Message from our Community Director – July 2019
Greetings my dear Sisters and Brothers
“The cup of our spiritual life must be cared for and replenished as it pours its contents away in loving service. Like the cup with its boundaries, we, too, need parameters so that our life does not seep away into endless busy-ness and unguarded, unfocused activity” (Joyce Rupp)
As we begin this month, I ask you to reflect on the above quotation from a book by Joyce Rupp, The Cup of Life. Reflect on this quote in tandem with this time of year which we associate with holiday or vacation time. We know the need for a vacation, a break, to replenish our bodies and minds. After months and months of work, meetings, school commitments, traffic, housework and all else that goes into our busy lives, we are tired. We need to replenish mind and body….I hear it said so often, I’m tired, I really need a break.
This is part of the human experience.
Likewise, also part of the human experience should be the replenishing of my spiritual life, my inner journey which helps me to connect with my God, to search for the Who is bigger than my life and who calls me to that deep inner journey with Him. After months and months of giving to your families or giving through a ministry in the community or through the gift of your time and talent wherever you are called…it is time to sit and rest awhile with Him and to replenish the cup that has emptied by the giving of yourself.
“It’s important that in the period of rest and breaking away from daily concerns, you restore the energies of your body and soul, deepening your spiritual journey.” Says Pope Francis at the beginning of the vacation season. …. “Christ’s disciples need to rediscover the pacifying and regenerating silence that comes from prayer and meditating on a Gospel passage. When we put ourselves in this situation, with the Bible in hand, in silence, we begin to feel this interior beauty, this joy that the word of God generates in us.”
Yes, my dear sisters and brothers, let’s commit to replenishing not only our bodies and minds during this holiday season, but also our souls, that our cup will be replenished with all that we need to be able to continue responding to the call of being another Christ in this world as we build the civilization of love.
To end, I quote again from our Holy Father, Pope Francis in his hope that the followers of Christ after this time of vacation, will indeed be…
“Transformed by the presence of Christ and by the warmth of his words….. be a concrete sign of the life-giving love of God for all our brothers and sisters, especially those who suffer, find themselves alone and abandoned, are sick, and for the multitude of men and women who, in different parts of the world, are humiliated by injustice, abuse and violence.”
Love and prayers in the hearts of Jesus and Mary…Rhonda