Milestones at L's bend

We don't create proper milestones anymore. Nobody chisels letters and numbers into wayside stones, telling us our distance in miles from London or Leicester or Oxford; now, instead, we have standardised aluminium signs, colour-coded for the type of road we're on. And at some point along the way, the meaning of milestone itself subtly changed: from a literal mile-stone, to a significant stage or event in the life of a person or organisation. In effect, the word no longer means a marker indicating how much further we have to go, but rather, how far we have come.

Earlier this month I marked two years since I moved to L's bend. As I looked back, I could see in this past year one filled with milestones, both personal and congregational. Since last December we have been celebrating 180 years since the first group of RSCJ arrived in this country, bringing our spirituality and mission to this part of the world. It is an opportunity to celebrate and give thanks for the hundreds of generous, whole-hearted women who have lived and died for the glory of the Heart of Jesus, making his love known in so many places and ways... and for the many co-workers, alumnae and others whose personal stories have been woven into ours.

One hundred and eighty years can feel like a huge amount... until I realise that I've been alive for a third of them! Yes; earlier this year I celebrated the significant milestone of a 60th birthday. Several months on, I still struggle to believe I truly am a 'senior citizen', in the autumn of my life. Our haphazard seasons haven't helped much with this: after a relatively mild summer, what should have been the start of meteorological autumn ushered in - not chillier nights - but a mini heatwave! But of course, autumn, so rich in fruitfulness and colour, can also be a second spring, as I reminded myself after my milestone birthday.

I had never marked my baptism's anniversary until this 60th year, when I also read through the pre-Vatican II liturgy still in use in February 1963, discovering, among other things, that a pinch of salt - for wisdom and for relish - had been placed on my tongue. My baptism was, of course, my first consecration to God, which made possible my later consecration through vows. And yes; that too has been a milestone! I had celebrated my fortieth birthday only a few weeks before going to Rome in February 2003 to begin preparing for my perpetual vows, which I professed, with tremendous joy and astounding inner freedom, twenty years ago in June 2003!

And somewhere in the midst of all that - thirty years since I first contacted the Society, where I was to find the 'more' of God I sought, and the source of so much of this joy!

So... 20, 20, 30, 60, 60, 180... all this and so much more in my second year at L's bend! I have come this far, but the journey, of course, continues, with all the adventures and blessings, and new milestones which await me...