During Advent, members of the A Nun’s Life community will be posting reflections on the Jesse Tree and the O Antiphons.

Day 21 :: O Radiant Dawn written by Sister Joyce

Original art by Sister Joyce Durosko, IHM

O Oriens: “O Radiant Dawn, splendor of eternal light, sun of justice: come, shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.”

I saiah had prophesied, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shown.” (9:1).

Listen to this verse sung in Gregorian chant by the North American Choir:

O Oriens, splendor lucis æternæ, et sol justitiæ: veni, et illumina sedentes in tenebris, et umbra mortis.

What dawn do you await in your life?

* * Want to revisit the other symbols of Advent? Click here on Jesse Tree. * *

Join the nuns and community for prayer tonight at 6 p.m. CT at aNunsLife.org/live.

Today is one of IHM Congregational Feast Days … Saint Alphonsus of Liguori. We’ve invited our IHM Sister and A Nun’s Life friend Sister Joyce Durosko, IHM, to reflect with us on the life of this saint.

Alphonsus Liguori, the Saint we honor today: Nobleman, Lawyer, Hospital Minister, Preacher of Missions, Chaplain, Artist, Musician, Poet, Man of Letters, Mystic, Spiritual Director, Founder, Friend of the Poor, Moral Theologian, Superior General, Bishop, Saint and Doctor of the Church.  Obviously, Alphonsus was a very gifted person about whom each of us might want to know more.

Saint Alphonsus’ life extended through most of the eighteenth century (1696-1787).  Basically, he was committed to preaching missions, along with the Redemptorist Order that he founded, among the abandoned rural poor around Naples, Italy.

There is so much to say about this great man but in this reflection, I want to emphasize his friendship with the poor, who in turn befriended him leading him to a deep and transforming union with God.

“It is evident that fidelity to the promptings of the Spirit was what led St. Alphonsus to leave his world in order to assume that of the poor and most abandoned, just as it is fidelity to that same Spirit that has led some religious to choose to live among, with, for and out of the world of the poor. They embrace the physical, geographic, and human situation of the poor as a focus of their encounter with God.”

~ Jorge Colon Leon CSsR

In this context, says, Father Leon, the poor are seen as a theophany, for in them the transcendent God makes himself present, causing us to question our bourgeois attitudes, calling us to consider whether our ministry choices-personal, community, or worldwide are really in line with call of the Gospel. There is a strong link, insists Kevin Dowling, CSsR, between allowing ourselves to be called by the poor or evangelized by the poor and explicit, prophetic and liberating proclamation of the Gospel to the poor.

My own IHM congregation of Monroe, Michigan was founded by a Redemptorist priest, Father Louis Gillet CSsR.  His zeal for poor, educationally deprived girls challenged him to establish a Catholic school in 1845 on the River Raisin frontier in Monroe.  That school still exists today in the form of a consolidation referred to St. Mary Catholic Central.

But more than beginning a school for poor girls, Fr. Gillet, needed women religious to staff this school, so he thought, if I can’t find them, I will make them.  Thus, began the establishment of the Sisters Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1945.  Our charism explicitly calls us to serve the most abandoned wherever we find them.

So I ask myself and you, the reader, to ponder: In the light of the Gospel, in what ways can I be involved in action to break down the sense of isolation and alienation among the poor and marginalized in my area or situation?  How can I actively participate in poor people’s organizations and movements which focus on economic and political structures and systems? How can I personally live in unity with the poor from the faith perspective that we are one community in Christ? How can the Nunslife community as a group express some form of solidarity with the poor and marginalized?

The following is a link to all the 111 writings of St. Alphonsus which are available to the reader at no cost.  Though the eighteen century language might not be the readers’ style, the beauty of his words and mystical expressions of his deep love for God is quite profound.  Celebrate this great feast and treat yourself to some beautiful writings of a very talented and great saint.

~ Sister Joyce Durosko, IHM

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The Sisters are back in the NL Studio! Join them and the A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today at 6 p.m. CST (your time zone)

You are in for an AWESOME treat! My dear sister Joyce Durosko, IHM, stars in this YouTube video. Sister Joyce talks about the wonderful mystery of being called to religious life. Are you a person who is open to being surprised … especially to a God who is full of surprises!? Sister Joyce offers great wisdom for people discerning religious life, including what to look for as you meet sisters and discern, try to figure out if they are “home” for you.

What questions or insights percolate as you watch and reflect on this video?

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Join Sister Maxine and Sister Julie and the A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters”. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to the A Nun’s Life Podcast:

Today is Ask Sister Day! Sister Maxine and I receive lots of questions each week about our life as Catholic sisters as well as many other nun-related questions. We take questions about community, prayer, and ministry, and pretty much everything except the convent sink! Let us know what’s on your mind! You can do so in any number of ways:

• comment below on the day of the Ask Sister podcast
• email us at “sister AT anunslife DOT org” any time before an Ask Sister podcast
• comment in the chat room during a live show
• calling in during a live show

In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

Visit ANunsLife.org/live
Today
12 p.m. Central Time (your timezone)

Here are a few of the questions we already have for today:

• Do most nuns have a college degree? Do communities recommend getting a degree first then entering the convent?
• A lot of orders only have old people left in them? How would a young sister deal with that, especially if patience for the elderly wasn’t her best trait!

I am pleased to have Sister Joyce Durosko, IHM, join me today as my guest co-host. Sister Maxine has a meeting but will try to pop in sometime during the broadcast.

We look forward to talking with you. And check out our previously recorded Ask Sister podcasts.