A Sister of St. Joseph Professes Final Vows and Soundings Update

Last Saturday one of our sisters professed Final Vows. Last Thursday, two days before her vow liturgy, Sister Pat led a midday prayer service at our health care center in Framingham. You can click on this link: http://www.csjboston.org/su-Sept-30-2009.pdf to read an article about this prayer service in the latest issue of Soundings Update
I selected the picture at the left for this blog post because when Pat professed First Vows three years ago the image of seeds growing and spreading where they will was central to that celebration. The dandelion puff is actually from our side yard this past spring.

As I reflect on Pat's journey, I've prayed with these passages from The Constitution of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston:

• Membership in our Congregation is the relationship which results from each woman's response to the Lord and the decision of the Congregation and the Church to accept the religious profession which she makes as a Sister of Saint Joseph of Boston.

• Membership requires a dynamic fideltiy to the purpose for which the Spirit brought our Congregation into existence in the Church and to the charism with which we are gifted.


• ...we, the Congregation, open ourselves to her influence and to the Spirit speaking in her, just as she undertakes continuing conversion into membership. Together we enter into a process of change that carries our past into the promise of the future.

As I ponder these words, I realize that not only has Pat become more fully the woman God calls her to be but we, in turn, have indeed been influenced for the better by her presence among us.