Reflection

Being with my age peers in religious life: Priceless!  I am so grateful for peers who understand the joys and challenges, the heartaches and life-giving moments of entering religious life today.  Our 20s and 30s retreat in Phoenix was a time of laughing, sharing, and dreaming together.  This was my second Giving Voice experience, and again I was touched by the openness and willingness of all gathered to share and delight in each other.  There was a comfort and ease in being together. And this formed a space in which we were able to create, dream, ponder, and discover.  How enriched I am to receive the wisdom and insights of my sisters in Giving Voice!  Though they may be "younger" and "newer" in religious life, these are wise women who speak truth from the journeys of their lives.

Into this space of sharing and laughing and being together, our individual journeys met and blended.  This blend inspires me.  This blend of passion and compassion, hope and joy reinvigorates me to live out my call to belong to God and to God's people as a woman religious.  The space we created through our presence to each other is a new wineskin that I carry with me.  I know that I will continue to draw strength, courage, and joy from it.  I know that each time we connect with each other in small ways or in large gatherings we bring life anew to this wineskin and fill it with the wine of our interconnectedness.  This is a gift from our God of Life, who guides us into ever-deeper connections, possibilities, and hope. Yes, indeed, this gift is priceless.