Another Messenger Came…..Will We Listen?

Another Messenger Came…..Will We Listen?

...David Suzuki came, a voice crying in the wilderness; we laughed and barely listened as the smog increased.

...The First Nations came, beating drums for Mother Earth; we polluted the water and raped the land.

...The scientists came, with unquestionable evidence – the sea is rising, the earth is warming, the ozone is disappearing; we silenced them and destroyed their research.

...The poor came, unable to till the barren soil now becoming deserts; we turned away and continued our destructive ways.

...The hurricanes, fires, tsunamis and blizzards came; we rebuilt and carried on as usual.

...Pope Francis came carrying peace and Laudato Si.  Will we listen and mend our destructive path to end it all?

Will We Listen?

Jean Moylan, CSJ

What I Learned From My Mother About Friendship

My mother became a widow at the age of sixty-five and died at the age of ninety-eight.

Widowhood was a life-changing event that closed some doors for her but opened others. No longer would she be relating with the couples that gathered for bridge games, bowling, partying . . . the things that couples enjoy doing as couples. The other doors that opened for my mother, she had to open herself and being an extrovert, she was energized by being with people.

Mother enjoyed yard sales and she new that if she wanted to yard-sale for a whole day or even a weekend she would call her widow friend who was always searching hither and yon for antiques, perhaps a pink glass salt shaker to match the pepper shaker she already owned and could sell for a profit as a pair. That woman knew her antiques. If mother only wanted to browse at yard sales for an afternoon she would call another friend and then she would look for such things as old beer steins to fill that empty shelf above her kitchen cupboards.

Now a widow, mother had lost her euchre, bridge, canasta partner but did not give up playing cards. She played bridge either in the afternoon or evening almost every day of the week and had different friends in different groups who kept honing their minds and mathematical skills. While they were all keen to play, they knew they were there to have fun.

Mom and dad used to take a holiday trip every year but it was always by car. So what was she to do now. Well mom had different friends she called on for different kinds of trips. One group of friends loved to take special tours and so she travelled to the rockies, to California, to our east coast, to England, to Portugal and celebrated her seventieth birthday in Hawaii. Another group of friends liked to pool their resources and spend money for a month’s accommodations in Florida where they could walk the beach in the afternoon and play bridge at night while it snowed at home.

Sundays were the loneliest days according to mom and so she had a friend or two that she would take for a ride just to see the fall colours or to go for a coffee and doughnut someplace quiet where they could share their week or update each other on family news.

And so what did I learn? I learned that when a woman has lost her best friend, her husband, life isn’t over; friendship isn’t over. No one will ever take the place of that love. But friendship is something one chooses to make happen. One can take the initiative and open the door to as many hearts as are willing to open to me for all sorts of occasions. Life is to be lived; in living fully we learn to love and to be loved.

Elaine Cole, CSJ

If Music Be the Food of Love, Play On!

At our residence this summer, we have been fortunate to have as our guest a seasoned professional cellist, Christiane McKee.  For enjoyment and to maintain her skills, she is part of a string quartet whose members play together weekly for what she calls “practice”.  However, listening to their magnificent chamber music, it is clear that they are professionals at work.  Recently, the group came to “practice” in our front foyer.  As their dulcet tones wafted through the halls, an audience was drawn to the music as if a magnet had pulled them.

In addition to Christiane as cellist, the other instrumentalists were Tom Hart and Cathy Mallory on violin and Dr. Mo Genner playing viola. Listening to their repertoire which consisted of selections from Hayden, Schubert and Mozart brought joy to our home on what would have been a rather ordinary Wednesday morning.  How heartwarming it was to hear skilled musicians play beautiful classical music just for the love of it. In Shakespeare’s words, it was indeed “music with her silver sound.”

Jean Moylan CSJ

Refugees in Canada. Where Are They?

The Canadian Government announced, in 2013, reiterating this in January, 2015, that Canada would take in 11,300 Syrian refugees.  In the past three years, only 2,374 refugees have been settled in Canada and all but 622 (26%) of these have been sponsored and supported, not by Government but by persons, churches, or other groups.  Our history affirms that fears of accepting massive numbers of refugees have been unfounded.  We can mobilize resources quickly to care for a huge influx of refugees and these people become productive citizens who enrich rather than destroy our culture. When Russia’s invasion of Hungary caused an enormous humanitarian crisis in 1957, the Canadian Government did little to help, fearing that immigrants with different ethnicity, religion, and possibly political extremism would create problems. Public outrage and shame forced the Government to act and 37,000 refugees were admitted.  The Vietnamese war created another crisis; the Canadian Government, fearfully accepted few of the refugees who were escaping from a violent regime in contrast to the100, 000 refugees admitted to the US.  Again in 1979, publicity about a small boat overcrowded with 2,500 refugees drifting in the sea while being refused entry to country after country led to action and the Conservative Government raised the quota of Vietnamese refugees from 5,000 to 60,000.

Germany has stated that it will accept 800,000 refugees and has urged other European nations to do their part.  Prime Minister Harper has pledged that the Conservative Government will accept an additional 10,000 refugees over the next four years. Surely as Canadians we can do better.  Provinces and cities across Canada have urged the Government to accelerate the rate of accepting refugees.  The Ontario Minister of Health, Eric Hoskins has urged that Canada eliminate the long delay caused by the onerous requirement that applicants to Canada must be certified as refugees by the United Nations. Many religious and private groups have mobilized to sponsor refugees.  There will always be xenophobic fears of being overwhelmed by accepting huge numbers of new members who “are not like us”.  Yet our Country is based on immigration and the hundreds of thousands of immigrants and refugees fleeing Nazi Germany, Irish famines, poverty stricken countries and totalitarian regimes have proven to be a blessing.

Above all, we share a common humanity and we are indeed “our brother’s keeper.  We are called upon to act rather than to merely hope someone else will look after people who arrive by boat, train, bus, etc. in countries other than Canada. Some of us can participate in sponsoring or helping new refuges.  And all of us can join the leaders across Canada who demand that the Conservative Government accept far more refugees, expedite the application process, and provide for the expeditious processing and integration of refugees admitted to Canada.

Pat McKeon CSJ

It's One, Two, Three

It’s a bright sunny afternoon in early September. The Blue Jays run into the stadium 42,000 people are on their feet, clapping, shouting “go jays go!” if you scan the crowd the majority are men, children and a few of women. The rival Dodgers enter to a less thunderous roar but a roar just the same. Friends of mine look for their sits and since they had the no lunch look for a vender “Two hotdogs, two beers!” The vender handed them over to the tune of $37.50. They managed to scrap their chain together. They settled back “Play Ball!” The game begins.

And half way across the world thousands of refugees walked in the steaming sunshine. The guards ran among them beating their bats against them to hustle them along trying to stop them from moving around. Back at the Blue Jays game, hundreds of children were wearing team shirts, hats, signed gloves. Many parents were also decked out

Fans did the “wave”, 42,000 of them.

The only wave that the refugees did was fighting the waves that tipped their rubber dingies, drowning most. At the ball park, during the seventh in in stretch folks walked around and did the high fire. When the refugees got a stretch they were confronted by those who didn’t want them in their country.

Fortunately the Jays won that day, they seem to be on a winning streak with an occasional loss.

The refugees are on a losing streak with very few wins. The Jays and the fans leave the stands boarding buses or trains, going home to a hot meal and happy memories.

The refugees. ?????  We each can write the next chapter. I wonder if the experience of Jesus, whose family also fled to Egypt, can help us.

“Wake up world!”

Barbara Vaughan, CSJ