09 February 2008

Sacrifice and Joy

More news from my favorite religious order that I just had to share. PBS recently filmed and interviewed with the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia, and put together this great video. Here are some of my favorite quotes from the Sisters.

"I finished high school, I went to college in Washington, DC for four years, and I came up against relativism: the idea that we can't -- people said that we couldn't know what was good, what was bad, what was true. So I really began questioning where truth comes from. Where does goodness come from? I know I have values. Who gives them to me? And so between that moment and here, it was a process of, "This is scary, I don't understand this. I don't see why I would be called. How can I be called? I am so normal."

"When you have fallen in love with God, everything doesn't seem quite so important anymore because God, the creator of the world, has asked you to be his bride. No, I will not be having sex. No, I will not be having children. No, I will not be marrying a spouse. But my very body and blood is united to God in a way that isn't offered to everyone in the world."

"With sacrifice can come great joy. We know that sacrificing is not opposed to being happy. In fact, it can be our path to happiness. So sadness, no; sacrifice, yes."