“When he was a long way off, the father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out and embraced him and kissed him.” (Luke 15:20)

Back in April I was lucky enough to participate in the alumnae retreat lead by Sr. Maureen Fitzgerald (ASCJ, ‘70). Before she sent us off for silent reflection, Sr. Mo had shown us a modern-day short film adaptation of the Prodigal Son parable (Prodigal Son: A Father’s Love). The prodigal son is a story I have heard countless times in my 17 years of Catholic education, yet never really felt the personal significance of until that day— just by returning to my Alma mater. 

While walking the halls of Cor Jesu while on retreat, I had a completely visceral experience. I just started crying. I was not sad—I felt nostalgic and warm. It was the old familiar feeling of God’s unconditional love, which felt like coming home to a part of me that I had been tucking away due to the busyness of life. While I was a CJA student, I had been so sure of my relationship with God, which I experienced as a reciprocal relationship similar to parent and child. It was comforting to me and always present.

As I got older, my relationship with God was far more distant than I ever planned for it to be. Christ’s example of love and light has always guided my life: how I try to treat my family and friends, how I interact with my patients in my job as a nurse, how I vote. However, my tending to the relationship with Him had all but ceased. Going to church was mostly just on Christmas and Easter, praying was mostly just when I needed something or a quick “thank you.” 

Walking the CJA halls that day, I felt like the Prodigal Son (*Daughter) receiving a warm embrace of unconditional love from God. This embrace served as a reminder that he has been there all along yearning for that relationship again.

After this retreat at Cor Jesu, I have a renewed love of the Heart of Christ that I feel moved to share most especially with my own kids. I want to help them nourish and tend to a relationship with a Christ that is personal and loving. My oldest son started kindergarten last week. I want to help him and my other boys know God on a personal level. I want them to know that God goes beyond the parables and traditions we learn at school and church, and can be an ever-loving and forgiving parental being. I want to show them that God will always be there to embrace them, even when they wander off.

Have you ever felt like the Prodigal Daughter? What can you do to tend to that once-distant relationship with God?

Abby Mueller West '08