Dear Friends,
This Sunday, as we celebrate Mother's Day, we co-incidentally have a gospel reading which speaks of loving one another and 'bearing fruit.'
It seems easy to make connections between the 'holiday' and the gospel; for, the mothers among us have loved us into being and have borne fruit which keeps on multiplying in our lives....and we rejoice in their goodness and the blessings they have been. Each of us...male and female...are called to be the kind of lovers that we might stereotypically identify as 'mothering'. As we have grown in our understanding of human nature and relationships, these stereotypes have thankfully blurred and blended as for example, women have increasingly claimed and named their strength and men have claimed and named their gentleness, leading each gender to grow in wholeness and the fullness of life.
The reading below has come to us from several different sources, and it speaks to both Ron and I in moving ways as paints a verbal picture of a way of "being" which transcends gender and is life-giving to "the woman" and to those in her life. We invite you to pray with these words which will serve as one of our readings this Sunday.
One of the endeavors we are presently engaged in, which we hope will "bear fruit" is the nation-wide effort in support of women religious taking shape as prayer vigils across the county. Here in Boston, we will be gathering in prayer on Tuesday evenings throughout the month of May at 5:30PM in front of Boston's Cathedral of the Holy Cross, 1400 Washington St., Boston. We invite you to join us for this time of prayer together. We had a wonderful presence last Tuesday, even in the rain, and we hope that you will join us on any Tuesday that your schedule allows. These actions are meant to offer prayerful public support for Women Religious who educated many of us and serve as profound models of social justice for all.
At The Spirit of Life, through our time of prayer and sharing together, we work together to grow in our self-understanding and in our relationships with God and with God's people. We celebrate the gift of our faith and the responsibility that is ours as followers of Jesus Christ. It is our prayer that what we as a community experience in our praying together will overflow into the rest of our lives, making us more fully human and more 'whole'....holy! We invite you to join us in this endeavor and journey with us as we seek to grow in our love of God and to grow in our capacity to be living expressions of God's loving peace and justice in our world.
May you deepen your capacity for love and may it bear fruit in your life...and for all the ways in which you give birth in our world...we thank you!
Jean & Ron