Pilgrim progress- a disciple on a journey!

Today the Church celebrates the feast of St. John. It is a feast which I love because most of our spirituality comes from John’s Gospel, a Gospel which is powerfully symbolic and mystical. The symbolic is very close to the mystical, which goes beyond the everyday part of life and finds the presence of God everywhere and responds to it. In the transmission of our charism, our Founder Blessed James Alberione has presented us with various biblical icons as beacons which enlighten and guide us on our journey of discipleship. On our Congregational emblem, we have engraved the verse from John 14:6: ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life’. Our whole itinerary of holiness is based on John 12:24: “Unless a grain of wheat dies, it remains a single grain”.  The figure of Jesus Master Way Truth and Life is the foundational icon of our Rule of life. He is the one who has chosen us first.  We allow ourselves to be seized by him in order to contemplate him and to follow him in the Paschal mystery

There is an American composer called Michael Card who wrote a song entitled ‘How can it be?” It has come to be known also as ‘Joseph’s Song’. In it, the composer imagines what is going through the heart and the mind of St. Joseph as he looks down at the Child Jesus in his arms. As we too look into the Crib this Christmas, when we gaze upon the manger scene, we may just, without even realising, glance over St. Joseph.    However this year, we are invited to see St. Joseph as a   strong and courageous man, a working man, yet in his heart we see great tenderness, which is not a virtue of the weak, but rather a sign of strength of spirit. In Him, we see a capacity for concern, for compassion, for genuine openness to others, for love. Though he didn’t say much in the Gospels, there is strength in his silence of St. Joseph. Joseph Ratzinger, whom we know as Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, spoke some inspiring words concerning the silence of his namesake Joseph: “His is a silence permeated by con

Life is a constant Advent season: we are continually waiting to become, to discover, to complete, to fulfill. Hope, struggle, fear, expectation and fulfillment are all part of our Advent experience. The world is not as just, not as loving, not as whole as we know it can and should be. But the coming of Christ and his presence among us—as one of us—give us reason to live in hope: that light will shatter the darkness, that we can be liberated from our fears and prejudices, that we are never alone or abandoned. May this Advent season be a time for bringing hope, transformation and fulfillment into the Advent of our lives!   (This picture, Our Lady of Advent, was chalked by one of our sisters from my community Sr. Marie Paul, pddm. May she rest in peace.)