As April ends I’m looking back at the month in awe of all
who have blessed us with their presence. We've had 8th grade
graduating retreats, high school graduation retreats, and and Faculty
retreats. We had a senior retreat (as in seasoned adults) which focused
on novelist E. M. Forster ‘s book Hope For The Flowers. In it
Foster says “ We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned,
so as to have the life that is waiting for me.” Using the
paradigm of the metamorphosis of a butterfly, Sr. Clare D’Auria invited all,
during this Easter season, to reflect on our own aging process as the kind of
real diminishment that is also the necessary prelude to transformation into
Christ and the only way through which we can journey toward the true freedom
that is resurrected life.
We had a Secular Franciscan Weekend Retreat on the
Franciscan Theological Tradition focusing fully on God’s Extravagant Love as
the fountain-fullness that overshadows all we do and all we are. While
this retreat was going on we also hosted a diocesan sponsored program for the
deaf community. The liturgy for that Sunday was prepared and executed by
the deaf community of the diocese of Philadelphia .
At that liturgy all of us understood in a very real way what it means to not
understand the nuances of what is occurring. We were the outsiders and
the 100 members of the deaf community were the insiders. And although we
had a narrator for those of us who could hear it laws an off-stage sort of
hearing that left us feeling like “outsiders” for whom an adjust was being
made. All the readings and the homily were signed. The celebrant
was himself deaf and so the entire Eucharistic Prayer was signed. At the
homily Father (in sign of course) told a story about his family experiencing a
joyous gathering where there were funny lines that
he couldn't get. He asked them to tell him what was happening
but in their excitement they told him they’d tell him later but when later came
they couldn't remember the lines and so he felt like he missed an
important sharing. As he explained I couldn't help to feel the
loneliness and the ache such an experience must bring and then I looked at my
own sense of feeling “outside” at a liturgy in my own motherhouse. It was
good for me to be there; it taught us a lot about the need to reach out to all
and make them feel a part of all whenever it is possible.
We also had a day focused on the Spiritual Energy of Teilhard
de Chardin, a day where God’s divine milieu was visible as we focused on the
energy of love tangible in our universe and a day where we were invited to
co-create the future with the Cosmic Christ who is the Omega point calling us
into the future filled with extravagant love.
This week we had two well published speakers: Margaret
Silf and Edwina Gately. Margaret Silf gave a professional day for
Spiritual Directors and an evening presentation focused on Simple Faith:
Faith in the Future. Although her faith journey has been shaped by
Jesuit Spirituality, like Pope Francis and Teilhard de Chardin, you could see a
Franciscan heart deep within. In times of unprecedented flux and
transition, in which many of our old certainties are breaking down, by using
vignettes, she showed where God is being experienced and how we can trust that
breakdown (like the cross) can become a breakthrough (a resurrection
experience). In the evening program she told us the word “faith” implies
certainty and security. But the Christian vision, as lived by Jesus of
Nazareth, is never about certainty, but mystery; not about security but about
risk. Are we looking for certainty or are we ready to embrace mystery and
risk?
Edwina Gately joined us for a weekend entitled Mothers, Sisters,
Daughters: Standing on the Shoulders. During this weekend retreat,
Edwina shared stories and poetry about women from different walks of life
around the globe who have made a difference in the world. We entered the
lives of some amazing women–both living and dead–environmentalists, poets,
politicians, mystics, social activists, women in Scripture, martyrs and even
some unknown women whose witness, courage and faithfulness will inspire and
guide us on our own journeys. At the end, as the participants celebrated
their own stories and possibilities they realized they stand on the shoulders
of these modern prophets and valiant women.
Finally on the last weekend we hosted two groups: The
Elam Mthodist Community Women's Day Retreat and the Visitation
Marianist State
And of course this month included our regular Yoga, Tai Chi,
and Focusing series and our Women’s Salon group. This month they focused
on Gratitude and left with hands full of gratitude seeds, gratitude rocks, and
most importantly, a grateful heart.
The really cool part is that we get to have even more
surprises as we begin the month of May. Life is not dull in the Franciscan
Spiritual Center
