Making Wise Decisions

At the Mount community meeting this past weekend, we received the welcome news that we are on a firm financial footing—a blessing that has flowed to us from the prudence, sacrifice, and wise decisions of community members in the past, as well as the generosity of our donors.

I’m certain that the sisters who made important decisions at critical junctures in the Mount history did not know at the time if their course of action would turn out to be wise. Buying Price Villa for $25,000 plus interest in 1877? Building Mount St. Scholastica chapel in the midst of the Great Depression? Going into debt to build Dooley Center for the care of our elder sisters? How did they find the courage and trust to make decisions that, in hindsight, we can now see were wise indeed?

The following insight by Richard Rohr offers a clue: “Our holiness is first of all and really only God’s holiness, and that’s why it is certain and secure. It is a participation in love, a mutual indwelling, not an achievement or performance on our part.” When we are rooted in the love of God and set aside our own agendas, Christ who dwells within acts through us, and we need not worry about outcomes. As our founding prioress Mother Evangelista Kremmeter said so succinctly and eloquently, “The love of Jesus keeps me from fearfulness.”

It is our faithfulness to coming to the chapel to sit in prayer, day in and day out, that allows that love of Jesus to take firm root and crowd out our own concerns—which is why it is so critical that we don’t allow busyness to encroach on our prayer. Faithfulness to prayer leads to certainty and security because it reminds us that (1) God is God and we are not and (2) God has promised to be with us. Furthermore, God honors us with the invitation to partipate in God’s love, which can only lead to prudence, sacrifice, and wisdom.