Grace is nothing else but a certain beginning of glory within us. ~ St Thomas Aquinas
The fullness of each person is the glory of God's Heart. ~ RSCJ formation document - Life Unfolding: Offering the Gift
A few days ago, via our sisters in United States-Canada, I came across some posts on Facebook with the hashtag 'grace of yes'. It seems that day had been designated 'grace of yes day', with people encouraged to say what they were doing to say yes to grace - which essentially is saying yes to God.
Today, we in the Society of the Sacred Heart celebrate the grace of a YES uttered in obscurity and dangerous times which has resounded and borne fruit over more than two centuries. Two hundred and fourteen years ago today, in a clandestine Mass in a Parisian attic, a small group of women made their vows in an impoverished, fledgling community, uncertain of what might lie ahead but convinced of the rightness of this step. The youngest member of the group was Sophie Barat, whose generous, wholehearted YES was to last until her death sixty-five years later... and last well beyond her death, in the Society which carries on her charism of making known the love of God, whose source is in the open Heart of Jesus.
And in that YES, that openness to God and to God's grace, lay the beginning of glory... For Sophie, the journey out of herself, her timidity, her fears and the Jansenist God who had dominated her upbringing... and into the depths of God's all-loving Heart and the fullness of God's call and choice... into the fullness of all she had been created for, the glory of God's Heart.
Two hundred and fourteen years later may we who now live, throughout the world, the charism and mission Sophie began, also live and renew wholeheartedly the grace of our own YES, becoming the fullness of all we have been created for, the glory of God's Heart.
The fullness of each person is the glory of God's Heart. ~ RSCJ formation document - Life Unfolding: Offering the Gift
A few days ago, via our sisters in United States-Canada, I came across some posts on Facebook with the hashtag 'grace of yes'. It seems that day had been designated 'grace of yes day', with people encouraged to say what they were doing to say yes to grace - which essentially is saying yes to God.
Today, we in the Society of the Sacred Heart celebrate the grace of a YES uttered in obscurity and dangerous times which has resounded and borne fruit over more than two centuries. Two hundred and fourteen years ago today, in a clandestine Mass in a Parisian attic, a small group of women made their vows in an impoverished, fledgling community, uncertain of what might lie ahead but convinced of the rightness of this step. The youngest member of the group was Sophie Barat, whose generous, wholehearted YES was to last until her death sixty-five years later... and last well beyond her death, in the Society which carries on her charism of making known the love of God, whose source is in the open Heart of Jesus.
Two hundred and fourteen years later may we who now live, throughout the world, the charism and mission Sophie began, also live and renew wholeheartedly the grace of our own YES, becoming the fullness of all we have been created for, the glory of God's Heart.
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