“Prized and precious” – that’s how a friend recently described me. Wow! I guess I never really thought about myself in quite those terms. But, you know, she’s right. We – each one of us – are truly prized and precious in the eyes of God. Not because of what we do, how ‘holy’ we are (or aren’t, as the case may be), not for anything we do or say – or don’t do or don’t say. But precisely because we are made in the image and likeness of God. In other words, we are prized and precious in God’s eyes, simply for the fact that we ‘are’ – just for being. Even the Psalmist knew this truth, for in Psalm 8 we read, “What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals—that you care for them?—Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor” (verses 4-5).
So remember, you are prized and precious! Let us join our voices with that of the psalmist who in Psalm 139 prays, “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (verse 14).
Sister Kathleen Del Monte
Kathleen Del Monte is a novice at St. Scholastica Monastery in Duluth, Minnesota. Originally from New York, she worked as a policy analyst for a state legislature before getting that all important ‘call’ from God (God can, indeed, be persistent!). So in August, 2011, she knocked and the Sisters opened the door to her becoming an affiliate. On July 15, 2012, she became a postulant. On August 22, 2013, the Sisters ceremonially accepted her into the Community as a Novice and she is now Sister Kathleen.
See all of Sister Kathleen’s blogs