“When our God, who is Mercy, comes like a shout into your darkness, when the Father stoops

down and tenderly picks up the pieces of your broken life, when Jesus steps in front of what

you could have deserved, and when the Lord of heaven says; „I still want you,‟ after you

thought no one would, it is the most amazing truth of all. I have been overwhelmed by this

lavish kingdom gift called mercy.”

Angela Thomas in A Beautiful Offering

September, 2010

Dear Friends,

Our faith leads us to believe that God is always with us, loving us and caring for us as no one of us is able

to do for one another. He demonstrates His love for us each day anew and each day His love is as

constant and unique as each one of us in our uniqueness is able to accept it. The problem with many of us

is that we live in a fast-paced world where everything is instant and in which taking time for reflection on

something as abstract as the reality of God could be perceived as wasting our precious moments that

could be spend working on one of our projects. Many of us are not use to carving some quiet time for

reflection. On the other hand each one of us is constantly looking for love, for friends and relationships

that will bring us moments of happiness.

God who created us offers us His relationship and his love. For us who are looking for human

gratification and love the concept of God’s endless love that awaits our coming is sometimes difficult to

grasp. The passage from Isaiah tells us however, that God in His

unsurpassable love for us is waiting and hoping that some day we

will be ready to open our hearts to his love. Then, our lives will

become filled with His love and every person we meet will become

our brother and sisters in him. In His great love God gave us the

power to open our hearts to his message of love or to remain closed

till we decide to let in the light. The choice is ours to discover his

enormous love and welcome it deep in our hearts or to look for it

elsewhere.

There is no need to be afraid that his love will ever end or that some

day we will have to pay for what we have received, because his love

is free to take as much as we possibly can. However, one of the

requirements is to share it with people around us. This is the basic

Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters

PO Box 6026, Techny, IL 60082-6026

319 Waukegan Rd., Northfield, IL 60093

Office of Vocation Ministry Phone: 847-441-0126, ext. 704

sspsovm@aol.com www.ssps-usa.org

Window designed by Sr. Agnes Paul, SSpS

concept of leading Christian life. As Christians we are called to be like Christ and to bring his good news

to others. Religious vocation is one way of sharing what we have received, our talents, our skills that we

have learned our time and all we are with those who are less fortunate.

How ready am I to share freely without counting the cost?

May the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of love grant us the grace of generosity so that we are able to follow

the advice of St. Matthew when he said: “Freely you have received, freely you are to give” (10:8). We

have received in abundance for which we should be grateful. Moreover, this should prompt us to

develop more trusting relationship with our Creator like did Mary and other holy people.

With blessings and prayers,

Sr. Veronica Marie Mikkelsen and Sr. Elwira Dziuk