The Quest for Divine Beauty
One of our Sisters was recently walking down a city street near our convent and passed by two young boys tossing a football. One of the boys saw her and yelled out “Hey look! I found Jesus.”
I found Jesus. Yes, that is exactly who we want you to find! This simple witness explains it all. “The consecrated heart desires to follow Christ ever more closely and make him the ‘all’ of their lives, so to share him with the world.” (VC 72)
We continue with our reflections on Vita Consecrata (The Consecrated Life), as we begin Chapter III- Consecrated Life: Manifestation of God’s Love to the World. This chapter reveals that living in the gaze of the Father strengthens someone for a deeper love and sense of mission. The continual flow from the contemplative and active life is an image for the way our hearts naturally move when in love. To enjoy the presence of the beloved stirs the heart to serve and give of self in return.
We can first find the beloved at the font from which everything flows, the Eucharist. As Sisters of Life, we have an incredible gift to be able to receive Jesus at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass every day along with a daily holy hour. This strengthens the eyes of the heart to see his beauty everywhere and in everyone as a prized icon of the living God. We not only want to see him, but to seek him out with a desire to find him. John Paul II refers to this as the quest for divine beauty. “The quest for divine beauty impels consecrated persons to care for the deformed image of God on the faces of their brothers and sisters, faces disfigured by hunger, faces of the hurt or humiliated, those not cared for…” (VC 75)
Impelled by the love of Christ, the beloved looks for him everywhere, so as to exclaim like the little boy “Look, I found Jesus… in YOU, in the poor, the unborn, the sick, the joyful, in the child-like…” I think of the great missionary Mother Marianne Cope who upon hearing about a leper colony in Hawaii, felt “an irresistible force” pull her to go serve the most rejected in society. She raised the girls to their proper dignity with love, reverence and kindness. The Sisters made them beautiful dresses, gave them an education and planted a garden for them to enjoy. “The consecrated life thus shows, with the eloquence of works that divine charity is the foundation and stimulus of freely-given and active love.” (VC 75)
I ask myself, as a consecrated woman how do I embark on this “quest for divine beauty” in my daily life? I might not travel across the ocean, but I can look at my Sister across the dinner table with a smile. I can answer the phone with a hopeful tone, and willingly lay down my life to serve the most vulnerable through acts of charity and above all prayer.
I extend this invitation to all of you wherever you are at in discernment. How can you embark on this quest in your daily life? Spending time in prayer with Love Himself will make it clear where he would like you to give of your love. “Faith is strengthened when it is given to others.” (VC 78)
God bless you,
The Sisters of Life Vocation Team
Sr. Maria Regina, Sr. Cora, Sr. Mary Hannah
