Well, its been a few weeks since I returned from my homevisit with my family in St. Louis.  It was a lovely trip.  Among my activities were: getting to visit with two aunts that I had not seen for some time, celebrating my niece’s 28th birthday, going to the zoo, going to the “Treasures of the Vatican” exhibit and going to a Beth Moore conference (not to mention endless eating, laughing, and relaxing!).

I believe I have talked about Beth Moore here before - right?  Well, in summary, she is a Baptist Bible teacher.   [Now, before any of my Catholic purists out there get upset, I have shown her teachings and writings to both my superiors in the convent AND my spiritual director who have given me their blessing to study Scripture under Beth Moore's tutelage.  She is not my only teacher and I am diligent about understanding the Catholic teachings as well.  OK - disclaimer finished!]   She primarily ministers to women -helping them understand the Scriptures and their vital role in a healthy spiritual life.    To this end, she has several conferences a year throughout the U.S.  Every year she picks different cities to which she ministers and this year St. Louis was on the list!  So, I planned my vacation time around the conference and since it isn’t too far to come from Clyde - three of our sisters from there met me in St. Louis.  It was a great experience. 

The Scripture passage that was our focus for the conference was from Genesis 1:26, “Let us make man in our image. ”  Throughout the three sessions she gave over Friday night and Saturday morning, Beth explored the use of the word image in Scripture as well as what it means for us to be IMAGO DEI - the image of God. 

One of Beth’s signature styles is to make a phrase or slogan to help us remember Scripture teachings.  For this conference, the catchphrase I came away with was IMAGO DEI - “we have to bear it to wear it.”

There are two parts to this.  First, we are made in the image of God.  Christ IS the image of the invisible God, St. Paul tells us.  So Christ is our model for living as we grow to become the person we were created to be.   Also, we are the Body of Christ, we are the image of Christ in the world today.  For those who do not know Christ, we the Church, are who they must look to if they want to see Him.   So we BEAR the image of Christ.  We put on the mind of Christ, we try to live and love and serve as He did.   By “bearing” this image, we began to wear His image as well.  The definition of wearing is “to have on the person as a covering, adornment or protection.”  The more we bear Christ’s image in the world the more we are covered in His likeness.  We become more and more like Him in our being and thus we grow to become more and more the IMAGO DEI that we were made to be.

Our Tucson community has a lovely practice of reading the day’s Gospel during our noon prayer and then any sister who wishes can share her thoughts and reflections about the reading with the group.  I have appreciated the different phrases and words that have spoken to other sisters.  It has enriched my reflection of the Gospel.

Today’s Gospel reading was from Matthew - Jesus sends out His disciples and tells them that if a home or a town refuses them to shake the dust of that town off their feet and leave.  One of our sisters shared a thought that made me pause and reflect.   She said perhaps we need to shake the dust off our feet,too, when we experience rejection.  She said sometimes our Christian acts of kindness adn charity are rebuffed and it hurts us.  She said often we hold on to those hurts and let them consume our thoughts.

Other Bible teachers I have studied have expressed simliar thoughts.   We tend to let our hurt feelings fester or worse, we try to hurt the person who hurt us.   We need to take our cares to Jesus.   We can go to Him with all our troubles.  Scripture tells us we are the apple of His eye and He knows when we have been hurt.   It is not up to us to get revenge on those who hurt us.   We just have to turn them over to Jesus - he will fight the battle for us.  They have to answer to Him in the end. 

As for us… we just need to shake that dust of our feet and go forth to proclaim God’s goodness.

This post is coming a day after the actual day but in time for the national holiday on the 5th.

The Fourth of July - hot dogs and hamburgers, ice cream and iced tea, flags and fireworks!
I love it all! Growing up, this holiday meant a big picnic with the extended family - aunts, uncles, cousins, and any family friends that didn’t have plans of their own were invited. The adults would pick a park in the St. Louis area, perferably one where there was opportunity for fishing. I was too young to know (or care) who organized all the food and such. All I know is that we loved having the freedom to run free and play - coming back to the picnic site to check in with our moms grab some chips and soda and head out again. We usually headed home well before dark and watched the fireworks on TV since my parents didn’t want to fight the crowds that went downtown to watch the fireworks.

 But besides all these “usual” celebrations - I remember that every 4th of July started with us attending Mass as a family.  See, my parents both emigrated to America from India.    They didn’t take for granted the freedoms and blessings that come from living in this great country.   They knew that God was the giver of all these gifts and they wanted to start the celebration of the country’s independence by thanking the only One that can truly give freedom.  So, for me, I know that the 4th of July is a secular holiday but I can’t help but feel like it is a holy day.  A day of recognition for the One through Whose hand all these blessings have flowed.  A day for me to remember that while I am proud to claim US citizenship, my true citizenship is in heaven. 

And my prayer is simple, the prayer that many in this nation and around the world will pray….  from the depths of my heart I plead…GOD BLESS AMERICA.

I have been remiss in posting once again. I have been settling into the routine here at our Tucson monastery. I also took some of my homevisit time to see my family. I promise to say more about all of that soon. But for now, I offer you this post. I think the author captures perfectly many reasons for the monastic schedule.
While the author was not at one of our monasteries our schedule is very similiar.
Monastic Prayer Schedule