Spirituality

Spirituality is an awareness that we long to reach a dimension beyond ourselves. It’s a search for union with that Holy Mystery we call God…a mystery we believe was revealed in all creation, but especially in Jesus. Our spiritual search is rooted in the Gospel. There we find the words that speak to us of God’s justice, forgiveness and inclusive love. There we find the compassion and courage of Jesus to be one with the poor, the suffering and the oppressed. As Sisters of St. Joseph, we try to look at our fragile, broken world through the lens of the Gospel. Through communal prayer...personal contemplation...interaction and ministry, we commit ourselves to live and work to bring all into union with God and one another.

April 7, 2013.

Contemplation

"A Silence In Which Another Voice May Speak"

In ancient times Roman star-gazers marked off an area of the sky designated as the "templum" and fixed their gaze on it to discern the sacred, immutable order, the template, according to which their lives here below ought to be lived.

"Contemplum," "with the templum," suggests that contemplation involves restoring to our lives the original vision of harmony, oneness, wholeness of the divine and human spirit.

When we fix our gaze on the epiphanies of the sacred in which we are immersed daily and strive to live out the consequences of that vision in a contemplative stance toward all beings, our heart is purified and our mind cleared of the distractions that weary our soul.

In the practice of asceticism of the heart we are enabled to see beyond the forms of the reality of our world into the content, the soul, the truth of reality, the true self of all beings including our own true self.

It is within this experience of contemplation that our life becomes revelatory of the sacred dwelling in all that exists.

And then we discover that each event is an encounter with the mystery of God; and each being is a revelation of the love of God; and each place and space are sanctuaries of the presence of God.
Joan Heptig,CSJ

Praying

It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch
a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway
into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.

Mary Oliver