Transcription
[Music]
Welcome to Let Love, a podcast with the Sisters of Life. We invite you to join us for conversation looking at life through the lens of love. You are loved. You are made in God's image, and your life matters. Let's talk about it.
Well, it's a new day, and welcome back to Let Love podcast with the Sisters of Life. I'm Sister Veritas, and this is Sister Mary Grace. And it's a thrill, it is, to be diving in here to talk about, "Let Love Overshadow You." Wow, cool. I love thinking about that, the gift of it, of, you know, what happened at the Annunciation, overshadowing. But that's what He wants to do to us.
And Sister, that you and me and every person has been called, has been made and fashioned as a unique gift of love. And that gift is powerful, and the world is waiting for it to be given. That's really, it's true, right? And we want to let love overshadow us as our Lady did. Yeah. To allow this life to explode. And Sister, it's something we are all called to give, can give. And in a sense, trust exists in us, like to trust our love, to trust our gift, to trust that we have been made in an extraordinary way.
Yeah, I was thinking actually of, um, the postcard we received a couple months ago from, um, uh, dear, and I think it was, not named, some dear people in Australia who sent this postcard. Um, and they had drawn, I think it was a child drew, um, Scraggles the squirrel, our favorite squirrel in the Bronx, with this two-tone, you know, coloring. But this amazing, um, cartoon of Scraggles, um, eating leaves and sticks. And then Scraggles eating, um, you know, junk food. And how much more of a flourishing squirrel he was after, uh, eating the junk food. It was extraordinary. It was very clever and very well done. In fact, Scraggles looked exactly like himself. It was amazing. But it was like, I was so moved that someone would, would draw him and send it to us. And it was like, I was really, it like melted me. Yeah. Actually. Yeah. Yeah. So I just want to say thank you. Amen. Yeah.
Well, and the power of that. Yeah. The power of that. It really was. It melted me too, Sister. Yeah. Yeah. Very thoughtful. And I felt, I think, so connected. It was amazing. Yeah. We're half a world away, and in love. Amen. Yeah. And the world is waiting for that gift. Yes.
And I want to again, as we're kind of kicking off, New Year's, the fall is always kind of a time of new beginnings, or startup of a school year. And I know for us as a religious community, even, it's a time to renew our yes. And, uh, begin again, so to speak, in in in mission. And so I think we're feeling it. And yeah, we'd love to share, kind of, what helps us to renew our yes and to let love overshadow our lives as deeply as possible, so that that gift might be given all the more abundantly.
Should we start with the prayer? That sounds great. That's great.
Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit. Come, Lord Jesus. Holy Spirit, we ask you to overshadow us right now with your love, as you did Mary at the Annunciation. Lord, help us to experience our lives, our hearts, as gift, intentional, particular gift from you. Lord, we, we give you permission to work your love in us, to open us to the gift of ourselves and to the gift that you wish to reveal to the world through us and in us. We surrender ourselves to you, to your love. We ask for every grace to be given to our loved ones and all, all those who are in our lives. We ask this through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary, as we pray. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Our Lady of the Annunciation, pray for us. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen.
Thank you, Sister. Oh, thank you.
Well, you know, I think it might be helpful even to actually look at the, the model of all overshadowing situations, which is the Annunciation. And even, like, reading that scripture and then just like, I think taking, just looking at, like, what did Mary, how did she live this? Well, the model par excellence. Let's just go to the source. Yeah.
Um, so this is from Luke chapter 1, verse 26. And I'm actually going to read the whole thing. Awesome. Let's do it. Yeah. Bury yourself in the word. Amen.
"In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, 'Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with you!' But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there will be no end.' And Mary said to the angel, 'How shall this be, since I have no husband?' And the angel said to her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible.' And Mary said, 'Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word.' And the angel departed from her."
It's a beautiful gospel. It really is. It's stunning.
