Responses from Sister Lisa Perkowski
What do you desire?
I desire to become ever more deeply rooted in
Jesus and in You, God, attuning my soul to Your presence and
placing patient trust in You.
I desire to be pruned with humility and simplicity, I desire
to be shaped and refined by IHM charism, by our past models,
Mary, Alphonsus, and Theresa Maxis, and by our sisters present,
who are our Redemptive, loving mission incarnate.
May I grow in my understanding of the vows we profess, may I
be strengthened in my faith and commitment to this community,
the Church, and the Gospel.
And, ultimately, I desire to embed the roots of my soul in Your
will for me, God, further deepening my trust in Your voice in
order to embrace and bear the future with hope and joy.
What do you ask of us?
Sincerely, I ask that you, dear sisters, companion
me through the present and prepare me for the unknown. Model
to me our redemptive, loving mission, so that I might learn
from your example the depths in which you live out your vows
and bring the Gospel to life.
Share with me who you are, so that I might remember to carry
on the stories and traditions that are a part of the IHM story;
and, speak to me the hopes and dreams you pray, so that I might
bridge our prophetic witness into the future, working for the
life of the world.
I hope we may share together God’s lifelong process of
formation.
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Reception into the IHM Novitiate
Sister Lisa Perkowski
August 29, 2007
Remarks from Sr. Mary Persico, IHM
Lisa, we welcome with joy the people who gather around you here
to celebrate this countercultural and very important event in
your life…the sisters from Theresa of Avila Community on
Center Street, the Sisters from St. Ann’s in Harlem, the
Sisters of Visitation Community, those who will welcome you into
the house of incorporation this evening, Sisters Mary Jo, Ruth,
Kathy, and all your other Sisters who support you in countless
ways. These friends on the journey represent segments of your
life, past, present, and yet to be. Those of us who know in retrospect
the experience of novitiate will tell you two things about it:
we couldn’t wait until it was over and we wish we could
do it again. However, in later years we call it sabbatical. It
is our human nature to want to get on with things, to rush the
process and achieve the goal, and then to realize that the goal
was in the process.
The step you take tonight, Lisa, is a response to the breath of
God stirring in your spirit, a response to the desire to be of
service to humanity – vulnerable and broken humanity; poor
illiterate children of our inner cities; the children of our immigrant
sisters and brothers; the un-churched students of a new generation;
or those with needs yet to be revealed. So much lies ahead of
you – and all of it unknown. Some call it folly, others
adventure or challenge; we, who gather with you this evening,
call it discipleship.
So why not get on with it without this thing we call novitiate?
In the days and months to come, you will sometimes be confronted
with silence. In that silence, Lisa, find God teaching you how
to listen to the voice of the voiceless and the anguish of the
sorrowing.
Surely in the days and month ahead, you will sometimes encounter
loneliness. In that emptiness find God molding in you a heart
of compassion for persons who are not loveable or favored by society,
or who suffer illnesses of mind or body or spirit.
And most likely in the days and months ahead, you will sometimes
feel the restraints imposed by schedules and responsibilities
and even the expectations of others. In such constraints find
God gently bending your spirit to the freedom of selfless giving
for those who suffer injustice.
And of course in the days and months ahead, you will sometimes
have your doubts about it all. In those moments of doubt, remember
that it is God who called you in the first place. And that’s
why we don’t just get on with it! Lisa, you are supported
by your IHM Sisters as you begin your novitiate time because we
believe that in the moments of silence, and loneliness, and doubt,
you will come to know ever more deeply the God who called you
and to desire ever more longingly to serve God’s people.
And then you will find hope and peace and gladness all the days
of your life.
Corrie Ten Boom, the Dutch Christian survivor of the holocaust,
expressed this sentiment in her writings, “Never be afraid
to trust an unknown future to a known God.” It is obvious
that God is pursuing you, as Francis Thompson has said, “down
the nights and down the days, down the arches of the years, down
the labyrinthine ways….” We pray, Lisa, that you will
let yourself be forever caught by God so that you can entrust
an unknown future to a God you will know so well.
Sisters of Visitation Community (L-R) Carleen Boehlert, Lisa Perkowski,
Mary Rassley, Kathleen Lunsmann
Sisters of Theresa of Avila Community (L-R) Catherine Luxner,
Cor Immaculatum Heffernan, Lisa Perkowski, Jane Snyder, Ellen
Carney
Sisters of St. Ann's Community (L-R) Katie Sitja y Balbastro,
Maria Regina Loures, Ancilla Maloney, Lisa Perkowski, Mary Elizabeth
Ehling, Joan Quinn
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