Thursday, November 1, 2012

Dear God,

All Saints Day is today and my mind turns to the saints of old and also contemporary saints who still bless, give witness, and pray.  I think of the saints who have inspired me, touching my life in deep ways like St. Francis of Assisi, St. Therese of Lisieux, and St. Bernadette of Lourdes.  I remember how I was drawn to pilgrim to France and Italy in 2005 to journey in faith with them even hundreds of years after their death. I visited sites where their lives became public testimonies to faith and trust in you.  Their stories called for a renewal in my own.

I think of my grandmother, Lois Evelyn Hughes, who still touches souls as well.  A remembrance of her brings me to love you more and practice my faith more diligently.  A bio sheet on a young student who just received scholarship funds in her name at my seminary where I created a scholarship fund more than 20 years ago reminds me how she still stirs hearts because of her well of faith.

And then there are the three monastic communities, every one of them saints in their own right.  The Carmelites took me in back in 1988.  They welcomed my covenant group, inviting us weekly to worship and pray together.  When I had cancer, family problems, and church challenges, they prayed and their faith brought comfort, joy, and hope.  The Sisters of St. Joseph offered warm hospitality to me as I lead and experienced many retreats.  It was there I finally met the woman, the sister whose name I carry, Sister Andrea.  At the age of 101 and suffering from dementia, the one time I was there she was lucid and remembered working at the hospital where she helped my mother give birth.  She took my hands and we prayed for one another.  The Benedictines opened me to surrender at a remote monastery in northwest New Mexico.  Each week my covenant group worships with them and they have made space for our own spiritual direction.  Saints, all saints, bless them, I pray.

Good God,
thank you
for the saints
who have gifted
my life.
Thank you
for their faith,
their servanthood,
their devotion,
and their love
of you.
Thank you
for the mystery
of faith
and Christian life
beyond the grave
that touches
and inspires
even today.

Always yours, Andrea