Opening prayer: “We do not know what this day will bring – life is the great enigma; Life is the great good; we expect good from this day.”
John McQuiston, “Always We Begin Again, The Benedictine Way of Living.”
Leader: Our formation sessions for 2025-26 have been inspired by Jane Cruthirds’ talk on Associates and Sisters Day, titled “Angela: A Pilgrim of Hope.” This final session will focus on “Transformation.” Are you willing to become a different version of yourself after this pilgrimage you’re on?
Reader 1: “Christians are supposed to not merely endure change, nor even to profit by it, but to cause it.”
Harry Emerson Fosdick, American pastor
Reader 2: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
Reinhold Niebuhr, American theologian
Leader: When Sister Martha Keller attended the Resource Center for Religious Institutes National Conference in 2025, one of the highlights was an address by Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, Archbishop of Newark and former Superior General of the Redemptorists.
“Cardinal Tobin stated that Pope Francis began this Jubilee Year by inviting each of us to become a ‘pilgrim of hope.’ He gave a nice twist to two ways one can approach a pilgrimage – as a tourist or as a pilgrim. A tourist is interested in traveling for a new adventure, often desiring to create memories and collect unique souvenirs. A pilgrim travels with a desire to keep moving toward an unseen sanctuary, attentive to the sacred encounters and all the holy treasures discovered along the way. A pilgrimage is a sacred journey with responsibilities and challenges that demands sharper eyesight, honest vulnerability, and a willingness to ‘travel light.’”
Consider these questions with your group:
- In our year of being Pilgrims of Hope, have you met any “sacred encounters” or discovered any “holy treasures?”
- If so, in what sort of places did you find them?
Reader 3: “Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”
Rumi, Persian poet
Reader 4: “Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward however they like.”
Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher
Leader: Mark Oakley, a British Church of England priest, in his book “My Sour-Sweet Days: George Herbert and the Journey of the Soul,” says this about our spiritual journeys.
“The spiritual journey of transformation is about change, about altering our values, about dealing with our resistances – ‘distilling’ our defenses, about letting go, about gratitude for the ‘now’ and honoring the past where we began our human and spiritual development. For each of us it is a unique process of growing in love and becoming who God wants us to be. We are not alone on this journey. God has invited us to surrender to God’s will and God’s plan for us. It is through God’s Son that we will learn about who God wants us to be and it will be realized by the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Consider these questions with your group:
- Have you been able to let go of something that was weighing you down in the past year?
- What did you replace it with?
Reader 5: “All that you touch, you change. All that you change, changes you. The only lasting truth is change. God is change.”
Octavia E. Butler, author
Leader: A famous Saint Angela story is her vision of “the ladder” at Brudazzo. “During the siesta hour, Angela went aside to pray. She saw heaven open and coming from it a procession of angels and virgins, in alternate pairs. The angels were playing various instruments, and the virgins were singing. And as the procession filed past, behold her dead sister appeared, and told Angela about her future mission – to found a company of virgins like those in the vision.”
Perhaps there is another meaning to seeing those coming and going on the ladder? Maybe they also symbolize that each of us is on our own journey to heaven. We each have our own path and will arrive at different times. Perhaps ladders to heaven are not just mystical, but apparent if we are truly open to seeing them. As Jane Cruthirds said on Associates and Sisters Day;
“Is pilgrimage in the ordinary or extraordinary? We meet holy people in our everyday mission and ministries, and we travel on a mission of transformation.”
Consider this question:
- How might you be more of a Pilgrim of Hope today?
Closing Prayer: “Be joyful and always full of charity, and faith, and hope in God.”
Saint Angela, the Rule Chapter IX
Leave a Reply