May you embrace your messy, beautiful, heart-centered life, and always always follow and trust your truth.

Author and Artist Kelly Rae Roberts

Find a quiet space to be alone with God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit.

Allow your breathing to slow and to center yourself in God’s presence. As for the grace to be open to God’s presence and to this time and for insight.

God, our Father, I come to you today asking for your blessing and help as I continue to understand who you are calling me to ‘be’ in life. I pray for guidance and ask that you fill me with your spirit. Help me to know both yours and my desire to know which steps to take to seek how best to follow you – if it is to be a sister in religious life or not. I ask that you challenge me to reach higher and farther and be the best I can be.

Reflection

“Vocations are born in prayer and from prayer; and only in prayer can they persevere and bear fruit. Vocations invitation, which is the responsibility of every Catholic, must follow the same steps Jesus used when interacting with people. “Jesus stopped and met the gaze of the other, without rushing, this is what makes his call attractive and fascinating. Jesus did not stay in a “secure fortress,” but set out into the cities and villages, pausing to listen to the people he came across, taking in the desire of those who sought him out, the delusion of a failed night of fishing, the burning thirst of a woman who went to the well to get water or the strong need to change one’s life. In the same way, instead of reducing faith to a book of recipes or a collection of norms to observe, we can help young people ask the right questions, to set out on their journey and discover the joy of the Gospel.” Pope Francis

Conversation Pause with Jesus

Touch

Touch into your attraction to Jesus. Picture him saying your name and wanting to get to know you. Rest in Jesus’ presence. What do you want to share with him? If Jesus is asking you to follow him more closely as a sister, have a conversation with Jesus about it. What draws you and maybe at the same time what questions come to mind that you want to talk about with Jesus? Jot down in a journal highlights you want to remember and the feelings you experienced during your conversation with Jesus. What is Jesus calling you to do next? If there is no insight, ask Jesus, what do you want me to do next? Who can you talk to about next steps or what you believe Jesus is calling you to do? Can you take the next step? When will you do that?

Thank Jesus for any insights and for this conversation.

End your prayer with:

Lord, when my faith falters as it often does, may I hear your gentle voice saying to me, “Courage! Do not be afraid.” In that moment, Lord, may your divine power uphold me, calm my fears, steady my nerves, and enable me to steer our boat to a place of safety and peace, beyond the wind and the waves. Amen

“For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.”

Lord, in the sincerity of my heart, I offer myself to You this day, to be Your servant forever, to serve You, and to become a sacrifice of perpetual praise to You.   –St. Therese of Lisieux

Live each day as though it’s your first. If we live each day full of wonder and appreciation while discovering a genuine sense of joy, I believe that motivation for our truest passion would be more likely to present itself…I would argue that we can deal with day-to-day routine and responsibilities while pursuing our passion. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

Leanne Delle, Writer and Registered Nurse

What need can you help meet today? Who can you walk with in their time of joy or pain or loss? Try today to recognize a place where your gifts meet someone’s need and stay until the need is gone.

Nick Stein, YAM Summit in Washington, DC

From May 6-9, we recall the anniversary of the death of our founder, Josephine Potel.

In her short two years as leader and inspiration of ‘’Good help to those in need’’ she began the health care mission that serves to this day and has expanded beyond the imagination of those first sisters.

She and her sisters would work in the midst of and close to the disinherited of this world and those of greater means, and she would speak to others of God by the living sermon of her example and selflessness.

The first Sisters of Bon Secours braved public opinion and dedicated themselves in the world to the care of the sick; where their only safe guard would be their modesty and where God alone would oversee their actions.

We pray to Josephine to open our hearts, enlighten our minds, and support our efforts to be radically available as we strive to address and alleviate the poverty and illnesses that ravage our world today.

When she died there were 48 professed Sisters and 20 Novices to continue the ‘’Good Help’’ she initiated. We implore you, Josephine to encourage us to believe, hope, pray for and work toward enabling many women to follow and serve the Healing Mission of Jesus as Sisters of Bon Secours.

Our Daily Reflection comes from Sisters of Bon Secours Sr. Rita Thomas who is celebrating 75 years of being a sister. She says, “Religious life is not a higher calling than other states of life, but persons called to this lifestyle minister together with others in a common cause and give witness to God’s presence in the world. It is one way to live out your baptismal commitment. I would recommend it to anyone. Listen! If you hear the call and respond, it will change your life.” 

From “Silhouettes – Personal Reflections of Sisters of Bon Secours USA”

Lord we pray that each one of us will be gifted with a respect for all of God’s creation and an awareness of the richness bestowed upon each of us.

Bless us with an open mind, a listening ear and a helping hand in all our encounters.

Sisters of Bon Secours Prayer book, “Wake Up the World”

Pope Francis requests praying the rosary for world peace during May

We join in  solidarity with Pope Francis, on May 1, 2018 who asks all to join him in praying the rosary during May for world peace, especially in Syria.  He made a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Divine Love to initiate the rosary for May. Pope Francis consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on Sunday, October 13, 2013.

To join Pope Francis in prayer during May using the Rosary of Joyous Mysteries for World Peace please click here:    

Message on Rosary for World Peace given by Pope John Paul II on Sept. 29, 2002

Joyful Mysteries – Mary Queen of Peace
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
1.  The rosary is a contemplative view of the face of Christ carried out, so to speak, through Mary’s eyes. Therefore, it is a prayer that is at the very heart of the Gospel, and is in full harmony with the inspiration of the Second Vatican Council …. It is necessary that the Church “go into the deep” of the new millennium beginning with the contemplation of the face of Christ.

2. I wish to entrust once again the great cause of peace to the prayer of the rosary. We are faced with an international situation full of tensions, of incandescent dimensions. In some parts of the world, where the confrontation is stronger — I am thinking in particular of the martyred land of Christ — we can see that, although always necessary, the political attempts are worth little if spirits remain exacerbated and there is no ability to demonstrate a heartfelt disposition to renew the line of dialogue.

But, who can infuse such sentiments, save God alone? It is more necessary than ever that prayers for peace be raised to [God] throughout the world. Precisely in this perspective, the rosary reveal