Well, again, a few things, I think, before even getting into deeper things, right? Because this thing is loaded. But just, let's just set the stage, in a sense, that as we seek to bring our yes, bring our lives into co-creation and to participate in God's mysteries, which God desires for each one of us. First of all, we see it's relational. Definitely. So there is a dialogue happening here between our Lady and, uh, this angel. Second of all, the angel, uh, summons her. "Don't be afraid." Yeah. "Get in here." Calls her by name. "Mary, get in here. Don't be afraid." Um, no need. Um, and we see that it's dramatic in some ways, like unexpected. And I think this is a, just something to get used to as Christians, that God's invitations can be surprising. They can be a little bit like, they make us weak in the knees sometimes. They make us feel vulnerable. Yes. Um, it may address the depths of our person, or a depth that we don't know yet, and God wants to unfold or help us uncover. Um, it may require we die to ourselves a little bit, or it may invite us into incredible leaps of faith, which I think we see all operative here. There's a lot going on. Definitely.
But then, like, whoa, the overshadowing part. Yeah. Can we unpack that a little bit? Right. Yeah. Because he says, "No worries, the Holy Spirit's gonna overshadow you." What does that mean? What does that mean? You know, I think I've heard it, and you might have some info on this, but I've heard it's actually that phrase, "overshadow" is actually a reference to the Old Testament when the Israelites are going through the desert. Um, and, you know, the cloud, and there's like the cloud and the pillar of fire leading them through the desert. Um, but that's, that's actually what it's referring to. Um, how, how the Lord led them in that way and overshadowed them with the cloud. Yes. The Shekinah. Yes. You say it very well. Right. In a sense, the visible presence of God. We see that Mary is that new temple, uh, where God is present, right? What is, what is what takes place through this overshadowing? New life is conceived. Wow. Wow. Within her very being. It's amazing. The life of God is conceived. It's amazing. And she becomes the God-bearer. Yeah.
And it's like a direct, I mean, image correlation, because it was like, in the journey through the desert, the Israelites were carrying the Ark of the Covenant, which held the Ten Commandments, I think, the staff, and the manna from the desert. And it's like a direct, uh, image of our Lady becomes the Ark of the New Covenant, right? Overshadowed, and she carries Christ, who is the Bread of Life. But it's like, that's amazing. And that's what happens when we allow the Lord to overshadow us. Absolutely, Sister. That here we have Mary is giving us, in a sense, a perfect image. There's no obstacle, there's no resistance. Um, I could, I could say my annunciations go a little differently than this one does sometimes. And pulling into our own heart of hearts, because this wasn't, uh, as much as it was a conversation, it wasn't a casual one. This was one that addressed the heart of who she was. And that's where God is going to speak to us. It's an invitation that we need to have the courage to go to the heart of our hearts, to our center, where actually He lives. We're baptized. The presence of the Trinity lives, dwells within us. This is real. Uh, in a sense, our life of prayer isn't about achieving anything or making anything happen. It's actually just becoming more present to the reality that God dwells with us. Like, it's actually just waking up to reality. Wow. Which is realer than the chair that I'm sitting in. It's amazing.
And in this overshadowing, it's almost awakening to the fact that the Holy Spirit literally is like, waiting. He's waiting. He's overshadowing us at all times. And will we, in a sense, look up? Will we invite Him into that interior closet of our hearts? Will, are we willing to, to surrender, avail our faculties, our minds, our hearts, our souls to His inspirations, His initiatives, this word of love that He wants to speak in and through our lives? And, uh, just like a summons. I think the summons we've experienced this in this new year, but to everyone, how do we avail this reality of gift? Yeah. That we hold in our hearts, this gift of love? And how do we allow God, let love overshadow us so that this might radiate and be given? Because that's what God wants. That's what He wants. And it's like, and it's like, we're no accident. Like, you're no accident. Like, of all the, of all the trillions of people who could have existed and don't, you exist. Wow. You, particularly, uniquely, intentionally. And, and the Lord doesn't make mistakes. And He, yeah, it's like He wants to, you know, overshadow the gift of who we are. And, oh, it's like, open it to the world. You know, as He did with the Blessed Mother. The Annunciation. And, yeah, I mean, I think the first thing, I mean, I would just say is, is to actually receive. To take time to even receive that reality. Wow. Like, I'm a gift. I didn't have to be, and He wanted me to be. Um, and I think it's the first step to letting the Holy Spirit overshadow us. Just letting, resting in that. Let your eyes, your eyebrows, your temperament, your personality, everything He gave you, everything He didn't give you, your, your dreams, your desires, the things that catch your heart, all those things that make you you, God stitched together as something to bring Him glory. And that He actually, He, oh my gosh, the world waits. The world waits. So we're waiting for our yes. Oh, yes. Yeah.
