Letters from Home...


Faithfully they came, every week, my dear Mother’s letters, and up at the right hand corner the simple heart-warming address, Home, the Kitchen..

She gave me the news of all the family in her own lovely home-spun way, mingling a mother’s tenderness with her solid advice and wisdom that sprang naturally from the bedrock of her deep faith.  How they fed my soul and filled my heart, and how I miss them now that she has gone to God.

Letter-writing is such a fast disappearing art in today’s digital world of texting, soundbytes, twitter etc...Maybe we Carmelites are among the few who still engage in this art as we exercise our Apostolate of the Pen in response to the many who turn to us in their anguish and heartache with sick family members, wayward children, financial challenges etc.  We hope we can bring some solace to lighten their burdens.  Yes, a letter in your hand is worth a hundred on the laptop or computer; it can be held and treasured, read and re-read again and again...

And the Good News is that we still get letters from home, every day, to assure us that we are loved and remembered.  The Word of God in Scripture has been beautifully described as ‘our Heavenly Father writing to His children’... our letters from HOME, if you like!  These come to us in our daily Liturgies or in our private or shared ‘sacred reading’, Lectio Divina.  They are new-born for us every day...an  inexhaustible fountain from which we can drink, yet never empty.  Our Carmelite Rule urges us to be like Mary, ‘pondering the Lord’s law day and night’.  The Word becomes the lens through which we look out on life and on our beautiful yet struggling world.

This week we begin the great Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity and it is heartening to know that one of the principle uniting treasures between the different Traditions is the Word of God.  It is a living power among us as we each try to respond to the desire of the heart of Jesus That they may be one.

How appropriate that some years ago, Pope Francis created the 3rd. Sunday of the Year, which falls within the Unity Octave, the Sunday of the Word of God, highlighting it’s ecumenical centrality.

Next time you read the sacred Word, remember that it is your Love letter from HOME...speaking to you personally and giving you guidelines for that day...

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