A New Front Door

Last week our local community moved into a new house after fourteen years in our dear ranch style home on Oaklawn. Over the years many Apostles called it home and several of us lived there as young women in formation. I personally spent much of my discernment of the community in that house, praying in its sweet little chapel, and seeing for the first time what consecrated life looked like from the inside.

It was a bittersweet parting. On one hand I could feel the excitement of what was new: a new local community (our combination of sisters have never all lived together), a new quantity of sisters (we’ve never been so many in an American house), and all of this in a new home! But of course, as boxes and furniture left through the front door and the house became emptier and emptier, a layer of sadness coated the immense gratitude that filled my heart.

Gratitude was the primary and overwhelming sensation. That house became a home for me long before its keys resided in my purse pocket. In it I experienced a variety of encounters. Firstly, with the Lord who, during my college years, pursued my heart in a way that I had never been pursued before, and slowly but surely conquered it and claimed it as His own. It was also a place of encounter with my neighbor. The different sisters who lived there revealed to me, through their simplicity of life, the beauty and joy of giving one’s whole self to the Lord. The students who visited their home along with me taught me that it’s possible to seek virtue and holiness, all while maintaining a healthy “normalcy”.

But a knot did creep up into my throat as we prayed one last prayer in the chapel and accompanied Jesus to His new home. It was a simple prayer, one of thanksgiving and intercession: for those who had passed through its doors and for those who will come in the future. That it continue to be a place of encounter with the Lord even if in a new way, and that our new home be filled with His presence as this one had been.

Interestingly enough, or perhaps fittingly so, once the Blessed Sacrament was out of the house, I began to move boxes and furniture with more ease. It was as if He preceded us to the new home and was now calling us to follow Him. In fact, His presence was the defining one under that roof. He is the source and center. It was never about that particular sister who lived there (she comes and goes). And it was never about those certain students that came more frequently (their turnover rate remains stable at 4 years). It has always been Him. And it will be His presence that characterizes the new home as well.

There is still a lot of unpacking and organizing to be done. By no means are we “all settled in” but He is here. And so, our little local community comes together as a response to His call and with trust we begin a new adventure ready to create new memories with new sisters and new students, all behind a new front door but in the presence of the same Lord who is as good and as loving as ever.

 

Thanks for all of the memories Oaklawn house: birthdays, Easter lilies, community life, baking kolaches, celebrating victory (KU National Championship), and Night prayer with the students. You will be missed but there are many new memories to come!