Well it has been a week since I last added anything. This week seemed to fly by. Today we celebrated the Annunciation. (The feast was moved due to Easter). It is an important day to think about listening to what God is calling each of us to in our lives each day. Sometimes those calls are profoundly life changing but most of the time they are daily calls to change our lives and our actions in little ways. This listening to God's call is a central aspect of our monastic life and as a vocation director, is central to the work I do each day.

The picture above (of St. Benedict as a young man) is a great reminder of that call to listen. This picture (given to me by Sister Micaela when I entered the novitiate) hangs in my office directly across from my desk. It is the first thing I see each time I look up from whatever work I am doing and is a wonderful reminder from Benedict to listen each and every day.

This morning at mass Sister Susan added a wonderful reflection to our worship aid and I thought I would end today with sharing this poem with you.

The Gift of Encounter by; Eleanor McNichol, SSJ Life is filled with promises With so many options for each of us, That in the living of it, we often move and choose at random. And then, one day along the way, there is an encounter A meeting A chance A choice An opportunity for living life In a deeper, fuller way than ever before. One knows the moment. One recognizes that instant When another sees the dream in us And with gentle urgings invites us to let it be To risk it all and to let it come into being.

May you open your heart to those urgings this day. Peace