Whose In Your Family Tree?

The Gospel for today is the genealogy of Jesus.  For a long time I struggled with this Gospel passage. I guess I didn't know how to reflect on it.  However, in recent years, it has begun to hold deep meaning in my life.  As reflect on Jesus' genealogy, I realize that it is filled with the great ancestors and the not so great.    The Gospel writer includes them all.  Each ancestor is an important part of Jesus' history.  It helps me reflect on my family tree.  There are those in my family tree who were a gift and added so much to my family and then there are those who were a challenge and caused great struggle.  It is easy to focus on the "good" ones and forget about the ones that were a challenge.  Yet, each person in my family tree is a part of my story, a story that is part of the Story.  I encourage you to reflect on your family tree and give thanks for each person that has been a part of your story.  Many of them you never met and yet they helped shape your family.  I give gratitude for the family that God chose to give me.  The gifts and the struggles are all a part of my story, a story still being told by God.

My Soul In Stillness Waits

 At Mass yesterday, we sang the song
"My Soul in Stillness Waits."  I love this song because it is a reminder of what Advent is all about.  The words of the chorus keep running through my heart, "For you, O Lord, my soul in stillness waits, truly my hope is in you."  I am always moved by this song.  However, yesterday as I 

looked out at the beauty of creation and the deep stillness of the fallen snow that covered the earth, I felt like I had been given a special gift by God.  God's grace covers me gently and leads me into the stillness of God's presence just like the snow that covers the earth.

 Sr. Mary Margaret took these pictures of our grounds covered with snow.  I hope you enjoy seeing them 

 much as we did.  We are blessed by beauty all around us but sometimes it takes a first snow to open our eyes to the beauty God provides each day.  


I want to take this gift with me into the rest of the Advent season so that each day I might touch into the beauty and stillness that God offers me.  Know of my prayers as you enjoy God's gifts this Advent.

Sr. Julie Sewell and Sr. Heather Jean enjoyed an Advent walk together.  All bundled up they stayed warm as they took in the beauty of God's gift.

The Importance of Passion

As I have talked with people about their lives and what they desire, I have often heard them talk about the importance of passion for what you do.  I would totally agree and find it sad when I meet someone who does not seem to have passion for what they are doing.  However, passion can never be separated from the source of our lives: Jesus Christ!

A couple of Sundays ago, I was at Mass at Christ the King Parish and read Fr. Steve Jarrell's column in their bulletin.  In his column, he used this quote from Pastor Frederick Buechner.  I have been reflecting on it this Advent and invite you do do the same.

"Passion must be grounded, or, like lightning without a lightning rod, it can blow fuses and burn the house down.  Passion must be related not just to the world inside your skin but the world outside your skin . . . . Passion must be harnessed and put to work, and the power that first stirs the heart must become the power that also stirs your hand and feet, because it is the places your feet take you to and the work you find for your hands that finally proclaim who you are and who Christ is.  Passion without wisdom to give it shape and direction is as empty as wisdom without passion to give it shape and purpose."

A New Year Begins ... The Season of Advent

       I love the season of Advent!  It is such a gift to begin again.  Another liturgical year is before us and we can embrace it by entering deeply into this season of Advent.  Our culture seems to skip over Advent as it busily prepares for Christmas.  Advent invites us to reflect on what we are preparing for at this time of year.  It is a season of hope and anticipation as we await the birth of the Christ child into our hearts and our world.  


I find it helpful during Advent to take a little extra time each day for silence.  As I enter this time of silence, I find myself reflecting on the gift of Christ in my own life.  It also challenges me to look at the ways I share, or need to share, the gift of Christ with others.  These times of silence stretch my heart and make it a little bigger, a little more welcoming for Christ to dwell. I am so thankful for the gift of Advent.  I pray that it is a time of blessing for you as well.

Thanksgiving At Our Lady of Grace Monastery

 We had a wonderful Thankgiving at Our Lady of Grace.  We had a beautiful liturgy followed by an absolutely delicious meal.  We were joined by family and friends for both Mass and the meal.  It is always a gift to share our blessings with others.  It takes a lot of community participation to decorate the chapel, prepare the meal and decorate the dining room.  Of course, it is all worth it.  Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Gratitude

Thought I'd share a poem I received from my friend, John Hay, Jr.  It expresses the depth of what I understand Thanksgiving to be.  Blessings!

*** *** **** ****

GRATITUDE
Gratitude comes from some place deeper than mouthing the words “thank you”

I penned this poem thinking of gratitude, which is a grace that runs much deeper than the socially-expected etiquette that surrounds “giving thanks.”  As important as it is to celebrate thanksgiving and to take up the practice of saying “thank you,” finding gratitude reverberating authentically in one’s heart is the surpassing gift.  I pray that you experience and express it this season.

Thanksgiving doesn’t live in a vacuum;
We do not pluck it from thin air.
We cannot be grateful on command,
Genuflecting at the drop of hat.

Talk is cheap when it comes to thanking,
Yet beyond courteous etiquette
Lies a deeper reality that beckons,
Inviting us to reckon with grace.

Native American graciousness
And Pilgrim hospitality,
Turkey and all the trimmings point
Beyond finely folded, praying hands.

Through and beyond these images
We glimpse a sacred connection,
As generations across time
Hail some gracious provision.

It’s not so much a debt we owe
Or tribute for posterity
As it is a virtue we receive
And reflect into eternity.

We deep-down know we are held
By sustaining, life-giving hands.
Not our own or on our own,
We belong and are lovingly known.

We cannot utter such mystery--
Tradition and rite fall short;
But these, and we, can point and say
“Thanks” for life and grace today.

St. Gertrude the Great and St. Mechtild of Hackeborn

This week we celebrate two great Benedictine saints of our church.  Yesterday, Tuesday November 16,  we celebrated St. Gertrude the Great.  She was the only mystic to be named "Great".  She went to the monastery of Helfta at the age of five to be taken care of by the nuns.  Later she chose to become a nun and grew in holiness in the midst of her community.   The Church celebrates St. Mechtild's feast on November 19.  St. Mechtild served as St. Gertrude's Formation Director and they grew close in spiritual friendship.


Both of them had a deep love of the Eucharist and the Liturgy of the Hours.  It was through the liturgy that they grew closer to Christ and gained strength.  Both of them had a deep devotion to the Sacred Heart.  Both of these saints had visions and deep experiences of contemplation that have been written down for others to share.


As we grow in our faith and commitment to Christ through the liturgy, let us ask Sts. Gertrude and Mechtild to pray for us.