I’ll Remember You …

While flipping through the T.V. channels on Sunday night, I was attracted to CNN which was airing a program from 2012 “Glenn Campbell – I’ll be me”.  For two hours I was caught up in his journey with Alzheimer’s.  He wanted to make people aware of this devastating disease. I could not help but call to mind some of our own Sisters and family members. Saying now, I understand why some Sisters are exhibiting behaviours so unlike the persons I have known. 

Glenn and his wife and children decided to perform a number of concerts across the United States. As the concerts progressed more and more characteristics of his Alzheimer’s surfaced. At first he could remember and sing many of his original songs like “Rhinestone Cowboy” and “By the time I get to Phoenix”. As his memory failed, he used a prompter and his daughter would sing along and accompany him on guitar. She would tell him “I’ll remember for you.”

Off stage they showed his times of frustration and anger, sometimes striking out physically. The family struggled to understand and cope. Kelly, Glenn’s wife, said, “A merry heart is good medicine.” At one point, Glenn said looking straight into the camera, “I’m still here but yet I’m gone.”

Once more, I’m into the present with a Sister friend of mine who will say “I have dementia, you know.” It breaks my heart that I can’t change the progress of this diminishing disease but I can’t walk away, although it is hard to see the physical, as well as, the 0mental price that it is taking on these Sisters.

Glenn also recognized the signs that he was slipping and with his daughter wrote and recorded a song about his future, one line was, “It never ends. Best of all I’m not going to miss you.” A very stark but true reality.

So let us share what we can, while we can – time is a vicious thief so we must make every opportunity to stall the progress of Alzheimer’s.

“I’ll remember you, will you remember me!”

Sr. Barbara Vaughan

Suzuki Tells Elders to “Speak the truth from our hearts”

Sarnia, a city also known as the ‘Chemical Valley’, has once again benefitted by the presence, insight and eloquence of David Suzuki. The Imperial Theatre was entirely sold out for his book promo/speaking engagement on June 22^nd. Bursts of applause broke out several times during Suzuki’s presentation and a standing ovation happened at the end. The proceeds from ticket sales went 50/50 to the David Suzuki Foundation and to the Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Sarnia/Lambton.

Two things in Suzuki’s presentation especially resonated with me:

1. If we do not recognize that climate change is real and do not make change happen around this issue then we, as a human species, as well as many other species, will soon be extinct while the Earth will continue.
2. Those of us who are the ‘elders’, who no longer have to “play the game” can now “speak the truth from our hearts”.

Suzuki presented as a very humble person. He interchanged comments with the reading of excerpts from his latest book, LETTERS TO MY GRANDCHILDREN.  It seemed to me that both the writing and reading were from the heart. Suzuki, despite the recent challenges that ‘environmentalists’ have experienced, remains committed to making change happen for his grandchildren and for all further generations who live on our planet Earth.  

Suzuki also talked about his “last campaign”, Blue Dot , (awesome stuff here). The vision is to start with communities, to get them to sign on, one by one, through municipal declarations in support of the right to a healthy environment ...  clean air, water and soil as basic rights.  So far from Victoria to Montreal to Yellowknife, some 30 municipalities have made such declarations. Why not your community too?

I do recommend the book as well as David’s comments on Pope Francis’ recent encyclical, LAUDATO SI’, on Care For Our Common Home.

Ann Steadman, CSJ Associate

Outside, Inside the Box Thinking

"In God’s Womb: A Journey with yourself and God."

 When I first read Edwina Gately’s words on the flyer advertising her day of retreat, I was somewhat overwhelmed.  To be a co-creator of God!  A tall order, or as Edwina writes ‘an enormous task.’ However, I wanted to learn more about co-creating with God. I mean, really, God needs me to help God create?

From the time Edwina was introduced that Saturday morning at Kings College, I knew I was in for a treat. It immediately was evident that this wise woman, whom some call a mystic, and who has travelled the world, has vast experience.

Her unique manner of presentation, and her wonderful sense of humour were evident from the moment she began our day together. We all instantly knew it would be a day of great soul food which would also challenge our minds. She was definitely going to invite us to think outside the box. When she invited us “to look at all that has gone before us, and to recognize that each one of us, however small, has a unique task in co-creation” my heart nearly skipped a beat. So what is this task of each one of us? 

As I continue to reflect, Edwina’s latest book of poetry Soul Whispers inspires me to continue to look outside the box, deep within myself. Just as the healthy food inside our lunch box sustained me that day, Edwina’s image of my life’s journey inside God’s womb, is in the forefront of my mind, and tucked into my heart. Her question ‘who is God for you’ still resonates within. Instantly I recall the image of God I used to have. In my younger years God and happiness were never synonymous. God was a stern judge … ’do as you’re told, be obedient’ are words that used to echo through my soul. Thankfully I no longer have this image. 

