The gift that keeps on giving

One of the many unexpected blessings of being an RSCJ is the people I know, and the networks I belong to, simply because I am a sister. I was saying something about this via WhatsApp to one of my colleagues, to explain how I knew and could introduce her to this or that person... Her response was an affectionate, half-joking observation, that Being a nun is the gift that keeps on giving.

I responded with a heart emoji, and the conversation moved on, but I also stayed with those words. The gift that keeps on giving... How often do we, maybe lighthertedly, say this about something which, often astonishingly, brings continuing joy or positive outcomes? And so yes - absolutely; religious life, being a nun, is indeed the gift that keeps on giving.

Our Constitutions say that A life of chastity for the sake of the Kingdom is a gratuitous gift of God which surpasses human understanding... But the gratiuitous gift, the mystery of the hundredfold, is much, much greater than one vow. The call from, and to God, to the Society of his Heart... The invitation to journey ever more deeply into the vastness and depths of this Heart... Prayer, mission, sisterhood, inner growth and challenge, grace and transformation... All of this and more is God's constant, limitless, unearned, unmerited and often startling blessings, given and received as sheer, unexpected gift. 

And as we have freely, generously, abundantly received, so we are called to freely, generously, abundantly give (cf Matt 10:8)... our lives, our talents, our energies and our creativity, our faith, our hope and of course, our love, tenderness and compassion. To be a gift that keeps on giving to God, and through him, to our own corners of the world, and to the people God blesses us with... 

And so I end this week, and approach my anniversary of perpetual vows, grateful to my colleague for her semi-humorous remark, now a reminder of God's generous hundredfold, and the grace of my vocation... Yes, being a nun, being an RSCJ, is so definitely the gift that keeps on giving! - and as I receive without measure, so may I give.