So the Dominican Sisters who taught me at school still live on in my everyday life. My teachers had profound influence on my developing values, and I often think of and pray for each one. It's not easy being a teacher . . .
I was six years old, in Sub B. We had a visiting Dominican Sister who was invited to give us a catechism lesson. This Sister gave an impassioned class on God and ourselves as individuals.
"Why," she cried out, the words wrung from her heart, "Do we spell 'his' in relation to God with a small letter? Why do we always refer to ourselves as 'I' with a capital letter? Is it that we consider ourselves to be more important than God? That is the very thing that led to the Fall in Eden."
My throat constricted as I considered this. I was arduously learning the intricacies of the English alphabet, as well as nuances of upper-case letters and lower-case letters. I was stricken as I realized that what Sister said was true.
"Remember," Sister ended her talk, "that Jesus came to teach us that our pride should not place us at the centre of our lives. God, the greatest, became the most humble, to save us from our sins.
Look at the Cross. The bar across the wood on which the Saviour hung as reparation for our sins is the cancellation of the "I".
Become humble. Always keep God at the centre, and make sure you use His Name and all pertaining to Him, with capital letters."
Many's the time I have been told I have too many capital letters in my writings about God. Apparently this does not make for easy reading.
I don't care.
I'm still in Sister's camp.
The Congregation of Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena of King William's Town
With thanks to kwtdominicans.org
Image 'The Cross of Christ' courtesy of Freepik with CN Whittle
No comments:
Post a Comment