A treasure in earthen vessels

The theme of fragility is one that concerns every human being. We are fragile because we are limited, incomplete, exposed to life’s accidents.

Our being women and men of faith and our being consecrated does not exempt us from fragility. Rather, it heightens our awareness. Thanks to the light of the Spirit, we discover ourselves members of a humanity that needs listening, hope, and salvation.

Deriving hope from the Heart of Christ, Crucified and Risen, we carry our treasure in the world, hidden in earthen vessels.

We choose to live on the margins and to share our fragilities, so that they might become open to the grace that leads us to recognize the footprint of God in history and to share the journey with our more vulnerable brothers and sisters, just as Pope Francis urges us: “Starting out from your fragilities, freed from the spirits that trouble you, you will be able to lighten your step for a proclamation of the Gospel filled with hope.” (Address of His Holiness Pope Francis to the Participants in the Plenary Assembly of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) Paul VI Audience Hall, Thursday, 5 May 2022.)

Letting ourselves be loved in our fragile interiority...

Paula Jordão, FMVD

Jesus’ love enables us to love by setting us free: “If you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed; you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free... And if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (Jn 8:31-32,36).

Knowing the truth about ourselves, which is only given to us through our relationship with God and his Word, will lead us to let ourselves be loved and to love in the way of Jesus. This is the goal of our consecrated life, which only rises by touching our own earth, our humus, placing it sincerely and humbly before God who will always strengthen and justify us with his grace.

Madeleine Delbrêl. Companion of frailties and hope

Mariola López Villanueva, RSCJ

On the 27th January 2018, Pope Francis declared that she had lived a life of “heroic virtue” and we cannot fail to note the similarities between Evangelii Gaudium (whose title resembles one of Madeleine’s best known books: The Joy of Believing) and Madeleine’s own understanding of mission, transmitting the Gospel in the midst of the city, involving the need to “recognise the city with a contemplative gaze...that discovers the God who dwells in its homes, in its streets, in its squares” [71]. She is also an exceptional example of the “holiness next door” described by the Pope in Gaudete et Exsultate; she reminds us of the inescapable social dimension of a Church ‘going forth’ and likewise her daily exchanges were a practical example of the social friendships which we are urged to foster in Fratelli tutti.

Consecration as a Eucharistic Journey

Sr. Simona Brambilla, MC

Our consecration is a fundamental fact for relationships. And it is in that aspect of consecration that we can find the essence of the eucharist. The eucharist is a relationship, a relationship of love. As an experience of God in our midst and God become flesh, the eucharist expresses the unfathomable mystery of the communion of Love that is inherent in the Trinity. It overflows into Creation and Redemption, as the most ardent, loving, and humble desire of God to be with humanity, to console it, and to make it happy, inviting it to participate in the incandescent and most joyous Fire of Love.

Religious Life during an Era of Uncertainty: Standing in-between “Seeing” and “Not Seeing”—A Lacanian Reading of John 9

Sophia Park, SNJM

Language can operate as a system to contain and restrict our living reality. We unconsciously believe that we are safe and secure, as long as we remain in the language or the symbolic world. However, religious life is never fixed; it moves as the Tao flows. Ontologically, the identity of religious women, given in a particular space and time, cannot be static but, rather, constantly on the move. The pre-Socratic philosopher, Heraclitus of Ephesus, stated: you cannot step twice into the same river; for the other waters ever flowing on to you. We call this moment Kairos, the time for transformation and right action. Then, how does religious life escape from the closed system of language or the logocentric worldview?

Promoting the Full Flourishing of Children in the Church

Sarah Rudolph, IBVM

The fundamental dignity and rights of the child are located within the foundation of the fundamental dignity of the human person. At the Second Vatican Council, the Church affirmed the inviolable dignity of the person created in the image of God capable of loving and knowing the Creator. Jesus is the “image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15). In the Incarnation, Jesus unites himself with humanity. Through his death he delivers humanity from sin. Thus the Christian person conformed to the likeness of Christ becomes “capable of discharging the new law of love.” Children, as human persons, are imbued with dignity through their creation in the image of God and grow in holiness through conformation to the life of Christ, particularly through the experience of childhood.

UISG Bulletin 181/2023