mguste
The Blessing of Family
On Sunday, Catholics celebrated the "Feast of the Holy Family," appropriately positioned in the liturgical calendar on the Sunday following Christmas. Along with the many opportunities to share time with my family over the holidays, the feast day awakened special memories of growing up in my family of 10 children, 6 girls and 4 boys. In the Guste household, Monday evenings were scripted in a three-step ritual that included the praying of 5 decades of the Rosary, a family meal followed by a family meeting. The Rosary was a time for our family to pray together, but it was also a [...]
Christmas wishes
In a few short days, we celebrate Christ’s coming into the world. Our Advent journey comes to an end through the crescendo of our children’s voices raised in song at our ASH Christmas concerts. We hear their sounds of anticipation, excitement and of innocent joy. The Christmas angel announces the Christ child with expectancy and hope in their smiling faces. With the lyrics of one of my favorite nontraditional Christmas melodies, “Take a Walk through Bethlehem,” I pray your journey of faith, hope and love leads you and your family to the newborn king in a very special way. Have [...]
My Journey on the Road Less Travelled
Religious life is not for everyone. In fact, it is a very special way of life that has always been something for only a relatively select group of people. Never in history has religious life been a popular thing—something that attracted the crowd, or that crowd-pleasers have chosen to do. Usually, people in religious life do not care much for what the crowd, group, or gang is doing. They tend to follow their hearts on “the road less travelled” and to walk on a path that is less defined by what they want to do, and more defined by what [...]
Remembering our Roots in South Louisiana
If you drive North on River Road toward Baton Rouge, about midway you will travel through a small town called Convent, LA. Located on a big bend in the Mississippi River, this town was named after a convent of the Religious of the Sacred Heart that once existed there. Mail carriers on boats traveling up and down the Mississippi would throw the mail off of the boat onto the levee and call out, "Convent!" The name stuck to this day. The Religious of the Sacred Heart had a school in Convent, LA, called the Academy of the Sacred Heart, or, simply [...]
Hurricane Katrina: Ten years later
These are the reflections I shared during our Prayer Service at the Rosary on the eve of Hurricane Katrina. For those of us that endured Hurricane Katrina, we remember it very well. It was a storm that brought much suffering to many people. Many people lost their lives and families separated and scattered to far off places. Homes and treasured possessions were lost forever in the waters that poured over our broken down levees. On the eve of the anniversary of Katrina, yes, we remember those times of darkness--that time when the clouds covered the sky and the torrents of [...]
