By Sister Stefanie MacDonald, OSB
If you want a sign from Scripture about religious life – and whether you are being called – read Mark 2:13.
It’s the story where Jesus is questioned about eating with tax collectors and sinners. Jesus responds, “Those who are well do not need a physician. … I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Continue Reading
By Sister Stefanie MacDonald, OSB
During my last few days of Christmas vacation, I drove to Chicago to visit Sister Belinda, a friend I have made through Benedictine conferences and gatherings such as the Under 55 group. She’s a member of St. Scholastica’s Monastery in Chicago. We stayed at the monastery’s lake house.
We enjoyed long conversations, coffee (and the internet) at a little cafe, and daily hikes. One hike was in a beautiful, snowy forest preserve … only I missed the beauty for a bit. The snow was too deep – and the path too uncertain – to look up! Continue Reading
By Sister Stefanie MacDonald, OSB
In my part of the world right now, a beautiful blanket of sparkling snow covers field and lake, bush and path. Deer tracks connect woods and parking lot. Icicles cling to the bell tower.
This quiet beauty fills me up … especially during prayers. Our chapel is lined with floor-to-ceiling windows that look out on the woods and lake and path. We really commune with God’s creation as we pray!
I know that it’s counter-cultural to spend my time (when I’m not teaching preschool or working around the monastery) in prayer, but it’s my life.
In some sense, it should be everyone’s life. Continue Reading
By Sister Stefanie MacDonald, OSB
In today’s reading the Magi ask where they are being called. “Where is the newborn king of the Jews?”
By Sister Stefanie MacDonald, OSB
Back in the day of nuns in habits filling schools and hospitals, little girls saw the mystery and beauty of religious life before them all the time.
They had a first-hand view of a counter-cultural life that would give them education, purpose and joy.
Today, fewer of us teach or nurse. (We established the institutions and then taught young women how to run them. They didn’t need us there anymore!)
Today, you’re more likely to see us in parish offices, social justice venues, college campuses and even on the bus! (We do all of those things, and Sister Janet and I teach, too.)
And after Pope John XXIII suggested we return to wearing the clothes of those we minister to (as opposed to the habits that were the common clothes of Middle Ages folks), we began dressing like common folk.
The upshot? We aren’t as visible. Now, we must ask you, the parents, to help your daughters and sons see the value and blessing of religious life!
I thought about this during our Christmas Vigil this year, as Sister Mary Jane placed the Infant in the manger. Jesus’ mother certainly knew she would raised her beloved son to walk another path entirely … whether it was what she would choose for him or not. Continue Reading
By Sister Stefanie MacDonald, OSB
God looks down from heaven … to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. Psalm 53
As we prayed this verse at Lauds recently, a question a friend had posed popped into my head. “Why have you made the choice to be a Catholic Sister when so few are doing so? Aren’t you afraid that your numbers are growing smaller?”
I’d be silly – and untruthful – to say it has never crossed my mind. But, then, there are a number of things I also think of. Continue Reading
I was reading Joyce Rupp’s wonderful poem, The Perfect Cup, recently. It was the subject of a reflection in “Give Us This Day.” I’ve been thinking about it ever since!
Why?
Well we – whether you are discerning religious life or what to do later today – all are called to steward the cup of our lives. We are all called to examine the contents of it. How are we using it? How are we filling it? Are we more concerned with how it looks or how it works? Continue Reading
By Sister Stefanie MacDonald, OSB
Recently someone told me that young people are looking for community but not a vowed life. Hmmm. While it’s clear not as many women are pursuing religious life today as there use to be, we are still out here. In our hearts, we are looking for something more … together.
As Pope Francis said in a General Audience on May 22, 2013, “… it is necessary to open ourselves once again to the horizon of God’s Spirit.” Continue Reading
By Sister Margaret Murphy, OSB
I sat in the park beneath a blue autumn sky with warm breezes and swirling leaves in shades of red and yellow.
My reflections mirrored the scattered movement of falling leaves. Continue Reading
By Sister Stefanie MacDonald, OSB
We all want a sign from God … and some people get one. Moses, for example. Never me, though. That would be far too easy.
I thought about this again last Saturday as I read a wonderful reflection by C. Vanessa White in “Give us this Day” (a monthly magazine of daily prayer and reflections by Liturgical Press. I read the print version, but there is an e-version for those of you with IPads and Kindles.) Continue Reading
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