Skip to main content

Encountering Mary

As a convert to the Catholic Faith, devotion to Mary has long been difficult to me. Even as I learned about her and began to understand the Church's teaching on Mary, I saw her as someone so perfect, so different from me, that I could not relate to her. I felt myself too sinful, too dirty to pray and ask the help of one so pure.

Four years ago I made a journey to our Motherhouse in Germany. I was there for three months and a friend likened it to the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth. While I am far from being like Mary, I did come close to her in a new and wonderful way during my stay. In Germany I came to know a co-sister who showed me Mary in a new light. She embodied Mary as one who was always composed, neat and orderly and deeply spiritual. Yet warm and approachable, not just approachable by me but one who sought to be with me. I am blessed with a friendship that has lasted since that time even though we are now separated by an ocean. Not only the friendship has lasted and grown, but the encounter with Mary has grown, a real relationship with this blessed Mother of my Lord. She is ever waiting, even seeking to help me, to purify and place my good intentions and sacrifices at the feet of Christ. She seeks the grace for me so that I can be pleasing to Him Whom I have espoused.  When I receive Him each day in Holy Communion, I can ask her to take Him into her Immaculate Heart on my behalf, for my heart is unworthy of Him. Only give me the grace of another day, another chance to offer penance for my sins. Then, also, I can place my family and loved ones into her hands and know that she will take good care of them. I can place all my life into her hands, every moment an offering, in trust and peace that those I have promised to pray for and all those who need our prayers will not be neglected through my weakness and forgetfulness. I speak to Mary quite often now and I tell her all my worries and one word thus far she speaks to me, "trust". In all things trust God who loves you and wants the best for you and will lead you every step of the way to Himself. Only trust.


Then I seek also to show her my gratitude for a Mother so generous and patient, so loving and gentle, who has waited a long time to take this daughter under her mantel.

- Sister M. Joan, FSGM

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Welcome to our Family, Postulants!!!

Today, on the Feast of the Birth of Mary, our new postulants entered the postulancy of our American Province of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George! We thank God for the gift of these vocations. Pictured above - on their very first full day in the convent - are (from left) Ashley Vola, Samantha Goodson, Miranda Edgar, Jennifer Clark and Erin Leis. Welcome, Postulants! We Sisters are grateful that you have accepted Christ's invitation to belong totally to Him in our Franciscan community, and we support you wholeheartedly with our prayers and help! If you would like to send a word of welcome and encouragement to these new postulants, we will pass the greetings along to them. Just leave them as a "comment"!

Looking Back with Gratitude

“Christ is calling you; the Church needs you; the Pope believes in you and he expects great things of you!” My life would never be the same as the words of John Paul II coursed through my mind and beat with fervor in my heart. Me? Could he possibly mean me? Like many others, I felt Pope John Paul II was speaking directly to me as I sat behind him in the nose-bleed section of the stadium in Saint Louis. Throughout my high school years after this encounter, the idea of having a possible vocation to the religious life shocked and bewildered me, but at the same time brought me such peace. As each year came and went, my relationship with Jesus Christ and His Church grew with greater depth, understanding, and love. Through daily mass, Eucharistic Adoration, the Rosary, Scripture and God’s divine intervention through his priests and religious, I soon realized that, yes, the Pope did mean me. Christ was calling me and how could I say no? After one year of college, I soon came to the realizatio

Journey with Mary: Sacrificial Love of Spiritual Motherhood

                Recently, I found a reflection I had written during my first retreat as a postulant. The last conference that had been given was on Spiritual Motherhood. As I approached the 4 th Station where Jesus meets His Sorrowful Mother, this is what struck my heart:                 What is the sacrificial love of a mother? It is the self-sacrifice made to love her children. Mary’s self-sacrifice to be there with Christ, her Son, in His passion was the selfless love that united her with Him. Her heart was pierced with 7 swords in the agony of watching her beloved Son endure a cross that He did not deserve, but which He embraced for the love of the Father and mankind. Could she not have said to Jesus, “You don’t have to do this, there are other ways. Do you know how much pain You are causing me and those who love you?” She knew He could have chosen any other way to save us, but this was the Father’s will, and so in silent love Mary trusted. If the world is suffering, why do y