by Sister Julie on November 14, 2006
I’ve been reading a book by Jim Martin, SJ, called My Life with the Saints (Loyola Press, 2006). Growing up I always thought of the saints as superhuman (not unlike Wonder Woman or Superman) … people with an extra dose of holiness who were able to do amazing things. I never really thought of them as ordinary people. Over the years I learned otherwise and have come to appreciate the saints for who they really are.
I love the Thomas Merton quote that Jim Martin uses to open his book: “For me to be a saint means to be myself.” (Would that it was always easy to be ourselves!) The saints are people who are truly themselves, the people God created them to be … with all their craziness, holiness, foibles, and insights. Saints are truly people whom we can relate to, not ones who are so superhuman that they don’t really relate to our own lives. That’s why I like My Life with the Saints. Martin presents the saints as our companions on life’s journey. We can look to them for inspiration, encouragement or even a good laugh.
As I’ve been reading this book, I’m reminded again how we encounter God in the most ordinary ways in our lives (e.g., a sock drawer … you’ll just have to read the book to see what I mean!). Just as the saints opened themselves to experience God in all things, we too are called to that same kind of openness and willingness to meet God.
Click here to read more about My Life with the Saints as well as other stuff by or about Jim Martin.
by Sister Julie on September 25, 2006
I’m reading Can Religious Life Be Prophetic? by Michael Crosby, OFM Cap. The book is unsettlingly inspiring. (That’s a good thing.)
It is unsettling because in raising the question — “Can religious life be prophetic?” — Crosby is also asking, “Can YOU be prophetic?” This is very unnerving. I don’t think that anyone truly sets out to be a prophet. It is a terribly unsafe choice of careers. Look at what all the biblical prophets suffered at the hands of their own people. Yet it is true that religious life by its nature has a prophetic dimension. Sisters and nuns, brothers and monks, are called to be a goad to the conscience of the Church and of the world. This is the “rugged prose” part of religious life. It’s a part that I find difficult to fully comprehend but which I know is part of the DNA of religious life. Most of the difficulty for me comes in the fact that the more I comprehend, the more I must change my own ways of thinking and my own lifestyle. It’s uncomfortable and very challenging at times.
Crosby’s book is also inspiring. I’m learning a lot about the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. I’m also learning about what this prophetic call within religious life looks like. I would like to be the kind of religious which he envisions. I’d like to become someone who has so imbibed the Word of God that I am able to put God first in all things. I want to be a voice for those who are voiceless. I want to place others’ needs ahead of my own. I see many of my sisters who have embodied this kind of lifestyle. I pray that I might be able to grab on to their shirt-tails for a while and deepen this lifestyle within myself.
by Sister Julie on September 17, 2006
Yesterday marked the 11th annual Nun’s Beach Community Day and Surf Invitational in Stone Harbor, New Jersey. Nun’s Beach is located in front of Villa Maria, the Immaculata IHM’s convent. I had the privilege of staying at Villa Maria for a long weekend. The sisters that live at Villa Maria told me about the Surf Invitational on the beach. They seem to enjoy the fact that surfers use the stretch of beach and surf in front of their convent. Surfline.com describes surfing at Nun’s Beach:
Decent, lined-up surf, both lefts and rights. Nun’s is located in front of the convent on 114th Street* and is especially fun on a good, head-high northeast swell. Surfing is restricted during the day in the summer, but the north side of the jetty is open to surfing all day. Beach tags are required. The surf is shared by enthusiastic longboarders and young wave-warriors. Lots of surf moms and dads teach their kids to surf here. (*Note: correct address is 111st and First)
Every year a new logo for the surf invitational is designed. These are highly-coveted collectible items. When I was there, the logo had a nun in full habit surfing the waves. At a sidewalk sale downtown Stone Harbor, there was a booth full of people (including nuns) selling the awesome t-shirts et al.
While I was looking up Nun’s Beach on the Internet, I came across some beautiful pictures by the talented photographer David McCarty. He was kind enough to let me use them for A Nun’s Life (for which I am most grateful). The top picture is stunning. It shows some boards up against a fence with Villa Maria in the background (note the bird on the top of the cross). A great shot. The other two pictures are of Sister Maria Loyola* at the 2005 invitational (*Note: originally incorrectly identified as Sister James).
According to David, Sister Loyola was 80 at the time and the head of the convent. David notes that Sister Loyola claimed to have a lifelong dream to be able to surf. This is pretty close! Visit the Immaculata IHM Web site. Also, check out the David McCarty Photography Web site.
UPDATE: 8/15/8 - normally I don’t edit my posts, but given that the mixup in names continues to cause confusion, I’ve changed references from Sister James to Sister Maria Loyola … see comments below for the whole story.
by Sister Julie on September 8, 2006
Vinita Hampton Wright has just published her latest book, A Catalogue of Angels: The Heavenly, the Fallen, and the Holy Ones Among Us (Paraclete Press, 2006). I got to know Vinita when I attended her writing workshop “The Soul Tells a Story” (she now has a book by that title which I highly recommend). I have a deep appreciation for Vinita’s writing and the deeply spiritual and human themes she speaks to in her novels and non-fiction.
Admittedly, I was never in to angels very much, though I have had occasion to call upon the big three — Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael — at times. I never liked the angel genre of inspirational stories. But this book is way different.
A Catalogue of Angels is about “the origin and nature of angels, where they dwell, what they do, and how they relate to humanity” (back cover). Vinita bases her exploration on stories and writings from the three Abrahamic faiths — Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. James Martin, author of My Life with the Saints, writes: “This is the best book available on angels — a wildly popular topic that has long deserved the attention of a thoughtful and talented writier like Vinita Hampton Wright. She brings a poet’s skill, a scholar’s care, and a believer’s heart to the heavenly companions whose presence we might sense, but many know little about” (back cover). It is inspiring indeed.
"She wrote the way she lived: on the fly, without retrospect, always on the way, climbing higher."