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By Kelsea, SSJD Companion I am not sure how I wake up to my alarm. It gives off one little pulse on the sixth hour of the day. It is imperceptible, though it does the job of waking me up for the day; mostly. Morning. There is a little less darkness outside today. Through the […]
by Jasmine, SSJD Companion Dietrich Bonhoeffer once described life to his friends as a polyphonic composition, with God’s love as the cantus firmus and our life stories as the counter-melody. All together they make up harmonies and the beauty of a musical piece. The concept of cantus firmus or fixed song is a pre-existing […]
by Jane Christmas What is a woman to do when she gets the itch to change direction; when the direction itself is as mystifying as the reason to change in the first place; and when her only certainty is that during the rare moments when she is still and alone she hears the Little Voice […]
By Florence, SSJD Companion. Christmas 2019 came and went very quickly. It was not just another Christmas. It was different for me, because I spent it in the SSJD convent. I was hoping it to be calm, peaceful and silent. How wrong I was! The convent was full of people and activities during Christmas time. […]
We are delighted to introduce the 2019-2020 Companions to you. Without further ado, please meet Jasmine, Kelsea and Florence. Hello, I am Jasmine, a music therapist and a companion at the Sisterhood of St. John the Divine. Yes, I know you might be asking “what does it mean to be a companion?” The Companions Program is […]
My fingertips are dipped in scorching water on the eve of the first snowfall.Dipped in holy water; cleansing vessels.Warmed by these tears, this ritual, and sacrament;frigid moments before.Purify me, O Holy One. Evening made its approach,once again known; present.Stillness lying in wait. From the heavens, through the night,matter, drifting slowly onto the earth.Gathered and knitted […]
Writing a rule of life is like writing a story while you sit on a park bench in the pouring rain waiting for the sun to come out: you want to be in the right frame of mind, body, and spirit. I have spent the whole time since the beginning of Lent way back in early March […]
Homilies for the Paschal Triduum by Fr Bill Morrison, for St John’s House, Victoria April 18, 19, 21, 2019 Maundy Thursday “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, […]
The third week of Lent has arrived, at last, and to paraphrase something I heard Sunday morning, we are in the deep of it now. Indeed, the trudging towards Jerusalem has begun. I wonder if, like the grass outside my window, we are all just waiting to be brushed through into spring, though spring began […]
Recently, January seventeenth to be exact, it was the fourteenth year of the dedication of the Chapel of St. John at the Convent. It is a special day that comes around every year, and just as it is for the Sisters and the community, so it is for me. Five years ago this January seventeenth, […]