The Winter Solstice, the darkest day of the year, is immediately followed by Christmas when the Light of the World comes and shines into the darkness of our lives.


So, be not afraid! Christ is the light that is never dimmed. He is the Savior who made Himself weak, poor and broken. When we find ourselves in darkness may we always have the courage to say, "Come Lord Jesus! Come into my heart and life of brokenness and darkness. Come be my light! Come make me whole! Maranatha!"

"Most high, glorious God, enlighten the darkness of my heart and give me Lord, a correct faith, a certain hope, a perfect charity, sense and knowledge, so that I may carry out your holy and true command."  -St. Francis of Assisi

                                                                                                                 -Sr. Chiara Joan, novice

I've had the opportunity to visit many, many churches during my first semester serving Franciscan University in Gaming, Austria. Every time I walked in, my goal was to find the tabernacle and pay a visit to Jesus, if only for a moment. But on one visit, instead of a tabernacle, I found a stripped-down, empty room. Nothing but walls and windows, ceilings and floors. It was now just a museum for those interested in 13th-century architecture. It was one of the saddest moments of my semester.

Even when I was in magnificently-decorated Baroque cathedrals, they would have felt absolutely empty without the presence of Jesus. Today, on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, it got me to thinking. Mary was the perfect tabernacle for the presence of the Lord, prepared at her conception for Jesus to come and dwell within.

Each of us, flesh and bone that we are, was also made for this purpose. And we are nothing without Him.


These walls will stretch 'till you abide
Vast, vaulted ceilings higher climb
Beams and bricks without you there
Beams and bricks without you living there


This dust was made with you in mind
These stones are but a waiting bride
Empty if not filled with you
Empty if not filled with all of you




Who am I, that my Lord should come to me?
Who am I, that my Lord should dwell inside of me?
Take my body, take my blood
Take these sticks and all this mud
And build a shelter where your heart can come to rest


Basilicas and sanctuaries
Cathedrals, shrines, are just so many
Empty shells without your presence, Lord
Marble, gold I don't possess,
But, Lord, it is my happiness
If you would make this humble heart Your home
Make me your home


So find a candle, strike a flame
And leave it here to light your name
Jesus walks along these halls
Jesus lives and loves between these walls


-Sr. Mary Gemma, T.O.R.

I walk in and find myself immediately flooded with many tasks to do.

While people come over to say hello and give hugs, I'm given instructions for the day. Before I can start any of these tasks, I have an unhappy customer complaining about this or that and two people waiting to receive food and clothing assistance. This might seem like a mad house, but it's really just another day at Samaritan House, a thrift store and emergency food bank our sisters assist at in Downtown Steubenville.

After meeting with a client in need of food and clothing, I soon find out they can't find much of what they are looking for in the way of clothes. I make up a list of their needs and decide to run downstairs where we have a bit of an "overflow" supply. As soon as I step our of the door, another client is awaiting clothing assistance. Asking him to please wait, I ask one of our volunteers to fill out the food order for the first client while I run downstairs to find clothing. It's been a few years since she's done an order, so we decide to do it together. When I come back upstairs, there are more people asking for food and clothing assistance and people wanting to know if we help with this, that or the other. The other sister I'm working with comes to the rescue and helps some of the people needing assistance. I hear glass shatter behind me. The first client says none of the clothes I brought up would work and they will come back another day. I desperately seek out the shattered glass being told by 3 people they heard it shatter from 3 different spots. As I was searching for the glass, I realized the clothing I brought up needed to go back downstairs. Once finding the glass nestled between some boxes on the floor, I begin to do clean up. As soon as I begin, I receive a phone call. When 3:00 hit (the time we usually pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet), I found myself in the middle of a clothing order, needing to take clients downstairs for their needs, finding no rest even at that time. I was starting to wonder -- is this what a mother of many young children feels like?

With so many tasks to be done and not enough time to do it. Never have I wanted to receive the gift of bilocation so badly. Being overwhelmed on days like this is an understatement.

