"Next to Me," from Emeli Sandé

From Joshua 1:9. Our God is faithful!


Sr. Mary Roberta Viano, VHM

Poem that gets to the heart of things

Here's a poem I like by Raymond Carver. It was written shortly before his death at age 50:

"Late Fragment" 

And did you get what

you wanted from this life, even so? 

I did.

And what did you want?

To call myself beloved, to feel myself

beloved on the earth.

Sr. Mary Roberta Viano, VHM

Language Immersion Trip to Spain

Sr. Mary Roberta enjoying the beach in Cadiz, Spain, during a two-week, language-immersion trip from June 8th to June 22nd with a group of our school's juniors and seniors. More photos to come later!

Thankfulness

Thankfulness all year round, not just on Thanksgiving Day!




Sr. Mary Roberta Viano, VHM

Fr. Schall and Lord Peter Wimsey

A fascinating article from one of our former chaplains, Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. Fr. Schall has a legendary reputation as a professor and scholar at Georgetown University, and he retired this year.

http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/a-liberal-education-reading-lord-peter-wimsey.html

Sr. Mary Roberta Viano, VHM 

Angels in the sky

Taken in Florida after announcement of Pope Francis
Taken from: http://pinterest.com/pin/569986896559342302/


Sr. Mary Roberta Viano, VHM

Angels Around Us

Make yourself familiar with the angels, and behold them frequently in spirit for without being seen, they are present with you.

-St. Francis de Sales


Sr. Mary Roberta Viano, VHM

There is one life

These are words of Fr. John Tauler, OP (died 1361) that really made me stop and think:

Out of death comes life that dies no more. There is no true and undying life in us except the life that comes forth from death. If water is to become hot, then cold must die out of it. If wood is to be made fire, then the nature of wood must die. The life we seek cannot be in us, it cannot become our very selves, we cannot be itself, unless we gain it by first ceasing to be what we are; we acquire this life through death.

In very truth there is rightly speaking, but one death and one life. However many deaths there may seem to be, they all are but one, namely, the death a man dies to his own will, to his sense of proprietorship, to division and multiplicity and activity - in so far as this is possible to a creature. And there is one life, and only one, namely, the one ineffable, incomprehensible, uncreated, essential, divine life. Toward this life all other life hurries on, is driven forward, streams along, being irresistibly drawn to possess it. The nearer our life comes to this essential life, and the more it is likened to it, the more truly do we live, for in this and from this life is all life.

Sr. Mary Roberta Viano, VHM

Good words to think about

Do you have something that sustains you? If not, we're always starting over. We put all of our hope in novelty: we wait for this to change, then that to change, until there's nothing left to change, and then what do we say? There's no solution! And we become skeptical. But the novelty is Christ himself. The answer to life is a Presence...The Mystery happens again, continually, to redeem us from the life we lose in living.

by Father Julian Carron (Spanish priest and professor of theology at the University of Milan)

Mary Roberta Viano, VHM

Profile of Amos

By Monsignor Gregory E.S. Malovetz - priest of the Diocese of Metuchen, NJ and pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Church in Montgomery Township, NJ (read in a Magnificat publication):

Profile of Amos

A résumé can only give you a small glimpse into a person's abilities and talents. If he had to write a résumé, Amos would have included shepherd, herdsman, and sycamore fig farmer. In considering him for the job of prophet, we might have discarded his resume'. But God sees something in him that will make Amos a compelling prophet.

Living in the eighth century BC, Amos' jobs have given him a keen glimpse into the disparity between the rich and the poor. God sends him to the northern kingdom of Israel where the increase of wealth is matched with a decline of religious faith and indifference to the poor. Amos, without any special training and relying only on the power of God, finds his voice. He is not the kind of prophet who uses poetic words and beautiful images. Amos is blunt as he insists those who follow God must be people of justice. Prayers and rituals are meaningless if they do not lead to service. It is believed that his career as prophet lasted less than a year, yet Amos' voice still challenges us today. No special skills are needed to work for justice, only a heart that sees God in every human need.

Sr. Mary Roberta Viano, VHM

Love is Repaid by Love Alone

My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit; a heart contrite and humbled you will not spurn. (Psalm 51:19)

The Miserere, a magnificent penitential song from the heart, could be considered the psalm for the Lenten season.

In this psalm, the Holy Spirit illuminates our situation: it is not the sacrifice that pleases God, but the love behind the sacrifice. As St. John Fisher notes, "It was not Christ's great suffering itself that pleased the Father, but the love with which He did it."

