We got the news yesterday.
Not even 24 hours after our novice, Sr Emily, made her first vows and began her life of consecration, Sr. Annette fulfilled her vows and her consecrated life. She was 55.
Reflecting on this turn of events, I almost sense a certain poignancy even in the heart of Christ as he called our sister from this life. After all, from now on not even he would hear her prayers and praise and hope coming to him from the earth, from the limits of time. He would no longer be able (as he once remarked to Teresa of Avila, when she was moaning about how long this life seemed to endure when all she wanted was to go to heaven) to live the ordinary human experience of her life: the eating and sleeping and working and conversing--all things that the Lord delights in sharing with us day by day so that it is no longer we who life (or eat or sleep or work or converse) but Jesus living in us. Once our bodies can no longer offer that hospitality to Christ, he offers us the divine hospitality of heaven.
Sr Annette kept a copy of Renoir's "The Promenade" in her infirmary room, and would nod in its direction as a sign of her hope that the Lord would come in a similar way to call her apart for himself. And so he did.
6 comments:
Sympathies on your loss, even as we pray over here for the repose of Sr Annette, --thanks so much for sharing that work of art that was her joy and sign of her hope in Christ. Of course we pray for all the joys of Christ to fill Sr. Emily to overflowing!
peace, peace.
Sorry for the loss of your fellow Sister, Sr. Anne. May God bless you all as you miss her.
Amen.
In the grieving, there has to be a sense of pride and blessing in Sr
Annette's manifest acceptance of the Lord's will in her journey. Without doubt, her suffering helped mature her striving and determination to be a complete daughter of St Paul.
I reminisce of the unforgettable circumstance that by chance in hectic St Peter's Square at the Beatification of Fr Alberione,
Sr Annette and myself found ourselves scrambled in the same row for the Mass. A special memory.
May she now share the joy and glory of the Founder and Mother Thecla.
Fraternal condolences to you and all of the Sisters on her death.
Dear Sr. Anne,
Many thanks for sharing. Please accept my condolences.
May God grant Sr. Annette eternal rest; may God let eternal light shine upon Sr. Annette; may Sr. Annette rest in peace. Amen.
How lovely is the Christian faith, particularly the resurrection / salvation won by Jesus Christ for Sr. Annette and all of God's people.
May Sr. Annette intercede for the success of the works of the Pauline Family and the centenary celebrations, through Jesus Christ the Divine Master and the Queen of Apostles & St. Paul the Apostle. Amen.
Margie Skeels
Pauline Cooperator - NYC
How very poignant. Goose bumps popping out all over.
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