It was a great joy for us that many of our associates could also join us on January 22nd for the opening celebration of our jubilee year in the Archabbey of Pannonhalma. Associates share in our spirituality; they participate in our mission in harmony with their state in life. Below you can read the sharing of one of the associates about her experience in Pannonhalma.
My Dear Sisters!
I would like to share some thoughts about our trip to the Holy Mountain of Pannonhalma.
The external events cannot be neglected; let me mention in this respect the journey itself in both its positive and negative aspects – the bus that slid off the road and got stuck in snow, and the unexpected pilgrimage up to the mountain in the heavy snowfall, or the culinary peak experience of our lunch which was served with kind hospitality; however it is not these that I would like to talk about, I would rather share the things that happened within me.
The way the Feast, the celebration began to shine.
Ultimately each Holy Mass is the same because every time and everywhere we meet our same Lord, Jesus Christ in the same reality. Nevertheless besides this ever present Reality, and very much connected to Him, this Opening Mass in Pannonhalma on January 22 touched me in a special way and moved me very deeply while at the same time it also lifted me above and beyond emotions. This was not just due to the homily, which was so profound that I had to take notes continually, nor because of the words of the pope addressed personally to us, or because of the motto we sang together, or the unity conveyed by the three flags (as if the second reading had been written especially for us) – yes, these were also part of the experience, but there was something else that happened to me, which is very difficult to put into words.
If I had to find an expression for this it would be something like “tried and tested faithfulness and readiness”
During communion I experienced a very strong presence-unity somehow along the line of God-Jesus-Pope-Sr. Margaret-Society-Sisters-Associates, and this one word emerged brightly within me: FIDELITY.
Only later I began to ponder this experience and it became clear for me that our commitment is linked to this charism, namely to that forth vow of fidelity which completes the other three vows of the Society taken by the Sisters.
And the wonderful thing is that this experience didn’t come out of a biased, infatuated and all-embracing “first love” in me yesterday, but rather after many years of living with our reality – a reality which is never perfect, because we are human, and that’s all right; to love despite the shadows of this reality, despite the fallibilities and weaknesses, and to accept reality, in myself and in others.
This was an “I love you to the end no matter what”-kind of an experience born from memories of “I love you, because…”; “I have found you since…”; “I belong to you because …”
This jubilee, this celebration, the hundred years behind us (yes, behind me as well, because at this Mass I could also connect in spirit to the “Our Lady of Ransom” picture under which the Society was founded) are like a strong call to do not something extraordinarily new or different but to be faithful to the charism, to live it as I had strived to live it up to now, to remain an instrument so that the Spirit of God can use me, and I can radiate the spirituality of the Society; in other words it is a call to do all these with more confidence, with more determination, always paying attention that I live it with joy, from the center of my being where I am connected securely to God. Yes, it was a call to live this charism in the joy of morum conversio, in the spirit of discipleship, following the Master together with my sisters, listening to the Word, inclining my heart to it, and implementing it into my life…
It has been a tremendous gift for me to be present where the Sisters were, even though this is not at all natural, we could be together with them, different, but still in unity with them.
I think I will remember this day with the same intensity as the event of Sr. Margaret’s reburial, as long as I am able to remember.
Gyergyói Gréti