The rest of my day continued in a similar fashion with many people needing assistance and only two of us to meet the many demands of the day. Before I knew it, my 2 1/2 hour shift was over and it was time to clean up and go home. Our usual clean-up crew however went home early, leaving Sr. Maria Clare and me to fend for ourselves, taking us twice as long as normal.

On days like this I can't help but wonder, "Lord, did I really make a difference today? Did I really build up Your kingdom today, feeling very overwhelmed and running around like a mad woman attempting to give everyone the love and attention they need while still getting my work done? Is sweeping up shattered glass and sorting through clothes really sanctifying myself and others?" 

The Lord gave me a very beautiful word for the beginning of this year -- that faithfulness to the little things we do in life is our path to sanctification.

When we change diapers, hold our tongue with the co-worker who rubs us the wrong way, love our spouse and children in the midst of a hectic day, study for an exam, or do dishes for our parents, we are showing the love of Christ.

I realized on this day that being with the clients who come in won't solve their problems. They will still be poor, still be hungry, still be sick. Mopping the floor isn't exactly bringing about world peace, but little acts done with great love does build up the body of  Christ in a mystical fashion we will never fully grasp on this side of Heaven. The smile from the high-schooler who had been living in a bad situation for months; the relief of a mother to have food for a few weeks for her children; the love and attention received when answering a question for someone; the grandmother whose eyes fill with tears because she knows her granddaughter will have adequate clothing; none of these are earth shattering! They are all the product of simple acts done with love.

At the end of this very hard and trying day, I read a letter from one of the clients at Samaritan House ensuring us of her love for us and calling us "angels sent from God". I don't know about being angelic, but we can all be saints when we live a life of faithfulness to our vocation. No matter how monotonous, trying or difficult our daily tasks may be, we are all called to sainthood. We are all called to love.


"Jesus said love one another. He didn't say love the whole world. If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one... Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person... Intense love does not measure; it just gives. If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other."  -St. Teresa of Calcutta

                                                                                                                       -Sr. Chiara Joan, novice

A relief of Jesus and St. Faustina at the convent of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Krakow

"Jesus loves you!"

The room, filled with more than 100 college students, was absolutely still. All listened with rapt attention as the sister with her Polish accent told us of the greatness of the Lord's mercy and love. Our pilgrimage group from Franciscan University's study abroad campus in Austria was visiting the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Krakow, Poland on Saturday, the second day of our trip.

We weren't listening to St. Faustina herself, but Sr. Marie Vianney was close enough, keeping the message of mercy alive with her simple and joyful words. She shared about Faustina's diary, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, and the sacraments of mercy: Confession and the Eucharist.

Sister wanted each of us to return home with a word of love from Jesus, so she printed slips of paper for each one of us with a line from St. Faustina's diary. Mine said: "Tell me about everything, be sincere in dealing with Me, reveal all the wounds of your heart. I will heal them, and your suffering will become a source of your sanctification" (#1487). I was comforted by Jesus' compassionate invitation. I knew I could entrust myself to Him, because "all things work for good for those who love God" (Romans 8:28).

Perhaps our ears and hearts were all the more ready for such a message because of what we had already experienced together. 24 hours earlier, we had walked silently through one of the most infamous places of evil and suffering in Poland and in the world: Auschwitz.

I had read stories of what took place there and at other concentration and death camps, but nothing compared to walking through Auschwitz myself. As our guide spoke of the sufferings of the victims and the cruelty of the guards, I felt as though Jesus had suffered His Passion again and again in each person there. Jesus was stripped, beaten, starved, tortured, and killed there. Such rejection of love; such untold evil. What good could come from this?

And yet, even before all of this happened, Jesus was already appearing to little Sr. Faustina Kowalska at her convent. He was already telling her of His mercy for Poland and for the world. Precisely in this place, this place of suffering, Jesus chose to reveal His heart. He told St. Faustina: "Because you are such great misery, I have revealed to you the whole ocean of My mercy" (#718).

