Fully involved in the mission of Jesus

All religious life, and indeed all Christian life, should have a balance of contemplation and action. Teresa's original insight in carrying out her reform was to see contemplation as action... ~ from the UK Carmelite nuns' website

The deeper one is drawn into God, the more one must 'go out of oneself'; that is, one must go to the world in order to carry the divine life into it. ~ St Edith Stein

Martha and Mary, contemplation and action... all too often they are viewed as dichotomies, their opposing merits and desirability ranked or placed in opposition. But as the Carmelites' article reminds us, they should each flow into and from each other, as naturally as breathing. Prayer must be outward-looking, impelling us into active, ever-widening love and service; service needs to be rooted in prayer, and reflection on God's presence in our lives and his ongoing, insistently deepening calls.

And today is a good day for the Sacred Heart family to reflect on and recommit ourselves to this balance. This is the month designated by Pope Francis as an Extraordinary Month of Mission, and today the Church celebrates the annual World Mission Sunday. And today, for us at least, is the Feast of Mater Admirabilis, the image of Mary as a young girl, caught up in contemplation, which has pride of place in Sacred Heart schools around the world. And yes, the two events can be held in balance; and we can see Mater's stillness and contemplation as action, as mission...

A few days ago our Spanish sisters shared photos from a church in Riccione, a seaside resort near Rimini in Italy. The church, dedicated to Mater Admirabilis, was, according to its website, built in 1909 with donations from holidaymakers; prominent among them, it seems, was the family of an Italian RSCJ, whose mother had also attended a Sacred Heart school. And thus, at the heart of the church there is a painting of Mater, surrounded since 1967 by a fresco of saints and martyrs and holy men and women, from all ages.


It can feel strange to see this image outside its normal scholastic, Sacred Heart surroundings; strange but also right. It's a reminder that Mary, just like her Son, cannot be confined or contained; the image may be "ours", but it's of someone who is universal. And so here she sits, a long way from the nearest Sacred Heart community or school; a pale, rosy point of stillness and prayer, radiating God to the people around her. She is, as Pope Francis says of Mary in his message for World Mission Sunday, ...fully involved in the mission of Jesus, a mission that became her own at the foot of the Cross: the mission of cooperating, as Mother of the Church, in bringing new sons and daughters of God to birth in the Spirit and in faith.

Tomorrow the nine RSCJ preparing for their perpetual vows will begin their thirty days retreat. It will be, as one posted on Facebook, a time to "just be", and "know Love". And in this month of being drawn more deeply into God, it will also be a time for hearing anew and more profoundly the call to bring that Love into the world. May Mary pray for them, and for all of us too, that we may live her balance of contemplative stillness and loving action, becoming fully involved in the mission of Jesus...


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