Newsletter Update July 2022

July 20, 2022

Dear Family and Friends!

I am writing to y’all from a new location: Assisi, Italy! This year our community is doing its vacation and planning time here. What a gift to be in such a peaceful place where many a saintly foot has trod! Know that I am holding every one of you in my prayers in each of the special places we are able to visit while here. That said, let’s jump right into our normal newsletter format…

BUT FIRST! I have an important piece of news and life update to share: I have received a new mission and will be moving back to Texas! I will live in our house in College Station and dedicate my time to campus ministry and vocational work in the States. As you can imagine, this will be the overarching theme of the rest of the Newsletter so keep reading to find out more!...

Important Events

- July 1-21 – community time in Assisi with all of the sisters (vacation/planning for the new year)

- July 24-30 – my annual Spiritual Exercises (I will do them again in Loreto, Italy)

- August 1 – I fly to Texas (without a return ticket!!) (and my parents celebrate 35 years of marriage!)

- August 1-8 – family time at home

- August 8 – arrival in College Station to start my new mission

- Late August/early September – move into a bigger house in College Station

- December 7 – third anniversary of my consecration

Story Time

Sometimes, unfortunately, we consecrated people can seem to be immersed in a one-sided relationship. Our Spouse – the Divine Bridegroom – is invisible to the naked eye and so, externally, it would appear that, apart from community activities, we do most things alone: we pray alone, we sleep alone, we rejoice alone, we grieve alone, we succeed and we fail…alone. This can be the impression one has from the outside looking in but what about the vantage point of us consecrated people? How can we fall into this one-sided view of our relationship with the Lord?

I noticed this happening to me recently as I was planning my goodbyes to people here in Italy and making a schedule of my last visits to favorite sites in Rome. As I made out my long detailed list and inserted it into my google calendar, it honestly never occurred to me that Jesus might also have people and places that He wanted to see and to visit with me before my departure. And as I stressed and got frustrated when days passed and didn’t go “perfectly” according to plan, I had no idea what joy He had in store for us.

In those last full weeks in Rome, I finally started to accept that I just wasn’t going to see certain people or places. My “failure” in planning left me with some unexpected “free” moments. Unbeknownst to me, the Lord would soon fill these with encounters that I did not even dare to desire for as much as they were “impossible” – friends who normally live in different countries, continents, and even hemispheres that traveled to Rome in those very days! He organized day trips in which I got to see historic parts of Rome that we usually don’t have tickets for. He even had me “randomly” run into people who I had only seen one other time in my life just to bring to mind a special memory with Him! The experiences I had jam packed into those few days put to shame the measly little schedule I had put so much thought and effort into.

When that last week was finally over and I found myself packed and ready for our month of community time in Assisi before my flight back to Texas, I sat down in awe. The week that I had dreaded for months – the one that I couldn’t decide if I wanted to never have to live or live really fast just to get it over with – that week had been, more than anything else, filled with Him, saturated with His presence: the presence of the Bridegroom who gently and creatively weaved everything together for His beloved bride. It was as if He wanted to ever so softly and yet firmly remind me that He isn’t just a part of those big existential questions of my life but wants to have a say in every little aspect. He has memories, favorite places, and friends too. And He wants to share them with me and be consulted about how we use our time together because our love is not one sided… it goes both ways.

Where is my heart?

So…the month of June was my “goodbye month” in Rome. Needless to say, it was a month of many emotions. As we say in Italian, some days I was more “up” (su) and other days I was more “down” (giù). I learned a lot that month: about myself, about the Lord…about my heart.

At first everything was a bit heavy. I hadn’t started saying my goodbyes yet and the thought of them immediately brought tears to my eyes and a knot to my throat. The temptation was to slip into “nostalgic mode” and mentally list off all that I would no longer do, see, have…once I moved to Texas. This did not help to lift my low spirits. Rather, it pulled me deeper into the heaviness I was already experiencing.

What was the game changer you ask? Living in the present moment. Once I actually started saying my goodbyes, I experienced anew the grace that lives in the here and now. It wasn’t as terrible as I had imagined, and if I didn’t manage to see that person or place I wanted to, the Lord had something else in store.

The pain of saying goodbye to people that have become dear to us – or even to places that have been important for our journey – is normal and healthy. It is a sign that love and goodness existed in those relationships and that the Lord manifested Himself in concrete places. But this pain isn’t meant to be desperate or bitter. Rather, it should bring about hope and be sweet because it is a reminder of God’s goodness and a promise that He will continue to bless us with life-giving relationships and concrete places of encounter with Him.

Once I was able to collocate myself in the present moment, immense gratitude began to blossom in my heart. How great is Your goodness oh God! How much You must love me to give me such good gifts! What ever can I do to thank You, to praise You adequately, for all You have done in my life? What other wonders must You have in store for me in this new adventure?...

And so it is in this place that I now find my heart: settled in the ground of His goodness, overflowing with gratitude and joy. Peace and excitement for what is to come. I make my own the words of the former U.N. Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld: “For all that has been, Thanks. To all that shall be, Yes!”

Prayer Intentions

- For my Spiritual Exercises: that I may live them with openness to whatever word the Lord wants to speak into my heart.

- For my transition into the new mission and the new community in Texas: for graces of patience in adjusting to a new atmosphere and rhythm of life; as well as trust that God’s will is the “better part” for all who embrace it with joy.

- For the community in Rome that I am leaving and for the sisters who are transitioning from a mission in the States to life in the Eternal City.

- For our work in campus ministry at St. Mary’s Catholic Center; for all of the students, new and returning, and for all of the staff: that the Lord may be generous in encountering each of them where they are at.

- For our young women in formation, for their discernment and journey towards consecration as an Apostle of the Interior Life: Alexa, Kate, Liz, and Laurita.

- For the young women discerning a possible call to Consecrated Life and in particular to our community: that they may be open to God’s invitation and that we may be ready to accompany them in their journey.

Pictures

Enjoying the beautiful sunsets in Assisi



With Laurita after an afternoon of evangelization in St. Peter's Square



With Aunt Sharon and Karin at the Colosseum!



Taking a walk by the Trevi Fountain

Taking a last look at the ancient beginnings of the Eternal City

United always in Him,

Sr. Cherise

 

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