Crashing in The Darkness

Waves, picture by Sr Donna Smith, 2021

Have you ever sat and just listened to waves lapping against the shoreline? “Yes”, what about on a very cold winter’s night and the water is meeting the ice cap that has formed along the shoreline? Imagine the sound of geese off to the west and a distant train echoing through town, but what I hear the most is the unique sound of water splashing over the ice along the banks of Lake Ontario.

It is like an unfolding roll of thunder, not an unpleasant noise, but a sound that is intriguing and mysterious to listen to. It is quiet then suddenly a wave hits the ice cap, sprays over it, and ebbs back into the lake. Isn’t that how our mind works some days? Our minds are quiet then without prelude we are awash with a flood of thoughts and emotions disquieting our stillness, awakening us from our darkness, or maybe even bringing the darkness with it.

How do we cope with this intrusion in our minds? Do we accept it and carry on or do we meander over each new thought and emotion? Each time we experience this differently, but we must never let these moments overwhelm us. We are invited to sift out what is good and carry that forward, perhaps especially these days of isolation. It is in these moments that God speaks to us if we are truly listening with the heart. It is in this darkness that we may crash about but we are never if open, beaten. Rather, in these moments we are offered opportunities to draw us closer to what really matters in life: our families, our friends, our contacts, but most of all the beauty of creation, faith, and values of God.

So, let’s take the time and listen to the darkness and what is crashing about, we will never know what God wants us to hear when we cannot see it in the light of day.

 - Sister Donna Smith, CSJ | Feb 17, 2021 Cobourg, Ontario

Transfiguration Continued

The second Sunday of Lent provides us with this well-known Transfiguration Gospel.

“Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them to a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white such as no one on earth could bleach them.” (Mark 9)

Rocky Mountains, Jasper

Mountains, in our Scriptures, are usually considered holy places where suddenly the Sacred seems to embrace us and God is revealed in a special way. I love mountains! I’ve marveled at them since I was a small child and we were all piled into our car and driven to visit my Grandfather Baker. We had to travel through the Rocky Mountains in Jasper to get there, and always, at first sight, it would literally take my breath away. With my nose pressed to the back seat window, I would gaze at each one with wonder and awe. Years later, when I was stationed in Burns Lake, BC. I had the incredible opportunity to ride in a helicopter to the top of a mountain, and we were allowed to get out and gaze at the spectacular sight surrounding us. We were at the top—everything else was below us. It seemed I could not only touch the sky but, “put out my hand and touch the face of God”, as so famously expressed in J.B. Magee’s poem, High Flight.

In an article entitled “Whole Earth Transfiguration”, put out by the Deep Green Church, the authors suggest that in this day of new realities, perhaps there is a new mountain view—another place of sacredness— one that is much, much higher than the mountains we know, or of which Peter, James, and John could never have dreamed.

Astronaut photograph AS17-148-22727 courtesy NASA Johnson Space Center Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth

They describe a view of the Earth, a picture taken in 1972. This picture is unique because it is the only time the camera ever caught the sun directly behind the Moon-Lander and so it spectacularly illuminates the Earth, giving us a view never before seen by humanity. It was transfigured! Maybe today, our mountaintop is space. What would God want to reveal to us today with this Transfiguration of the Earth? https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/1133/the-blue-marble-from-apollo-17 (NASA.gov)

This article then acknowledges the work of Elizabeth Johnson CSJ in providing three practices that might be helpful as we come to grips with our new perspective:

1) “Practices of worship and reverence (in order to understand the sacredness of all things)

2) Practices of holiness and right living (in order to live a sacred life)

3) Practices of justice and right relationships (in order to enable sacredness for others.)”

Our proposed Directional Statement “Moving with Love”, is probably quite significant as we touch our long-held charism of “The Congregation of the Great Love of God”. Perhaps the 1972 photo of our illuminated, transfigured earth is showing us just how inclusive and diverse that would be.

