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SFP VOICES JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010
Vol. VI, No. 1 © |
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Reflection on Consecrated Life
HEALER GOD
You are the Holy One You are the Healing Power You are Healing Fire You are Healing Touch Healer God, |
Healer God Healer God, For like Francis and Mother Frances
Sister June Casterton, SFP |
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“I try to graft my life as a consecrated woman in the mystery of Christ Crucified and Risen, from whom our Healing Charism springs forth.”
Sr. Antonietta Urdì, sfp
I am still moved when I remember the first time I met the eyes of Mother Frances: they were sweet and strong, and conveyed love and mercy. This was the encounter that marked my life forever, and made me part of the Healing Charism.
Since then, the Charism put me into a history of personal and communal Salvation, filled each day with light and shadows, joys and suffering, death and resurrection. I remember once I was walking along the streets of Rome feeling a deep sense of failure and disappointment. At one point I felt prompted to enter a Church. The Eucharist was exposed for Adoration. A sacred atmosphere enveloped the place, and I opened my heart in a deep dialogue with the Lord. After a while, I felt a profound sense of wellness, almost like a nice breeze, that was healing my soul. In my experience, praying before Jesus in the Eucharist has always been the main source of our Healing Charism.
I have been living in Porta San Giacomo for several years now. It is a community where we share our lives with young women who are victims of trafficking. My daily ministry with these women is carried out in the awareness that every act, every attitude, word and glance is an expression of our Healing Charism. I humbly listen to the Holy Spirit, who points out to me how to welcome and love each woman.
One Woman’s Story . . .
Not too long ago, we welcomed a seventeen year old young woman who had serious problems. When she arrived I was moved by her sad and frightened demeanor. For a whole day she told us that she wasn’t hungry. I thought that maybe she would like a bit of chocolate. When she saw me, she smiled a bit. I sat next to her on the bed and our eyes met. I could tell that she was begging for help and understanding. We began to talk. Then in her poor Italian she told me her story of poverty and suffering. I felt that we were establishing a relationship based on trust and that she was letting herself be loved. On the morning of her departure she asked what my name was. Later that evening, when I went to her room, I was surprised to find on the desk the stuffed animal she loved so much. She had left a short letter in which she thanked me for being close to her. “Now I am fine because I have felt close to you... I will not forget you, and please do no forget me... Thanks for everything.”
“ Faith leads me to believe that nothing is done in vain when it is done out of love, because love remains and eventually will bear fruit in due time.”
My experiences have taught me that many times the fruits of healing are not always immediate and visible. Sometimes they are marked by the misunderstanding and reticence that these women feel toward others. However, faith leads me to believe that nothing is done in vain when it is done out of love, because love remains and eventually will bear fruit in due time.
I try to graft my life as a consecrated woman in the mystery of Christ Crucified and Risen, from whom our Healing Charism springs forth. From Him I get the strength and trust to live each day and be a witness and a prophetic sign of God’s love among us.
Reflections on a Life of Covenant...
“I need a whole community of people to help me.”
Associate Leah Curtin
 Associate Leah Curtin's favorite picture of Jesus |
"Lay affiliates or associates are women and men who wish to formally associate themselves with a religious community, their mission and spirituality."(1) Undoubtedly this is true, but for me, it's more complicated. My answers are found in an internal yearning to be part of a community that is actively searching for God; in a need to grow spiritually - and to have ready access to opportunities to do so; in an affinity for the healing Charism of Mother Frances. Actively pursuing prayer of healing, and participating in a Healing Circle are among the many spiritual opportunities opened to me through Associate life.
And more! I want to know God, not just know about God! Obviously, we can never fully comprehend God because God is incomprehensible and infinite. Even so, we are called in our Baptism to embrace this Mystery, and in our Confirmation to fall into God's loving embrace: to let go - and to trust, totally! I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m not so good at letting go. I need a whole community of people to help me.
This desire for God doesn’t originate with us: we long for God because God first longed for us. Pretty cool when you think about it! And I need people to help me think about it: out loud and upfront. For me, so many questions remain.
The challenge is to hold onto the questions and to search lightly, peacefully while remaining firmly rooted in my own vocation and experience of God -- yet open to the surprising ways that God is revealed in ordinary events, nature, and other people. That’s the Franciscan way -- and this is why I choose to walk with the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor. It is my promise, my covenant…
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(1) North American Council of Associates and Religious
LIVES OF CONSECRATION AND COMMITMENT:
Witnessing with Joy and Enthusiasm
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“Mary and the Infant Jesus,” by Sister Helena Paula Carvalho
“Mary was the first woman to consecrate herself”
“We want to heal the wounds of Christ in all our brothers and sisters.”
Sister Helena Paula Carvalho, SFP
Forty five years ago I left my family and town in response to Christ’s call. God chose me with love to follow the Evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience. This privileged invitation is directed to many other hearts who are compelled by the gift and action of the Holy Spirit to follow Christ.
Consecrating our life to Christ in the Church is about witnessing with joy and enthusiasm to the love we embrace, proclaiming through our existence that the Lord is the absolute in our lives! God fills our hearts with the endless source of Merciful Love. We are consecrated and called to incarnate in the world the example of Christ who was chaste, poor and obedient.
The consecrated desire to generate hope and foster charity and peace through forgiveness and reconciliation. We want to heal the wounds of Christ in all our brothers and sisters. Jesus has some criteria for this commitment, such as, seeing His face in others beyond any appearances: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me. . .” [Matthew 25:35].
Living the Gospel Way of Life by ministering with the Church through its daycare centers, hospices, hospitals, and institutions of support to children, teenagers and adults, is an exercise of charity and a great challenge to overcome all barriers and cultural differences. Our commitment to healing calls us to look at the root causes of suffering and discouragement, sickness, violence, abuse, the commercialization of women, trafficking of children, and other critical situations in family and society. It is the example of Christ that inspires us to witness to this compassion, hope and solidarity.
The last Chapter in the Vita Consecrata document is entitled: “Engaged in Dialogue with Everyone.” It deals with the relationship between consecration and ecumenism, a dialogue open to the action of the Holy Spirit and capable of demolishing the walls of prejudice and separation.
The Church offers models of faith, hope and charity that prevail among consecrated religious as prophetic witnesses to the Lord in faithful service to all brothers and sisters, committed to following Christ according to the many charisms abundantly spread around this world.
May God inspire all consecrated women and men to live in unity with the Trinity in docile openness to the full dedication of themselves to the Kingdom of God. . . . and may God inspire all women and men religious as they serve the needy according to their diverse charisms in a chaste and obedient life in light of the religious experience of their founders and foundresses.
 Gemma Toupane talks with Srs. Francesca Atorino and Teresa Lamparelli |
Consecration and Covenant in Senegal |
 Leopold Bianquinch prepares to make First Covenant. Renewing Covenants are: Marie Madeline Drame, Marie Noelle Da Sylva, Cecile Ndiaye, Etienne Ndong |
 Senegal Sunset |
Healer God, You are Healing Fire who stirs the yearning and longing for holiness and wholeness. You burn away the darkness and heal us by your warm embrace. |
 SFP Senegal: The four communities of Senegal |
 Marie Noelle Dasylva renews Covenant |
 Time for Joy... |
 A Life of Holiness: Sr. Anne Claire Kabore |
Copyright 2010 Franciscan Sisters of the Poor