Welcome to
the new Liturgical Year (cycle B) and happy 2024!
I am
Stephanie Morris, formerly the Director of Archives of the Sisters of the
Blessed Sacrament and an Associate of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament
(ASBS). Sister Annette Marie O’Donnell had begun this blog as “Companions on
the Journey” but has retired from actively writing. St. Katharine said we are
all typewriters in the hands of the Lord; it has been a pleasure and privilege
for me to serve as St. Katharine’s typist for many years.
By now, I am sure you have completed
all your Christmas shopping, cleaning, card writing, etc., etc. Have you
prepared your gifts for the Christ Child whose birthday we celebrate? Have you
cleaned your soul and spirit to feel the joy and peace that the Infant King of
Peace brings? For many of us with an
empty chair at the Christmas dinner table, peace, joy, and gaiety are not our
first thoughts each morning. St. Katharine suggests that if your heart is
filled with pain and worry, move these out and let the Infant King of Peace
come to console you.
He comes to you each time you receive
Holy Communion, to console, comfort and support you. Perhaps this Christmas
season you can step back and take a little extra time to talk with Jesus, to
listen to His words assuring you of His love and support. You don’t have to
gift wrap your gift to Jesus and to His Mother; they are happy just to hear from
you. Give them your pain and worry; they will give you their love and support.
Perhaps in the New Year of 2024, we
can begin to dwell more on the gifts from Jesus and less on our own worries.
Like the Magi, we can welcome the Infant King with the gifts of our talents,
our worries and our
prayers. And then, like the Magi, we can show the gift of
peace that the Infant King of Peace gives to us.
The Infant Jesus came as a tiny baby,
born in a stable, to unite Himself to our humanity and to unite our humanity to
His divinity. May we feel empowered by the strength of God in the coming days
and share this strength with those whom we meet.
Stephanie
Morris, Ph.D., ASBS
December 15,
2023
