"What, dear ones, is more delightful than this voice of the Lord calling to us? See how the Lord in his love shows us the way of life."

In this post, Sr. Antoinette Purcell, shares with us her favorite quote from the Rule of St. Benedict.

It has been many years since I was a novice in this community but I still remember that one of my favorite quotes in the Rule of Benedict at that time was from the Prologue verses 19-20, "What, dear ones, is more delightful than this voice of the Lord calling to us? See how the Lord in his love shows us the way of life." At that time, the verses helped me through times of trial that every novice faces. I kept reminding myself that the voice of the Lord calling me took precedence over everything else.

Now, all these years later the verses take on new meaning for me especially as we continue our Easter celebration. The scriptures of this season keep reminding us that we are called to a new way of life. The call is to all the baptized. We renewed our baptismal commitment at the Easter Vigil. Now is the time to live what we promised, trusting that the Risen Christ is the one who sets the example and shows us the way, ever with us as Advocate Spirit, giving us nourishment in the Eucharist and teaching us by the Word of God.

For the commercial world, Easter is prepared for by putting new clothes and sweets before our eyes, enticing us to indulge in things that do not last. The stores quickly unload their Easter goodies the day after. But for us Christians, the church celebrates seven weeks of Easter. What a nice balance to the six weeks of preparation we did before Easter. We know that the true "goodies" of Easter last for eternity. While we celebrate the Risen Christ year round, it is during this season that we renew the reality of the mystery that is core to our faith that life as we know it on earth is about transformation; and that death is the passage to eternal life. We remind ourselves that we have been called by the God who loves us more than we can imagine, who points out to us the way of life and who desires to be one with us. The only question is how will we respond? Will we put away our baptismal commitment the way the stores change their shelves the day after Easter? Or, will we allow the sweet voice of the Lord to beckon us ever onward along the path that leads to life?

Vocation Essay

How do priest, deacons, and religious brothers and sisters help us to hear God call in our lives?

Each day or every other day most of us are taught by a religious person. If you go to church on weekends or any other day you are being taught by a priest. When I say that you are being taught I mean that the priests are helping us to hear God’s call to follow him. Everyone needs to know what God is calling them to do. If God is calling someone to do something in their lives then they should do it. God is choosing the best path for his children. People are blocking out God from their minds and they don’t choose the right path. They would rather go down a road of temptation and sin.
Through-out the years the number of religious men and women have decreased. There are less priest, deacons, and nuns in the world. That means that there are less people to preach the word of God. God is calling us to be the light of the world and to preach the word of God. People who went to a Catholic school about thirty years ago were taught by nuns. These days only a few nuns teach in Catholic schools. They mainly teach religion classes. God is calling us to love him and serve his people. When people don’t listen to God’s call they grow further away from God.
Priests, deacons, and religious brothers and sister help us to hear God’s call by teaching us the way of the Lord. We need to listen to them when they are teaching us. When you go to mass the priest has a sermon after the gospel. We need to listen to what the priest tells us. He is telling us that we should always have our hearts open to God. We should always listen to what God says.
Nuns also tell us to always open our hearts to God. They tell us that God is our friend and our mentor. We should always be close to him.
A sister said to me that when she was little she wanted to have a dozen children. Then when she was a little older she wanted to be a nurse. She then thought that she could do both. Then one day she heard a sister talk to her class about being a sister and all the cool stuff about it. She said all the ways that you could serve God and your neighbors. She said that was the best thing that she could do. She said that she could be a teacher, nurse; she could go to orphanage to help the children, and be a sister. She said that it just wasn’t what she wanted to do but what God wanted her to do. She said that there would be “little ways” to live the life God wants you to live. It will be with the gifts God gave to you.

Josh C. 7th Grade

Vocation Essay

How do priests, deacons, and religious brothers and sisters help us to hear God’s call in our life?

They teach us the way to eternal happiness, to everlasting peace. They take us by the hand the way a loving mother would take her children. They help us understand what God’s wants us to do in our life, and they help us develop our conscience. They spend their life going to mass and praying to God. They also model the life God wants us to live.

All of these religious leaders use their valuable time to help us better understand Jesus. They come to church daily and pray. They can only do so much for us. We need to take charge of our own lives. We need to use what they taught us to become better Christian children. We need to do what we can to relate their teachings to real life.

I believe what Fr. Eric Johnson said, “Whether married, single, deacon, priest, or religious, our vocation in life is to Christ’s word of salvation and promise. It is a call that leads us into deeper knowledge, love, and service of God, and summons us to the love and service of others.”
God calls us and wants us to believe and trust in him like we would our parents, or our friends. We need to answer God’s call to us and we need to answer his loving question, “Will you follow me and become a servant of my children?”

If you look in the bible you will see Jesus was a good example to us. If we follow in his footsteps we can reach our potential in life.

Sr. Mary Cecile’s life was a good example to us on how to live our own life. She was a very loving and guiding person. She was in an intimate relationship with Jesus, the son of God. She was the Spiritual Director. Sr. Mary Cecile was in ministry for 61 years. She became a nun in 1945, but even before that she served God ever since she was a little girl.