From the misery of Auschwitz came the sacrificial love of St. Maximilian Kolbe and perhaps many other unknown saints. From the terror and losses of the war blossomed the vocation of Karol Wojtyla, our beloved St. John Paul II. From the hardships, large and small, of our own lives, come the knowledge of our need and of the Lord's mercy.

Friday afternoon, we walked down the railroad tracks to the ruins of the Birkenau gas chambers. On our right, we saw only chimneys left from the death camp buildings. The tour guide told us the wood from the barracks had been carefully dismantled after the war and used in the restoration of Warsaw, which had been mostly destroyed by Nazi bombs. It was as if Jesus was silently telling us that the wood of the cross must be the means of redemption and the road to resurrection.

At the memorial at the end of the tracks, we stopped to pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy together. It was a golden afternoon, and the light made the grass on either side of the tracks more green and alive. I wondered that there could be beauty in such a place, but then, isn't that what God always does?

-Sr. Mary Gemma, T.O.R.

"Silk" (Samuel Hayes Johnson) October 20, 1946- September 14, 2016

Silk died, early on the morning of the feast of the Triumph of the Cross. I appreciate that to most people that sentence probably seems funny, like a typo or a strange grammatical error. It isn’t. Silk was my friend, and more than that – he was Christ for me, in a very unique way. For over a year, I had the privilege of caring for him by shopping for him each week. The last year or so, this also meant I brought his groceries to his apartment, as he had become too weak to carry anything of any weight. I was not there when he died, though I was quietly awake, wondering why I was awake at 4:30 in the morning. But my sister was there, was able to be present to him at the end. She, like the wise virgins of the Gospel, kept vigil for the bridegroom as he came to bring Silk to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb.

Who was Silk? This question has plagued me for my whole time in community, but extends even further, to my time as a student at Franciscan University. I used to see him at St. Peter’s Church, where he attended 8:00 Mass every day for more than three years without an interruption (he was quite proud of the statistic, and actually knew the exact number of Masses in his “streak”). In those days, I knew him without knowing him – he was the shabby, skinny guy with a wispy gray ponytail who wore cutoff jean shorts and a blue sweatshirt every day and always waited until the end of the line to receive communion. He was a mystery to me then, but not a personal mystery – more like a curiosity. I think I would have been afraid of him, had he ever come up to me to speak.

I got to know Silk the summer of my first year in community, when I first spent some time at Samaritan House, our thrift store. He was a regular volunteer at Samaritan House, where he was a perpetual nuisance – arguing with and occasionally frightening other volunteers, insisting that he ran the place, and often keeping us late at the end of the day as he would insist on praying for the dead (especially dead celebrities! I have a sharp memory of praying for Shirley Temple when she died a few years ago). Actually, we all thought that we were doing him a favor, letting him come in to close the store. We realized when he first got sick and didn’t come in for a few weeks that we actually relied on him to remind us of many of the little tasks involved in closing up: every day something would be forgotten, whether it was cleaning some area or emptying the till or cleaning out the coffee carafe. Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure we still forget the coffee sometimes.

I’m not really sure how I started shopping for him, but that’s the way it was with Silk – only after he’d talked you into doing something did you realize that you’d been roped into it. And the fact is that he just didn’t seem to have anyone else he could rely on. He had great charm beneath his rough demeanor and vague, cryptic language, and a way of bringing you into his world. After time with Silk, I would find myself referring to things in his special lingo, where sisters all had nicknames, St. Peter’s was “the basilica” (it’s not a basilica!), and any activity – however mundane – was a “run” (as in, “we need to run on this one!). Shopping for Silk was totally mortifying for me. If that seems like a funny statement, allow me to paint a picture for you: imagine a lone religious sister, shopping at Walmart. In her first order, she has typical “nunnish things” – frozen vegetables, generic cereal, and discount meat. She quietly pays with her debit card. In her second order, she has chocolate donuts and milk, a variety of candy bars, Hostess cupcakes, and two or three large containers of Haagen-Dazs ice cream. She pays with a hundred-dollar bill. Do you see now why it was an awkward experience? Afterward, I would bring Silk his things and chat with him for a few minutes about whatever was on his mind: usually something related to his car (he always had a car that was on death’s door); to the sisters and their assignments (he truly believed that his opinion about these things carried great weight with Mother Mary Ann and the council and was deeply grieved when sisters were moved away or when he felt they weren’t in jobs they liked); or the Blessed Mother, who was the great love of his life. We would sometimes pray for the dead, but Silk did not think I was an especially good pray-er, so he usually omitted prayer time if I was the only one there, sometimes adding commentary about the excellence of Sr. Carrie Ann and Sr. Magdala Marie’s prayers.

