A Day in the Life: Unconditional Love

The love God has for us is unconditional. It has no fine print, no asterisks, no parameters. He doesn’t say, “I love you… if you do this… as long as you don’t say… until you’re an inconvenience… unless you irritate me… but only if you ask for too…” He loves us and He never stops loving us, even we run from Him. There is no sin so horrible that God stops loving us and waiting for us to return to Him. There is nothing we can do to make Him stop loving us. That’s what St. Paul was talking about when He said, “Love never fails.”

Jesus tells us that this same love, this unfailing, unchanging, unconditional love, this is how we are to love one another. This is how the world is supposed to know we are followers of Christ. No counting the cost, no keeping a record of grievances, forgiving seventy times seven, and laying down our lives for our brothers and sisters. Love without questions, without “buts,” without limits. Of course, I’m not saying we don’t hold others accountable for wrongdoing. In fact, sometimes it takes more love to confront family and friends because you really have their best interests at heart and be willing to rock the boat in order to keep them from drowning. Love is not easy, but it is beautiful. Just look at the Cross.

Maybe there is someone in your life who should have shown you unconditional love and failed: a spouse, a parent, a sibling, a close friend. Maybe they walked away when you needed them most because you needed more love than they were willing to give you. If that’s you, know that God’s love has no limits. You can’t push so far away that He decides to give up on you. Like the father in the parable of the Prodigal Son, He is watching the road constantly, looking for you and listening for your footsteps so that He can run out and gather you in His arms. His love is everlasting and inexhaustible and He holds in the palm of His hand.

A Day in the Life: More than These

"Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?"

At the end of the day, it all comes down to this question, doesn't it? "Do you love Me more than these? These people, these places, these things? More than your earthly desires? More than your personal aspirations? More than your plans? More than your career? More than your family? More than your time and talents? More than your very life?" Jesus isn't only asking Peter, He's asking us as well. It's a great examination of conscience to take a moment and ask yourself if there is anything in your life that would prevent you from answering, "Lord, You know that I love You." It's helped me to put my life into perspective on many occasions.

When you think about it, the Lord is really telling us, "Trust Me to take care of all these other concerns in your life. You, feed My lambs. You, tend my sheep. Let Me be the one who manages your worries, your concerns, your fears, your weakness. Let Me tend to you. You, go into the world and seek the lost, heal the broken, forgive the repentant, love the lonely, show mercy to your enemies." How can we do anything other than trust a God Whose faithfulness and love for us impelled Him to die to save the very people who killed Him? 

In this Jubilee Year of Mercy, we've been granted an amazing opportunity to re-orient ourselves toward the Lord by placing our trust in Him and His providential care for us. We can never run so far from our Heavenly Father that He cannot find us and carry us home, if we just lift our arms like a child and ask Him for the grace to rise again. There is no situation in which we might find ourselves, no matter how painful or difficult it may be, that He is not there with us. Even if it doesn't feel that way at the time, He is always with us. "For to those who love God, all things work together unto good."

News and Events; Sister Mary Antonella

I would like to introduce you to a remarkable woman who, along with Mother Ellen and other sisters, founded our community.  Sister Mary Antonella had a great devotion to Saint Joseph.  So it was fitting that she joined Mother Ellen in founding the Sisters of St. Joseph the Worker in 1974.  Her life teaches us that age can not be an excuse or a barrier for fulfilling God's will.

Sister was born on January 1, 1893 in Newport, Ky.  She was the youngest of seven children born to Joseph and Mary Staubach.  She entered religious life in 1911 and after completing her training as a Novice, she made vows on December 8, 1912.

          She taught in various schools until 1930 when she was assigned to work in Hospital administration. Sister became the Administrator of Georgetown University Hospital in Washington DC in 1943.  She had a great gift for organization and administration.  She was inducted into the America College of Hospitals Administrators in 1953 and served on the Council of Hospital Planning and Plant Operations of the American Medical Association.  She was unanimously elected the second Vice Presidents of the Board of Regents of the College of Hospital Administrators in August 1963.

She used to entertain the sisters with her stories of her time in Washington, D.C. Whenever Bishop Sheen got exhausted from his heavy schedules, the hospital had a private suite, not on the hospital listing, where he could rest without disturbance, offer his daily Mass and have meals sent to his suite. Robert Kennedy often worked late and would stop at the chapel and kneel in the back with his two large guard dogs laying down on either side of him.  

In spite of her advanced age, 80, she never wavered in her support of Mother. Ellen in the founding of the Sisters of St. Joseph the Worker. When the community was founded, she could not participate in the active work of teaching, nursing or administration, but she was faithful in the most important work in religious life, prayer. In 1973, she wrote and published a Novena to Saint Joseph and did much to spread promote of her novena. 

Sister Mary Antonella praying in the Chapel at Taylor Manor

When she realized that her health and mental facilities were failing she wrote,  “This means there is no remedy for lapse of memory and when the attacks come I just try to be calm, stop trying to solve the problem at hand and ask for trust and more trust and more trust in God. I have had a long life span and God has been so very, very good to me so now I have just a little time left in which to trust and to love and to do for Him what I can.” 

This remarkable woman of faith and devotion to Saint Joseph retired to Taylor Manor Nursing Home in 1977 and remained there until her death on March 27, 1985 at 92 years of age.

---