ALL SOULS DAY

Why We Remember…

Photo: Mercedes Bosquet

Today within the Catholic tradition and many other Christian traditions we remember those we have known who are not longer with us as we continue this journey.  In the Catholic Tradition we call this All Souls Day. And we often speak of them as being in the Communion of Saints.  The reflection below is adapted from Doris Klein, an artist and member of the Sisters of St. Agnes.  She writes:

“As we stand on the edge of this sacred journey, the layers of memories and stories [of those we have known and loved] become our teachers.  We wear a coat of many colours, woven of our days and nights of living and loving.” 

Those who are no longer with us have taught us in so many ways how to live and love and have added to the colours of our coat.  They offered us gifts of faith, trust, and courage, which are intertwined with our doubts and fears as we stand between what we have known and what is yet to be.  Today we remember each of them. Their faith gives us courage to continue.  They are our guides and mentors as we breathe into the centre of our being and touch the Wisdom of God offered us though their example and reaching our hearts.  For each of them, we give thanks.

-Sister Joan Atkinson, CSJ

Prayer of the Heart - Christian Meditation

PART II IN A SERIES ON MEDITATION and FAITH

We learned in the last blog that we are born meditators: contemplative prayer, meditation, is found in some form in every major world religion.

Christian Meditation is a tradition introduced by the mothers and fathers of the desert in the 3rd and 4th century and reintroduced to the western world by Father John Main in 1974. The word meditation and its connection with the Latin -  sto in medio, ‘I stand in the center’ indeed means learning to live out of your center. Your center is the place deep inside where God, Supreme Being, Creator, resides - bringing life, beauty, and truth.

When we pray we use the mind and the heart. Most of our training in prayer, however, is limited to the mind which thinks, questions, plans, worries, fantasies.  The heart is what knows – it loves.

We were taught as children to say our prayers; praying was talking to God about needs, desires, wants, ours or others.  But this is only half of the mystery of prayer. When we pray from the heart we are not thinking of God or talking to God or asking for anything.  We are simply being with God who lives in us as the Holy Spirit, the gift of the risen Christ - John 16:7.   It is in the silence of meditation we come to self-knowledge and self-acceptance in God which is a very different kind of knowledge than that which comes to us from other sources. 

Christian Meditation is utter simplicity; it is an act of faith. In meditation we turn the spotlight of consciousness off ourselves. The ego of course doesn’t like being suppressed or controlled.  This is achieved by saying a prayer word or mantra continuously from the beginning of the prayer time to the end.

Practice 

• Choose a time and place.

• Honour the time faithfully even though you think you are not getting anything out of it. 

• Sit comfortably with your back in the upright position.

• Feet on the floor.

• Eyes lightly closed.

• Hands resting comfortably on your lap.                                             

• Be aware of your breath  and start saying your mantra, prayer word.

A recommended mantra is maranatha, Come Lord Jesus.  It is Aramaic the language Jesus spoke. 

Say it in 4 distinct syllables in sync with your breath – ma ra na tha.  At first it feels awkward but persevere. For further information check out the World Christian Meditation link at  www.wccm.org

Stay tuned.

-Sister Ann Marshall, csj

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Sister Ann Marshall works on Christian Meditation in the classroom, in partnership with teachers in the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board.            

Reference: Christian Meditation by Laurence Freeman, OSB | NOVALIS

For the Sake of Others

Every year on the 4th Sunday of October, we are invited by the Church community to celebrate Mission Sunday, a day that we focus on the Call to Mission that each of us has received through our Baptism.

Growing up I thought that folks called to do mission work in other countries were rather special in the eyes of the world.  It wasn’t until I had my own lived experience with Scarboro Missions working in the Diocese of Mzuzu in Malawi that I looked at my experience in another country with different eyes.

Sister Ann in Malawi with former students

I was not special in responding to this call at all…I was blessed and graced to live among the people of Mzuzu offering my gifts to serve wherever I was needed.  It was I who was transformed and renewed in spirit leaving behind my preconceived notion that I came to change the people I had been called to serve - after all, I was the missionary!  

Sister Ann, left, with Sister Veronica and MIC postulants

Living in Malawi, I became sensitized to new themes of Christianity and certainly experienced a reverse culture shock and alienation from my own culture when I returned to Canada after 8 years away.  Like other returned missionaries I faced into choosing between a couple of possibilities.  I could settle back into old ways of consumerism and of exercising domination over others or I could channel that feeling of alienation to identify with people in our country who look different, who speak a different language, who experience racism every day.  A quote from an author, Cyril Powles has been an inspiration for me since my return from Africa.  It reads: “One goes overseas so as to come back – to come back as an activist, a marginal person and a perpetual sojourner.”  While I would not claim that I am fully living this invitation as I would like to, I continue to be reminded each day that it is impossible for me to unbecome what I learned and lived from my living with and among the people of Mzuzu Diocese for 7 years. 

The invitation to be a missionary is a personal call to get involved here in our own country in some of the many issues facing us as a Nation.  We read daily in our papers and online about addressing with others the impact of climate change;  about refugees fleeing their country of origin coming to live in a safer country; about offering support to our Indigenous brothers and sisters; about accompaniment with the hungry and homeless who perhaps live in our neighborhoods. 

“Listening to God, to the universe, and to the world’s pulse, we trust whole making energies are released in ourselves as we use our skills, experience and knowledge to become a missionary in our own country and in the communities where we live.”

-Sister Ann MacDonald, csj