“It is not presumption to have hope and joy
and confidence in God’s grace.”

-Venerable Cornelia Connelly

In October 2024, the American Province launched Graced Moments, where every month, a Holy Child Sister shares a “grace-filled” experience that has influenced her life. The project flows from the Society’s mission “to help others to believe that God lives and acts in them and in our world.”

We thank Elizabeth (Mel) Loomis, a Sister of the Holy Child Jesus for 72 years, for offering her “graced moment.”

In the comment section below, we invite you to share what in Sister Mel’s reflection resonated with you.

Click the audio player to listen to Sister Mel read her two-minute
reflection or see below. 

 

For this question, I went to my own “Composition of Place.”

It’s early Saturday morning, too early, in my opinion.

A few of us young professed are on New York’s subway.

We are headed from 187th Street to downtown to register for Saturday classes at Fordham University.

We are doing our best to arrive first, or at least beat the Cabrini Sisters. They were always first.

The subway is packed with people.

I’m reading a book by writer, poet, and mystic Caryll Houselander on Advent.

In the book, Houselander invites us to see Christ’s presence in everyone.

Looking up from my book, I see a packed jammed subway car. I reflect on the people around me. I see,

Christ the laborer,

Christ the student,

Christ the parent,

Christ the child,

and even Christ the Cabrini Sisters. (Sister Mel laughs).

In my private thoughts, I recall Gerard Manley Hopkins’ words:

“I greet him the days I meet him and bless when I understand.”

This has been a graced moment for me – reflecting on the person of Christ around me.

This has stayed with me all these years.

“I greet him the days I meet him and bless when I understand.”