Maryknoll Sisters

During these weeks before Christmas two phrases from the Advent readings have caught my attention.   The psalmist in Psalm 25 asks God to “Stretch my narrow heart,” and the barren woman in Isaiah 54:3 is told by God to “Enlarge the space of your tent; spread out your tent cloths unsparingly; lengthen your ropes and make firm your stakes” in preparation for growth and new life.

The Spirit of Christmas calls us to stretch our physical, spiritual and emotional boundaries; to  welcome and embrace the fullness of life already intuited and carried in our bellies; pondered in our hearts and revealed in profound relationships with family, friends, neighbors and strangers.  Hospitality, in its deepest meaning, is about the integrity of our life that firmly defines the space we provide to justice and to right relationships and that stretches our hesitancy to the point of free choice and our love to the point of giving birth over and over again.   

In this and every season, God invites us to open our minds, stretch our hearts and enlarge the space of our relationships with authenticity. In that creative tension, God comes to us longing to find a home lit unsparingly with tenderness, peace and courage.  The feast of the Epiphany on January 8, 2012, marks 100 years since the founding of the Maryknoll Sisters in 1912.  In this Centennial Year, we are filled with deep gratitude for all that has been and with a welcoming ‘yes’ to the promise of the future. 

Together let us seek to discover the way God is revealed in our midst today and each day – God’s holy HERE AND NOW.  May your life be blessed with tenderness, peace and courage and may God‘s new life find a welcoming home in the midst of your everyday ‘yes.’ 

Enjoy a grace-filled Christmas and a blessed New Year!

                                                                                                                                                                        In Loving Peace,                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Sr. Ann

The last couple of weeks, our sacred scriptures spoke about the “end times” and described apocalyptic scenarios.  And if we look at what is happening in our world, such prophecy is taking shape and at times, they seem to overtake our lives.  Yet our inner call is not of despair and passive yielding to powers that are overwhelming. 
 
Here at Maryknoll, New York, nature obliges us insights about our inner longings with the display of changes in all that surrounds us.  Trees yielded their golden fineries and now stand bare in the winter sun. The birds even rarely perch languidly in their branches. They too are stirred to do their journey south.  The fields have been harvested and darkness envelopes us early.  We live in a household that is readying itself for the long and sacred silence….hibernating, resting, sleeping, waiting….still and quiet postures that bring forth dreams and visions of days to come, for new birthings to new life.

Advent is here!  It is our making time to be alert, to be watchful for and to be of hope to that which is innately present in us, Emmanuel, God-with-us. The one whom we constantly seek and yet, is always the sacred presence who came as a gentle wind and as a gentle babe in a manger. Our call is to stay awake for the sacred promise that is within us and coming to us, even in the most terrifying moments of our life experiences:  God’s bounty of life and love, of providence and compassion, of mercy and justice are always present in our midst.

What does Advent, the gift of Emmanuel, look like in our relationships…with those for whom we care: children, parents, spouse or significant other; in the service we give at work; in our faith community; in the healing of our earth?

Let’s enter into the adventure of finding God in the midst of our household….

• in our compassion for those who are deeply challenged to be well;
• in our holding each other in our hearts as we forgive and ask for mercy;
• in the solitude of communing with nature;
• in our being a plain and ordinary neighbor…..to  welcome a stranger in your community,  receive  someone deemed different,  assist an elder or anyone in need, laugh with someone who is lonely, dance the playful rhythms of sounds in our neighborhood.

It is in this household where God always dwell! Let’s be Advent. Let’s make God’s kin-dom come.

Maranatha! Lord, Jesus, Come!

Blessings of love and peace,

 – Sister Rebecca Macugay, MM

 Simple Trust

I know the art of word mending where a sigh is the space between thought and  speech or the prayer between contemplation and action.

I know the beauty of imagination where truth follows the solitary path of wonder and the lonely path of insight.

I know the discipline of dreams where the future is found in the seeds of longing and born in the fruit of labor.

My truest self relies on simple trust to recognize and surrender to the core of connectedness where God lures me with daily gifts of love.               

                
 Art and Poem by Ann Hayden, MM

This has been a busy and fruitful autumn for us all and I am filled with gratitude for life as winter approaches.  I hope you have life-giving experiences as the seasons change and that your Thanksgiving Day is filled with family and friends gathering in the fun and joy of love shared.  

As we prepare for Advent, I have been thinking of God’s call through nature to let go and enter into life as it approaches ever new and different each season.  Advent is a time of reflection on our gifts, our challenges and on God’s faithful love.  Faithfulness is not a call to unchanging sameness rather to a deep exploration of life as we are called to let go, journey deep and connect again with God’s love for us as we prepare to answer the call to give forth new life.   What if the seed would not let go of the bloom or the leaf leave the branch or the caterpillar refuse the cocoon?  What if Mary had not said ‘yes’?  What if we remained satisfied and comfortable and unaware of all the potential that dwells within us and all the fruit that can come yet from our life’s labor of love. 

Advent is a time of surrender to possibility.  As we prepare to celebrate the Gift of God’s Love for Us this Christmas, let’s not forget to let go and let come our truest selves changed by trust and opened to new life.

                                                                                                                                                           Peace and love,