In Nature, Grace and Glory!



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... in nature, grace, and glory for time and for eternity ...

Autumn in the Berkshire Hills of Western Massachusetts is glorious. As over many a country road I travelled these past two weeks, I was taken out of myself by the beauty, while invited from within to stop and take it all in. Are not earth, mountains and sky also neighbors that seek relationship with us?

I stopped to photograph this scene in Cheshire on my way to Mont Marie last week. Such presence speaks to me of nature, grace, glory and fidelity. It also speaks to me of time and eternity.Father Medaille tells us in Maxim 40:   "Love nothing that is not eternal."

Our Sister Andrea touched our lives in a glorious way this past week as she fulfilled to the end her promise to live out Maxim 73:  " Live out your life with one desire only: to be always what God wants you to be in nature, grace, and glory, for time and for eternity."

As we shared memories at her wake service we were brought into the beginning years of her life as a Sister of St. Joseph in Fall River. I was particularly touched in hearing that when she was anointed a day of two before she died, that she opened her eyes and told those present that she wanted to tell about her vocation. She spoke of how at age 5 she had heard God to speak to her heart saying, "You  are mine you belong to me." At age 12  she experienced God again speaking to her as she received Holy Communion saying,"You belong to me and I want you to be a Sister."  She entered religious life at age 16 and was a sister for close to 80 years! It was evident in the sharing that she influenced many people from her earliest days until the very last.

Like the autumn trees, Andrea's beauty, in the midst of much suffering and joy, caused us to stop and take in her life among us. It is a blessing to know that we are one, in nature, grace and glory throughout eternity.