No turtle doves and only one ring

Twelve days ago a novice joyously tweeted that it was only twelve days until she would make her first vows. My immediate response was that this meant today is partridge in a pear tree day!

(For baffled non-UK readers - this is an allusion to a popular Christmas carol, The Twelve Days of Christmas. In it, on each day My true love gave to me... numbered amounts of different, eclectic gifts, multiplying preposterously every day. It all begins, on day one, with a partridge in a pear tree, and ends with twelve drummers drumming, via several different types of birds or people, plus - on the fifth day, five gold rings)

Today Joanna made her vows; and in just over seven weeks, I will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the day I made mine. And as I look back over the past two and a half decades, I can look back at the many gifts I have received from my True Love. Plenty of surprises among them, though not - thank God! - any steadily accumulating birds, maids and pipers! Rather, the more welcome - and often amazing - gift of steadily accumulating grace, without which I could not have persevered during times of pain and struggle. 

And what else has my True Love given me...?

No turtle doves, but an abundance of the enduring love and intimacy they symbolise; the tender, unconditional, overflowing love of God's Heart, which I am called to make known. 

No calling birds, but CALL: that initial mysterious, insistent, irresistible call, and then over the years, its continuous, equally insistent and soul-searing deepening and expansion. A call which is, at depth, utterly unique to me, even as it is also shared in common with all the women who live the same charism and mission. 

No maids a-milking, but mission and outreach and fruitfulness aplenty, both in ministry and in prayerful stillness.

No lords or ladies, but plenty of sisters and brothers! However we live it, community is where we grow, and where we are supported in our search for God and for greater integrity; where I have been sustained in sorrow and difficulties, and able to share joy. Our mission, too, is where we also gain widening circles of connection, in those we serve, and those we work alongside. 

No pipers or drummers, but a silent music deep in my being, inviting me to a dance - simultaneously slow and joyous - whose steps are increasingly, mysteriously familiar. 

And no; no five gold rings. Rather, and more preciously, just the one, silver ring, received at my perpetual profession; a symbol of the love that unites me to Jesus, and a sign of my desire to live in union and conformity with his Heart.

And the absolute joy is that all this isn't just part of a merry song, but a rich, ever-increasing hundredfold... 

And so my prayer for Joanna and for everyone embarking on a new journey is that they too will come to know the abundance and immeasurable generosity of their True Love, and be surprised by his many and varied gifts. No partridges, French hens or turtle doves, but a treasure-trove which is far lovelier and infinitely enduring.