Well, I think too, Sister, to realize that that we're a gift. And to realize that in our, and through our Baptism, that gift takes on actually a whole other level of grace. In the sense that we've been baptized and incorporated into the very life of Jesus Christ. And so we've been inserted into His saving mission. So, in a sense, the unique gifts and graces that we have been, that made and handcrafted to give life to the world, waits upon. And it's actually amazing. It is. I mean, we see this in the lives of the saints. Think of, uh, Chiara Badano. Yeah. You know, young, so gifted humanly and in so many ways, in sports and academics, and she was an amazing young woman. And yet, to see the way that she gave God permission and glorified the Lord by living a difficult and terminal diagnosis, uh, with joy, with love, with surrender. She's amazing. Yeah. Like her joy, that they, they would say she just radiated and and transformed. And you could feel the Lord with her, you know? Or like, Mother Teresa, right? Who let, you know, on the train to Darjeeling, on September 10th, you know, the experience of the Lord overshadowing her or giving her this call within a call to found this, uh, Missionaries of Charity. Um, and even, yeah, Fulton Sheen, TV. This is the dawn of television. And rather than being afraid of it and running away, he baptized it and became an incredible evangelist. And really began a new form of evangelization for the, the modern Church. Yeah. We're all called to give our yes. Yeah. And allow this beautiful gift of love that we are, that God has made us to be, yeah, to flow. Um, yeah.
And it's amazing, Sister, because it's like, if we allow Him, it's like what He wants to do is not only overshadow and overshadow a person in her heart, but He wants to give us a new heart. Right? It's like Ezekiel, "A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh." It's, it's real and alive. And, and, uh, He wants it for us. Amen. Um, and we will, we allow, we allow ourselves to receive the gift, the gift of ourselves, but also the gift of, of what He wants to give now. Amen.
When I think too, as a community, I know two things can really help, actually three. And that's embedded in the scripture. First, it's claiming the new. And I know often we encourage each other at the end of a year and before we begin a new one to kind of look over that year with God, walking through the previous year with the Lord and saying, "Gosh, what did, what did You teach me? Um, where was I open to You and avail to You? Where were the places that, you know, I'm a little obstinate to grace in a few departments, or I really resisted You on those things? Or gosh, you know, I didn't trust You there, and I really should have. Like, You, You saw that through. You brought that to fruition." Just like, almost like an end-of-year examined, and turning it all over to the Lord and starting anew.
Second, I think asking to the Holy Spirit to come. Yeah. And because He, when, when we ask Him, He comes. He comes. He comes. And, and being ready. I mean, in the sense of like, trust. Like you're saying, trust your heart, but also trust your prayer. And like, trust the Lord. Like, He takes your word seriously. He takes our word seriously. Um, and so it's almost like prayer can be, quote unquote, a dangerous thing, in the sense of, it works. You know? Like, it really, like, I've had, I don't know if you have those experiences in life where it's like, prayer actually works. And so asking Him to come, but then expecting Him to. Yeah. Um, and, and, you know, He, He very well might lead you into desert roads, you know, with, like, the Shekinah cloud over the Israelites, or He might lead you to new places, or places in your heart you've never been to. Um, and that's awesome, and that's okay. Um, and it's kind of like it said in our passage from Isaiah, like, what's He gonna do there? He's gonna make a way in the wilderness. He's gonna make rivers in the desert. Um, and that's, that's what His, that's His business. God only knows His love. That's all He knows. Yeah.
