Contemplative Nuns Regional Meeting

Out-takes From the Regional Meeting

of Redemptoristine Contemplative Nuns

"The inner Life of God is, of course, the mystery of mysteries. But this much we know: each of the divine Persons is a total Gift to an Other, absolutely nothing is held back in their joyful dance of circumincession. Total giving and total receiving, in which all is shared...We are created for community. Actually, "our personhood is not an always and already accomplished fact, but a gift received in the relations of interpersonal love."(Michael Downey - Altogether Gift, A Trinitarian Spirituality) "The Institute [Order of the Most Holy Redeemer] IS each individual member. Each member is therefore responsible for her part of the mission that was given to the whole Institute. If I do not live with my eyes fixed on Jesus; if I do not contemplate him in the Gospel and if I do not allow him to actualize in me what he lived during his mortal life; if I refuse the death to my self that is necessary to reach this goal, the whole Institute is effected."

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"Simply, our rule of life is the Gospel. Living in fidelity is what a Redemptoristine is all about...'Fidelity in Community' - this is viewing our Order as one community - gives every Redemptoristine the greatest opportunity to be a generous giver in total FIDELITY to the spirit and charism of the Order we love and have embraced - with a sense of humor!!!"

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"...Purity of heart does not indicate, in the thinking of Jesus, an outstanding moral virtue, but rather a quality which should go along with all the virtues...According to Gospel, what determines purity or impurity of action -- whether it be almsgiving, fasting or prayer -- is the intention..... Originally the term hypocrisy was reserved for the theater. It simply meant to act, to represent the scene...It is making one's life a theater in which one acts for an audience; it is to put on a mask, to cease to be a person and become a character. And the tragedy is that some people live out that character rather than be themselves...As believers we have to remember the saying of a Jewish Rabbi who lived during the time of Christ, who said that ninety per cent of the hypocrisy in the world was found in Jerusalem. (Can it now be said about our spiritual Jerusalem - the Church, our dioceses or our religious communities?)...It would be a precious contribution to our society and to our Redemptoristine community if the virtue of the pure of heart would help us to maintain alive within us the nostalgia for a world that is clean, true, with out religious hypocrisy or nonreligious hypocrisy; a world in which actions corresponded to words, words to thoughts, and the thoughts of people to those of God...'Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see god.' Purity of heart is an openness and transparency in which God can clearly be seen in us. It is at the heart of the Christian and Redemptoristine life. It is our life."

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"...What challenges do we meet in trying to be a Viva Memoria [living memory] of Jesus in an aging community?...First there is the challenge and acceptance of 'aging' with its effect on energy, memory, health, and dependency on others...It seems to me that we need to realize that this is also the situation facing many families...today. We continue to favor care at home as long as possible, but know that this may not suffice. We need to be conscious of this, accept the reality of this, prepare for this...It seems that at least there has to be an interior growth toward what the Lord has prepared - and this has to be there for all of us. Someone said to me since coming here: the process of the pains and sufferings of growing old are the 'filling up of what is lacking in the Suffering of Christ.'...Our fixed gaze on the Lord is then seen as even more important for the radiation of the Living Memory of Christ - coming from our being and not just from our actions or words. "