On the road again....

At Times Square

Well...it's more 'in the air again'! I write this blog post from Newark Airport, New York where I have over an hour to wait before I board my next flight for Toronto and then onto Montreal and then tomorrow to Ottawa. It must have been a record check-in and security check...I counted 5 minutes between both! No lines, no queues, no stress, it was great.This brings me to the end of my 3 week stay in the United States, my first visit and hopefully not my last.
I confess I didn't do a lot of the 'touristy' things but I did see a good few sites when I went sightseeing on St. Stephen's Day. Wrapped up well, the three Athlonians headed off to explore. We attended Mass in St. Patrick's Cathedral, well worth a visit. It is currently under restoration but magnificent all the same. A banner outside the Church reminds people: "In the city that never sleeps, we all need a place to pray." I had the chance to pray briefly at the tomb of Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen and Cardinal Spellman both whose writings I dip into on a regular basis. After Mass we took a wander around the city passing Broadway, visiting the Rockefeller Centre, experiencing the lights and magic of Times Square. There is so much to see and do, maybe in the future I'll have the opportunity to do so, I'll have to wait for my sister Andrea to come over!
I was so happy to spend time with my sisters in New York. The beauty of religious life is that wherever you go, though the language, schedule or the food may be different, it is always your community. There is a communion of sisterhood which holds us together. The rhythm of prayer is the same for us Disciples of the Divine Master throughout the world. We have the Word of God and the Eucharist as the centre of our lives and this is such a blessing.
I return to Canada with another experience to give thanks for. The more I visit our communities, the more I see that we all struggle with similar difficulties, we all seek the good of our Congregation, we all seek to express the mission which the Founder entrusted to us in the reality where we are. This is not always easy, the numbers are falling, society becomes more and more secularised towards religious life but we cannot lose hope. We must strive to find new ways of incarnating our mission together with out lay collaborators, readings the signs of the times with creative fidelity. So as I think about all this....first I go back to Ottawa and take back up student life! Canon law, snow and life at Deschatelets awaits!