In our case, true penitential love is manifested by a humbled and contrite heart. In today's first reading, the prophet Hosea prepares us for this truth: For it is love that I desire, not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

May the sacrifices, alms-giving, and fasting of Lent be inspired by our love for God, the God who first loved us. As St. John of the Cross puts it, "Love is repaid by love alone."

Lawrence Martone, OCDS

Sr. Mary Roberta Viano, VHM

The Daring of St. Francis de Sales

Fr. Francois Corrignan was recently appointed by the Vatican as the General Assistant to our worldwide Visitation Order. One book he's written is entitled, THE SPIRITUALITY OF FRANCIS DE SALES: A WAY OF LIFE, published in 1992. Here's an interesting except from it:

"Francis de Sales writes: 'My purpose is to instruct those who live in cities, within families, and at court, and whose situation obliges them to live an ordinary life as far as externals are concerned. But since they are under the assumption that it is altogether impossible for them to do undertake the devout life, these people will often not even consider doing it...'

What gives Francis the daring to extend this invitation to everyone without exception?

His reason is simple but profound: holiness is not something one achieves on one's own. It isn't a matter of sculpting a statue of one's self to be placed in some niche or store window for the admiration of passersby.

Holiness is never the result of human effort. It is not something that one can attain by dint of some training or by using some human means alone. It is not, for example, realized thanks to some exotic gymnastics, or thanks to some program and rhythm of life, or to some asceticism of body and spirit.

Such things are not of course altogether useless, nor are they lacking from one's spiritual journey. Francis de Sales will speak of them. But holiness is the result of something other than human effort, however noble. Holiness is a divine-human adventure: It was God who entered human history and it is He who leads people into His own proper life."


Sr. Mary Roberta Viano, VHM

Lenten poem

Here's a Lenten poem by Rita A. Simmonds that is a profound reflection on Our Lord's Passion:

FREELY, FORCEFULLY

Nailed to the Cross
pinned down
desiring
willing
that strange intimacy - then

It is finished.

Suffering is not casual
any more than intimacy
is a chance encounter,
yet we offer ourselves - body and soul,
never knowing the gift.
Blood has been sweat
for sins such as this,
pleading palms
overturned
and centered
to spike
the Self in all selflessness.

The wounds of love
will never be felt
without
full awareness -
Being lad bare
out-stretched
everything given and taken
freely
forcefully
to its infinite end.

Sr. Mary Roberta Viano, VHM

An amusing poem

Mrs. Job

There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job;
And he was essentially a blameless dude, and unarrogant,
And he was blessed with seven sons, and three daughters,
Which is a lot of children, and where, I ask politely, is the
Part of the Book of Job where we talk about Job's spouse,
Who is conspicuously not discussed in the back and forth
With his buddies and then suddenly the Big Guy Himself
Answering out of the whirlwind and commanding old Job
To gird up his loins, which loins were undeniably vigorous
Previous to the Lord interrupting Job, and after the Maker
Finishes one of the greatest eloquent scoldings of all time,
He grants old Job another seven sons and three daughters,
Again without the slightest thanks for the astounding Mrs.
Job who suddenly has twenty count them twenty children
with no mention of her humor, or the vast hills of diapers,
Or her wit which survived kids throwing up and the sheep
Wandering off, and plagues of locusts and things like that.
A good editor, I feel, would have asked for just a glancing
Nod to the wry hero of the tale, at least acknowledgment;
Something like a new last line after So Job died, being old
and full of days, which might read, And also passed a most
Amazing woman, of whom nothing other than the blessing
Was ever said, her heart being a gift beyond calculation by
Man, her mind sharp, her tongue gentle, her hands a mercy,
And her very presence full reason to kneel in prayer at that
Which the Lord in His mercy has made and granted briefly.
A line like that would only hint at her, but it's a start, right?

by Brian Doyle

Sr. Mary Roberta adds, "One of my favorite writers, based at the University of Portland." (His bio is here.)

Thoughts on Ray Bradbury from Sr. Mary Roberta

I heard that Ray Bradbury, a favorite science-fiction writer, died this last year. I especially like his short story entitled, "A Sound of Thunder," about men returning to the age of dinosaurs from the year 2055. His premise (that accidentally changing any tiny detail in the past can make enormous changes to a future time) makes me reflect on how aborting so many babies in our past 30 years+ since Roe vs Wade has inevitably changed our future for the worse: fewer workers and tax payers, not too mention fewer geniuses, lovers, and saints!

In Bradbury's short story the main character/hunter Eckels is told NOT to step off the suspended path over the prehistoric age he's been taken to by the Time Machine and its guides because he might "kill an important animal, (even a mouse) thus destroying an important link in a growing species."

"So what?" says Eckels.

