If you are going to make it through the birth canal, baby girl, you need to change your direction. I hate to tell you this, but you are going the wrong way! Your twin sister has already left the womb. She was positioned headfirst and made it out with no problems. Since you are positioned feet first, you have a more complicated assignment. Don’t panic! I made you resilient and adaptable. Help is on the way. A female doctor with small hands is reaching in as we speak. Her gentle touch is encouraging you to make a somersault and head out in the right direction. Ah! There you go! You did it! Welcome to the world!

As you may have guessed, I was a breech birth — born one hour after my twin sister. Back in the 1950s, breech births were a threat to the life of both the baby and the mother. So, first of all, I feel blessed to be alive. The story of my birth, however, speaks an urgent message: new life demands necessary change! Hard fought effort on our part is required. God takes the lead and shows us the way. 

Here is where discernment steps in. We need to decide when change is a good thing. Change for change’s sake, chasing every new experience for the excitement and pleasure of novelty, or running away from healthy commitments do not equal healthy, life-giving change in our lives. If God is calling us to make a change for the better, it is usually because we are beginning to experience a failure to thrive in some important area of our lives. Like me in the womb; I had to make a change in order to experience new life.

Are you heeding the call to healthy change in your life? Do you believe you can make the necessary changes with the help of God and others? 

Blessings,
Sister Sara

"matty 7m" by Phillippe Put | Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)

Have you ever thought of yourself as a mother of God? We tend more to speak of ourselves as brothers and sisters of Jesus, and children of God. But Jesus even said, “For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3:35). The famous Dominican Mystic, Meister Eckhart, said, “We are all meant to be mothers of God, for God is always needing to be born.”

This question can give a different perspective on discernment. How am I called to give birth to God in the little acts I do this day? Every interaction we have, the way we treat people we encounter at the store, on the road, in our homes – all of these can help give birth to God in our midst, or not. 

The question really fits well when we are discerning the larger life choices: Will this job help me to bring God to birth in our city, our neighborhood? Is the relationship I am in witnessing to God’s love in the world and helping to share that love? Is the path I am on for my life the way I can best give birth to God with my life?

Take a look at your life this day and ask yourself how you are helping God to be born.

Blessings,
Sister Lorraine