Sr. Melissa Letts, who died on September 14, spent eight
years at Mount St. Scholastica (after transferring her vows from Red Plains,
Oklahoma) quietly attending to her work and her art and not so quietly rooting
for Oklahoma football and basketball teams. Because of her unassuming, no-fuss
demeanor, her store of inner wisdom often went unnoticed. However, this changed
for me when my formation director, Sr. Marcia Ziska, asked several professed
sisters to share some advice with me as I entered my canonical novitiate year.
This is what Sr. Melissa wrote:
Realize this is a process.
Relax and breathe.
Enjoy the moment.
Now that I have finished my novitiate, I can see that these
simple words contain profound wisdom. Furthermore, her words apply not just to
the novitiate but to life itself. Life is a process of learning how to love
God, others, and ourselves. We are more likely to learn how to do this when we
relax and breathe, inviting God’s Spirit to be with us, instead of trying to
impose our own will as we make our way through life. Each moment is a gift to
be enjoyed, not improved.
As we shared stories of Sr. Melissa at her vigil service, Prioress
Esther Fangman told us that when Sr. Melissa received the news that she would
be dying soon, after the initial shock, she said, “I know God loves me, I know
the community loves me, and I love myself. I’m ready to go.” She lived out her
inner wisdom and gracefully surrendered to the new life to which God was
calling her. I’m grateful to have her wisdom and example to guide me as I
continue on the monastic journey to the everlasting life we will share.
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