When I think too, Sister, to add to just such a beautiful point, is looking later on in this scripture where we see our Lady's response and yes, posturing ourselves for Him to do that new thing. And then it's saying, "Let it be done." Like acknowledging who we are. That I am creature, God, Your Creator. I am sinner, You are Savior. I'm daughter, Your Father. Um, and I desire, I've been made to follow. Yeah. I've been made to follow. Mm-hmm. And actually, when I insist upon my own way, assert myself, I get tired and grumpy, and I want love to leave my life. Yeah. And I'm happiest when love is leading. Yeah. And she says, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done unto me according to your word." There's no presumption, there's no arrogance, there's no sense of entitlement. There's this humility. And humility, honestly, it gets a bad rap. But it's the key to everything. Humble people are happy people. It is. It's true. I mean, Therese says Sanchez, who I love, but she said, "Humility is truth." Right? And it's actually, like, it's not about being a doormat. It's not about, it's actually, it's actually about living who you are and who you're supposed to be. Living the gift of who you are, the gift of you. And actually, all the problems in our life come because we don't live the gift of who we are, and we don't believe it. And we don't believe Jesus wants to release a gift to the world. And it's, that's humility. Yeah. Living it. And truth. Amen. She was like, "I'm a blank canvas, Father. Let Your designs be written in and through my life. May I be a living word." And she was. She bore the Word. She did. Uh, and only in a way that she could do, you know? Each of us is so unique in how the, the masterpiece the Lord is creating in us and through us and of us. Amen. And, um, and to let Him. To let Him. Yeah.
Well, and even it's like she says that, "Let it be done unto me according to your word." And you said it, Sister, His word. What is His word? It's love. It's love. God is love. His and so it was, and it is. It's like, in this, we can live fearless. We can actually live fearless because as we fail, as we flop on the dock, as we encounter our own weaknesses, whether it's in school or work or in mission or wherever we are asked to live in and out of poverties, um, all of a sudden, none of that is a problem. No. If we don't know what the heck we're doing, no problem. No. Uh, if we've really blown it, no problem. Um, actually, it's an opportunity to speak Your word of love here, Lord. Your love is all-powerful. Your love can cover this. Your love can transform this. Your love can speak in and through. Like, look at the lives of the saints. Yeah. They had messy, messy adventures. They did crazy. I mean, St. Paul alone, shipwrecked, all of that. Saint Peter, crucified upside down. I mean, Annie denied our Lord. And, and yet, what did He allow to happen? Right? This mercy. His life revealed the power of God's mercy. Right? If we come to Him, yeah, He can make things new. He can do it. And He wants to do it. And He wants to do it. Like, I mean, even, I'm sure you have personal examples. But I remember, like, this is a very small example, but even like, entrusted with this project I was supposed to do in a short amount of time with very little resources. And actually, actually, just like, "Oh my gosh, it was like, I'm like, Lord, I actually think this is objectively impossible. Like, I actually don't think I can do it. I can't. I actually can't do this in the amount of time I have and what I've been given, what I'm supposed to do." And I was like, "Okay, Jesus, You have to do it. Like, come." And I literally, I literally every day would go in front of the altar and pretend I had this whole project in my hands and stick it on the altar. Said, "You do it." Amen. And like, "Come, come be with me. Be over me." And He, um, He did it. And, you know what? It wasn't perfect. Actually, there's a ton of mistakes in it. But He made it something more than the sum of its parts. And it blessed so many people. And it's like, that's because He did it. I let Him do it. He took the two loaves and two, no, five loaves and two fish, and He made it bigger. And why is because I let Him breathe on it. I let Him overshadow it. That's why. Amen. And it was, I was poor. Uh-huh. That's exactly. Exactly the point. Exactly.
