Encounters with the Living God

-
This past weekend I was blessed to take part in the annual L’Arche Jacksonville Living Nativity.  This simple yet moving performance helped me to understand and experience the wonder of the nativity in a new way.

L’Arche, which has been my place of ministry for the past four months, is a community of adults with and without developmental disabilities who share life together.  Those with developmental disabilities are called core members because they are at the heart of the community.  LArche is a place where people are authentic, where gifts are revealed and affirmed, and where those whom the world places at the margins can find a true home.  This spirit of welcome makes L’Arche a sign of hope to the world.

The Living Nativity performance allowed us all to shine.  The narrators proclaimed the story with conviction, Mary was radiant, and the Star of Bethlehem danced his way to the stable with an infectious joy.  And I was reminded that as God made a home among us in the lowliest of ways, born a poor baby in a stable, so too we encounter the Living God today in the humblest of people and the most unexpected of places.

To learn more about L’Arche, visit larchejacksonville.org or larcheusa.org.

Christin Tomy, Candidate

Jacksonville, FL

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nuns can have nose rings? (and other frequently asked questions)

-
Image
One of my favorite things about being a young sister-in-formation is allowing people to ask me their burning (and sometimes silly) questions about religious life.   Questions like: Do nuns have jobs?   Can you still go dancing and swimming?   You mean you get to keep that nose ring? Becoming a sister right now is an interesting thing: religious life has changed drastically in the past fifty years, but many people’s stereotypes about it haven’t.   Many of these stereotypes seem superficial (ie- all nuns wear habits; nuns don’t dance) but they may reflect deeper misconceptions about religious life… like the idea that sisters are somehow more holy or less human than “normal” people.   For a long time, my own misconceptions kept me from really considering religious life. And so I enjoy the questions.   I love making people feel free to ask them, and I love surprising them with the answers.   After all, they aren’t really asking about my nose ring;...
Read more

Happiness and Joy in Religious Life?

-
Image
I never wanted to be a religious sister (nun) because I felt I would never be happy.     This calls me to reflect on what is happiness.     Some say that happiness is a feeling.     It is when you feel good and cheerful about something that happened or is happening in your life.     However, I think that true happiness comes from when you make others happy.     After I went out of my way to assist someone and they unexpectedly tell me how much my helping meant to them.     I experience an unexpected warm feeling inside.     True happiness I think is a sense of fulfilment you feel even if what you did was not acknowledged, yet you know that deep down inside you did and gave of your best to help someone without any conscious ulterior motive.     You did it because it was the right and necessary thing to do at the time. Everyone searches for happiness and many know that true happiness cannot be found in things,...
Read more

HOME

-
Image
  I am fortunate to have an iPhone and I use the maps feature regularly when I travel to different places. What I like best is that on my return journey all I need to do is hit the HOME button and  no matter where I am it routes me safely home. I’ve been thinking about the significance of HOME lately especially as I and so many of our sisters have recently moved and settled into new spaces.  Can you find yourself at home in the gift of this day? Do you find yourself at home in your heart? I have returned to live at Sinsinawa mound and feel deeply at home. It is the space from which our sisters are sent out on mission and to which they return for their final resting place. I think of all who have been forced or bombed out of their homes. All the millions of displaced people searching for a place to call home, all the unhomed peopled on our own city streets especially veterans and those with mental health problems who have no place to call home. How am I called to respond o...
Read more