Seeking Christ

A precious, indeed invaluable, element of our life of striving for union with Jesus through Mary is our daily practice of spiritual reading. As our bodies require daily nourishment to fuel the day's service, so our intellects require daily doses of stimulating (and even challenging) material paired with reflection to strengthen our loving will and inspire the heart in its seeking for and conversing with Christ.

Just as every body requires different kinds and amounts of nourishment to flourish, so every soul needs different spiritual reading at different times. Not only does every Sister differ, but every stage of religious formation calls for slightly different emphases. 

There are certain texts, however, that are almost universally appreciated: "...And You Are Christ's", True Devotion, Story of a Soul, Van Zeller's  Approach to Prayer and Approach to Penance,  Vita Consecrata, to list a few.

Currently being read in the convent are a wide variety of books. One of the professed Sisters is spending time with de Caussade's classic, Abandonment to Divine Providence. She shared that it is a classic because it so beautifully and clearly 

My spiritual reading, in the evening — so precious an element in the spiritual life — rekindles my desire for mental prayer the following morning. Before going to bed I foresee briefly, but in a clear and forceful manner, the subject of my meditation, as well as the special fruit I want to draw from it, and in the presence of God I stir up my
desire to profit by it.
                                Dom Chautard

explains why confident trust and surrender to God's Holy Will is essential and necessary for sanctity. Its value lies largely in a de Caussade's ability to articulate the why underlying the practice while stirring the soul to meet the difficulties involved since it is not natural to our fallen nature.

A novice shared her continuing enjoyment of Archbishop Alban Goodier's Public Life of Christ. Goodier, himself a master of the spiritual life and an ardent disciple of Christ, walks with the reader through Christ's public ministry as found in the Gospels, shedding insights into how Christ might have looked or spoken in each scene, how the disciples might have reacted, what their thoughts and aspirations in following Jesus might have been as expressed in the telling of the Gospel.

In keeping with our Marian spirituality and our apostolate of evangelization, another professed Sister is reading Mary in Our Life, an old manual for Mariology and Marian devotion. When sharing her discovery of this book, she exclaimed,

 "Where was this textbook when I was first studying Mary?!" A unique "textbook", it blends both a concrete foundation in Marian dogma and doctrine with practical application to one's personal devotional life, encouraging concrete practices to cultivate a tender relationship with our good Mother, who in turn leads us directly to her loving Son.