My time with Silk was usually exasperating, frustrating, and totally heart-warming. He was intractable and impossible to reason with: I’ve often modified Paschal’s quip to refer to him, “Silk has reasons of which reason knows nothing”. He was like that to the end, scheming about how he could get a new car the last time I saw him, a week before his death. I guess he was his usually querulous self even in the hours before he died. When the sisters saw when they stopped to see him that he was dying, one stayed with him. Apparently, he kept telling her to leave. But she stayed, waiting like the wise virgins for the coming of the Bridegroom. In a sense, though, she was also waiting with him. Silk was Christ for us all in so many ways, so as Sister sat by his side, she kept watch not only with a lonely old man, but with Jesus himself. There is no way to explain this mystery, but it is the truth: Silk was Christ’s presence for us, and Jesus gave us so many opportunities to love him in Silk that I am overwhelmed by the privilege I had in knowing him.

And I can’t believe he is actually gone, now the object of my (apparently mediocre) prayers for the dead. Perhaps, then, I will borrow Silk’s prayers. Please join me in praying for my friend with the prayers he used each time he prayed for the dead:

Mary’s gonna take him for a ride.

Gone but not forgotten, forever in our heart.
-Sr. Agnes Therese Davis, T.O.R.

 

The fact of the matter is that our eyes don't always see the truth or the full reality of a situation. A few days into our mission this year, a student came to me. "Sister," he said, "can I ask you something? Isn't it like totally depressing seeing this stuff every day? Doesn't it get heavy?"

I had to think about that for a minute before answering. How do I feel about seeing so much suffering every day? Does it get "heavy"? Of course, there are moments that are just plain sad, like when you learn that a young woman has chosen to abort her child, or when you hear that a job opportunity fell through, or when the volunteer you've spent hours with doesn't come in to work because he's drunk again. But that's not what I see when I look at my life.

"No," I answered the student, "It's not totally depressing." And I went on to explain about the beauty I have discovered in my life living and serving in downtown Steubenville. Actually, we who live at our mission house downtown like to say we are "living the dream" because we are blessed to spend our days with the same sort of people that Jesus chose as his friends. If you read the Gospels, you will notice that most of the time Jesus was completely surrounded by people in need. He was followed by crowds of the sick, he sought out a tax collector of ill repute to be his apostle, and he did not shrink from inviting beggars to follow him or the demon-possessed to be his missionaries.

In other words, Jesus did not flinch from any aspect of human reality, no matter how raw, and in every person he saw something beautiful, something precious, and something worth saving.

Our relationship with Christ begins when we allow him to look at our particular human reality and discover the beauty there, hidden though it may be under sin and suffering. And as we learn what love is from Love Incarnate, we, too, begin to have eyes to see the beauty hidden in others. That is why any life involving contact with the "poor and marginalized" is far from depressing and heavy. Such a life is a privileged encounter with hidden beauty. When I listen to people's sorrows and share their pain, it is like I am receiving a precious artifact covered in dust and grime. My listening and sharing are a kind of dusting and polishing, whereby the beauty of the person is revealed once more. This is living the dream.

In this year of mercy, may we all have eyes to see the beauty of our neighbors, near and far. May be all discover the beauty stamped on each heart and be willing to give of ourselves to reveal that beauty to others.

