Dear Presentation Sisters and People,
We enter Graced Moments in December with Advent preparations along with embracing the Vatican invitation to celebrate the Jubilee Year of Consecrated Life.
The jubilee of our Foundation as Presentation Sisters, also starts on 24th December 2024, when 250 years ago Nano and her community served a meal to 50 people in Cork to mark the occasion and emphasised our purpose - “Spend yourselves for the poor”; and Pope Francis writes, “Let us remember that it is not truly Christmas without the poor.”
In contemporary society, when we risk losing our centre, the centre of our very selves, when we often get confused and torn apart, almost bereft of an inner principle that can create unity and harmony in life and action, when we sense there is no room left for the heart, let us chose to be still, become aware and find our heart,
Who am I for God?
Who do I want to be for others?
How can I make room in my heart for those made poor? (Adapted from Encyclical 'Dilexit Nos' #9)
It may help us to welcome God’s gaze and words to us, “You are my beloveds, with whom I am so pleased” (Mathew 3:13)
The context of our times gives us ample space to see, feel and understand, listen to the cries of the poor and spend ourselves for well- being. The choice to be pilgrims of Hope is perhaps a way to be faithful to the Gospel and to our charism.
Let’s find somebody poor – a woman, a child, migrants, a Indigenous person/tribal and even some place of Earth, to whom we can offer dignity, satisfy hunger and believe what Tagore once wrote, “Every child comes with a message that God is not yet discouraged with us.” This Christmas may we move beyond the superficial rush and consumerism of the season to be truly “Pilgrims of Hope”
Christmas wishes,
Lancia Rodrigues, PBVM
IPA Spirituality and Charism Animator
Comentarios