Joyce Rupp is one of my all-time favorite spiritual guides: she’s a wonderful mix of wise, calm, and challenging. And her insights on aging have been of enormous help in my own life. … Let her new book help you to do it with grace, courage, humor — and joy!
— James Martin, S.J.
Last year Sister Joyce Rupp published Vessels of Love: Prayers and Poems for the Later Years of Life. She has followed with a companion volume, The Years of Ripening: Reflections on Aging in the Later Years. These reflections focus on personal transformation, the wonder and goodness of our hidden self, how the qualities of our personhood have been expressed, and in what ways we can claim ever more of the truest reality of our inner being.
As old age takes place, Rupp writes, “our physical being naturally weakens and wrinkles. At the same time, our non-physical being smooths out with a peaceful satisfaction. The tight ridges of past failures recede and dark illusions fade as we increasingly trust our life to be a harmonious song rooted in love. This encourages us to shed our self-willed, false control until we become freed from what binds our spirit. We let go of who we imagined ourself to be and grow in a transparency that reveals our seasoned-with-love self.”
The evocative chapter titles give some suggestion of the contents: A Time to Ripen; Anxiety and Uncertainty; The Gifts of Elderhood; Loss; Grief and Healing; Gratitude; Physical Decline; Death; Hope and Purpose; Identity; A Spiritual Transformation; and Serenity, which concludes with the reflection, Love is What Counts.
Rupp doesn’t shrink from the adversities and diminishment that come with aging. But she is especially sensitive to opportunities. “Throughout our past, we seeded and grew our positive qualities. Now, in old age, we complete what still needs maturation, while rejoicing over the sweet taste of what has already been gathered into the harvest. We have the graced time and spacious presence to reflect, integrate, and bring to wholeness the significant features of our individual transformation that were previously set aside or not given enough attention …
“Best of all, the older we become, the more opportunities we have to develop the full potential of our goodness. Because of our less hurried life, the roots of selfless love have the space to grow stronger and the fruits of that love can ripen into the fullest, juiciest flavors. Like other aged persons, I desire to strengthen this part of my being, to allow my inherent virtues to develop further. I do not want to miss a single piece of this precious life while trusting I can positively affect others by being a compassionate presence.”
And, as she notes, “All is not ended with our final departure. We leave behind the beauty and bounty that resided within our aged selves. Like a ripened melon on the vine, so the matured fruit of our loving heart and weathered wisdom leaves a beneficial legacy to nurture a future generation.”
These are reflections that will guide people of any age to ponder the deep meaning and blessedness of life. Sister Kathleen Deignan writes, “In the full maturing of her own gift of soul-care for so many, Joyce Rupp now accompanies and supports us with her ‘weathered wisdom’ to brave our fields ready for harvest, to taste at last the fruit of a spirit ripened by transformation and readied for transition.”
Robert Ellsberg is the publisher of Maryknoll’s Orbis Books.
