Vocation Office E-Newsletter December 2022

Eucharistic Give & Take

As the Church in our nation invites us to enkindle a living, ..............Eucharistic relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, our Bishops focus us on four verbs that describe Jesus’ actions at the Last Supper: He takes bread, blesses it, breaks it, and shares it He takes bread Why would the all-sufficient God take anything? Perhaps He takes in order to give

In one of his hymns to our Eucharistic Lord, Saint Thomas Aquinas places before us Christ’s poverty. “On the cross Thy Godhead made no sign to men, Here thy very manhood steals from human ken ” In the Incarnation, His divinity is cloaked God allows Himself to experience the limits of space and time in the humanity of Christ. But He goes further in the Eucharist; even His human nature is unseen The All-Knowing God is unrecognizable to those without the treasure of faith The hymn reminds us that this humble God who takes on our poverty is worthy of our adoration. Unknown as God, He assures us that we are each personally known.

By Sister Sophia, O.P.

"

...He assures us that we are each personally known."

It is significant that our King takes, not just to teach us something, but to make us something Unlike the act of Creation, in the Incarnation and the Eucharist, God makes use of what He has already given. He takes our humanity. He takes bread. And He ennobles them. When He takes them, He confirms their goodness and elevates their purpose, giving them back to us transformed for our supernatural end.

If we wish, we can recall this truth at every Mass. When we offer our daily lives on the altar, then it is truly Jesus who takes the bread and each soul into His hands The bread, and each soul, is visibly lifted up and received by God. “Accept and bless these gifts,” the priest prays. We participate in this reality of allowing the Lord to take our lives and return them to us enriched, “filled with every grace and spiritual blessing ” Saint Paul crystalizes this cycle of take and give “For your sake he became poor although he was rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Perhaps the remainder of Aquinas’ verse

in Hiding reminds us best why Christ elected to take our poverty – to strengthen our faith in what we do not see as we thirst to gaze on Him “Face to face in light”. In the Eucharist, God takes on limitations in order to know us, to love us, and to invite us to participate in and be transformed for His unimaginable purposes. Saint Thomas’ verse concludes, “Both are my confession, both are my belief, And I pray the same prayer as the dying thief ” Perhaps Christ is the true thief Perhaps He became poor to steal our hearts.

from Godhead Here

Adoro te Devote

St Thomas Aquinas

Translation: Gerard Manley Hopkins

Adoro te devote, latens Deitas, Quae sub his figuris vere latitas; Tibi se cor meum totum subiicit, Quia te contemplans, totum deficit.

Visus, tactus, gustus in te fallitur, Sed auditu solo tuto creditur; Credo quidquid dixit Dei Filius, Nil hoc verbo veritatis verius

In Cruce latebat sola Deitas. At hic latet simul et humanitas: Ambo tamen credens, atgue confitens, Peto quod petivit latro paenitens

Plagas, sicut Thomas, non intueor, Deum tamen meum te confiteor: Fac me tibi semper magis credere, In te spem habere, te diligere.

O memoriale mortis Domini, Panis vivus vitam praestans homini: Praesta meae menti de te vivere, Et te illi semper dulce sapere.

Pie pellicane Iesu Domine, Me immundum munda tuo Sanguine: Cuius una stilla salvum facere Totum mundum quit ab omni scelere. Iesu, quem velatum nunc aspicio, Oro, fiat illud, quod tam sitio, Ut te revelata cernens facie, Visu sim beatus tuae gloriae Amen

Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore, Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more, See, Lord, at Thy service low lies here a heart Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art

Seeing, touching, tasting are in thee deceived: How says trusty hearing? that shall be believed; What God’s Son has told me, take for truth I do; Truth Himself speaks truly or there’s nothing true

On the cross Thy godhead made no sign to men, Here Thy very manhood steals from human ken: Both are my confession, both are my belief, And I pray the prayer of the dying thief.

I am not like Thomas, wounds I cannot see, But can plainly call thee Lord and God as he; Let me to a deeper faith daily nearer move, Daily make me harder hope and dearer love

O thou our reminder of Christ crucified, Living Bread, the life of us for whom he died, Lend this life to me then: feed and feast my mind, There be thou the sweetness man was meant to find.

Bring the tender tale true of the Pelican; Bathe me, Jesu Lord, in what Thy bosom ran Blood whereof a single drop has power to win All the world forgiveness of its world of sin

Jesu, whom I look at shrouded here below, I beseech thee send me what I thirst for so, Some day to gaze on thee face to face in light And be blest for ever with Thy glory’s sight. Amen.

G iving E

verything

By Sister Mara Grace, O.P.

My brother entered a religious community when I was a young

teenager, which for me at the time was not exciting until I learned that we would travel to Germany for his profession of vows. Although I did not understand much of what was spoken at that profession Mass, the most impactful moment for me was not any word proclaimed, but a gesture. Before professing vows, my brother and the other brothers to make profession lay face-down on the sanctuary ground before the altar while the congregation invoked the saints to intercede for them. Seeing my brother prostrate on the ground brought to light just what he was doing in this profession: giving everything

At the heart of every vocation is self-gift As stated in the Constitution of the Church, GaudiumetSpes, "Man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself" (24) God calls each person to a deep union with Himself, and a vocation is a call to live this union according to a certain stable form of life approved by the Church as a means to holiness My brother's self-gift inspired me to search for how God was calling me to lay down my life At first this search brought fear and dread: Would I lose my sense of self? Would this self-gift satisfy me? What I actually discovered when I answered the Lord's call is that, instead of being left empty, I was given everything in return Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI remarked, "Do not be afraid of Christ; He takes nothing away and gives everything."

For those discerning their vocation, the quest for the Lord's will can be a daunting one Many ask, how do I figure out the Lord's will? How will I know? What if I chose the wrong thing? Vocation is not simply a question of what am I called to do, but rather, who am I called to be; how am I called to be given The answer comes in a gradual discovery of the Lord's will by the daily death of self and living with Jesus He draws us in His will and gradually reveals to us how He is calling us to lay down our lives. We not need fear or be anxious. He is with us and has first laid down His life so that our self-gift may be fruitful and come to completion in His own

Thank you!

Thank you for all the schools and campus ministries that generously hosted the sisters this past semester.

Ave Maria University North Dakota State Univiersity Franciscan University

Theology on Tap Erie, PA

Women's Night Erie, PA

University of Cincinnati

Toronto Metropolitan University

Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College Benedictine College

Merry Christmas!

During this Christmas season, come let us adore our Incarnate Lord with the eyes of faith as did the Magi, and find in Him our true treasure.

Matthew 3:11 from the Dominican Sisters of St Cecilia

"And on entering the house, they found the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage."