Volume 1, Issue 10

Honouring Mary Today Fall-Winter 2010

Upcoming Events at the Centre

Preached Retreat: “Heart & Soul Spiritual- ity” — John Graden, osf Jan 17 –22 Who Said That? Winter Reading Series, the writ- ings of Etty Hillesum, Jan 27, Feb 10 & 24 Weekend Guided Re- treat: Near Occasions of Grace, Philip Chircop, sj, Feb 4—6 Seed Saving and Sus- tainability...Within God’s Creation, Cate Henderson, Feb 26 Overnight Retreat: “Sacred Encounters with Nature”, Lucy Bethel, sp, Mar 4—5 Lenten Guided Retreat, Loretta Chafe, rsm Mar 11—13 “Women for a Peace- ful World”, Apr 2 This event has been cancelled.

See our 2010-2011

Brochure for full details on all our

programs

Blessings P r o v i d e n c e S p i r i t u a l i t y C e n t r e N e w s l e t t e r

Advent calls us to celebrate the birth of Jesus. During this season we recognize and honour the humanity of Jesus, the Jesus of history, so that we may become more intimate with the Christ of faith and allow Jesus to be born anew in our hearts. His birth lends itself to a focus on Miriam of Nazareth, the mother of Jesus. Over the centuries, we as Christians have honoured her as The Blessed Virgin. Consequently, although Mary was mother she was not perceived as one who had experienced the joys and sufferings of human life. For the purpose of this reflection I would like to invite you to see her as a Jewish peasant and a woman of faith.

Pope Paul V1, in his letter entitled To Honor Mary (Marialis Cultus), issued on February 2, 1974, spoke of the waning devotion to Mary. He felt that our outdated views of Mary kept people from having a devotion to her. He challenges us to come up with a meaningful approach for honouring Mary in our culture. Eliz-abeth Johnson, in her book Truly Our Sister, takes up that challenge. She proposes

…that we invite Mary to come down from the pedestal where she has been honored for centuries and rejoin us in the community of grace and struggle in history. Far from dishonoring her, this connection esteems her and the whole company of the saints in one liberating way appropriate to our time and place.

(Truly Our Sister p.xvii)

She further explains that we need to approach Mary as friend of God and prophet in the communion of saints. To illustrate this she uses a four-step ladder. For the focus of this reflection I will reflect only on step four: to see Mary as a Jewish peasant and a woman of faith. Continued on page 2……

Our Lady of the Streets

Look at the Love in Mary’s face, and at her need to trust when trusting is not easy. Her hope is in her arms, and yet she has to look beyond.. Jerome Hellman, OMI

PAGE 2 BLESSINGS VOLUME 1, ISSUE 10

Honouring Mary Today, continued from page 1

As a first century Jewish woman, Mary would have lived in poverty, experienced oppression, un-rest and violence. As a woman in a Jewish household, (where more than one family lived) she would have spent long hours preparing meals and attending to other domestic work without the supports of appliances that we know today. We learn from her Magnificat that she was very attuned to the poor.

…he has filled the hungry with good things, And sent the rich away empty. (Luke 1:53 NRSV)

In short, Mary was challenged by many of the issues that women encounter in our day. If we can approach her from this point of view, she becomes our mentor and friend.

How then can we honour her as a woman of faith? I invite you to focus on Luke’s Gospel ac-count of the Annunciation. Observe Mary as she sits in deep prayer. She has opened her heart to re-ceive God’s Word. The Angel says to her,

“Greetings, favoured one, the Lord is with you”

Mary is perplexed and wonders what this greeting might mean. Try to imagine how over-whelmed she is with fear. The angel tells her not to be afraid for she has found favour with God. Ob-serve how intently Mary ponders this message. She asks questions and fears what it will mean for her to conceive a son, outside of marriage, in a culture that would condemn her. Yet she is able to say “yes” to God--a “yes” that would change her life forever.

Mary’s heart was uncluttered; hence she could overcome her fear and meet the challenge of saying “yes” to God, her Creator. As we contemplate Mary, we need to think of her as a woman who could speak her truth with compassion and accept suffering as a part of her life. Because she was a woman of faith, she suffered much the same way that women suffer today. If we see Mary as a wom-an who struggles and ponders her faith, then she becomes truly our sister.

If we identify with Mary as first century Jewish peasant and a woman of faith, we will be able to honour her in a meaningful way. May this Advent be a time for us to learn from Mary how Christ can be born in our hearts.

Loretta Chafe, rsm

May the hope, the peace, the joy, and the love represented by the birth in Bethlehem fill our lives and become part of all that we say and do.

