The Journey Makes Us One

By Sister Judith Jackson

Marillac Center is located on sacred ground, a place of four seasons: fall, winter, spring, and summer. Whether we are here by choice or happenstance, we have seasonal changes that speak to us each year: words of inspiration, awareness, beauty, endurance, adaptability, etc.

With each change of seasons in nature and in our lives, we come to new insights and awareness. At times, we have blurred vison of our landscape and other times, we are graced with clarity of vision.

As March arrives, we are greeted with spring winds that advance the growth of plants, flowers, the greening of the trees. As this column is published, the season we know as Lent is ten days old in the annual 40-day cycle. You probably know that the word, Lent, means spring. In the Christian tradition, we celebrate the Life of Jesus, his public life, his healing ministry, the gift of the eucharist, the gift of serving others, and in the week that we call Holy, the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus.  

Recently, the new Pope Leo XIV shared this invitation for the season of Lent: To examine our hearts and our lives.  To refocus our gaze on Jesus and His love for us.

There is a simplicity about this invitation, but we also know from our life experience that to tend to the Mysteries of our Faith is challenging and demanding.

• What have I asked of God to help me change my heart this Lent?
• What particular path have I chosen?
• What is my destination?
• Where do I focus my gaze?

Here are a few opportunities:  As the weather warms, we may spend some time walking outside; we may spend time gazing upon an icon; we may pray the words of Pedro Arupe, S.J., in a prayer poem of his. “Teach me your way of looking at people.”;  we may listen intently to the words of a sacred Lenten hymn, i.e., Jerusalem My Destiny

I have fixed my eyes on your hills,
Jerusalem, my Destiny!
Though I cannot see the end for me,
I cannot turn away.
We have set our hearts for the way;
this journey is our destiny.
Let no one walk alone.
The journey makes us one.

We may spend time and reflect on an integrative passage on love for the poor from Pope  Leo XIV’s apostolic exhortation. Dilexite (I have loved you), i.e.

75. “The Church, like a mother, accompanies those who are walking. Where the world sees threats, she sees children; where walls are built, she builds bridges. She knows that her proclamation of the Gospel is credible only when it is translated into gestures of closeness and welcome. And she knows that in every rejected migrant, it is Christ himself who knocks at the door of the community.”

May your path through Lent be blessed. May our journeys make us one. 

Consider joining us at Marillac Center and register if you wish for each event you plan to attend.

On Tuesday, we will Linger Over Coffee: Staying firmly on the path as we journey this Lent. (9 to 11 a.m. Tuesday: 3/3,10, 24). During this series, we will meet in O’Shea on the first floor of the Mother House.

Register for Linger Over Coffee events via email here. Please specify the day(s) you would like to attend: March 3, 10, and/or 24.

From Friday until Sunday, March 27-29, Sr. Mary Pat Johnson, SCL, offers the Transformative Power of Prayer. This Retreat will explore ways in which fidelity to prayer will gradually heal and transform us into the women and men we were created to be. Time for silence, personal prayer, and faith sharing will be included.

May 26-31, a preached retreat following The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, will be directed by Fr. Frank Reale, SJ, a Jesuit of the Central and Southern Province. The interior movements of the four weeks include major themes like The Principal and Foundation, to The Contemplation, to Attaining the Love of God.