Sr. Agnes Thérèse Davis, T.O.R.

Why the Wild Goose?

Because there is a wildness about the Holy Spirit.  Fr. Dave Pivonka, one of our T.O.R. brothers, in a new video series called The Wild Goose, tells how the ancient Celts used to call the Holy Spirit the Wild Goose, precisely because of this wildness.

The Spirit blows where he wills! (John 3:8)

I can attest to this in my own life.  I grew up living the life of a faithful Catholic.  I went to Mass on Sundays, served my parish in different ways, and was even beginning a prayer life towards the end of my College career.  But I was just going along with life, until I went to a Steubenville Youth Conference as a chaperon.

At the retreat they talked a lot about knowing God's personal love, having a relationship with Him and living a life in the Spirit, the Holy Spirit.  I was hesitant because I hadn't heard any of this before.  But at the same time I saw in the speakers and most of the teens around me something that I didn't have and I wanted it!  They had a zeal for life, and love; they had the Holy Spirit!

The Saturday night of the retreat I told the Lord that I was going to give him one chance to show me this Holy Spirit and if nothing happened that was it, I was done, and I would stay content with the way I was living my life.

I opened the door of my heart a tiny crack and he absolutely flung it open!!!  I experienced His love pouring into me.  I didn't just know in my head but knew in my heart that I was personally loved by God.

 It was so overwhelming.  I was filled with His peace and joy!  His presence was so deeply personal and so intimate.

I can honestly say that from that day, from that moment, my life has never been the same.

He has taken me on a great adventure that I never could have imagined.  It has been a journey into greater freedom as I have come to know my identity as a beloved daughter of God the Father, and with many unexpected turns it has even led me to the convent!!!

Have you experienced the Holy Spirit?  Do you desire more of the Holy Spirit?

There isn't a better time to ask for this Experience and for more of the Holy Spirit than in these next 50 days between Easter and Pentecost (May 15th).

Join us in preparing for Pentecost by taking part in a Video Novena.  Over the next 50 days we will post 9 (of the 14) Wild Goose videos on our Facebook Page, that's about one every 5 or 6 days.  Each one focuses on a different aspect of the Holy Spirit and how to live a life led by Him.  Each one is only about 25 minutes but they are packed with powerful teachings and testimonies.  And they even have subtitles in Spanish!

In between each video spend time reflecting on Fr. Dave's challenges and invitations (resist the temptation to binge watch!) and begin to experience the wildness of the Holy Spirit for yourself!

Check out the trailer for the videos below:



As part of the novena, join us each day in praying the prayer below:

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.  Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.  And you shall renew the face of the earth.  O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations, through Christ Our Lord,  Amen.
-Sr. Sophia Grace Huschka, T.O.R.

The following is a poem written by one of our sisters, fitting for today's mysteries.

"Gifts"

The Father poured gifts on his Beloved,
     his Son,
As he slumbered on the Cross
     and in the tomb.

I am one such gift:
     the Son's waking dream
     the child of his heart;
     bone of his bone
     flesh of his flesh,
He clings to me.

I am my Beloved's
He is mine.

I am the Father's gift to his Son.
Christ is the Father's gift to me.
Never has possession been so sweet;
Never has dispossession been so welcome.

The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame.

A Return to Nazareth

Today ends the year of Consecrated Life in the Church (November 30, 2014-February 2, 2016).  It has been a year of many graces and beautiful opportunities.  As consecrated religious, we were invited by Pope Francis to focus on three things during this year:

to look to the past with gratitude, live the present with passion, and to embrace the future with hope.

Throughout the year we reflected on our past by having Days of Renewal dedicated to prayer on specific themes relating to our charisms and the vows.

One of the ways we embraced the future was by attending the National Symposium hosted by the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious (CMSWR) where we heard speakers present on "Religious Life as a Prophetic Witness".  There were over 500 women religious in attendance from all over the country. Religious life is alive and growing in the Church!

