Review, Reflection and Resolutions

-
Birthdays and the end of the year for me is always a time of review and reflection of the year past and looking forward to new things in the year to come.  
The year 2019 have been an exceptionally great year for me, in that my ministry challenges me to become a better version of myself.  I am in a ministry that I am passionate about, because hopefully I am making a difference in our archdiocese.  My ministry challenges me frequently to bring forth gifts I didn’t even know that I possessed.  I think it is truly ironic that a ministry, that at first, I didn’t want, I am now passionate about and I am told I am very good at it.  I tend to believe it when one of the persons is the archbishop among others who tell me this.  God really works in mysterious ways.
Relationships are truly vital to me and to who I am as a person.  I lost one of my dearest friend and sister this year, she saw the good in me, she saw my gifts, talents and she also motivated me by who she was as a person to want to become and be a better person.  I truly miss my sister Tanya and our very real heart to heart conversations; she will always be in my heart and mind.  It is the little things that remind me of her and make me miss her.  I still cannot believe that she is gone.  I thank God for the gift of her and for her life here on this earth that touched so many people.  I thank God for the gift of friendship, sisterhood and family, which has helped to shape and form me into becoming who I was created to be.  
I am ending this year with thanksgiving and gratitude to God, sisters, family and great friends.  People who continuously challenge me to become and be my best self.  I thank God for my ministry and studies that stretches and challenges me.  I thank God for a great boss and colleagues.  I am looking forward to great things from God in 2020.  I know I will not be disappointed.
What are the things/people that stretches and challenges you to become a better version of yourself?
What things are you grateful for this year and look forward to in 2020?
Lystra Long, OP
St. Joseph, Trinidad & Tobago

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