Read Online Dedicated to God by Abbie Reese - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Abbie Reese
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in this now remote but still poignant teaching moment. “The thing is,” she says, “we didn’t choose each other. God chose. God chose who we were going to live with the rest of our lives and that’s where we say, especially if women can get along together, can struggle together and get along, that shows the grace of God is there. It’s God’s grace that makes a marriage work. It’s God’s grace that helps us in community to be faithful and get along. Like marriage, you have to work at it.”
“But our response to other people’s personality is because of the love of God,” says the Vicaress, Sister Maria Deo Gratias. “It’s a little different than the divided life of a married another person. For us, we’re all looking at God together. That would be a way of picturing it. All of us stand together looking in the same direction, focusing our life in the same direction and it’s like a circle. We’re all standing in a circle and the center is Christ and the more we come closer to Christ, the closer we are to each other.
“We are different people and we do think differently. But there is that unity—that core unity—that holds us together and it’s a beautiful experienceto live in community. The give and take that we learned as a kid, we apply that here.” Having lived in another religious order before entering the Corpus Christi Monastery, Sister Maria Deo Gratias says this community exhibits a “beautiful grace,” embracing the “essentials that we all treasure so much”—the same values and a “centeredness on living the life.” “You understand that you’re bound to have people make different choices, but our community is very united in our basic values—very, very much so, more than other communities, and I’ve experienced many of them. And that’s a plus for us.”
Sister Maria Benedicta first joined an active religious order, living with that community for five years before entering the Corpus Christi Monastery. “God has a special place for everybody,” she says. “It’s not just—religious life, go join wherever you want. He has a special place and a special purpose. And every community has what is called a charism—it’s like their spirit—and you’re created to be in that community. You have that spirit. God has given that to you. It’s your home. It’s where you will fit, where you will become holy. It’s where my spirituality matches that of the community so we can strive together to holiness. Not that we’re all the same because we’re not. But we have the common spirituality and charism to strive together toward God.”
Sister Maria Deo Gratias explains:
The higher you come into the spiritual life, the more you’re able to accept differences because the spiritual life expands you. Whereas if you have a very narrow way of thinking, it all has to fit in that narrow little package, and if it doesn’t, then you break out in some way—impatience, or you submerge yourself, or whatever. But the deeper you come into union with God, you come to accept people the way they are. There doesn’t have to be any breakage. You can have union in diversity.
And we know—we certainly know—that our sister is striving to do the best she can. She falls short just like I fall short so therefore we don’t take that amiss or against her; it’s just we have a greater compassion to say, “I know what you mean, Sister. You fell today. I fell yesterday.” And it’s just that type of it’s no big deal about it, but we do strive together and that’s why at times, we hold ourselves accountable to say—every evening before collation, we say—“I’m sorry.” We say that as a group because we know that we are human. We annoy. And we may not even know the annoyances we give another person. And it may be that on a particular day I didn’t annoy someone, but I say sorry for anytime that I have. And you always are crystal clear with God.
For Sister Joan Marie, monastic life jarred
“But our response to other people’s personality is because of the love of God,” says the Vicaress, Sister Maria Deo Gratias. “It’s a little different than the divided life of a married another person. For us, we’re all looking at God together. That would be a way of picturing it. All of us stand together looking in the same direction, focusing our life in the same direction and it’s like a circle. We’re all standing in a circle and the center is Christ and the more we come closer to Christ, the closer we are to each other.
“We are different people and we do think differently. But there is that unity—that core unity—that holds us together and it’s a beautiful experienceto live in community. The give and take that we learned as a kid, we apply that here.” Having lived in another religious order before entering the Corpus Christi Monastery, Sister Maria Deo Gratias says this community exhibits a “beautiful grace,” embracing the “essentials that we all treasure so much”—the same values and a “centeredness on living the life.” “You understand that you’re bound to have people make different choices, but our community is very united in our basic values—very, very much so, more than other communities, and I’ve experienced many of them. And that’s a plus for us.”
Sister Maria Benedicta first joined an active religious order, living with that community for five years before entering the Corpus Christi Monastery. “God has a special place for everybody,” she says. “It’s not just—religious life, go join wherever you want. He has a special place and a special purpose. And every community has what is called a charism—it’s like their spirit—and you’re created to be in that community. You have that spirit. God has given that to you. It’s your home. It’s where you will fit, where you will become holy. It’s where my spirituality matches that of the community so we can strive together to holiness. Not that we’re all the same because we’re not. But we have the common spirituality and charism to strive together toward God.”
Sister Maria Deo Gratias explains:
The higher you come into the spiritual life, the more you’re able to accept differences because the spiritual life expands you. Whereas if you have a very narrow way of thinking, it all has to fit in that narrow little package, and if it doesn’t, then you break out in some way—impatience, or you submerge yourself, or whatever. But the deeper you come into union with God, you come to accept people the way they are. There doesn’t have to be any breakage. You can have union in diversity.
And we know—we certainly know—that our sister is striving to do the best she can. She falls short just like I fall short so therefore we don’t take that amiss or against her; it’s just we have a greater compassion to say, “I know what you mean, Sister. You fell today. I fell yesterday.” And it’s just that type of it’s no big deal about it, but we do strive together and that’s why at times, we hold ourselves accountable to say—every evening before collation, we say—“I’m sorry.” We say that as a group because we know that we are human. We annoy. And we may not even know the annoyances we give another person. And it may be that on a particular day I didn’t annoy someone, but I say sorry for anytime that I have. And you always are crystal clear with God.
For Sister Joan Marie, monastic life jarred
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