Professions

 

Sister Carrie Flood, IHM

October 4, 2014

Sister Carrie Elizabeth Flood professed perpetual vows at a Eucharistic liturgy and rite of perpetual profession held October 4, 2014 at Our Lady of Peace Residence. Many IHM sisters and friends were present. Sister Carrie’s sister, Cindy, traveled from Mesa, Arizona, to join the congregation for the celebration. A festive reception was held in the LIFE Geisinger dining room and along Main Street at OLP following the liturgy. Addressing those present Sister Carrie said:

Twenty-four years ago I said goodbye to the IHM Sisters and returned to my home in Arizona. I had just completed a two-year volunteer program working as a nurses’ aide at the Marian Convent, where I’d had the privilege of caring for Sister Samuel, Sister Graecia, Sister St. Joseph and our dear Mother Beata, to name just a few. As I said my tearful goodbyes, many of the sisters told me they were praying that I would come back someday. My dear Sisters in the prayer ministry, I have learned never to underestimate the power of your prayers!

In the Sonoran desert of the southwestern United States, wildflower seeds lie buried in the earth, waiting for the drenching rains that will stir them into growth. When the rains are sparse, the seeds wait, often for years, sometimes for decades, until the conditions are favorable to allow the seedlings to make their journey through the soil. My vocation as an IHM Sister is like those seeds. God planted it in the depths of my heart and then gifted me with a loving, Catholic family. Nurtured by family and friends into early adulthood, I began in earnest my journey of faith and the discernment of my life’s vocation. When it seemed like the soil of my heart was lying fallow, it was then that God was accomplishing, to use the words of Teilhard de Chardin, his “slow, quiet work.” Did I wait for God, or did God wait for me? No matter. God did not disappoint. In God’s wisdom that “the conditions were favorable,” God drenched my heart with the grace and courage to continue the journey of my vocation, to embark on the God-quest as an IHM Sister.

Nurtured by God’s ever-present and unconditional love, supported in community and mission by my IHM Sisters, and befriended and challenged in ministry by many wonderful people, I have become firmly rooted in my life as an IHM Sister. I choose to spend my life growing in love and service to God and the people of God. Like the wildflower that witnesses to God’s fidelity and care, I pray to be a witness to the presence of God in the world, proclaiming God’s love and God’s glory to the end of my days.

Pictured L- R: Sister Carrie Flood and Sister Ellen Maroney, IHM Congregation President


Reflection by Sister Maria Rose Kelly, IHM

Sister Carrie Flood’s Final Profession - October 4, 2014 - Our Lady of Peace Chapel

MARYWOOD

Reflection on John 21:24-29

I thank You God for most this amazing day

For the leaping greenly spirits of trees and the

Blue true dream of sky

And for everything that is natural

That is infinite

That is YES.

I who have died am alive again today

And this is the sun’s birthday

This is the birthday of life and of love and wings

And of the gay, great happening illimitably earth

How should tasting touching hearing seeing breathing – lifted from the no of all nothinghuman

merely being doubt unimaginable YOU

(now the ears of my ears awake and

Now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

If I didn’t know for sure that ee cummings wrote that beauty, I might think that Thomas the Apostle did (now the ears of my ears awake…now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

Or Carrie (for everything that is YES)……. or anyone of us here whose eyes have been opened to faith in God, faith in Jesus the Christ bit by bit in the course of our lifetime.

Today’s gospel is about Thomas, Jesus, and us and the life experience that has accumulated and that has deepened our faith.

Today’s gospel is about Thomas and Jesus. Thomas who knew what he needed to believe in Jesus and asked for it. Jesus kindly, without  any reprimand, acquiesced to his friend’s need. No “doubting Thomas” in Jesus’ book – just” look Thomas, see Thomas and be believing”. Deepening Thomas’ faith was an act of friendship.

And we find ourselves in this gospel too: Blessed are you who have not put your hand in Jesus’ side -- but who have believed. Blessed are you who have not seen my resurrected body, but who have believed. Jesus couldn’t mean blessed are you who haven’t seen anything and have believed. But blessed are you who have breathed, tasted, touched, heard and seen this gay great happening illimitable earth” and have believed.

That’s us. Of course we’ve seen and heard and we believe.

I think this is a wonderful occasion – Carrie’s final Profession( but of course not her final YES -) to look for a few minutes at the path of our own faith - our own fingerprinted faith that is as unique as each of us is --- our response to what we have seen and heard.

Take a quiet minute

Who is most responsible for passing on the beginnings of your faith would you say?

Has nature played a role in faith for you? Maybe the Grand Canyon or Newton Lake?

What experience has most opened your eyes and ears to God? An illness, a death, a healing?

Is it an experience of the arts? Could it be a pet? Your favorite mission? Is it being an IHM? Your best friend?

What has made you say, “Now the ears of my ears are opened and now the eyes of my eyes awake.”?

This day stands out for Carrie as one of the “amazing” days that contributes to her own deepening faith. We stand faithfully beside her in joy and let our own faith find a deeper mark in us.

We thank you God for most this amazing day…and for everything that is natural, that is infinite that is YES.