"So what?...Well, what about the foxes that'll need those mice to survive? For want of ten mice, a fox dies. For want of ten foxes, a lion starves. For want of a lion, all manner of insects, vultures, infinite billions of life forms are thrown into chaos and destruction. Eventually it all boils down to this: fifty-nine million years later, a caveman, one of a dozen in the entire world, goes hunting wild boar or saber-toothed tiger for food. But you, friend, have stepped on all the tigers in that region. By stepping on one single mouse. So the caveman starves. And the caveman, please note, is not just any expendable man, no! He is an entire future nation. From his loins would have sprung ten sons. From their loins one hundred sons, and thus onward to a civilization. Destroy this one man, and you destroy a race, a people, an entire history of life. It is comparable to slaying some of Adam's grandchildren."

And that's exactly what we've done and continue to do, Mr. Bradbury. Requiescat in pace! And may God have mercy on us all!

Sr. Mary Roberta Viano, V.H.M.

Solemnity of the Epiphany of Our Lord, reflecting one day after

From yesterday's mass readings in Magnificat: "The Magi set out because of a deep desire which prompted them to leave everything and begin a journey. It was as though they had always been waiting for that star" (Pope Benedict XVI). Our response to the Father's offer of salvation is that of the Magi: "To offer gold is to proclaim Christ's kingship, to offer incense is to adore his Godhead, and to offer myrrh is to acknowledge his mortality" (Saint Odilo of Cluny). Creation responds as well: "When the king of heaven was born, the heavens knew that he was God because they immediately sent forth a star; the sea knew him because it allowed him to walk upon it; the earth knew him because it trembled when he died; the sun knew him because it hid the rays of its light" (Saint Gregory the Great). The manifestation of the Son of God to the world begs belief from us by which we will be led home by another way.

Post from Sr. Mary Roberta Viano, V.H.M, and from Mother Jacqueline Burke, V.H.M.

Epiphany post from Sr. Mary Roberta

Bethlehem Star
light years in wait,
releases good news
with celestial gait:
The Word that stirred Heaven
before time began,
is lauded by angels:
the Heart of God's plan.
The power of paradise,
traveling time,
alights on a stable
in silence sublime
that wise men may seek
ageless knowledge foreknown:
The star is the sign,
New Being
the goal.

[by Rita A Simmonds]

Sr. Mary Roberta Viano, V.H.M.

Ranger Rosary Club

This is a picture of Sr. Mary Roberta with members of her "Ranger Rosary Club." All Visitation students choose one club to belong to during the school year. These students chose to join the club moderated by Sr. Roberta, and as she says, in this picture the members are displaying "some of  the rosaries the Ranger Rosary Club is prayerfully and enthusiastically making for our troops."

A Devotion from Sr. Mary Roberta: Living in the Present Moment

Our Holy Founder, St. Francis de Sales, during the 17th-century urged his daughters to live in the present moment, and now EWTN's 21st-century Mother Angelica is putting a new "spin" on his words by urging us to live Scripture in the Present Moment. Here's what she says in her "Private and Pithy Lessons From the Scriptures" (pub. 2008):

"There's always a grave temptation, very subtle at times, to say: 'I've heard it all. What's next?' Well, if you say that, it means you don't know a thing...You see, when you become a what's-nexter, then pride - and that's what it is - pride will destroy you because you close your mind to grace, to the grace and the power of the Spirit to give you more light, especially on Scripture. Nobody can plumb the depths of one passage of Scripture - not if you spent your whole life...If we don't let the Spirit open up new vistas and new light and new grace, what a great gift we are missing. You wouldn't shave to learn a darn thing more if you were to meditate on God's Word and just allow it to come into your soul. We're talking about grace; we're not talking about knowledge. If you want knowledge, go get a degree. You can learn a lot. You can learn Scripture, but you may never know it!...Pride says,, "I've already heard that,' and shuts out His Word in the Present Moment - in this new reality. I'm here to experience God. I'm here to have the kind of faith that brings Him into my life every day, every moment. I'm here to know God. I'm here to love God. You've got to get your mind out of the knowledge stage and into the experience stage."

Sr. Mary Roberta Viano, VHM

From Our School: How We Share Salesian Spirituality With Students

(Part 1 of 2, one today and one tomorrow): Sr. Mary Roberta with her home room. Many of the Sisters have a home room (a 20-minute period 3 times a week).

Home room gives the students a chance to get to know the Sisters and gives the Sisters to share some of their unique Salesian Spirituality with the girls, lead them in a prayer and maybe even have a laugh or two. It's rumored there's occasionally food to share as well! The special bonds that can develop in such a short time are wonderful and treasured by all.