We wish you a Joyous & Holy Advent and a Blessed Christmas!

The PSC Team

PAGE 3 BLESSINGS VOLUME 1, ISSUE 10

At the time the Emmaus Path Program began with the June 2008 Discernment Retreat Weekend, I experienced an ‘air’ of excitement and anticipation while at the same time I sensed some anxiety in both Participants and Facilitators.

I encouraged the Participants to take time to “listen to the deepest desires of their hearts and to all that they and God would dream together”. At that time we offered the Participants this invitation:

Listen well Be attentive to all God desires to speak to your hearts Listen in a stance of openness Be aware of all that you desire and ask God to gift you with the grace of personal interior freedom.

As I reflected on our journey of these past two and a half years, I felt a strange sense of peace. It seems to me that from the moment of the first meeting and invitation, God has revealed many new and wonderful gifts, for the Participants and, I might add, for us. I in-vited the Participants to share their experience. Allow me to share what they had to say.

One participant, Beth, wrote: “The Emmaus Path Spiritual Formation Program proved, to me,

to be reminiscent of the original story found in Luke 24. As I walked on this two and a half year journey, I felt the presence of the Lord throughout and was blessed by the teachers and companions who led me to personal spiritual growth and a positive response to discerning the call to become a Spiritual Director.

The program was multifaceted, well-rounded, challenging, focused, life-giving, thoroughly Christian, and goal-oriented (discern-ment of a sacred call to spiritual direction). The graces received are too numerous to count and even the challenges were grace-filled. I am very grateful to God for this opportunity and I also pray that I may show my gratitude to Him by serving others.”

Another Participant, Elisabeth, responded in this way: “The greatest gift of The Emmaus Path Program to me has been the experience of the program

as a true formation process. This process has provided a contemplative and intentional space where the Holy Spirit has been forming me, personally and spiritually, into the director that God is calling me to be. I am deeply grateful for this wonderful opportunity.”

A third Participant, Janet, shared: “Like those disciples of old, I/we too have journeyed with the Lord on the Emmaus path. The

Emmaus Path Program has been a very real Spiritual Path where Jesus has been revealed, in my learning to listen to God and others. It is an intense, accelerated, spiritual walk that has strengthened my faith, deepened my relationship with the Trinity and re-established my interior freedom. As a result of this for-mation time, I have experienced my heart burning within me, building my desire to journey with others on their Emmaus path.

Continued on page 4...

The Emmaus Path: A Formation Journey in Spiritual Direction

Our Vision

Open to the Spirit moving within each person,

We desire to be instruments of God’s love. We welcome all to this sacred space.

We trust that serving with compassion we will all experience

a deeper fullness of life and will strengthen one another to participate more responsibly

in creating a just and peaceful world.

Glory be to God

whose power working in us can do infinitely more

than we can ask or imagine. (Eph. 3:20)

Providence Spirituality Centre shares in

the mission of the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul.

1200 Princess Street Box 427 Kingston, Ontario K7L 4W4

P R O V I D E N C E S P I R I T U A L I T Y C E N T R E N E W S L E T T E R www.spiritualitycentre.ca

Phone: 613-542-8826 Fax: 613-542-3510 Email: info@psck.org

PAGE 4 VOLUME 1, ISSUE 10 BLESSINGS

Emmaus Path, continued from page 3

My greatest challenge and my greatest grace are one and the same, to listen well.”

As a Facilitator of this Program, I, too, can say with the Participants: “Did not our hearts burn within us as we opened ourselves to the many gifts with which the Spirit has been gifting all of us, during these past two and a half years, of our formation for the ministry of spiritual direction.” Lucy Bethel, SP

Silence – silence! Creation’s warmth and LIFE! But above all, your caring and dedication to this Centre and the people who come to you. Thank you! Eveline Gagnon, sgm, June Guided Retreat, 2009

It’s been a while since I sat in silence with God and I really needed/wanted and was ready to do it. In the silent simplicity of life here I heard God calling and listened without the normal day-to-day dis-tractions… There was nothing I wanted or needed without your staff providing. Karen Calderwood, October Directed Retreat 2010 Always feel so welcome. A Home away from home... When I walk in I feel the Peace, Love and Prayerfulness. A Holy Place to be, a House of God. Sr. Eva J. Underhill, rhsj, October Directed Retreat 2010

““Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it to-wards others. And the more peace there is in us, the more peace there will be in our troubled world.”

From the diaries of Etty Hillesum

Reflection Corner: your turn to write!