Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters PO Box 6026, Techny, IL 60082-6026 319 Waukegan Rd., Northfield, IL 60093 Office of Vocation Ministry Phone: 847-441-0126, ext. 704 sspsovm@aol.com www.ssps-usa.org
“When our God, who is Mercy, comes like a shout into your darkness, when the Father stoops down and tenderly picks up the pieces of your broken life, when Jesus steps in front of what you could have deserved, and when the Lord of heaven says; „I still want you,‟ after you thought no one would, it is the most amazing truth of all. I have been overwhelmed by this lavish kingdom gift called mercy.” Angela Thomas in A Beautiful Offering
September, 2010 Dear Friends, Our faith leads us to believe that God is always with us, loving us and caring for us as no one of us is able to do for one another. He demonstrates His love for us each day anew and each day His love is as constant and unique as each one of us in our uniqueness is able to accept it. The problem with many of us is that we live in a fast-paced world where everything is instant and in which taking time for reflection on something as abstract as the reality of God could be perceived as wasting our precious moments that could be spend working on one of our projects. Many of us are not use to carving some quiet time for reflection. On the other hand each one of us is constantly looking for love, for friends and relationships that will bring us moments of happiness. God who created us offers us His relationship and his love. For us who are looking for human gratification and love the concept of God’s endless love that awaits our coming is sometimes difficult to grasp. The passage from Isaiah tells us however, that God in His unsurpassable love for us is waiting and hoping that some day we will be ready to open our hearts to his love. Then, our lives will become filled with His love and every person we meet will become our brother and sisters in him. In His great love God gave us the power to open our hearts to his message of love or to remain closed till we decide to let in the light. The choice is ours to discover his enormous love and welcome it deep in our hearts or to look for it elsewhere. There is no need to be afraid that his love will ever end or that some day we will have to pay for what we have received, because his love is free to take as much as we possibly can. However, one of the requirements is to share it with people around us. This is the basic
Window designed by Sr. Agnes Paul, SSpS
concept of leading Christian life. As Christians we are called to be like Christ and to bring his good news to others. Religious vocation is one way of sharing what we have received, our talents, our skills that we have learned our time and all we are with those who are less fortunate. How ready am I to share freely without counting the cost? May the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of love grant us the grace of generosity so that we are able to follow the advice of St. Matthew when he said: “Freely you have received, freely you are to give� (10:8). We have received in abundance for which we should be grateful. Moreover, this should prompt us to develop more trusting relationship with our Creator like did Mary and other holy people. With blessings and prayers, Sr. Veronica Marie Mikkelsen and Sr. Elwira Dziuk