“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 France White, a Sister of the Holy Child Jesus for 60 years, for offering her “graced moment.”
Click the audio player to listen to Sister France read her two-minute
reflection or see below.
Shortly before I made my perpetual vows, I was missioned to teach at Saint Charles School in Portland, Oregon. When I arrived in Portland, the Sisters had arranged for me to stay at my Dad’s home in Portland because my bedroom in the Sisters’ community was being painted.
It was summertime, and an important Society General Chapter meeting was underway, where the Sisters were updating the Society’s constitutions.
One day, I was out of sorts and my Dad asked what was the matter. I replied, “I just wish I knew what obedience is going to mean.”
Without hesitation, Dad replied,
“Do you think your Mother and I knew all that was going to happen when we got married?”
This lesson from Dad was a graced moment for me.
My life’s path was clearly different from his, but it was not unique.
Like every other life, religious life unfolds moment by moment.
I’ve remembered Dad’s words for many years now. They give me the grace of letting matters be or unfold. Dad’s lesson also reminds me that my life isn’t all that different from others.
Remembering his words gives me the added gift of bringing the memory of Mom and Dad into my present moment.
One grace leads to another.
What in Sister France’s graced moment resonated with you?
Please share at the bottom of this page.
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We thank Kathleen Popit, a Sister of the Holy Child Jesus for 57 years, for offering this month’s reflection.
Click the audio player to listen to an audio version
of Sister Kathleen’s “graced moment.”
In the early years of my life, I grew up in what I would call a “Slovenian neighborhood,” where family, school, and Church were central.
At nine years old, all of it changed when my family moved.
My world crashed, and I let God know how terrible and miserable I was.
During my rantings, I realized that though everything changed, God was the same. I had experienced God’s presence and love in a new way.
From then on, no matter how many changes occur in my life,
I know God’s presence and love are unchanging.
What in Sister Kathleen’s graced moment resonated with you?
Please share below.
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We thank Elizabeth (Mel) Loomis, a Sister of the Holy Child Jesus for 72 years, for offering her “graced moment.”
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.”
Thank you, Mel, for reminding me of the Houselander truth, “….Christ’s presence in everyone,” and the line you allude to from the Hopkins poem, “for Christ plays in ten thousand places…” Your words set off a reverse train of thought in me — back, back, back into a dim memory of reading a novel that ended with the words “everything is grace.” What was the novel? When did I read it? With Google as my guide, my memory zeroed in on a book I read sixty years ago as a college student: Georges Bernanos’ Diary of a Country Priest, which ends with the line, “everything is grace.” And I realized that reading that line at that time in my life was in itself a graced moment, an eye-opener, a call to be on the look-out for the sacramentality of everything. It set me on a seeker’s path to find God in all things, so I celebrate that moment again today. Thank you, Mel.
Oh Mel, listening to you took me back to those wonderful years at Grand Coteau when you were my spiritual director. Thank you again for your love, your understanding, your patience, and your strong faith in God when I was so troubled. Sarah
I really loved this! especially the competition with the Cabrini Sisters on being on time! I watched the Cabrini movie and I saw the same fire in her that Cornelia had. I also can relate to the subway and all the people on it. I will be going to New York in November and I always look forward to the subway rides and the unique faces of God’s people around me! I like to imagine their stories and what their lives are about. The busy jammed packed subway -rubbing arms and bodies making room for each other is grace to me! thank you.
Dear Mel,
Thank you for your lovely reflection! Very meaningful as Steve and I are surrounded by hundreds of people at the Salt Lake City airport on our way to Paris. Such a variety of folks from many countries – all ages. occupations and reasons for their trips. Every one is filled with God’s Grace!
Much love,
Lucy
I am so fortunate to be alive and well avoiding a disastrous hurricane here in South Florida ( only rain and high winds) I see and hear on the news all those heroic families and workers preparing to face this event knowing that the grace of our Lord is with them.
“Let matters be, or unfold” Sr. France mentioned we are all the same and our lives are not that different. I like “let life unfold moment by moment”