We Are a Pilgrim People, We Are the Church of God

© May 20, 2008 by Imelda Maurer, cdp

On Pentecost Sunday my parish of Saint Agnes Church experienced a meaningful, moving Pentecost liturgy. The opening hymn had as its refrain, "We are a pilgrim people, we are the Church of God." As I sang, 'pilgrim' conjured up the reality that the nature of pilgrim and pilgrimage is that of moving toward a worthy goal as opposed to a permanent, stable position or condition. In that context I remembered my losses through death over the past year of significant others in my life, women with whom I had shared ministry and community life in significant ways years ago. These women have completed their pilgrimage. The rest of us continue on that path. As we do, we remember those whose faces we no longer see, but whose spirits live within us and within the community. Our Congregation has a beautiful and deeply symbolic ritual each summer, remembering those Sisters and Associates who have completed their pilgrimage and gone ahead since our last gathering. It is often poignant when a Sister's picture is flashed onto the media screen, particularly if her death was, by human judgment, too soon in her life or in her illness.

I experienced a similar poignant moment last December while I was on our university campus. I accompanied a lay university professor, the Dean of the School of Professional Studies, to an appointment; our way took us into the entrance of the Main Building. We had just shared a conversation in which she told me how she felt "so called" to be a part of our university primarily because of the high population of first generation Hispanic students and the university's efforts to empower them through a good education.

Of course I had been in that lobby and hallway more times than I can count. But that morning I saw things differently, perhaps because of our recent conversation. I saw again the framed photographs of our university's founding Sisters and of the university Presidents along with other items documenting our history and legacy. Tears welled up immediately with emotions of nostalgia, pride and gratitude. I was so conscious of the richness of my, of our, congregational heritage.

On Tuesday evening before Pentecost, that Main Building of Our Lady of the Lake University, burst into flame about 7:45 p.m., Texas time, the result of an electrical short in the attic above fourth floor. My first call came from a friend in San Antonio when she first saw it on the local TV station. My home phone and cell phone were busy over the next two hours. Calls coming in and going out. No one could grasp the enormity of the inferno, the significance of this loss. The same disbelief followed later as I watched TV website videos taken that evening and the following day.

The loss is a physical building. Like the Sisters who go ahead of us, there is a physical change, but the heritage of our university and its mission live on within us and within the larger community.

The gain is the opportunity for transformation. Fire is itself a symbol of transformation. Joan Chittister addresses the challenge when she reminds U.S. Sisters that though our numbers (Sisters, Sisters who actually are on the staff of our university) are decreasing, "it's not numbers we need. We each have at least as many strong women leaders as we had when we started."

And so we do! I ask the readers of this blog to keep our Sisters and our university in your prayers. We will rebuild. Let us pray that in the process of rebuilding that the mission is maintained --- no, strengthened, born anew through this potentially transforming event. Let us pray that our foremothers who provided this legacy are with us in spirit and grace throughout this task. Let us pray that the Sisters and staff at Our Lady of the Lake University and all CDPs can be engaged "in one great enterprise of fire and flame" (Chittister), that the leadership within all of us will "follow the lights . . . to the edge of tomorrow rather than the preservation of yesterday." (Chittister)

Another part of the refrain of our Pentecost gathering hymn speaks of the Spirit –sometimes represented as tongues of fire: "United in one spirit, ignited by the fire." And so may we all be.