Moving Together

Good Shepherd Sunday and the World Day of Prayer for Vocations

Together, this week we have celebrated the election of a new Pope, Leo XIV and we have continued to give thanks for the life of Pope Francis, his predecessor. Both have something to say to us regarding Sunday’s celebration of the World Day of Prayer for Vocations held on Good Shepherd Sunday.

Written just before his death, Pope Francis wrote his Message for the 62nd World Day of Prayer for Vocations in which he reiterates that each and every one of us is called in a particular way through the God who is Love to live lives of love. He wrote: “A vocation is a precious gift that God sows in our heart, a call to leave ourselves behind and embark on a journey of love and service. Every vocation within the Church, whether lay, ordained or consecrated, is a sign of hope that God has given for this world”

““move forward, without fear, together, hand in hand with God and with one another! We are followers of Christ. Christ goes before us.””

— Pope Leo XIV

In his first public words, Pope Leo speaks of that same universal call, from “the God who loves us all unconditionally.” He reminds us to “move forward, without fear, together, hand in hand with God and with one another! We are followers of Christ. Christ goes before us.” The Christ who goes before us is the Good Shepherd who gives his life for each one of us. It is precisely from such self-giving love that we are chosen, called and affirmed in life and in our faith and service.  

As we go forward in hope and in the integrity of our vocations we strengthen one another. Each vocation faithfully lived out becomes gift in helping us hear God’s call anew each day, we become witnesses to one another, a revelation of fidelity in the whole mosaic of God’s design – each, a part of the whole. Pope Francis left us a reminder that “a vocation is never a treasure stored away in the heart; rather it grows and is strengthened within a community that believes, loves and hopes. No one can respond to God’s call alone, for all of us need the prayers and support of our brothers and sisters.”

So, today, on the World Day of Prayer for Vocations – first instituted in the Church in 1964, we pray for one another for our fidelity to that way of life to which Love calls us.  We also remember, in a special way, to pray for an increase in vocations to religious life and priesthood. We pray that the Good Shepherd will seek out many who will respond with joy to God’s call in a world hungry for hope.

-Sister Mary Rowell, CSJ

Image: Jaka Škrlep/Anna Church/ Unsplash

The Hope of Easter Monday

As far as holidays go, Easter Monday in Canada is a bit “hit or miss”! The Federal Government lists it as a statutory holiday and some provinces and territories keep it as such, others don’t or it is left to the discretion of employers. When I immigrated to Canada from the U.K. I must confess this was a big surprise and disappointment especially when studying theology at the University of Toronto I found myself having to take exams on Easter Monday! I had been used to Easter Monday as a day of joyful relaxation, of sharing happiness with all. In many countries it is a day marked by festivities with families and friends, a time to take trips, enjoy meals together and, from a Christian perspective, a time for continuation of Easter celebration. 

Once I had recovered from my Easter Monday nostalgia I began to think of the day anew. At the very heart of Easter Monday is the hope-filled news of resurrection – new life and promise as Springtime too unfolds with its gifts. It isn’t simply a continuation of Easter celebrations. Rather, Easter Monday reminds us to move forward in hope. It is a day to celebrate faith and self-giving love, a time for reflection on the promise of life given us in Christ and in the seasons celebrated more widely by all. Easter Monday provides us with a gateway into the long Easter season of joy as we contemplate the transformative potential given in faith in the Paschal Mystery. Even in hard, dead times the memory and rebirth of hope to be rekindled is ever-present. The whole Easter season sends out an invitation to reach toward others, especially those who may be struggling with disillusionment, grief, anxiety and to the decimated Earth. A good question to ask of ourselves is “what difference does resurrection make in my life and in my care for others and in my world perspective”? Perhaps we can say, “it makes all the difference in the world!”  

In a beautiful, albeit sad, poem called, “Easter Monday”, written by poet, Eleanor Farjeon in memory of her friend, Edward Thomas who was killed on Easter Monday, 1917 on a battlefield in France during World War 1, we catch glimpses of still-existent hope. We read of promise beyond the present moment, a restoration of life even in death, resurrection in harsh reality and loss.  The poem reflects a sudden and extreme grief but also echoes magnificently in the final verse, the consolation of the Divine in its images of Easter and the new life of Spring: 

That Easter Monday was a day for praise, 
It was such a lovely morning. 
In our garden we sowed our earliest seeds, 
and in the orchard, the apple bud was ripe.  

