation destination, it is a trip home. I have found it quite easy to wax nostalgic about the places I used to live (well, except for one) and have begun to wonder what it is I like about the place I'm living now? For instance I sure do love the beach, but this picture was taken about 30 minutes away from my house - not too shabby! And so I ask you to please name five things you like about where you are living now... and as your bonus - 1 thing you don't like. This is an interesting friday five for me...I have 31 days left in my current home, and then I'm moving to become a novice in southern California!  So, with a bit of sadness at the coming move, I answer:   Five things I like about where I live now: It is easy to get places.  I'm in St Louis, Missouri--not exactly a huge ai...

My friend Sister Susan has some great thoughts on lumps of clay over at her blog ! My reaction to the morning's reading was a little different from Susan's.  I've never taken a pottery class, though I think it would be fun--even if it is hard to make anything less earthy than a lump of clay! Jeremiah says: I went down to the potter's house and there he was, working at the wheel. Whenever the object of clay which he was making turned out badly in his hand, he tried again, making of the clay another object of whatever sort he pleased. "He tried again."  My life over the past few years has been so full of changes, both external and internal.  I'm not a big fan of change, but I am very aware that the only way we become better people is by changing.  That God tries again calls me to patience with myself and with the changing world that is within and around me. God has a particular purpose for each of us, but we sometimes live without attending to t...

The summer has been a whirlwind, and so my blog has suffered...but I'm going to make the attempt once again to keep going!  I will be posting a reflection later today, on the potter and the clay, from today's first reading.  I hope someone is still out there who might want to read it!  Check back later!

(Image from animal.discovery.com) I'm doing some work on medieval saints, and I came across this story recounted the Golden Legend by Jacques de Voraigne, about St. John the Evangelist and Apostle (medieval types were a little confused about this): Someone gave a live partridge to the blessed John (as Cassian tells us in his Conferences ), and he gently held and stroked the bird.  Seeing this, a boy laughed and called to his companions: "Come and watch this old man playing with a little bird like a child!" The saint, knowing by the spirit what was going on, called him and asked what it was the youngster held in his hand.  The boy said that it was a bow, and John asked what he did with it.  The answer was: "We shoot birds and animals!"  Then the lad stretched his bow and held it taut in his hand, but when the apostle said nothing, he loosened it.  John asked him why he loosened the bowstring, and he replied: "Because if you keep it stretched too long, ...

Today is the feast of St Madeleine Sophie Barat, foundress of the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus!  She was born in 1779 in France, and she founded this "little Society" in 1800.  I keep learning more and more about her, but I'm sure there are better biographies online than what I could provide.   What I love about Sophie is her generous heart and her recognition of the Christ in each individual.  Her letters show how she knew the needs and hearts of each individual to whom she wrote--and she addressed them with loving care, seeking to comfort those who needed comfort and gently challenge those who were too comfortable. The readings for her feast day include Colossians 3:12-17, which seems to sum up her ideals very well: Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgi...

From today's Gospel (John 17:11b-19):  "Consecrate them in the truth." Jesus is speaking to the Father about his followers.  I've been thinking about that phrase this morning, and I don't really know what it means to be consecrated in the truth.  Yet, "truth" has been on my mind a lot lately--finding my truth, my true self, and really speaking my truth.   The last year or so, at least since entering the Society of the Sacred Heart, has been a time for me to discover who I am and what I value.  I don't think my values have really changed, though my eyes have been opened to new things in new ways--things like human trafficking and the concerns about the environment.  At the same time, I've been trying to really speak up for what I think, feel, believe.  That's not so easy for me, but the encouragement and respect of my sisters has helped me with that. And I still have questions about truth, too.  There are some truths that are better kept in...

I've been asked to reflect a bit about commitment, and so I share some of my thoughts here. The following quotation from Pedro Arrupe, S.J. has been finding me lately: "Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way . What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything . It will decide what will get you out of bed in the mornings, what you will do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart,  and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything. " How does that relate to commitment?  Well, I've fallen in love, and my world changed.  I get out of bed in the morning to pray and go to mass before work.  I spend my evenings and weekends with community (though I also spend time with friends).  My Sister introduced me to my new favorite novelist (P.D. James!).  I kn...