life - Related Content

Sister Eileen's Six Word Story

Tuesday, July 19th 2016 10:11 am
Sister Eileen McKenzie, FSPA


Your-life-is-bigger

What's your six word discernment story?

Sister Rosalia's Six Word Mission Story

Tuesday, March 7th 2017 10:00 am
Sister Rosalia Bauer, FSPA

 

hot-air-balloons-celebrate-life-Rosalia-Bauer

Are you willing to share (post a comment below) your own Six Word Mission Story?

Sister Lisa's Six Word Story

Tuesday, June 7th 2016 11:39 am
Sister Lisa Zmuda, FSPA


train-tracks-50th-jubilee-Lisa-Zmuda

What's your six word discernment story?

Celebrating religious life renewed, perpetually professed

Thursday, June 1st 2017 10:00 am
Sister Amy Taylor, FSPA

 

We invite you to pray with us, from wherever you are in the world, as we celebrate a vow renewal and a perpetual vow profession in the FSPA community!


Sister-Kristin-Peters

Sister Kristin shares reflection as she prepares to make a pilgrimage to Santiago, Spain.

Sister-Laurie-Sullivan-ministers-communion

Sister Laurie serves as a eucharistic minister in a local parish (photo courtesy of Sister Laurie Sullivan).

Sister Jolyce's Six Word Story

Tuesday, November 1st 2016 10:00 am
Sister Jolyce Greteman, FSPA


God-called-I-responded-life-blessed

 

What's your six word discernment story?

Sister Mary's Six Word Story

Tuesday, August 23rd 2016 10:34 am
Sister Mary Bates

 

childhood-desire-life-challenged-grateful-ending

 

What's your six word discernment story?

Sister Kathy's Six Word Story

Tuesday, May 3rd 2016 1:39 pm
Sister Kathy Roberg, FSPA


pink-flower-seed-planted-darkness-light-life-grew

What's your six word discernment story?

Sister Mary Ann's Six Word Story

Tuesday, October 11th 2016 10:00 am
Sister Mary Ann Wiesman, FSPA


early-calling-blessed-life-eighty-four-Mary-Ann-Wiesman

What's your six word discernment story?

Sister Jean: Praying

Tuesday, September 26th 2017 10:00 am
Sister Jean Kasparbauer, FSPA

 

Sit, walk
Listen, speak
Mind, spirit
Body, heart


sunrise-lake-dock

Three-second focus
Come to peace
Three-second wander
Home to self

Loving Source of Life
Tender font of love
Turn to light eternal
Live in loving presence

Franciscan Way is a series featuring prayerful reflection by Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.

Where are we going?

Thursday, June 8th 2017 1:55 pm
Sister Amy Taylor, FSPA

 

Where are we going? When are we going to get there?

These are questions I recall asking incessantly, as a child, every time my family would get in the car and head out of our driveway for a road trip. Sometimes we had a plan and direction; others, we went out for an adventure and looked for signs touting interesting destinations and attractions along the road.

Life, I‘ve discovered, offers both of these experiences: sometimes I know exactly where I’m going but, more often than not, it reveals itself in the right place, at the right time. Yet I know that God is in everything—the things I plan and the surprises around each twist and turn.

Religious life is also a transformative road trip; each generation guided by its unique calling in the world. Some ministerial routes are planned according to congregational tradition while others are detoured to guide us to new destinations of need.

It reminds me of the story of the Good Samaritan, taking his own road trip. He had a plan when he started his journey yet when he came upon someone in need not only did his itinerary change but, I imagine, his heart was transformed too.

Creating-Our-Future

FSPA gather together to envision, plan for and celebrate the future of religious life.

This weekend, our congregation will come together for community days: a convergence of all FSPA ministries and experiences and ideas. Our hearts and minds are pointing to the future of religious life with the intention of our conversations and prayer to help us live into our now and what is to come. For, as Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration Eileen McKenzie writes in her poem “Rebirth” (published in a “Global Sisters Report” article on June 6), women religious are uniting on the road to the way:

 

Midwife

Midlife

Midway

Middlespace

Where are we?

Who knows?

We’re here.

Now.

That’s enough.

 

What’re we doin’?

We’re sharin’ and carin’

And rarin’ to go.

