Earlier this year, on St Valentine's Day, I joined our community in East London, celebrating the 55th anniversary of the day one of the sisters made her first vows. St Valentine's Day - what a lovely day to pledge yourself to Love! And what a lovely day to celebrate Love's growth and flourishing, over the years, in my sister's life and mission, through times of challenge and struggle, as well as joy and lightness.
We prayed with some of the readings and hymns from that 1971 ceremony, in a carefully preserved Mass booklet. Looking through it, I saw that back in 1971, when Carol and her fellow-novices made their vows, sisters could add their own prayers or desires to their formula. And this little group had chosen to pray for a transparency which revealed the love of Jesus' Heart. That prayed desire is something which has played within me over the months: a transparency, an authenticity, which allows Love to shine through us, unimpeded... That has to be the desire of every one of us, and something we can all pray for ourselves.
I also recalled this desire a few days ago, when I visited a priest and saw a papal blessing displayed on his wall. Written in Italian, the blessing prayed that throughout his ministry he would be 'an icon and transparency of the face of Christ'. Transparency again, but this time as an icon - a true likeness - of the face of Christ; the face of Love.
At the moment the weather is dull and cloudy, with only brief bursts of sunshine... No sunlit flowers, no sunlit radiant anything, for a fair few days. So, here is an amaryllis from a while back, to speak to us all of what our transparency can reveal, of our own deep beauty and of the Divine; our own likeness and Christ's, if we can only allow Love to shine through...
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