Tuesday, December 19, 2023

Walking with Saint Katharine

 


    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

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