As we begin a new year, we have a new LCM motto for 2025 from our Congregational Leadership Team, sharing the words of Venerable Mary Potter from Conference 1, “Let the Spirit descend upon their (our) hearts filling them (us) with PEACE”, this peace so needed in our world today and particularly in Palestine and Israel. With the motto is a picture of the icon of our Lady of Palestine, with Mary carrying the city of Jerusalem and painted by nuns from a monastery in Israel – gifts shared from women in both Israel and Palestine, uniting together. We have just celebrated the great feast of Christmas and with the message proclaimed by the angels over that stable, “Glory to God on earth and peace to men of good will.”
What has this year been like for our world, for each of us and our families? We read in the Gospel of Zaccheus, who was small in stature, climbing a tree to see Jesus and then Jesus seeking to come to Zaccheus’ house. Zaccheus was filled with joy, and it is this same Jesus who comes to us, to be invited into our lives, to share the gift of peace he came to bring.
What are we being invited to for our New Year’s resolution? Our Associate group met together at Ryde with some of our Calvary Ryde LCM Sisters for our Christmas gathering and we had decided to “pay it forward”, to share with one another a gift we had previously received and not used. This is also an aboriginal custom, to pass on something precious of ours to someone else- a blessing shared.
As we come to this new year, we pause and remember those who have been part of our journey and also those who have gone to their eternal rest, who have shared with us their life and spirit. We are grateful for the gifts Venerable Mary Potter has given us, in her words and her Spirit that guides our own lives with an invitation to let the Spirit descend upon our hearts and those we encounter- that gift of presence in our shared journey.
Pope Francis too offers us new insights to guide us in his new encyclical, Dilexit nos, (On the human and divine love of the Heart of Jesus Christ), as we step into this Jubilee Year of Hope. “The word of God is living and active…it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb 4:12) …the disciples of Emmaus, on their mysterious journey in the company of the Risen Christ, experienced a moment of anguish, confusion, despair and disappointment. Yet beyond and in spite of this, something was happening deep within them; “Were not our hearts burning within us while we were talking on the road?” (Lk 24:32).
What meaning do I want to give to all my experiences? Who do I want to be for others? Who am I for God? All these questions lead us back to the heart.
On January 1st we celebrate our LCM Congregational Feast Day, a commemoration of Mary, the Mother of God and that of our LCM Spirit of the Maternal Heart of Mary. We are invited to live by that spirit, in our care and presence with those we meet along that Emmaus of our lives; and we are grateful for the wisdom we have been able to share with one another. We are aware of the invitation to welcome the Spirit into our lives, as Mary did and as Mary Potter did – to be for others as Mary was for her Son on Calvary, being present to our world and those we meet along the way in this year of HOPE for our world. Our world is so much in need of that peace of Christ, the peace Jesus spoke of – “I have come that you may have life and life to the full.” (Jn 10:10)
Wishing each of you and your families this peace the world longs for, and with Venerable Mary Potter’s words reminding us that “Each and every one of us has a mission from God.”
(photo by Sr Helen Kelly LCM)
