By Sr. Edith Marie
School Sisters of Christ the King
During these Easter days the Church proclaims: Christ is Risen. Our King is victorious. One of my favorite Easter hymns is “Ye Sons and Daughters.” In nine fairly short verses it tells the Easter story, with the first verse proclaiming, “Ye sons and daughters let us sing! The King of heaven the glorious King, O’er death today rose triumphing, Alleluia.”
As I ponder this season of joy, mystery and love, I am reminded by the Holy Spirit that throughout my vocation, Christ as King, the one who said yes to death on the cross and rose victorious, has also been the one who has searched me and called me as a School Sister of Christ the King.
Each woman or man has his or her own path to God. A sister once said that some individuals are initially drawn to the Bride of Christ, the Catholic Church, while others are drawn to the person of Christ. I was drawn to something I considered more superficial: I was drawn to happiness, contentment, a greater love for life and a purpose in life, something I think many of the youth are seeking today. However, as I have come to understand the human person, I have learned these desires were not as superficial as I had thought. I was desiring relationship—a relationship that could satisfy the longings of my heart and reveal to me that I was worth this relationship.
One turning point in my spiritual life was when I was a freshman in high school and my sister prepared to leave our family and the dairy farm to begin the life of a college student. She became involved at the Newman Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) through the influence of our oldest brother. As I was going through high school trying, like most teenagers, to find out where I belonged and who I was, my sister and brother were deepening in their love for Jesus, growing in their fidelity to the Catholic Church and developing friendships with faithful and enthusiastic Catholics.
I admired their faith and joy and desired it for myself. Later I chose to go to UNL because I had witnessed that through the Catholic Newman Center, so I could grow in my faith and find the joy they had found through relationships with Christ and others.
As I sought out more authentic relationships, I found true freedom and purity in the lives of those who were not afraid to follow Christ and to be faithful to the Church. In my third year of college, this search eventually led me to consider that the “more” to life that I desired was to be found in religious life. Though I did not know what this completely meant and it was uncomfortable and radical to me, the Holy Spirit kept leading me in this direction, and by the end of the year I was applying to enter the School Sisters of Christ the King.
The King who has chosen me for His Bride has brought meaning and purpose to my life. I have had my own crosses and deaths which I have often carried and accepted quite weakly like many of us. There will still be more to come, yet I will trust that Christ our King will continue to be faithful and victorious through them. Through His victory over sin and death He has invited me into relationship with Him, showing me over and over again how He is King. He has shown me this in the interior graces He has given me and also through examples of the love and fidelity of my Sisters, family, friends, co-workers, students, priests, the saints: those who love and struggle to love the eternal King and His Church in their daily lives.
As I close with the words of verse one, “Ye sons and daughters let us sing! The King of heaven the glorious King, O’er death today rose triumphing, Alleluia.” I pray for each of you through the power of the Holy Spirit, you may know and understand in your own lives the ways Christ our King is triumphing in and through you.
