New Year's Resolutions or Daily Conversion

December 31--New Year's Eve...
At midnight today, we will turn the page on a new year 2014.  2013 will quickly become a memory for the history books.

With the start of a new year, there is a sense of excitement and anticipation-Maybe this will be the year when I finally lose that excess weight, repair that fragile relationship, take my spiritual life more seriously (we all have something that can be inserted in this blank).  Too often, I find that my New Year's Resolutions are more like a wish list than a statement of commitment to changing my life for the better no matter how small.  I start off half-hearted with a sense that resolutions are what need to be made yet with really no plan or intention to see them through past January 15th, if they make it that long.

Our monastic tradition offers an alternative to these wishes for change-conversion.  Conversion is one of the vows that monastic men and women profess at the time of final profession (commitment).  It is an intentional decision to always continue growing closer to who God initially created me to be.  It is a public promise to get up after ever fall as I progress in this way of life.  It is the desire to continue improving with God's help on my way to holiness with this group of women that are placed in my life.

To me, conversion seems much more doable than resolutions.  In conversion, I am fully aware that I am fallible and that there will be some rough spots along the way and I know that God will provide the grace necessary for me to succeed in this if I remain focused on the path.  Conversion is not about what I can do by myself but about what God and I can do together when I cooperate with God's plan.

Blessings on your new year.  Know of our prayers for all of you.

Sister Catherine

Listening With the Ear of Your Heart

Serving one another involves listening to another with the ear of your heart so that you might choose not only what is best for yourself but also what is best for all.     

 

Calling One Another to Growth

When we serve one another we bear one another’s weaknesses, we hold one another up and

we call one another to growth in holiness and wholeness.

 

Sharing with Others

We reverence creation by giving to others what we really don’t need and are not using.

 

 

Being Truly Happy

Only those who serve others will be truly happy.

 

Loving and Serving

Jesus intends us for service, for leadership, for faithfulness; let us respond today to Jesus’ call to go out to love and serve the world in peace.

In case you missed our announcement about Midnight Mass at St. Joseph Monastery:

 

Tuesday, December 24, 2013  –  Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Dear Friends,

 

May these Advent days be blessed with many graces.

 

We want you to know that we will no longer celebrate Christmas Midnight Mass here at the monastery.

We know this is a tradition for many of you, as it has been for us.

 

We will miss the opportunity to see as many of you this Christmas season. 

Please know that you are all in our hearts during these holy days.

 

In the peace of the Christ-child~

Sister Christine and Benedictine Sisters

May you all have a blessed Christmas and many blessing in 2014.

Benedictine Sisters

Service: Being the Voice of Others

We serve one another by being the voice of the powerless, those who are not heard, those who are hungry and alone, the forgotten folks around us.

 

Following Jesus

If we wish to follow Jesus we must keep serving, keep walking on the ground, keep struggling.

 

Moving Out of Ourselves

Our prayer each day should be, “Lord, move us out of our self-centered worlds so that

with compassionate hearts we  can bring healing to our broken world."

 

Moving Toward Others

If we wish to follow Jesus we must move out of our private, isolated and self-enclosed worlds

into a compassionate engagement with our suffering neighbors.

 

Compassion

Compassion asks us to prepare for the next opportunity we are asked for help; if we cannot give        what is asked, give something.

 

Stretching Beyond our Agendas

Serving one another is not designed to impress God but rather to save us from our selfish selves

and to stretch us beyond our own agendas.

Putting on the Mind of Christ

To really feel compassion for the needs of others, we must put on the mind of Christ so that we

can see the world and the people in it as Christ sees them.

Reverencing Creation

Reverencing creation—holding it in loving hands—is another way we can serve one another.

Revealing the Glory of the Lord

When we serve one another graciously, the glory of the Lord is revealed to us and to all who witness the service.

Sharing Our Resources

When we are willing to share our resources with trust in God, there is always enough for everyone.

Prayer: The Best Service

Sometimes the best way to serve is to pray for the people who are on life’s journey with us;

prayer lifts others up to God’s good purposes.

 

Mary's YES

Mary responded to God’s call with a “Yes.”  Sometimes we fail to respond to God’s call because

we feel  inadequate to the task, but Jesus can take what we have and make it enough.

 

Having an Advent Heart

Jesus wants us to have an Advent heart like St Nicholas, a heart standing on tiptoe ready to

serve, to help anyone in need.

Washing Others Feet

Jesus gave us an example of the kind of service he expects from us when he washed his disciples        feet the night before he died and told them:  “You are to wash one another’s feet.”

Serving Christ in Others

When we begin to see the presence of Christ in one another, we can serve them because we               know in serving them, we serve Christ Himself.

Who Is the Greatest

Jesus tells us that the one who is greatest is not the one who sits at table, but the one who               serves those at the table.

Serving One Another

Monastic value for December is service. 

We commit ourselves to be compassionate for the needs of others in daily living.

“Serve one another in turn with all charity.”  Rule of Benedict 35

 The Gospel message is very clear:  “We are to serve one another in love.”