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Sacramental Nature of Avila – Light and Leaven

I am in my second year of a two year program sponsored by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and offered by the Aquinas Institute on Mission Leadership. My present course is Morality- Personal and Corporate. A topic from last week's discussion prompts this blog entry, i.e. the sacramental nature of Catholic institutions. I was struck by this topic and want to share it with you in brief form. The main points were:

All of created reality has been created by God so as to express the grace of God.

God relates to us and we experience the grace of God through some type of mediated reality. These realities mediate the divine presence to us.

All of reality can, through the work of the Holy Spirit and God's grace, serve as a vehicle of God's goodness, God's mercy. Even we can be such a vehicle.

Catholic institutions, when operating with this knowledge and intention, perform sacramental work.

We are a sacramental presence of God in and to the world.
Thus, all who contribute to the mission of the institution have a hand in God's grace. We all can mediate God's presence to the people we serve. The educating, helping, strengthening of others in their development of personhood and in their recognition of their gifts and assets, is all part of this sacramental character. Our work is a sacred work.

I find this awe inspiring, tremendously exciting, and a challenge as well. There certainly are times when we fail to live up to this calling, but when we do recognize and respond to this mission, when we seek to live it in our work with students, miraculous things can happen. What we do is of great importance; it matters deeply. Our world desperately needs institutions that remind us of what it means to be fully human, to reflect the dignity worth of each person, and where our interconnectedness and responsibilities to each other are recognized. The sacramental nature of our Catholic institutions is light and leaven to the world. What a powerful calling. I find myself prayerfully asking that I might be fully worthy of it and more and more faithful to this calling, and hope that all who are part of Avila might feel inclined to the same.
       
       
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