Late in life I was surprised by M.U.S.E.U.M. Our six children were all grown when my late husband, Rollin, died in 2008. Life, as I had known it for nearly half a century, was over; my first vocation to sacramental marriage and child rearing was at an end. Five years later in 2013, to my amazement, God sent a secondary vocation, which overshadowed me when I met the Society of Christian Doctrine.
This meeting culminated on 13 July 2025, in a modest ceremony at the Preca Cottage, where I became an SDC associate; an aged and unworthy associate, but a grateful one! This lovely event ratified a vocation-within-a-vocation and confirmed two realities that have been growing silently within me for years (my mind is set, my heart convinced). First, St George Preca is among first ranks of the greatest saints who have ever lived; second, the SDC spirituality and lifestyle of the SDC members points toward a unique Gospel way, both ancient and new, that is open to all people, everywhere: “…the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14).
Now that I’m an associate, greater society is more significant; I am no longer alone in discipleship and ministry! In this secondary vocation, it is always a comfort to remember that God is at work within each Member and Associate, whether met or unmet, and that we pray in unity. We also carry one another’s burdens, in the mysterious exchange of Christ’s love.
A unique quality of the SDC lifestyle that surprised me is forbearance, patience reigns. So long as the intention is good in an undertaking, neither success nor failure matters; both are part of God’s providence. Instead of my being “thrown under the bus” because of human mistakes, misunderstandings, or weakness, the SDC reminds me to seek opportunities to grow in truth and to learn. I have found that nothing is lost or wasted in God. No matter what the outcome, the essential thing is Jesus’s unchanging commission to all: remain in my love. I am humbly grateful to be in fellowship within a ministry that is itself a sign of humble contradiction in suffering and sweetness; all creation becomes beautiful in His own time.
I recall Thomas Merton’s vision at “Fourth and Walnut” when he saw God’s glory shining through people walking about the streets of Louisville, Kentucky: “… I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers.” Similarly, the 13th century Italian poet, Dante Alighieri, wrote (La Vita Nuova) “… and if one should then have questioned me concerning any matter whatsoever, I could only have said unto him ‘Love,’ with a countenance clothed in humility.”
Indeed, how amiable is your dwelling place, Lord God of Hosts, where Jesus lives among His friends hidden in the Divine Wounds and longing for the Kingdom of God within us and the prosperity and peace of Jerusalem among us.
Ruth D. Lasseter
SDC Associate
Indiana, USA
