Mercy Sunday
Mercy Sunday
Blessed Octave Day of Easter to all of you! Today Jesus shows us His holy wounds, not in
a vengeful, condemning way, but rather to prove to us how much He has loved
us. See what He has done for us! He has endured the depths of our hatred and
our sin and He still loves us! He comes
close to us—so close that we feel His breath.
He gives to us His own Holy Spirit in a very personal Pentecost. And in Him we find our peace.
Four weeks ago our Sister Mary Angelique experienced the mercy
and love of God in a special way on the day of her Investiture. Here she shares her reflections:
I shall leave it to you to imagine what the day itself
was like, and what joy it had for me. My
sisters worked with such love and tenderness to make the day special, and they
even did a touching rendition of a scene from Candle in Umbria (play written about St. Clare) for
the occasion. I think all our minds went
back to that blessed day 800 years ago when our Holy Mother
Clare first showed the way for us to follow as we celebrated
the anniversary of the founding of our order.
She is so beautiful a saint, so profound and so full of the love of
Jesus that I am constantly awed by her and can only hope to imitate her.
For the reading at the ceremony I chose a passage from 1
Jn. 4, as its message is one of special significance for me. My vocation is a precious gift of God’s mercy
and a profound proof of His love. During
my retreat and investiture I was so moved by the realization that God has first
loved me, and places His love in me, and by it unites me to Himself. It is by this love that I know Him, and that
I love Him in return. It is by this love
that I am united to His death, His total gift to every human soul, so that I
also am a total gift to Him and every soul.
He truly enkindles His fire in my heart and increases it day by day
giving me a life far beyond what I could ever reach. How blessed is our vocation!
Being clothed in the religious habit and receiving a new
name makes me feel very strongly God’s compassion for me. The bare feet remind me that I am vulnerable,
utterly poor, and that He will take care of me.
The various head coverings make me feel that “His left Hand is under my
head, and His right Hand happily embraces me.”
The veil and guimp remind me that He has called me to be His Bride. How good it is to live in the House of the
Lord!
Please pray for me that I may persevere unto the end for
the glory of His Holy Name. I pray with
grateful heart for all of you near and far, especially those celebrating and
those suffering. May all the angels
bring you smiles! Wishing you a Holy
Paschaltide,
In Jesus our Beloved,
Sr. Mary Angelique
of the Infant Jesus
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