“Then the LORD said: Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD; the LORD will pass by. There was a strong and violent wind rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the LORD-but the LORD was not in the wind; after the wind, an earthquake-but the LORD was not in the earthquake; after the earthquake, fire-but the LORD was not in the fire; after the fire, a light silent sound. When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. A voice said to him, Why are you here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:12)
I’ve attended Catholic schools for elementary, middle, and high school. It wasn’t until I attended a large, secular university when I suddenly realized that I was poorly catechized. I realized this after I took my first philosophy class, in which my classmates and I discussed everything from God, to sexual ethics, to the afterlife. And so I searched for Truth, and Truth found me.
I get to share Love for a living. My job is to build community, to hear people’s hearts, to share what it means to be called a Child of God when plunged into the waters of our salvation, whether as a baby or an adult. I get to associate pastorally with people as a way to pay my bills. Of course, being a Pastoral Associate means I better not have too large of bills to pay! But what a gift it is to get to be able to work in ministry full-time.
I couldn’t resist. I found a way to come back to the Partner Conference yet again. After attending the Catholics on Call conference in 2012 as a participant, I then attended the following three Partner Conferences while an MDiv student at CTU. Between the beautiful liturgies and the excellent conference speakers, I have always felt encouraged and edified as a young adult minister-in-training, not-so-stealthily spying on these vocation ministers and other young adult ministry coordinators talking about ministry with young adults. This year was different though.
In May, three of us CoC alums including Molly, my husband Thomas, and I, moved into an old, dusty, cluttered unused building owned by the Port Ministries. As we have transformed the Hope House from a dank and dirty place to an intentional community, we have also been transformed by Hope. From the physical needs of the House, to the interpersonal relationships, I am learning to open up to trust God in every facet of life at the Hope House.
September is upon us with its seeming return to ordinariness, and its call back to routine and the “normal” rhythm of daily life. All around us students and teachers are returning to school, vacations are ending, and back-to-school sales seem to be everywhere. Maybe we are looking back wistfully at summer wishing there were just a few more days of vacation before returning to work or school routines. For many of us, these waning days of summer, marked by Labor Day, signal the beginning of busier days ahead at work and school.
“I hope that you come to find that which gives life a deep meaning for you. Something worth living for – maybe event worth dying for, something that energize you, enthuses you, enables you to keep moving ahead.”~Sister Ita Ford
The summer season marks the end of a school year and the beginning of a much-anticipated long break for many school-aged children. As a working “grown up,” it’s been many years since the last time I enjoyed the pleasure of a two-month vacation. I am a bit envious to hear about the summer plans of my co-workers’ children, consisting of camp getaways, weekday afternoons in the park, and unprofitable lemonade stands.
Pope Francis has proclaimed a Year of Consecrated Life on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, which speaks of religious in its sixth chapter, and of the Decree Perfectae Caritatis on the renewal of religious life. The Year has begun on November 30, 2014, the First Sunday of Advent, and will conclude with the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple on February 2, 2016.
Tracey Horan knows she’s in the minority.
In September 2014, Tracey, a native of Indianapolis, was welcomed into the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana, as a postulant.
The Sisters of Providence currently have more than 300 women religious in their Congregation, with eight women in initial formation. However, the median age of members is 78.
Tracey is only one of two postulants and eight sisters currently in the Congregation who were born in the 1970s or beyond.