Go where?

Don’t know.

Haven’t been there before.

But we know the Way.

Caring and sharing

Questioning and praying

Laughing and dancing

Accompanying and crying

Witnessing and proclaiming

Healing and teaching

Trying and failing

Trying again and failing again

Learning

Finally

That there’s no “right way”

There’s only

The Way

And that Way is

Living and

Loving and

Dying and

Rising again to

New Life.

Where are we going again?

Don’t know.

Haven’t been there before.

But we DO know the Way.
 

As you walk your own road of discernment this week, reflect upon how you may be coming upon a turn towards religious life. Your gifts and talents may be precious fuel for propelling us into the future.

What scenery is catching your eye?

What needs are you discovering along the way?

How is your discerning heart transforming on your journey?


From wherever you are in the world, join us in a moment of prayer as FSPA meets to discern the future of religious life.

 

Watch Sister Eileen’s discernment reflection--her own journey to religious life--in the FSPA vocation series "Called."

Stepping into bright futures

Thursday, May 17th 2018 10:00 am
Sister Amy Taylor, FSPA

 

graduate-bridge

Image courtesy pixabay.com

As we enter into the season of graduation, may you take a moment of quiet to recall all the ways God has brought you to this milestone in your life. Every ounce of hard work and determination has yielded the results you now celebrate. Congratulations as you move forward into a bright future!

*Do you know someone experiencing discernment of religious life? We invite you to share this link, www.fspa.org/showmeasign, and join the conversation.

Sister Clarone's 6 Word Story of Hope

Monday, September 28th 2020 10:00 am
Clarone Brill, FSPA

Sister Georgia: A morning offering

Tuesday, September 5th 2017 10:00 am
Sister Georgia Christensen, FSPA

 

cup-of-coffee

O my God, I offer you this morning cup of coffee.
As the steam rises upward,
So let all my thoughts, words and actions
Rise in praise of you today.
May the warmth of the cup, 
Transferred to my hands, be a reminder
Of the warmth and love I am to extend to all who I
meet today.
As I drink from the cup,
Let it be a sign of my willingness to share in the
“cup of salvation”
And offer my life to the Father as you did.
When I partake of the coffee
And feel it going through my body,
May it remind me of your constant love,
Ever filling me and giving me life.
Please bless me, my God, and make me good today.
Amen.

Franciscan Way is a series featuring original prayer by Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.

Editor's note: as published in the "Viterbo University Book of Prayers"

Sister Lucy Ann: expression of my time with Jesus

Tuesday, September 19th 2017 10:00 am
Sister Lucy Ann Meyer, FSPA

 

Prayer is the personal expression of my time with Jesus. I have found through the years that I move in and out of various expressions/activities that nurture my relationship with God. Scripture, music and movement remain my steady and usual practices. 

dancers-shadows

In recent years, poetry has taken on greater significance and challenged me at a more basic level. I have experienced deep and profound insights about “who” I am and “how” to live more fully into the mysteries of life. This poem by Hafiz, “Know the True Nature," reminds me of being surrounded in God’s love and the importance of forgiveness: 

Know the True Nature of your Beloved.

In 

His loving eyes

your every thought, word, and movement

is always, always, 

beautiful.

 

Franciscan Way is a series featuring prayerful reflection by Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.

 

Surrendering to the task at hand

Thursday, October 13th 2016 12:00 pm
Sister Amy Taylor, FSPA

 

to-do-pen-paper

Photo courtesy of freeimages.com

Quick: think of five tasks you have been putting off over the past month. What else comes to mind? 

Dread?

Wasted time?

Boredom?

Maybe even fear?

These thoughts can be overwhelming and you might even spend more energy avoiding the chore–compounding the stress—than you would if you just got it done.


God helps us to see inside the possibilities life can offer if you take that first stepeven if it feels like the biggest risk of your life.

Our spiritual lives can also be porous with procrastination. That invitation you received from God to deepen relationship, discern a vocation or consider a new ministry opportunity? Is it buried under the pile of bills you have to pay? Is it where anxiety—trepidation of change that holds one back from even thinking about possibilities much less taking an actual step—can also be found? It can lead to worry about failing: I'm not the right person for the call ... I'm not good enough ... I don't have the courage or skills necessary for what might come next. 

