Celebrating the Present Moment

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I went to our motherhouse at Sinsinawa this weekend to help thirteen of our Sisters celebrate 50 years of vowed life.  We call them Golden Jubilarians!  And what a group they are!!

There’s probably not a single one of them that could have predicted where they would end up after 50 years.  And over those years they have been places and done things and met people they never would have imagined when they started out as young women!

Like anyone else they’ve had experiences over the past 50 years that have shaped them as faithful women – just as their mothers and grandmothers had.  Like everyone else, Sisters suffer failures and losses as well as successes.   Every Sister and every family knows in their hearts what those sufferings were.  Even if we do not know what is carried in the privacy of each heart, we have only to look back at the 50 years of history in our church and in our world to know the truth of what they have been through!

As the prioress noted in her welcome, though, these women represented 650 years of faithful service to God and God’s people.  And as Thomas Merton once said, “You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith, and hope.”

How have you recognized the possibilities and challenges offer by the present moment?
What is it you need to embrace with courage, faith, and hope?

Ruth Poochigian, O.P.
Madison WI





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