Miracle on a Lonely Road

I heard a little phrase quoted by Pope Francis, quoting Manzoni:

I never saw God start a miracle without finishing it. 

He was talking about Christian unity, but I heard it as referring to the miracle of religious vocation, and the rebirthing of the religious life in our own times. A great and welcome miracle, and I want to put my trust in God's miracle, and God's gift of leading this remnant through the challenging desert into a new era of religious life.

This can be a lonely road, trying to articulate a new hope and a new future for religious life. It is in continuity with the history of religious life, yet as in every era, it is also in discontinuity. Religious life faces new challenges today as much that we knew of religious life in recent decades declines and passes away. Yet there is also a fierce hope as the newer generations set out on the journey of religious life. In dynamic fidelity to generations of men and women radically committed to the gospel, we accept the call into relationship with the many communities of justice, of peace and of sustainability.

I want to trust in the God of Miracles as I walk this road.
--Amy

See video of pope's presentation here.