Edwina’s suggestion to see God as a great seducer, ever inviting me deeper into a journey of intimacy, has stayed with me. Along with caterpillars, the sod, the animals, the birds, every man and woman I am part of an interconnected interrelated cosmos. In God’s womb we are one. As a co-creator, God has mandated me, all of us, to care not only for the dear neighbour, but for our common home, mother earth. In light of the recently published encyclical Laudato Si by Pope Francis, I renew my personal commitment to be a loyal faithful co-creator of God’s wonderful earth.

Loretta Hagen, csj

1, 2 and then 3

Some may wonder how a retired Sister spends her days. Although not as busy as the days when she was working full time in a school or hospital or parish, there are many things that fill her days. St. Ignatius of Loyola encourages us to find God in all things. By the time a Sister is retired and perhaps needing more nursing care, she seeks to live out of that advice from St. Ignatius.

The Sisters in our Care Centre will not miss Mass, and on Saturday night at 7 o’ clock they will not miss “The Lawrence Welk Show”. One fills and renews the soul and the other renews the spirit. The Sisters can recite the words of the Mass as well as singing along to all the words of the Champagne Sisters and other soloists.

The Sisters receive Jesus in the Eucharist and their spiritual hunger is fed. They hum along to the music of Lawrence Welk with feet tapping, renewing their human spirit. Remember some of these golden oldies: “The Tennessee Waltz”, “Roll Out the Barrel”, “The Old Rugged Cross", "Danny  Boy“? The hour just speeds by and closes with Lawrence Welk saying with a warm smile “Until we meet again.”

At the closing of the Eucharist we are invited to go in peace. Now, Lawrence Welk is certainly not the Eucharist but we should be grateful for all invitations we get to celebrate! So we all might ask ourselves from time to time . . .  What events give peace to your day? Do we sometimes let them pass by us unnoticed? They may not be great and wonderful moments but is that because they aren’t or because we are not open to them?

What has been a recent “Lawrence Welk” moment for you? What song do you carry in your heart? When was the celebration of Eucharist really heart moving? “I am the Lord of the Dance said He” so “Dance, dance where you may be.” – Be it a Lawrence Welk moment or a Eucharist moment, let’s respond to the dance within us and most importantly within others. 

Auf wiedersehen-Go in peace until we meet again!

Barb Vaughan CSJ

The Grace of Being Unsettled

“Reconciliation always happens when an oppressed people reclaims their humanity. Our role is to recognize the stake the rest of the world has in this process. What great good will come if we heal this moral wound that 152 years of residential school has inflicted on Canada’s aboriginal peoples.” (Bishop Mark MacDonald)

Having had the privilege of participating in the Ottawa T & R event we saw the beginnings of reconciliation unfolding. We stood as witnesses to years of “cultural genocide” coming to the surface. We shared in the hope generated at the possibility of creating a new story together as indigenous and non-indigenous peoples.

At the opening of the intergenerational event sponsored by KAIROS, we listened to women and men survivors speak of some memories of years at residential schools. One of the most heart-wrenching of these stories was how so many survivors, not having received love and nurture themselves, did not know how to love their own children. In the words of one survivor, “I fed my residential school experience to my children.”

Along with about 20 other sisters and priests, we walked in solidarity the 5 kilometers through the streets of Ottawa from Gatineau to City Hall carrying the CRC banner. We were constantly reminded that the Truth and Reconciliation process is not about a “native issue. It is a Canadian issue.” When we arrived at Marian Dewar plaza, we experienced a very poignant moment. Justice Murray Sinclair, the chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, asked the survivors to raise their hands. He then invited the entire assembly to acknowledge the survivors and to thank them. There were tears shared between the survivors and the rest of us.

On Tuesday, June 2^nd, the Truth and Reconciliation report was released at Ottawa’s Delta Hotel. The huge ballroom was filled as were two overflow rooms. As each commissioner spoke in turn, we had the impression that we were present at an historic moment. Something was shifting in our understanding of who we are as Canadians.

Now comes the hard work of embracing the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation report. As we were reminded, truth and reconciliation has to be more than words. Recognizing land rights; teaching the story of residential schools in our education system and reclaiming Aboriginal languages are just three of the recommendations.

We wonder what the Truth and Reconciliation experience holds for us as Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada as we journey toward Chapter 2016.

Jean Moylan CSJ and Margo Ritchie CSJ

Photo: L to R Sr. Jean Moylan, Sr. Priscilla Solomon, Sr. Margo Ritchie