One of the most prominent features of the month of August is, perhaps the sense that everything and everyone has slowed down. Life moves at a slower pace. Children are free from school, many workers on holidays, time belongs to us to spend as we wish. It is permitted as the poet Mary Oliver says “to be idle yet blessed, how to stroll the fields… maybe just looking and listening is the real work”
From this slower pace there is an invitation to live life at a deeper level. By spending quality time with family and friends, contemplating the beauty of nature we are motivated by our Mission of communion to reflect the love of the One who is the source of all, to discover God’s presence in everything. We recognise that it’s possible to appreciate what we did not see when we were too busy to stop and look and listen. This time then allows us the opportunity to ponder on all that has been given to us.
Mission Statements are now on display in most organisations and Institutions. For the people involved in these bodies, holidays are a time to take a break not only from their work but from living what’s written in their mission statement.
However, for us as members of the Holy Family, our call to communion at the service of mission is the one essential aspect of our lives from which we do not take a break. Our Mission of Communion which is our purpose is the reason we journey together. Because of it we can live as healers, unifiers, and lovers of life in all its forms.
For each member this call to communion is deep within me, it is who I am, it permeates my life. Hence, I am led by the desire to love and seek God in and through all of life so that this love radiates through me. It is the lens through which I see life and the way I relate to it.
And so, in this month of August, I quote Mary Oliver again:
“August of another summer, and once again
I am drinking the sun…. I am watching the lilies bow to each other,
then slide on the wind and the tug of desire,
close, close to one another.
Soon I’ll start for home.
And who knows, maybe I’ll be singing”.
Sr. Claire McGrath
Member of the Mission Team