Stepping into a New Year

If you have been listening to any talk shows on the radio or TV this is the time of the year that we hear about people making New Year’s Resolutions.  Most of these are personal.  Things like shedding extra weight, putting down our devices to have a real conversation with someone we care about.  These are all good in their intent and some even life changing.  However, I stepped into this new year with a heavy heart given the very serious issues that are facing us in Canada and around the world.

I wonder if we could make a resolution that could have real impact in Canada and beyond for 2019.  Here are few thoughts to consider:

Climate Change – Canada is in real danger of failing to keep its commitments to lower its greenhouse emissions.  Somehow many Canadians do not take the threats to our country and planet as real.  It makes wonder if we are just too busy to change our patterns of living.  There is no shortage of choices we can make -like using our cars less, or supporting public transit, or lowering our house temperatures, or supporting more efficient building materials.  We can ask ourselves - What is one thing I can do that I am not already doing?

Truth and Reconciliation – We have heard more conversations acknowledging Indigenous peoples and lands and teaching a more truthful story about Indigenous history and culture.  This is good.  However, of the 94 Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of 2015 only 7 have been realized fully.  There is still much work for all of us in Canada to do.  We can ask our government both federally and provincially to take this work seriously.  We can ask our federal government to live up to the United Nation’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People that Canada signed.  Our Indigenous people must be at the table to negotiate any agreements that affect their lands, water and resources.

Use of Social Media – We can make use of these tools for honest and respectful engagement with people, on issues, and work towards a better world for 2019.

These are only a few thoughts…and we are all responsible for and can make Canada and our world more peaceful, open and inclusive for all one choice at a time.

- Joan Atkinson, CSJ | Office for Systemic Justice

On The Street Where I Live, I Met Him.

It was not on “Some enchanted evening … across a crowded room,” I saw the stranger. No, I saw the stranger on the street where I live, on a cold winter’s day just after Christmas.

At first it was a matter of mistaken identity.  You see, I was driving very close to home when I saw this person, bent over a rollator, lumbering up the hill at the edge of the road, as cars zoomed by. My heart constricted.  Was it who I thought it was?  The woollen toque pulled low over the bent head made it hard to see if it was indeed who I feared it was.

I parked in the drive way and ran to bring my elderly friend safely home, and stopped in my tracks, startled by what I saw.  A breathless man lumbered towards me. Poorly clothed, without gloves, unkempt there he stopped in front of me, his face radiant.  He caught his breath, and I caught mine.   Lost for words I took in what I saw.  In the ten years I have lived in this suburb, I have never seen a homeless person on this street.  Where had he come from, where was he going, I wondered.  So, I asked.   And he began at the very beginning, to tell me his story.

It wasn’t long before I recognised some of his mental health challenges.  While I buttoned up my coat and flipped up the collar against the icy wind, the stranger spoke of a miracle that saved him as a child.  As I listened, my mind wandered. I wondered about the Christ whose birth we had just celebrated a day ago.  Who was this stranger, I pondered?  Was ours merely a chance meeting?  What really was this encounter all about?  My question about where he was going, went unanswered. Though I began to shiver, he seemed oblivious to the cold and continued to tell his story.  So, I listened attentively, as it became evident that what the stranger was looking for, was a fellow human being with whom he could share his story.

In time, I knew I needed to end our encounter and told him I had to leave.  I would have happily given this man money and my gloves, which would have been a poor fit for his large hands, but he wanted neither.  “I do not want anything but thank you for your time” were his parting words. Then he turned around and lumbered back down that same hill, on the road, with cars zooming by. 

I stood and watched him for quite a while, feeling blessed by this encounter, thankful for meeting Christ on the street where I live.  

- Sr. Magdalena Vogt, cps

A Mystery for the New Year - A Book Review

To Die But Once   by: Jacqueline Winspear

This is the latest book in a series of mystery stories, woven around tales during the months of the second World War following Britain’s declaration of war on Germany. Maisie Dobbs, the main character, is a private investigator, in England, who has two assistants, Sandra and Billy.

