Another Bride of the Crucified
Saturday, October 30th dawned cool and rainy — but no amount of dreary weather could dampen the spirits of our Sr. Miriam Esther on her wedding day! Our Bishop William Medley presided at Sister’s Profession Mass that afternoon, joining with a joyful group of family and friends to witness our novice make the five Passionist vows!
More photos of the happy day will be coming, but in the meantime, we thought you would enjoy reading the words that our newest professed member wrote for the occasion …
“It was not you who chose Me …”
Reflection by Sr. Miriam Esther of the Sacred Heart
Sr. Miriam Esther after receiving the insignia of her Passionist profession
For many of those who knew me before I entered the monastery, my vocation came as little or no surprise. As one of my sisters put it, “You’ve basically been a nun since you were 14!” Ever since I came to know the Lord in a deeper way as a young teen, the desire to become the Bride of Christ has been in my heart, and my path to St. Joseph’s Monastery was a fairly simple and uneventful one. An external observer might summarize it thus: “She wanted to be a nun, and so she chose to enter religious life.” I myself tended to see things this way at first, too – but over the past four years of intense formation, the Lord has given me a different perspective.
Monastic life has a way of bringing you face to face with your own faults and shortcomings, but this self-knowledge is not an end in itself. Rather, it is meant allow Jesus’ words to echo profoundly in our hearts: “Without Me, you can do nothing.” The longer I am here, the more I realize how true this is for me, and how much I owe to the mercy of God! I have come to see that my vocation does not ultimately rest on my own ideas or decisions, as much as those may play a role. If it did, then I would be on shaky ground indeed! Weak human being that I am, I need a firmer foundation if I am to withstand the inevitable storms of life. My years of novitiate formation have helped me to discover this foundation: the Lord Himself. He has shown me more and more clearly that it was He Who has been working through all the “random” events of my life to shape my heart and bring me to this day of my First Profession.
The readings I have chosen for my Profession Mass all reflect the incredible and gratuitous love that God has shown in calling me to Passionist life. He has cried out to my heart, “Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one, and come! O My dove in the cleft of the rock ...” (First Reading). Astounded and overwhelmed, I protest my unworthiness and insist that I am too weak and imperfect to become a “Dove of the Crucified,” as Passionist nuns like to call themselves. Surely He isn’t foolish enough to call me! Undeterred, the Bridegroom responds, “My foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and My weakness is stronger than human strength … I chose the weak of the world to shame the strong!” (Cf. Second Reading). I begin to believe Him, and yet part of me still hesitates; am I just hearing what I wish I could hear? Clear and decisive, His voice rings out: “It was not you who chose Me, but I Who chose you, My bride!” (Cf. Gospel) How else can I respond but in the words of our Psalm today? “I will offer in His tent sacrifices full of exultation; I will sing and make music to the LORD!”
Please pray for me as I make my first profession of Passionist vows, that I may be a faithful bride of Jesus Crucified and Glorified. Know that each of you are in my heart and prayers on this special day, and may God grant you to know and love Him ever more deeply!