Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity Sister Natalie Binversie and Sister Mariella Erdmann attended the 2025 National Institute on Religious Life Meeting April 25-27, 2025 at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake at Mundelein Seminary in Illinois. Sister Mariella reflects on the experience.
The speakers were all so excellent and complimented each other.
Jen Settle began the Special Session with her presentation synthesizing Pope Saint John Paul II’s work, THEOLOGY OF THE BODY. Pope John Paul II brought out the absolute need for living an integrated life. There needs to be a balance of unity between the body and the soul, sexuality and spirituality for the sake of freedom. We cannot dismiss sexuality for the sake of spirituality or visa versa. With the fall of man as described in Genesis, there was a rupture between man and God and man and woman. The heart becomes a battle field between love and concupiscence, lust and self-seeking. There becomes a deep, restless longing for love. To acquire purity of heart we must learn to be authentic masters of our own inner most impulses and open our selves to God’s embrace. In everyday life man draws from God’s life more integrated and is sent out on mission in order not to act within himself by running and hiding from fallenness.
Father Boniface Hicks, spoke on HEALING AND REPENTANCE. He started by stating that it is not good for man to live alone. Man is meant to live in communion with others. The heart is in trauma when isolated or alone. Babies left alone suffer deep wounds. We must see in others that they are worth responding to. Trauma is not determined by the intensity of the pain but by being alone in the pain. Technology cannot understand you or be aware of your heart, but it can draw a heart. Bring pain to relationship by sharing with someone you trust. God prefers to work with us rather then without us. Our heart is the ultimate judge of who we are. Pope Francis asks us to walk with others in their situations, by paying attention, wanting to understand, to respect and to ponder what the other person says. This involves a sort of martyrdom on our part.
Father John Burns started the General Session with LOVE SONG OF CREATION AND RESTORATION OF ORDER. We are meant to live a harmonious life. The soul is perfectly holy when the Sprit of Love takes full possession of it. There is a risk of over correction on healing as well as the other extreme that I do not need any healing. Seeking the suitable theology of suffering leads to holiness; Christ-likeness. Unholiness is living out our wounds. We know of extraordinary healings (miracles). These are rare. Ordinary healing is the actual effect of grace. Concupiscence is due to human nature wounded by sin. Looking at ourselves we find our intellect darkened making it difficult to perceive truth adequately. The will is weakened and the passions are disproportionate. We need to look where are sins are coming from in order to start to be healed. We must remember that emotions are good and that Christ’s emotions were in harmony. The evil spirit wants us to be locked in our sins. God won’t undo our acts of the will. He has made us in his image and given us free-will. God understands us so let us tell God our story without leaving out what we are trying to hide. He can then heal us.
Dr. Mary Healy spoke on HEALING LIFE. She was so animated concerning the “Explosions” of the Holy Spirit throughout the world and the need to rediscover the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We are too obsessed with the body, our own way, our own will, our technology. Mental health has grown, we need to turn to God for healing physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Jesus comes to bring healing. He restores to life and wholeness. We walk in the valley of tears and are called to heal others in the name of Jesus. Those who fix their eyes on Christ seem to radiate Christ to others.
Sister Miriam James Heidland’s topic was THE POWER OF A HEALING HEART IN THE JUBILEE YEAR OF HOPE. She started with a picture of Christ done by a child who had visions of Christ. She painted Christ with half his face in light and half in darkness. She saw the light as representing Jesus’s love to the world and the side of his face in shadow representing the darkness of sin and turning from Jesus. Holiness is living Christlike. Healing is ongoing encounters with God’s love and truth that brings us into wholeness and communion. Religious life is a mixture of lightness and darkness. Pope Benedict XVI states, “the anxiety of all fear is not to be loved, to be in complete isolation. But we have the certainty that we are already loved by Jesus Christ and that love is indestructible.” We need order, beauty and life/growth in our lives. Sister compared this to a garden. As our love for Jesus grows and deepens our heart becomes a sign of our love of Jesus and his love for us. In this way we become a witness to the world of the love of Jesus for us all.
Our last speaker was Bishop Jeffrey Grob who spoke on THE WOUNDING LIES. He asked the question, “What are you carrying around in your hearts?” He referred to this as spiritual post-traumatic stress or SPTS. When we are chastised by lies that build up, we can become hard-hearted. Lies do not become transformative. How a person is treated, disrespected, talked about can be lies. Disordered relationships can lead to lies, sexual, psychological and physical abuse which cause trauma and need healing. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you to discern truth from lies. Spiritual direction can be an aid for healing, also. It is the truth that will set us free. Jn 8:44 “Lying speech is his (the devil’s) native tongue; he is a liar and the father of lies”. Lies can influence our own identity, especially if they are repeated over and over. The person can allow lies to destroy him if he does not ask for help to look at things objectively. There are cases of the devil possessing a person but again there has to be real discernment on such issues to make sure this is not a matter of a mental illness. The devil wishes to confuse our thinking so we follow his ways. He is always at work.
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