Category Archives: updates

Settling In

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Winter on the grounds of east coast groovy sister hq
Winter on the grounds of east coast groovy sister hq

Today has been a wonderful lazy Saturday of gently settling in to my new (this time around anyway) surroundings. I moved to New Jersey on Tuesday and began my new gig on Wednesday. I’m living with some of the women who I will have the pleasure of serving with, over the next 6 years, on our congregation leadership team.

I qualify my new surroundings as new to me this time around, because I’ve actually lived here before. This is where I made my novitiate, and I’m actually living in the same house. It’s nice because it’s familiar. But it’s also nice because it’s different.

Today I went out a bit to explore and reorient myself to the neighborhood. I was happy that I remembered the back way, avoiding gridlock on the highways, to the hospital we sponsor. I then explored and found a new-to-me thrift store, where I found some new-to-me things!

This afternoon I took a nice leisurely walk on the grounds and to the neighboring park. We had some snow yesterday morning, and since it is quite cold it is still fresh looking and quite beautiful on the trees.

My room is starting to feel like home. I brought some things with me on the plane and shipped a couple of small boxes. The box with the items for my prayer space came today, which makes me very happy. In two weeks I will head back to Chicago for my Dad’s birthday and get the rest of my belongings.

I am grateful for this quiet day to just be and settle in. God is good, and community is a blessing.

Peace, friends.

Goodbyes and New Beginnings

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Me standing in front of the "Bean" sculpture in Chicago's Millennium Park
Me standing in front of the “Bean” sculpture in Chicago’s Millennium Park

Two and a half years ago I packed up my room at Grace House (the CSJP community house in Seattle where I lived with two other Sisters) and moved to Chicago to study at Catholic Theological Union.  While it was hard to move to a city without any other CSJP Sisters, I was excited about the opportunity to study theology full time. I was also excited that my big sister Monica lived in Chicago with her family, and that I had a ready made group of “young nun” friends in town.

About a year later my Dad moved to Chicago as well, so I’ve had the unexpected opportunity to see him every week since then.  I will miss those regular father/daughter bonding moments, as well as the regular kid time with my 4 1/2 year old nephew and the opportunity to get to know my sister better as an adult (we’ve never really lived in the same city before).

I’ve also made some great friends at school, mostly younger than me, who have made this time special. I know we will stay in touch thanks to the wonders of social media, and I’ve offered guest rooms for any who find themselves in the New Jersey/New York City area, but it’s never the same after you say that initial goodbye.

Of course, new adventures await! I am in the final stages of sorting, purging, and packing. Tuesday morning my friend and housemate Sarah will drive me and my many bags to the airport. When I get to New Jersey, I will be met by one of the Sisters with whom I will have the pleasure of serving on community leadership for the next six years.  I’m actually moving back into a familiar space. Believe it or not, the house that was my novitiate house is now where I will be living with two other members of the leadership team. God has a funny sense of humor in my experience.

God is also faithful.  I find myself praying with these words from our CSJP Constitutions during this time of transition:

“Confident of God’s faithful love and collaborating with others who work for justice and peace, we face the future with gratitude and hope.”

No Longer Slaves – World Day of Peace Message

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Global Faith Leaders Signed Declaration Against Trafficking in December 2014
Global Faith Leaders Signed Declaration Against Trafficking in December 2014

Today (January 1) is the World Day of Peace. Each year the Pope issues a special message for this day. This year’s message is titled “No Longer Slaves, but Brothers and Sisters” and centers on the theme of human trafficking.  I suggest reading, and praying with, his entire message, but here is a summary of what I see as the most important points.

Pope Francis directly applies the church’s understanding of the human person to the problem of human trafficking. He asserts that because human persons are “by nature relational beings … it is fundamental for our human development that our dignity, freedom, and autonomy be acknowledged and respected” (no. 1). This relational reality of the human person is denied through the “negative reality of sin” (no. 2).  The original “sin of estrangement from God … and from the brother [and sister] … gives rise to a culture of enslavement” (no. 2).

This culture of enslavement exists today, with millions of people held in slavery-like conditions, despite the adoption of laws, agreements, and strategies “aimed at ending slavery in all its forms”  (no. 3).  Pope Francis believes that the contemporary reality of human trafficking “is rooted in a notion of the human person which allows him or her to be treated as an object” (no. 4).  “Alongside this deeper cause—the rejection of another person’s humanity,” Pope Francis also identifies other root causes of the problem of human trafficking, including poverty, underdevelopment, corruption, armed conflicts, violence, criminal activity, and terrorism (no. 4).

Finally, Pope Francis believes it is necessary “to recognize that we are facing a global phenomenon which exceeds the competence of any one community or country” (no. 6).  Therefore, he calls for a mass mobilization against human trafficking “comparable in size to that of the phenomenon itself” (no. 6).

If you’d like to become part of the global movement to end human trafficking, you can take the same pledge that 11 leaders of the world’s major religions (including Pope Francis) signed in December at the Vatican.

Human trafficking is not inevitable – we can resist.

Chatting of a Discerning Woman

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Yours truly is the special guest nun!
Yours truly is the special guest nun!

For about ten years I blogged about my discernment into and first years of religious life at a little virtual spot called Musings of a Discerning Woman.  I originally started the blog because I had found the sharing of other people’s experiences and journeys helpful in navigating and discerning my own. As it happens, I then fell in love with the medium and discovered that I am a writer at heart!

Discernment, I have discovered, never ends.  Whether it’s the big things … like the communal and personal discernment I engaged in with my community this year around being called to the ministry of congregation leadership … or the small(er) things, like how to live a good and virtuous life in the everyday choices we make, discernment is part and parcel of being a human, if we are paying attention that is.

Well, tonight I am going to have a chance to share some of my own experience and journeys of discernment in a live format, which hopefully will prove helpful to those who participate in the Discernment Chat taking place at 6PM Pacific/8PM Central/9PM Eastern at A Nun’s Life.  My friend Sister Julie Vieira, IHM started blogging at A Nun’s Life about the same time I started my original blog. She of course has turned A Nun’s Life into an incredible interactive ministry for discerners and spiritual seekers. I was honored to be invited to join in the conversation tonight as their “guest nun.”

It will be a welcome and good break from thesis writing!

Still discerning ….

updates

This is my first post on the new blog. The old blog (Musings of a Discerning Woman) is still live, and it might take me a little while to transition to this new one.

I’ve been thinking about starting a new blog for a while now. I’ve even considered the possibility of leaving the blogging world behind, but as I’ve been blogging for almost 10 years, it’s become a part of how I process information and relate to the world. Plus, to be honest, I simply love to write and the blog format is perfect for the introverted, pondering writer type.

I’ve named this new adventure in blogging “At the Corner of Susan and St. Joseph.”  I am still sharing the musings of a discerning woman, as the title of this first post indicates, but my discernment is now firmly grounded in my commitment as a Sister of St. Joseph of Peace.

I often tell friends that it is as a Sister of St. Joseph of Peace that I can be the best me. I make more sense in this life, and the world makes more sense. And for that, my friends, I am so very grateful.