-Sister Irene Baker, csj

The UnReal Reality

During the years of my hospital chaplaincy, I frequently wondered which is more difficult to bear, a physical or a mental illness.  As distortions of reality are common symptoms of many psychiatric conditions, whenever I engaged with patients struggling with mental illness, it was challenging to grasp what their perception of reality was.  While I respected and acknowledged what they considered to be real, it was vital to get some sense of what was real and what was distorted due to their illness.  

Even for those of us not suffering from any psychiatric condition, it can be a challenge to face situations where it can be difficult to differentiate between what is real and what is not.  We are all familiar, with ‘fake news’ à la Trump.  Ad nauseam on social media and elsewhere these days we have been inundated with false information leaving us unsure about what is or is not real. Take advertising of cosmetics, for instance.  In a variety of different ways, both subtle and not so subtle, we are plied with gimmicks about the magical properties of cosmetics.  More than ever before, our world is rife with distorted realities, virtual realities, photoshopped realities, to just name a few. 

Yes, of course, we all know distorted or false perceptions of reality have always been part of the human condition. Just think how often we not only tell ourselves lies but also know from experience that we see things as we are not as they are.  At times, we choose to see things through rose coloured glasses, as perhaps we might do when we speak about someone in a eulogy highlighting all the good of the deceased, creating an incomplete picture of that person. At other times, we might speak unkindly about someone’s faults or weaknesses, failing to paint the full, true picture of who that person is.

“we see things as we are, not as they are”

If we own that even under normal circumstances our perceptions of reality can be distorted, just think of the impact this almost yearlong pandemic has had on our perception of reality.  We keep talking about this new reality of our lived experience permeating our entire world.  So, what is this real new reality?  Naturally, the way you see it is not the same as I see it, for we see things as we are, not as they are. For people everywhere, during this pandemic, the world feels bleaker.  Though so many of us are tired of the miserable drudgery of unchanging days and restless nights, for us in the northern hemisphere midwinter adds to the bleakness of our days. In other parts of the world where folks enjoy the warmth and sunshine of midsummer, things may possibly not look quite as bleak. 

““What we do see depends mainly on what we look for.”
John Lubbock”

That things beyond our control hugely impact our lives, is a given. However, as we know, we still have a choice in how we view even those things beyond our control.  Though I am tempted to borrow Shakespeare’s phrase to dub my situation as ‘the winter of my discontent’ (or should that read the year of my discontent) might there be another way of looking at it? No, not through rose coloured glasses but rather with a mindset that prompts me to remember that “What we do see depends mainly on what we look for.” (John Lubbock) Granted, that is easier said than done, especially during these days of the pandemic that can dredge up all sorts of negative thoughts that blind us to what is real. 

Our minds can play tricks on us, as can our feelings and it is helpful to remind ourselves during these trying times of distorted realities, not to believe everything our minds and feelings tell us.  I have a fondness for A. A. Milne’s character Eeyore with his low mood, distaste for social situations, and not being in the best frame of mind much of the time.  He tends to show a distrust for others always expecting the worst out of people and situations. Does his personality perhaps reflect how we feel off and on during this pandemic?  I certainly have had my moments of such a distorted view of life during this pandemic.  In moments like these, it can feel as if an emotional contra-band sneaks into one’s mind, threatening to take over. The million-dollar question is, how do we extract ourselves from the clutches of these false perceptions? During these difficult times, when we at times fail to see reality for what it really is, there may not be an easy, instant remedy. With grace, patience, and the loving support of a beloved soul friend, however, we can restore our inner equilibrium and vision to help us see more clearly.

True, in our lifetime we will never have a perfect, unbiased vision of reality.  Since we bring our personality, our history, our life experience to all the situations we encounter, they colour the perception of everything we perceive. We can only hope that, as St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Now that which we see is as if we were looking in a broken mirror. But then we will see everything. Now I know only a part. But then I will know everything in a perfect way.” (1 Cor. 13:12) For now, however, let us hold onto the promise in John's prologue that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not overwhelm it.  That is a promise we all need to see fulfilled.

-Sister Magdalena Vogt, cps