My semester break proved to be quite enjoyable, and very eventful, including getting sick in the torrential downpour in sunny So-Cal, spending time with good friends and family, driving more than halfway back across the country to visit my sister, Sr. Teresa (with the Nashville Dominicans), and taking care of business at home before returning to Boston.
I flew back to Boston yesterday, flying East after seeing Venus, the morning star, rising in the East, on January 6, the traditional date of Epiphany. The flights themselves were fairly uneventful and on-time, despite bad weather conditions in the east and an anticipated bumpy ride that we were routed around. It was about 45 degrees in Long Beach when I left, about 40 in Washington, D.C. where I stopped for an hour and a half, and about 30 with snow on the ground in Boston.
Now that I have returned and embark upon another year of which a week has already passed, I consider all that happened last year, from my graduate school search to the decision-making visit to the Oblates here in Boston, good times with friends and family, my undergraduate thesis in Computer Security and a handful of related projects, higher education administration, policy & politics involvement, traveling, swapping stories with my sister about to enter religious life, and my first semester in religious life, of which you may read in my past posts here. There has been so much! Through serious meetings, laughter and tears after hours, periods of noise and periods of silence, triumphs and failures, here I am. I consider the functional-experiential definition of who I am: that consists of what I have done and what I have learned to do. We all have growth here unless we are in a coma, and I surely learned things about computing, interpersonal interaction, my own spiritual life and personality, and had lots of experiences that contributed to that growth and left me with all kinds of memories. There is also the ontological definition of who I am - rather than changing, my conclusion at this time is that I am more aware of ontological aspects of my own definition. I do not become more or less a human being or a Son of God (the necessary relational aspect of my ontology) or of Mary, but my comprehension and spiritual awareness of those definitions surely grows over time and according to my own disposition to receive them.
The pope chose to pray in particular for religious freedom on January 1, the World Day of Peace. For the month of January, he chose to pray "that the riches of creation be preserved, valued and made available to all, as a precious gifts from God to mankind" and "that Christians may achieve full unity, bearing witness of the universal fatherhood of God to the entire human race." These intentions are among some themes toward which I have personally felt an attraction recently. In studying a bit of the ecumenical documents from Vatican II and reading about the Orthodox church on my own, also recalling the Good Friday intentions for Christian unity and the unity of all peoples in the authentic worship of the One True God, I have come to have astrong interior desire for this unity, and I try to paint the church in a favorable light, promoting the quest for the objective truth that is found in Jesus Christ alone and inviting others to find the visible signs of this truth in the Catholic Church. As we see a world torn by all sorts of vice and internal division, let us at least perceive that it is our own solidarity against the forces of evil that is necessary to prevail and achieve the unending bliss of heaven in the life to come, and let us work toward that unity to one day stand together in this way.
In the coming year, I would like to push myself more to rise to the occasions of inspiration and to fully embrace the rules of the Congregation I have joined, ever seeking to discern the Will of God for me through prayer and reflection on the signs He has placed in my life and in my heart, especially in this time of postulancy.
I wish for all of you many graces, a zeal for the truth, and light, peace, and joy in this new year, 2011! Let us stand together and encourage one another in our common journey toward the eternal joys of heaven.
Love the Immaculata!
Mariam cogita, Mariam invoca
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