Walking into another year of life – leaving the old and welcoming the new, is an opportunity to pause and listen to the silent wisps of surprises that visited us in 2016; experiences of graced moments often forgotten and yet carried within the crevices of our beings.
It is a time to slow down and allow memories to come and visit us; to befriend our farewells and grieve absent friends and those we have lost; renewing old friendships; making plans and resolutions as well as articulating hopes for a future being born.
January, a month when nature accepts the change that the journey of earth brings, when “life waits, subdued and hidden in mystery, humbled by the pervasive strength of winter presence” (Joyce Rupp), We ponder and are reassured that the seeds of life are nurtured and nourished; that what is necessary for future growth is simply waiting to burst forth.
This first month of 2017 is significant for RNDM’s as we celebrate the birth date of Euphrasie Barbier on 4th January 1929 and her passing to Eternity on 18 January 1893. We engage with and treasure the depth and challenge of our new Constitutions and continue to “live them out faithfully and sincerely in a concrete way in the realities of everyday life” (Josephine Kane Introductory letter), knowing that “our missionary identity with its source in the heart of the Trinity has a universal character”. (Art.4)
In a world weary and worn with pain, suffering, hostility and division, we pray with Pope Frances:
“May we dedicate ourselves prayerfully and actively to banishing violence from our hearts, words and deeds, and become nonviolent people and build nonviolent communities that care for our common home. Everyone can be an artisan of peace” (Message for World Day of Peace 2017)
Sister Elizabeth Hartigan, Rndm