Transitioning to Mount Carmel Bluffs

Being Transformed by Love

The move to Mount Carmel Bluffs (MCB) in Dubuque, Iowa, has drawn us without detour straight to the heart of BVM. Raw and aching, open and alive with possibility, this transition is reaching into and transforming our love.

Feelings well up, rising to visibility in scenes from the heart:

• BVMs, who have not seen one another for years, simultaneously jump up from their places in the dining room and into an enduring embrace.
• A BVM sister and associate meeting for the first time find a quiet place and enjoy the emergence of a newfound relationship.
• A sister alone in the chapel, tears filling her eyes, confides to a solicitous other: “This is all so new, so big, so strange; I don’t know who to be anymore.”
• A circle of BVMs in animated dialogue about creating community among BVMs and with lay residents energize one another with imagination and initiative.
• Startled faces signal moments of being caught off-guard by our vulnerability and by the beauty shining forth in us from the inside out.
• A resident gazes out her apartment window and whispers in awe, “How blessed I am; I am home.”
• A group lingers into the night as newcomers mourn what they left behind: good friends, family, a significant ministry; the collective tenderness is palpable.
• Conversations disclose a communal disquiet as the  pain of privilege invades our abundance and draws us close to the poor, the homeless, and the hungry.
• MCB residents walk through the Motherhouse with a ready question: “What did this used to be?” In reply, a soft response: “It’s time to make new memories.”
• The move into MCB is not just a move into large buildings; it is a movement into a larger love.
  The heart of BVM beats with irrevocable joy.

This story was featured in:

SUMMER 2023: Home: Where Love Resides

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