Taylor B. 7th Grade

Fr. Matthias Neuman's Homily for the Second Week of Easter

For these Sundays after Easter I’d like to so something similar to what I did for the Sundays of Lent. There we looked at the various meanings of the sacrament of Baptism and what it produces in our lives; for these Sundays I would like to delve into the multiple meanings in the Resurrection story (the Paschal Mystery). The placing of the Paschal Mystery at the very heart of Catholic Christian faith was one of the greatest achievements of the Second Vatican Council. However, it will take decades and even longer for the full fruit of this teaching to reach the parish pews and allow ordinary believers to assimilate it into their lives of faith. The Resurrection-theme we want to look at today is: the Resurrection of Jesus is a new act of God. It is an emphasis on God's saving action. The same God who brought the Israelites out of Egypt, who gave them the Torah on Mt. Sinai, who led them into the promised land, who led them back from Exile....this God has performed another great saving action--to raise Jesus from the dead. The Resurrection is a new creative act from the great mystery of all things.

We so easily see Jesus as the central figure in the Resurrection and indeed the later texts of the New Testament even allude to Jesus raising himself with his own powers. But those texts are assuming a growing assertion by Christians of the divine power in Jesus. That same view is also reflected in a lot of our liturgical texts: "Dying he destroyed our death, rising he restored our life. Lord Jesus, come in glory." But the oldest New Testament kerygma of the Resurrection clearly name it as an "act of God." "Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you with deeds of power, wonder and signs....you crucified and killed....But God raised him up, having freed him from death." (Acts 2:22-23) "This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses." (Acts 2:32) Very clearly, one of the most significant meanings of the Resurrection is that it was (and is) a saving action of God in our world!

So, to be a modern believer in the Resurrection of Jesus we need to believe in God’s action in our world. One of the issues we face then is asking ourselves: where EXACTLY do we believe that God "acts" in this world we live in? Let’s not fool ourselves; we live in a modern secular culture which makes it very difficult to believe in a divine, supernatural action in everyday life. Two examples. One is from a fictional television show, where a police detective is interviewing a suspect in a religious murder. He asks the man, who is a scientist: "Do you believe in God?" The man responds: "I take the only reasonable position that any sane individual would take: I’m an agnostic." Let’s take a real example. Last Wednesday evening after we finished the Eucharist at the University of Indianapolis, I heard two of the students talking. One was thinking out loud: "Do you think it’s possible that we would ever find the burial place of Jesus?" The other responded: "Well, if we do, it would be empty." The other responded: "Well, of course, the remains would have disintegrated." The other replied: "No, that was the body that was raised up." The first responded: "Do you think God can go against the laws of nature?" The second replied: "Why not? He made them in the first place." We live in a culture and climate of doubt. The issue here is not just believing in God, but in believing in God’s real action in our world.

The question facing each of us is: where exactly do I believe that God acts in my world? If I pray for courage to face an operation, and it turns out that I have the courage needed, do I believe that God gave that to me? We pray for a lot of things in our daily Prayers of the Faithful. Do we believe that it’s really God’s action that we are asking for. To affirm a belief in the Resurrection of Jesus each Easter season is to challenge us to ponder these questions more closely.

Divine Mercy Sunday

For the Sake of His Sorrowful Passion...Have Mercy on Us and on the Whole World!

"I am Love and Mercy itself. There is no misery that could be a match for my mercy; neither will misery exhaust it, because as it is being granted, it increases. The soul that trusts in my mercy is most fortunate, because I myself take care of it."

(Words of Christ to St. Faustina Kowalska)

Alleluia!

Alleluia!

This is the day you have made for us, Risen Lord, a day of happiness and joy! We pray to you, Lord: make each day that you give us the most beautiful day of our lives, because it is the day you have chosen for us to encounter you,
O Risen Christ!
(Thomas Merton)

Vocation Essay

How do priests, deacons and religious brothers and sisters help us to hear God’s call in our lives?

This is the topic for this essay. This is an important question, but also a fairly simple question to answer. Though it is simple to answer, there’s still a lot to say. Let’s take a look at some things that Fr. Eric Johnson said in his article, “Hearing God’s Call”, which was put in the “Criterion” on January 9, 2009.
“…We are called to be people of prayer seeking to discern God’s will in all that we do and to respond faithfully with all that we have… Through their own lives and ministry, priests, deacons, and men and women religious help us to remember God’s call in our own lives… They teach us to listen, call us to service and witness to the God that calls each of us by name. Their vocation reminds us at the importance of discovering and living out our own.”
You can find many answers to the question in that passage. Just reading that passage should be enough to answer that question. Nevertheless, I will explain some things about that passage. In this next paragraph, I will explain what this passage stated.
The first part is telling us that to find what we should do in life, we should ask God through prayer, and we should respond to His answer with all of the gifts and talents that He has given us. The second part tells us that the example of the lives of the ministry, priests, deacons, and men and women religious help us know how we should be living our lives as God calls us to. The third part states that they teach us to listen to God, encourage us to serve others and God, It also states that their vocation reminds us to find ours, and live it out with all the gifts and talents that God has given us.
I, myself, am fortunate enough to be taught by Sister Nicolette Etienne, who is a Benedictine Sister. She always makes sure that we know our vocation, which is to love God, and serve His people. I am also blessed with the presence of Fr. Stan Pondo and Fr. Aaron Jenkins who teach us about living our vocations, and who live their vocations as an example to how we should live ours. I now know that it is my duty and vocation to teach others about their vocation, who aren’t as fortunate as I to be taught by these wonderful people.

Chris B 8th Grade