And well, Sister, I love that. We are poor. And humility, truth, uh, helps us to be real with that. And that that's not a problem. And that's not a defect. We are children of a Father who loves us and who has promised to care for us. And who, in and through that space, He's just, He's looking for space to move into. And that poverty is His favorite place to go. And it takes trust, like our Lady. Takes faith. Uh, takes courage to live those places in faith. And yet, as we do, I can tell you, and I, I love as you share the personal example, our lives are totally dependent on on God's divine providence. And I see in every small and big way, in in the 13 years that I've lived religious life and the years before that, that I, I did my lousy best to follow the Lord in faith. He has never given me a reason not to trust Him. He has never let me down in anything that I've turned over to Him. He's only made it all the more glorious. And in fact, given me exactly what my heart was desiring. Um, but He, He needed me to turn it over so that He could do it. Yeah. Yeah.
And it's, it's almost like, I love, I love that, Sister, because it's the experience of letting it, letting it be done. Giving God permission. Letting it happen to me. Um, His love. And He's so gentle. He's so good. And, um, but yeah, it does take courage. It takes humility. It also takes trust that He is about our good. Amen. Yeah. Amen.
Sister, and gosh, well, before we go, do you have any ways, uh, for others to let love overshadow their lives? You know, I think I think just this week, to come before the Lord, just humbly in prayer. Take five minutes and say, "Lord, here I am. Here I am, Lord." And that's all. Amen. I just say that. And, uh, that enough, that is enough of an invitation for Him to come. Yeah. As you are, in your brokenness, messiness, whatever. Here I am, Lord. How beautiful. Yeah. Availability. Yeah. What about you?
Well, you know, what's in my heart to share is, um, a quote from our founder, Cardinal O'Connor. And something that he, a vision he had for this community and for the Sisters. And I really think it translates so beautifully to everyone. And he said this: "My vision is that you will be as numerous as the flowers of the field, each a unique flower, but all one huge, virtually worldwide bouquet of flowers, intimately interlocked with one another. Each with your own beauty, your own coloring, your own mind, reasoning, heart, emotions. Each of you not distracting from the beauty of this magnificent flower or flowers, but giving it its beauty." Thomas defines beauty as unity and variety, which means the endless emergence and developing of the uniqueness of every Sister of Life. This gives an extraordinary beauty.
And I guess my challenge is, um, for all those listening, pull this thing down into your own life. May you allow your uniqueness, who you are in God, to emerge. To trust it. To trust the gift that you are. To discern the gift that you are and the gifts that God has given you. And to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit. To, to pray and ask, "Holy Spirit, teach me to listen to You. Teach me to listen to You. Help me to listen to You." He'll speak your language. He knows your heart better than you do. And, um, to invite that overshadowing.
I love that, Sister. That's powerful because it kind of encapsulates everything. Like, the gift of who we are, recognizing that, realizing that, and allowing the gift to be opened, uh, through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. Wow. Thanks.
Should we close with a prayer? That sounds great. Okay.
Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen.
Father, we thank You for creating us, for creating us a wonder of Your loving hands. We ask for every grace to trust the beauty that You have stitched into our beings, the beauty You desire us to bring to life and to communicate, the, the beauty that comes forth as a fruit of our receptivity to the initiative of, of Your love, of the life of Your Holy Spirit. So we ask for every grace to live this adventure with You and in You, and to give our yes, an imitation of our Lady, with the same strength and depth and courage and trust, humility and virtue. We ask all of this, and we thank You ahead of time, and we praise You as we say, Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
God bless and keep all of you. We can't wait to be with you next week. Praying for you. See you next time.
This was Let Love, a podcast for the Sisters of Life, a religious community of women consecrated for the protection of the sacredness of human life. Be assured of our prayers and learn more at sistersoflife.org.