NunEssential

Wishing all of you readers a blessed and hope-filled New Year. We may deeply encounter Jesus in a new way this year. He is "the face of the Father's mercy" as Pope Francis so aptly wrote in his letter of introduction to the Year of Mercy. This is not merely a warm sentiment or personal feeling. Jesus pierces time and space to become one of us, to assume our sin and brokenness and set us free. This is Good News, indeed. Christ is our strong foundation and the Light of the World. He is our hope, our shield, our refuge.  May this Year of Mercy be one of tenderness, truth and deep encounter with Christ and others. If we want the world to change, we must be willing to continually encounter Christ and bring Him to others. We must willing to release our "grasp" on the offenses of the past; the hatred, resentment and indifference. It takes a lot of energy to carry resentment and close our hearts to God and others. We must lay down our sin and choo...

A power blogpost featured below written by Sr. Anne Marie Walsh, SOLT Facing Our Immortality in Light of Christmas Anyone who has ever received an unexpected diagnosis of cancer or some other serious disease knows the power of the experience to suddenly and radically change the inner world in which we normally live. Anyone who has lost a loved one especially without warning, experiences the same thing. Perception, understanding, the hierarchy of what we have up to then considered important suffers a seismic shock and shifts the plates of our current existence into a completely changed landscape which can seem foreign and strange and certainly frightening in many ways. Having been through this myself several times, and watching those around me, I've come to realize that the shock comes not so much from facing our own mortality as it does from not having faced our immortality. That's the real problem. To say we now are brought to a place where we have to face our own mortalit...