But what about "living the present with passion"?  Pope Francis asked us to ask ourselves this question:

 "Is Jesus really our first and only love?" 

This is a question that I was able to reflect on in a profound way by professing perpetual vows in July of 2015, during the year of Consecrated Life.

Sr. Sophia Grace (right) during her perpetual vow ceremony

As I was preparing, I was led to reflect on my preparation before professing my vows for the 1st time, nearly 5 years ago.  Our motherhouse complex and Father of Mercy Chapel was nearing the end of construction.  The building was scheduled to be completed in June but as we moved into July we were still having work parties to help clean, paint, and clean some more!

July happened to be when my classmates and I began a more intentional reflection on each of the vows, praying with one of them each week.

The first vow we took was chastity.  It happened to be the week that I would walk through the cloister and see men, young attractive men, right outside my bedroom window as they were re-siding the existing house.

It made me stop and think.  

For almost a year our property had been bustling with all kinds of carpenters, masons, plumbers, and electricians (a good portion of them men) and I never experienced any major temptations against the vow of chastity.

 Why?  Because THE Man, Jesus Christ, had wooed my heart and I desired to belong only to him!

The next week we began cleaning and setting up bedrooms on the new side of the house so they could be part of the tour on the day of the Chapel dedication.  It was a bit of a sneak peek for our guests before we started living in the rooms and they became part of the cloister (where only sisters are allowed to go).

That particular week a sister came to me with a plea, "Sister, we don't have enough bed spreads for the rooms.  Can I use yours?"  To which I responded, "Sure, why not." It was shortly after this exchange that I recalled we were reflecting on poverty that week!  The Lord is so good in helping me concretely live it out and, at least in this instance, be more attached to Him than to things!

Week #3.  Obedience.  Hearing the will of God through my superiors.

My assignment at the time was co-coordinating the kitchen, which during the month of July became a small catering business as we provided lunch for the volunteers who came to help us at our work parties.  I began experiencing the busyness and stress of it all during this final stretch of preparation and finishing the building.

I was trying to do what was asked of me in the kitchen but I didn't feel like I could fully enter into my preparation for 1st vows with all of the chaos that was happening around me.  I went to my formator in tears and she encouraged me that my human emotions were normal and expected.  She gave me tips to help with the demands and encouraged me to see God in the midst of it.

What was God saying in all of this?  What was his will?

The revelation of His particular love for me!  In preparation for vows I was also praying with the ancient Jewish wedding feast, basically what a proposal, engagement, and marriage celebration would have looked like in Jesus' time.

Our chapel under construction

Part of the process is that after the bridegroom and bride are engaged the bridegroom went back to his father's house and began to build the bridal chamber.  Meanwhile, the bride prepared herself and waited for the bridegroom's return, which was when the bridal chamber was complete, and always at an unknown hour.  Then the marriage would take place.

The day before first profession, as we were just beginning the rehearsal in our new chapel, a sister came through excitedly waving a paper in her hand.  "It's official!  We just got the final permit!  We can move in!"  The building had passed all necessary inspections.

As I stood there listening to her words what I experienced the Lord saying to me was, "The bridal chamber is complete and now I am coming for you at this unexpected hour, to be married the following day."

In Our Lord's providence and passionate love for me, He allowed me to experience my own preparation to give myself to Him alongside His building the bridal chamber, our new chapel.

Yes!  Jesus is my first love!  And in the ups and downs of the last five years the Lord has taken me deeper into his passionate love.  In professing perpetual vows I freely gave my heart to him and desire Him even more to be my ONLY love!

I pray that this passion between the Lord and I leads and guides my interactions with each person, as I desire everyone to experience that same depth of love in their lives!
-Sr. Sophia Grace Huschka, T.O.R.

Sr. Sophia Grace recieving commnion during her perpetual vow ceremony

Sr. Mary Gemma with Tavien, a young woman from Seaford Town, Jamaica

Tavien's niece and nephew: Lisandre and Leon

"As contemplatives in the world, we esteem the value of prayer in itself for love of God and give ourselves wholeheartedly to the mission of Christ through the spiritual and corporal works of mercy" (Constitutions #1).

