18 Mar 08 – A Time for saying Thanks

We thanked the women who helped in the kitchen during this time:

Dearest ROSINA, STEFANIA, PATRIZIA, ANGELA, LALLA, and MAY, we are finishing our Chapter and we cannot tell you enough THANK YOU! Each of us would like to express this in her own language and in her own particular way. But one language is common to all..that of love and so… THANK YOU! You have been for all of us and each of us, a gentle and discreet presence, attentive and available, generous and silent, but always joyful. How many times you have we met you and you have sought to make us feel comfortable… how incredible the way you sustained us with food, snacks and…your sweetness… For all you’ve done…THANK YOU! We want to express it with a small gift, a sign of our affection and of the prayer that we assure you!

— — — At the end of our work, this evening we celebrated the right of mandate. The prayer was centered on the theme of the Chapter: “For the Sake of Christ”, recalling the text of John 3:4-5:   “Nicodemus said to Jesus: ‘How can man be reborn when he is old? Can he perhaps enter the womb of his mother a second time and be reborn?’. Jesus responded to him saying: ‘In truth, in truth I say to you, if one is not born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the reign of God.’”

… and one writing by Mons. Oscar Romero, that we share here:“The Reign is not only come by our own efforts, but it even more so from our vision. We realize in our time of life only a tiny fraction of the great undertaking of the work of God. Nothing of which we do is complete, it is another way of saying that the Reign is always above us. No affirmation says all that could be said. No prayer expresses completely our faith. No confession carries to perfection. No pastoral visit carries to the fullness. No program completely carried out contains the mission of the Church. No series of aims and objectives encompasses everything. This is that which we do. We plant seeds that grow one day. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they carry a promise for the future. We lay foundations that have need of further development. We procure leaven that produces effects beyond our capacity. We cannot do everything and there is a sense of freedom in rendering account for it. This gives us the capacity to do something and to do it well. It may be incomplete, but it is begun, a long passage along a road, an occasion for the grace of God to enter and to the rest. We may never see the results, But this is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not masters; servants, not messiahs. WE are prophets of a future that is not our own.”

At the end M. Margaret gave to all the “stole” of the mandate, so that now each Capitular Sister is invited to be witnesses among the Sisters of the grace of God infused in us in these days.