One of my favorite prophets, Jeremiah, had what he thought was an answer to God’s call (and plenty of reasons why the time wasn’t right and how he just wasn’t cut out for it anyway). Yet he could no longer put off the decision nor deny it. We hear in his story (Jeremiah 1:1-9) how excuses don’t work for God. God helps us to see inside the possibilities life can offer if you take the first step—even if it feels like the biggest risk of your life.

Have you invited God into the task you’re putting off?

Are you procrastinating in the discernment of vocation, afraid to take that next step?

 

Unpredictability, overwhelming beauty coexist

Thursday, April 27th 2017 12:05 pm
Sister Amy Taylor, FSPA

 

Sometimes we are like spring: indecisive and moody. In one moment calm breezes and blinding sunshine soak into our winter-weary bones. In the next, peals of lightning and ear-splitting thunder rumble through as rain pelts blossoming flowers and awaiting garden plots. I’m overwhelmed by scents of pungent earth, pollen-producing flowers and trees. It is a season when our renewed senses merge as if on cue from some distant stage director for the grandest play opening on the world stage.

Each new bud of life offers a gentle invitation to reflect on the ways in which we are all called into renewed being this Easter Season.

field-of-flowers

As I take in the beauty of the beginning of the daylilies in the yard, I am reminded of Jesus’ message to depend on our God who presents the flowers as teachers who don’t “toil or spin.” This, for me, is the essence of not only spring but of discernment—trust in God’s providence and stillness of heart. Discerning religious life can’t be rushed for the risk of impulsive decisions possibly destined for regret. The process must take time to unfold. We do not need to funnel our tornadic drive to get things done to the abundance of springtime storms; in the atmosphere inherently unstable. There are moments, in the lengthening light of evening, meant for sitting on the front porch and taking in the greening world around us. There is room for both unpredictability and overwhelming beauty to coexist. It is a time full of discovery and awe.


exterior-chapel-in-spring-by-Nancy-Chapman

St. Rose Convent in spring (photo by Nancy Chapman)

As you ponder your own growth in this season of your discernment, take time to celebrate the new life that is emerging.

Where do you see roots taking firmer hold?

What new shoots of life are visible to you now?

A promise to build a new life upon

Thursday, April 6th 2017 11:00 am
Sister Amy Taylor, FSPA

 

I am fascinated by “Who Do You Think You Are?”, a cable television show on the TLC network. Each episode features a media icon who, through the assistance of genealogy experts, professors, librarians, historians, Ancestry.com and others, delves into their family history. No stone is left unturned as a camera crew follows the individual searching for their roots throughout the United States and, in some cases, around the world. Narratives of long-forgotten relatives leap from pages of documentation, becoming next clues in the ongoing quest for information; identity.

Story-by-story, the truth is revealed. While not all chronicles are happy or full of pride, knowledge of where they came from—documented on paper—gives a sense of connectedness far beyond a code of DNA.

Today’s first reading recalls one of our familial stories of faith; a touchstone of generations that came before us. Through other stories of Abram (who is renamed Abraham) we know he is advanced in age, at what seems to be the end, when he is promised generations and land. From this, a new life emerges for him. This is not a one-way contract: Abraham is asked, on behalf of himself and his descendants, to uphold the covenant—placing God as the center of his life and for all those to come.

It is in the quiet moments of prayer that Abraham receives the news that shapes not only his living years, but those spanning far beyond his death as well. And God keeps his promise: we see the fruits more than 2,000 years later each time we hear the genealogy of Jesus proclaimed from Matthew 1:1-17.

Deep moments of prayer are crucibles in which we enter into conversation with God about our life’s direction. Discernment calls each of us to make God the priority in our lives and to listen. Our covenant with God requires focus and determination to set aside anything that will distract or become a stumbling block to our full attentive presence. By choosing to distract ourselves from listening—particularly when we are called to rise to the potential already within us—we can hide from God.

As we prepare for Palm Sunday and the liturgies of Holy Week, may we remember our commitment to prayer and presence. Placed before us in the next few days are the stories that form who we are and what we believe.

In your prayer this week ponder …

What is the everlasting promise God is offering as you discern?

What will your “Yes” mean for you and generations to come?


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