May this easter Monday bring seeds of hope and new life to all.  

-Sister Mary Rowell, csj

Images: Unsplash Tim Gouw

Ash Wednesday in Two Words

If there are two words that perhaps best describe the intent of Ash Wednesday and of the Lenten season that follows, those words are found in the Scripture assigned to the day.  In the second reading in the liturgy for Ash Wednesday (2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2) we read “be reconciled to God”  .. in the present moment “for now is the acceptable time” (and what a hard time we are facing in the world just now; a time when our Lenten commitments find added importance).

What might the words, “be reconciled” mean as, once again, we are called to move into the season of Lent? What might they mean as we hope to sustain our Lenten commitments beyond the designated season in ways that impact our living for the life of God’s world?

Reconciliation, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is to “restore friendly relationships”. To deepen, strengthen or to restore relationships, is then, at the very heart of living Lent and indeed life more widely. As I begin Lent, I might ask myself how is my relationship with God, with self, with other humans and with all of creation of which I am a part? How am I called to repent of broken relationships? How do I need to become more deeply a person of relationship and reconciliation? What do I need to do so as form or deepen relationships of love and respect?

These questions go far beyond the three traditional practices of Lent, the call to prayer, fasting and almsgiving (charity toward the neighbour) and yet the traditional practices remain significant as a means toward the restoration or deepening of right relationships.  Lenten practices are never ends in themselves. They are always God-and other-directed!  They help us creatively mend and build relationship with God, other humans and all of creation. It is only in relationship that they find meaning.

In Lent we remind ourselves anew of the Pascal Mystery and Jesus’ journey to the cross and to resurrection not because God wills suffering but because in the face of injustice and cruelty Christ commits to an ultimate act of reconciliation and an act of hope. In so doing he calls us to follow Him, to repair relationships that cause pain, separation and destruction. He opens for us a way by reminding us how deeply we are loved, even in our vulnerabilities and frailties; loved in order that we may love in turn. In Lent we walk with Him and he walks with us in the joys and turmoil of our lives.

So, this Lent and especially in our current, violent, broken world may we be “reconciled” and become reconcilers like Christ, menders of breaches, bearers of hope!  

-Sister Mary Rowell, CSJ

Image: Ahna Ziegler/Unsplash

If You're Happy and You Know It...

“If You’re Happy and you Know it Clap Your Hands!”
World Happiness Day

Most of us are familiar with the children’s song that begins, “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands”! International World Happiness Day – and there really is such a day - invites us to do just that, to celebrate happiness and to strive to create happiness across the world and locally where our own feet are!

International World Happiness Day, established by the United Nations in 2013, is celebrated each March 20th. The intent of the day is a reminder of the importance of happiness in the lives of people around the world. It is a day to highlight happiness as a universal human goal and is closely associated with the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals which seek to end human poverty, to reduce inequality and to protect the planet.

The past 3 years have been hard and discouraging for many. Yet, the World Happiness Report, 2022 reminds us that despite such dark times there are also many current examples of profound human kindness and increased social support on which we are invited to reflect .[1]

Attitudes also count in significant ways. It is no coincidence that with the release of the World Happiness Report each year, the Nordic countries surpass all others. “Why”? There are obvious factors such as the smallness of each of these nations but there is also more. Whether democracy, political rights, social networks, fair distribution of resources, gender equality, and other such factors are considered, the Nordic countries are always found at the top of the happiness lists!

In a business report, Fanny Aberg, of the executive company “Nordic Minds” says, in the Nordic countries, “family always comes first”. It is primarily a question of work/life balance. She continues “working hours are based on when you want to spend time with your family. It’s perfectly normal to turn off your computer at 4pm and pick up the children from daycare, spend the afternoon with them and eat dinner together.” Life in the workplace is marked by listening to all employees and informality and ambience matters in the workplace. Meetings include the Swedish tradition of “fika”; the sharing of coffee and pastries as friends.[2] Linked to this is the Scandinavian “Hygge (pronounced hooga) lifestyle. Hygge, is translated as “a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality”.[3] Home life is enjoyed, dressed down in comfortable clothes, enjoying conversation and warmth together and eating comfort food. Perhaps we have much to learn from these countries! Happiness in Scandinavia is likely to be defined by a sense of simple contentment.

