Skip to main content


Even in the dreariness of a cold, wet winter's day there is a loveliness to the grounds of our Motherhouse  in St. Augustine, Florida. Yesterday afternoon, when it was much warmer and not raining, I was out weeding the front flowerbeds  when a visitor to the area stopped and took a photo of the house and asked if we had any retired sisters living in the house. I said yes, we had retired sisters in the house but we also had active sisters living here. There are at least five of us in full-time ministries who live at the Motherhouse.

The thing about being a consecrated Religious is that one never retires from one's vocation as a Religious, and no matter what your age or your abilities, one is always called to live a life of faithfulness to your congregation's mission and charism, which in our case is working towards "love and service of God IN the love and service of the dear neighbor."

As Sisters of St. Joseph we are called to be "contemplatives in action." We were founded by a Jesuit priest in  17th century France so our spirituality is rooted in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, but also influenced by the gentleness, peace and joy of St. Francis de Sales.

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, the 40-day period of preparation for the celebration of Christ's Passion, Death and Resurrection. The ashes on our foreheads remind us of our call to penance and conversion, to turn away from sin and return to the Gospel.

The stately oak tree on the north lawn of the Motherhouse reminds me of our Congregation's rootedness in the State of Florida and how more than 150 years of ministry to the dear neighbor in this state has witnessed to God's love.

May this Lent lead us all to grow spiritually and prepare our hearts to receive the graces we need to flourish and delve deeper into union with God.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

October 2018 Do you like to look at old photos? Most of us do, even though the quality of the photos may have faded over time. Here I am at about age 11 or 12 standing with my Mother and my sister Barbara's mother-in-law, Mrs. Leila Ponce, in Mrs. Ponce's front yard in north Jacksonville. My Mother, Grace Stovall, is holding my first nephew and her first grandson, Patrick Ponce, in her arms following his baptism, I believe. This was around 1960 or 1961. See the old cars behind us? My nephew had to find a copy of his baptismal certificate recently because he plans to get married in April in a Catholic church up in North Carolina. He was baptized in our home parish, Holy Rosary, in Jacksonville. At this time I was a student at Holy Rosary School. My parents allowed me to go there after it opened, which for me was when I was entering fourth grade. My first teacher in Catholic school was Sister Philip Neri, an Irish Sister of St. Joseph who died tragically in an automobile cr
2 comments
Read more
Pansies have a way of making me smile. These winter annuals, that tend to die as soon as hot weather comes to Northeast Florida, are welcoming, friendly flowers. As a gardener I prefer to plant perennial flowers that will live year-round as they are a lot less work. But there is something about pansies that makes them worth all the effort for a few months of their beauty in the garden. We all have things in our life that we think are worth the extra time and effort they take to nurture and develop. For some it may be practicing a musical instrument, taking walks or playing a sport, spending time with friends, or reading good books. For others it may be baking bread or painting or some other kind of artistic expression. I have read that a balanced spiritual life has these four elements: prayer, work, study and leisure. Our Puritan work ethic in this country is so strong that many of us have difficulty with leisure. And some people may think that once they finished college or hig
1 comment
Read more
August 2018 What does it mean to live the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience as a Sister of St. Joseph today? How do we explain the evangelical counsels to others?  On Aug. 2-5 a meeting was held in Chicago of the CSSJ (Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph) Into the Future Collaborative entitled "Self-Emptying Love: Living the Vows for Our Times." Four Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Augustine attended: Ss. Diane Couture, Mary Kuester, Rosa Lopez and Carol Stovall. The gathering was held at the Felician Sisters central convent in a suburb of Chicago. Sisters Diane Couture and Mary Kuester in front of Felician convent, Chicago. Sister Mary Pellegrino, from Baden, Pennsylvania, spoke on the vow of obedience. In the reign of God , she said, the way things are is that all belong, all have what they need, all are loved and all are free. Religious life is called to model life in the reign of God.  She began by explaining the root of the word obedienc
Post a Comment
Read more