The combination of fact, events detailing the second world war, and fiction, the mystery story that has been threaded through this novel, results in a very interesting read.

I look forward each year as Winspear continues to involve Maisie Dobbs in the next adventure in such a way that it like listening to yet another new and suspenseful tale told by a friend.

Although the Maisie Dobbs books are published yearly 2003 -2018  (with one exception, 2014), the author keeps the reader informed about past events in a very succinct and helpful manner. Her novels have been on the New York Times bestseller several times and readers wait for the next book in the Maisie Dobbs series to appear. I encourage you to join the Maisie Dobbs fan club!

- Sister Valerie Van Cauwenberghe

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

A TALE OF CONVERSION OR PERHAPS OF RETURN

I’ve loved this story for 65 years. I was in grade 5 at Blessed Sacrament School in London Ontario. My teacher for grades 5 to 8 was Sister Alice Marie. Each day right after lunch, she would read to us from a book that we would come to love like “Outlaws of Gravenhurst” or the Enid Blyton Mysteries. She didn’t care that we were far too old to be read to and we didn’t care either. In fact, it was my favourite time in the school day. And perhaps, hers, too.

As Christmas approached, she would read A Christmas Carol (Scrooge) to us and we were all wrapped in the spell she wove. Ever since, the Christmas Season has not really arrived until I’ve watched “A Christmas Carol” at least once. Last year, Sister Alice Marie died and I decided to honour her by going to the Grand Theatre to watch their production of this great classic. It was fabulous! I loved every minute of it. This year I just had to attend again and it was superb! And I had a new thought about it.

“Is this kind of profound conversion possible?” I thought about the human species and the profound damage we are doing to our home Planet and wondered if we could change. I believe we are a species in our teenage years, we have power but not enough wisdom. 

Then I thought, in the story, Ebenezer, was not always mean and miserly. He had the love of his sister Fan and he loved his apprentice days with old Fezziwig where he fell in love with a co-worker, Belle(Alice). But then Fan died in childbirth. He began a different love affair with wealth and power and he lost Belle as she recognized she had been replaced.

We too, as a young species had profound connections with our earthly home. Some of that energy is still with us in the spirituality of Indigenous peoples as they try to uncover the relationships that the colonizers tried to extinguish. Yes I need to have hope. I have to have hope. I will live my life as if I have hope until it becomes a reality in me. Otherwise I will just become numb with a giant TV soother in my mouth. I will cease to live my one precious life.

I won't let the profound hopelessness of our times seep any deeper into the marrow of my being. I will believe that the human species can evolve to maturity and wisdom. I will invite the dreams of the earth, past, present and future to teach me. I will listen to the earth. I will align myself with the children who need a future full of hope, who need to see elders who believe in their possibilities. 

I will start now as I take my morning walk into our glorious home.

Thanks Sister Alice Marie.

- Mary Margaret Howard (Gaiamma)

Fourth Sunday of Advent leaping into Christmas

Well here it is and there it goes!

This year the calendar permits one day only, of what is usually a week, and then a quick turn around into the festivities of Christmas. The fourth week of Advent begins and ends on Sunday, well with a few hours in the heart of Monday, but then . . .

In the Sunday gospel Elizabeth questions: “Why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?” We would like to linger and ponder that great visit of Mary to her cousin, both with child, both awaiting a miraculous birth. Both an expression of God’s largesse of love for - yes the individual mothers, - and ah yes for the entirety of all creation.

Well, this year the rhythm of the liturgical year is imitating the rhythm of giving birth. The signs come quickly and the process begins, and then the wondrous mystery shines forth in glorious light.

In the beginning was Divine Love

            Through a simple breath Love birthed creation

                        Then at the appointed time

Love burst into humanity

                                                And Love became flesh

                                                Dwelling with us . . among us . . .around us . . .

                 May you and yours be God’s Word of Love shining forth in glorious light

                                                Proclaiming Christ’s Peace and Hope to our world.

- Sr. Loretta Manzara, csj