For my whole life

A few weeks ago, I saw a social media post which made my heart pirouette: tomorrow, Annie Killian OP will be making her perpetual profession of vows as a Dominican Sister of Peace.

It must now be fourteen or so years since I first met Annie at the Oxford University Catholic Chaplaincy. An American Masters student, she was an enthusiastic member of the SVP group I supported, passionate about service, and encouraging others to join. She went on to grace 11NG - our student hostel community - for a year with her huge, infectious smile, her graciousness and kindness. And then she returned to the USA to continue her studies, and her discernment of what God's desire for her might be. We eventually lost touch, but not before she'd told me that she would be joining the Dominicans of Peace. 

Looking around their website, I found a link to Annie's vocation story, and was surprised and delighted to see the prominence given to her experience of weekly meals and prayer with my community in Oxford. In a second, I was transported back to our kitchen table, and to the lively conversations and sharing with her and two other young women. And I so well remember those times of prayer, and the quality of the stillness and contemplative silence which seemed to hold us all in its gentle thrall. And the magnolia... Ah, that magnolia, which was such a delightful guest at our prayer-room window...!

And now, tomorrow, thirteen years on, Annie will make her perpetual vows; and, according to the reflective news item, she will say - not forever, as RSCJ do, but for my whole life. And it occurred to me that those words, for my whole life are about more than years and decades - are not just long, but wide and deep. My whole life contains and is lived in minutes and moments, in a dozen or more daily activities, encounters and times of prayer: in struggles, darkness and disappointments, joy and fidelity; in loving and longing and grace, and a whole range of experiences. My whole life is everything that I do and everything I am: every feeling, every memory and piece of intellect, every gift and talent, and every weakness and limitation; everything I can offer, everything I resist offering, and everything I receive - for my whole life, and with my whole life. All this and more is what we hand over - what we most desire to hand over - when we make our vows, however we phrase it. 

In her vocation story Annie recalls sitting in our prayer room, gazing at the magnolia, and... Then the idea came to me – I could likewise blossom in religious life. Rooted in contemplation and community, I could grow and flourish “like a tree planted near streams of water” (Psalm 1: 3). As she pledges herself to the Love which continues to call her, may Annie continue to grow, to blossom and flourish, for and with her whole life. 

And as you pray for Annie, please also pray for all of us who have vowed our whole lives to Love, that we too may be rooted in contemplation, community and our call - with and for our whole life.