Editor's Note: This letter is a response to Mary O'Brien's "Let's Talk" Active Minds submission in The Beacon's December 4th issue.
Dear Mary,
I just finished reading your article in the Beacon, and I am in tears. You have reminded me, again, that I never know the reality that my students are living, and when I face a class, I face a collection of unique, individual, unfathomable mysteries. I need to prepare myself everyday to encounter those mysteries in reverence and awe.
You have done a brave thing, a courageous thing, a thing the majority of humans shy away from: You have put your vulnerability on display, and demonstrated its power. (No one who has had me in class can forget---I hope!---Edward Schillebeeckx's maxim: In Jesus on the cross, we encounter the superior power of the defenseless vulnerability of God.)
You know the cross. And your courage in writing this article reveals you know the resurrection…incrementally! With the grace of God, keep on keeping on!
In the hope and grace of this season of Advent,
Dr. McManus (Sr. Kathleen)