So, let’s celebrate this World Happiness Day – reflecting on our lifestyles, being grateful for and sharing our blessings with others. Let’s reach out to someone on this day to bring happiness to their life.

-Sister Mary Rowell, CSJ

[1] World Happiness Report, 2022 see: worldhappinessreport/ed/2022

[2] See:www.businessinsider.com/world-happiness-report-nordic-countries-why-work-culture-lifestyle;better-2022-4

[3] Merriam Webster Dictionary

Christmas Eve: The Long Night

Christmas Eve, in the experience of many, is of a night of exquisite expectation, of fulfillment of the pregnant waiting of Advent and new life coming into being. It is a time of searching hope in the darkness even when darkness threatens to overwhelm us. We seek in the silent night sky, a star of promise.

At an everyday level we gather to begin a celebration. We prepare treats to share. Our excited children can hardly wait at all, creating mayhem and resisting sleep, just in case they miss Santa’s visit to place gifts under the tree! In Christian families a young child may also have a special role focused on the very meaning of Christmas. In my family living in the United States the youngest child, able to read, waits expectantly to be called on to recite the Christmas story from the old family Bible and then to place the baby Jesus into the waiting creche.

Christmas is, of course, a celebration of the birth of Christ so long ago. But it is also much more! Our celebration cannot be reduced simply to a sentimental re-enactment of that familiar scene, lovely though it is. For the very heart of the Christmas story is the vivid narrative of universal incarnation – God with us, God in all things, for time and for eternity. Christmas is, above all, a celebration of Divine Presence in all lives, in all events and in every element of matter – an ancient understanding.

A powerful image of this understanding of incarnation, is found in the Carmina Gadelica, a beautiful compendium of ancient Gaelic prayers and poems collected from the Hebridean Islands by folklorist, Alexander Carmichael.

In a Christmas carol entitled “the Nativity” found in that text we read that on Christmas Eve … in “the long night, Glowed to Him wood and tree, Glowed to Him mount and sea, Glowed to Him land and plain, When that His foot was come to Earth.”

The carol speaks of the light of Christ’s birth penetrating all and reflected in the entirety of God’s creation. Later, these words find more contemporary utterance in the writings of Teilhard de Chardin, Jesuit priest and paleontologist (1881-1955), as he exclaims,

“The Incarnation is a making new, a restoration, of all the universe’s forces and powers; Christ is the Instrument, the Centre, the End, of the whole of animate and material creation; through Him, everything is created, sanctified and vivified (The Phenomenon of Man).

This is what we celebrate at Christmas along with our more traditional practices. Truly it is a celebration, a joyful one but also one that de Chardin says, invites us into its deep mysterious significance not just for Christmas but for all of life in Christ. As we read in 2 Corinthians 5: 17, “if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation, everything old has passed away; see everything has become new.” This is the birthing of Christ in our hearts and world as we celebrate Christmas Eve. In the “long night” we are to birth Christ in the world anew.

This year, the “long night” of Christmas is a seemingly “dark night” for many; a night filled with violent conflicts worldwide, of the sufferings of people fleeing persecution, torture and starvation, a night of ecological degradation. It is a night still struggling with the ongoing shadows and isolation of a pandemic. Rapidly escalating prices in stores mean that many families are desperate simply to provide their children with some festivities. We face a night where the possibility of the light being extinguished forever seems real in ways not previously experienced in our world.

“with the celebration of Christ’s birth we are called to be “God’s light in our world.” ”

And yet … as Christians familiar with mystical references to “the dark night” we find in our faith the light of Christ at the heart of all things, incarnation, the God we can touch. As we celebrate this Christmas Eve and the days ahead may we be reminded that with the celebration of Christ’s birth we are called to be “God’s light in our world.” The silent, enveloping waiting in the long night calls us ever to the primacy of prayer and love in and for the world. It invites us to prepare actions that will make a difference.  Let’s truly celebrate with joy this Christmas and in the “long night of promise” may we share that joy. On this Christmas Eve may we again hear a call to new birth in the face of the challenges of our times. As Christmas dawns in our hearts then all of creation will indeed “glow where His foot was” and will, through us, once again, shine Christ’s Presence “on Earth”.

 -Sister Mary Rowell, csj