Final Mass at Saint Louise Convent

…in the midst of it all…

Today the church celebrates the feast of the Most Holy Trinity. We have many images presented to us to help us understand the Trinity. Among them are the three-leaf clover and the triangle. There was a novice in my group who told us on this feast in 1964 that she had figured out the Trinity! Wow! I for one don’t think the mystery has to be figured out…rather the mystery has to be lived into!

And with any living thing there is movement and activity. One picture of the Trinity that has developed in my mind through reading Elizabeth Johnson’s The Quest for the Living God is the relationship of the persons of the Trinity in a flurry of activity…a flurry that is sometimes peaceful and organized and gentle as well as a flurry that is in constant motion. Both, I believe, describe relationships between persons. And haven’t we, the Benedictine Sisters of Pittsburgh and the Vincentian Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, been involved in such a flurry!

Divinity has been thoroughly involved in the midst of our flurry and it certainly has been and continues to be a mystery. Who would have thought that 33 Benedictine Sisters could insert their lives into the lives of 40 Vincentian Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, in a flurry, to say the least, on January 31, 2019, and live to tell about it and even rejoice in it!

The movement during these four and a half months has been full of motion and energy as we got to know one another, deepened our relationships, prayed together, played together, ate together and built community together.

Throughout our time together we have told many stories of our past, present, and even hopes for the future. Members of both communities, especially in the past few weeks, have said to one another, “we are going to miss you!” Those few words alone speak of relationship and presence. Is this what the presence/relationship of the Trinity is about? The reading from Wisdom today talks about the presence of divinity in all of creation…in the depths of the sea, the skies above, the foundations of the earth, the sea…and beside humanity, playing all the while…and God found delight in the human race.

Now, I don’t presume to speak for God, however, when we write our annals, I think we will reflect—both communities—on the graciousness of our God, the delight of our God, in the midst of it all. These 138 days inserted into our history by the God of surprises, will be remembered as days of the Trinity’s flurry and constant motion here at Saint Louise Convent. We could not have done this by ourselves! A God, rich in relationship, has been swirling around us and causing each of us to grow.