Today, as I quietly celebrate the 23rd anniversary of my perpetual profession of vows, I am, of course, wearing the cross I received on that day. On one side it bears the initials of our Society's motto: Cor Unum et Anima Una in Corde Jesu (One heart and one mind in the Heart of Jesus). This is the spirit and the love we aspire to have among ourselves, as sisters sharing a common call and mission, and a loving commitment to each other. But we are also called to this Cor Unum at an individual level, as each one of us seeks, in her own way, to live the union and conformity with the Heart of Jesus - to be one heart with his - which are fundamental to our charism and mission.
And I am also wearing a cotton skirt I recently bought in a charity shop. Made by a little-known brand, it has a couple of interesting labels within it. One seductively (and impracticably) encourages me to lighten the load: to put aside my to-do lists, laundry, ironing and washing up, and to spend some time on me. And the other label? Well, that one tells me to do one thing, and one thing only: to live in the heart of joy.
Live in the heart of joy... When I noticed that label something within me did a little leap of recognition, and I thought YES!! That is what I am doing, with God's grace and fidelity, as an RSCJ, and what I want to go on doing, with greater depth and passion. Not just today, as I quietly remember and celebrate, pray for my probation-sisters and recommit myself... and long after I forget the idea of abandoning my laundry and my dirty dishes, I want to continue living in the heart of joy, because this is to live my Cor Unum with Jesus; to live, with joy, in the Heart whose infinite love is the source of my happiness, and the reason for my vocation, and my mission, to make this love known.
Three days ago I wrote that being a nun is the gift that keeps on giving; that being a nun also calls me to be a gift that keeps on giving. Today, filled with gratitude for all I continue to receive, I am adding a prayer... that wherever I love and serve, I can, daily, simply, in times of light or darkness, and in the midst of so much fragmentation and despair, radiate the fact that my life is backlit with the quiet, leavening, graced joy of having Jesus at the very core of my existence. That I can live in the heart of joy, because I am living in the Heart of Jesus.
Comments
Post a Comment