Works of Mercy: Praying for the Living and the Dead

One of those works of mercy, a spiritual work of mercy, is to pray for the living and the dead.

Right now two of our sisters are having what we call a "hermitage experience", a more concentrated time of silence, solitude, contemplative work, and prayer.  In these two weeks after Christmas they are each praying for a special intention.

Sr. Agnes Therese is praying for peace throughout the world while Sr. Teresa is offering her prayer, work, and fasting for those who do not know or believe in God's mercy and for those for whom God's heart breaks.

Prayer and intercession are considered one of our main ministries and it is a gift for us to be able to life up to the Lord the dying, deceased, addicted, lost, priests, and families, and to pray for peace and reconciliation, and for a culture of life and the list goes on and on.

The two-week "hermitage experience" is but a taste of an aspect of our way of life that we are not yet fully living.  In the next couple of years, we hope to have 2-3 sisters begin living in a hermitage setting where they will live in a house together and more fully embrace the contemplative life.

"By embracing a more intense living of our prayer and penance, we seek to offer ourselves as a sacrifice of praise and adoration of God who is supremely loved, and to offer ourselves as a sacrifice of love and intercession for all of God's people" (Constitutions #62).

Last Christmas I had the incredible gift of doing my own "hermitage experience".

During those two weeks I offered my work, prayers, and other daily activities for the intention of those who are in darkness- that they would come to know the light of Christ.  I prayed especially for those who, in their own woundedness and brokenness (because of past hurts), can't even imagine a God who loves them.

Throughout my time, the Lord allowed my to see His faithfulness and goodness.  Through scripture, the Liturgy of the Hours, the Mass and many other ways, God spoke to my heart and showed me over and over again that He was answering my prayers and accepting the small offering of my simple, hidden work.

A couple of weeks later many of the sisters, myself included, watched The Lord of the Rings: the Return of the King.  If you have seen this movie you know there are many, many scenes portraying the powers of light versus the powers of darkness, but I was struck by one scene in particular and everything in me wanted to yell,

"PAUSE IT! Stop right here!  Let's just sit and pray with this!"

Faramir and his men are retreating from Osgiliath.  A dark shadow of clouds cover them and Nazguls are picking them off by the claw full as they ride to the protection of Minas Tirith.  Gandalf, the White Rider, rides out on his white horse to meet them.

As he approaches the impending darkness and retreating men he extends his staff and a powerful light radiates from it.

The entire scene changes.  The music/sounds go from the Nazguls screaming to what sounds like elves singing.

Immediately the Nazguls turn and flee from the light.  Gandalf then joins Faramir and his men and they all return to Minas Tirith safely.


I felt like I was watching, right there on the screen, what God had been doing in the people I had been praying for during my time in the hermitage!  

As I prayed for those who were in darkness God was sending his Holy Spirit (the light coming from Gandalf's staff) to enlighten their hearts and to disperse the evil that had been covering and pursuing them.  Jesus was bringing them under his protection, just as Gandalf brought his protection by his presence of riding to them and with them.

I also saw just how powerful the kingdom of light really is in relation to the enemy.  

The Nazgul are giant in comparison to the men, their screams deafening, and their claws sharp; yet when faced with the seemingly weak light from Gandalf's staff they flee immediately and go back to the darkness from where they came.

The devil seems big and brutal but he doesn't stand a chance against God's kingdom- God is always victorious!  The light wins over the darkness!

The Lord did not have to show me how he was hearing and answering my prayers and offerings during my "hermitage experience" but he chose to and as it all unfolded my faith was buoyed.

I began to pray with a more bold confidence as I lifted up people and situations to him because whether he shows me or not I know he is hearing my prayers and answering them according to his will.  As he does with all of our prayers!

May we all grow in prayer and intercession for the living and deceased!
-Sr. Sophia Grace Huschka, T.O.R.