Presence, Grace, and Gift

Sean came to live with me in late December 2020. His mother passed away about 9 years ago when she was 45 years old due to complications from juvenile diabetes. Prior to that, Sean lived with his step-father in Chatham.

Sean is 35 years old and has Cerebral Palsy and is on the spectrum for autism.  Sean functions cognitively around the age of 8-10 years old.

I went to pick up Sean to come live with me on Dec 24, 2020 following the death of his step-dad from pneumonia. Sean’s only sibling passed away suddenly a few years ago at the age of 32, which left Sean with no immediate family except a grandma and grandpa who are elderly and unable to have Sean live with them.  Sean is not able to live alone due to his cognitive abilities. Sean’s biological father is “not in the picture”.

Sean has taught and continues to teach and remind me of so many priceless and valuable life lessons.  For example, Sean is simple and simply lives in the present moment. He doesn’t worry or have anxieties: he simply lives in the present moment.  When his mother, brother, and step-dad passed away, Sean would say that “they are in heaven now watching over us”.

If you ask Sean today, he would say that he is living his best life through God’s grace. He loves camp and loves to help out.  I am convinced an angel, the Holy Spirit, all of the above was looking out for Sean as he immediately landed a volunteer position at an overnight camp where he works in the kitchen. He gets to stay overnight in a cabin he shares with other staff members. The staff are so good to him, they include Sean in after work activities and treat him as an equal.  Sean came from the Chatham area where his step-dad worked and Sean had some experience working as custodial in a factory on modified duties and later in a marine shop.  Sean graduated from a special college program that provides life skills and specialized classes to students with special needs. When Sean lived in the country near Chatham, he would watch TV or listen to music and had little contact socializing with others due to the country setting.

“ I am convinced an angel, the Holy Spirit, all of the above was looking out for Sean ”

The camp director tells me that we need more people like Sean: he is on time for work every day, always completes all chores/tasks and he takes pride in the work he does in the kitchen and shows others how to use the industrial size dishwasher.  Sean never complains and he never asks for anything. 

I am truly grateful for the gift of Sean’s presence through the grace of God.  I am reminded to slow down, not to judge others, not to complain, and to see life as true gift from God.

Sean is a gift from God and during Advent and Christmas, I continue to reflect on Sean’s purpose in life and how and why he entered mine.

-Julie Angiolillo

Christian Meditation

The Fruits of Christian Meditation

For several years I was introduced to many different forms of meditation. Meditations of loving kindness, meditation of soft music, and many forms of guided meditation. I always expected something out of the ordinary to pop into my mind or some great aha moment. Hmmm, but little did I know...my grandson James, who attended the SK class at St. Ann Ancaster practised meditation.

We had just finished playing a game at the kitchen table and he was going to play in the other room while I made lunch. But as he walked across the room he turned around went back to the chair he was on before, he crossed his legs and put his hands on his knees, closed his eyes and began to meditate. I was truly amazed, I had no idea he was learning meditation. When I asked James what he was doing he said “my teacher told me that this is what I should do when I feel like this“. So I had not noticed any change in his demeanour. So when I asked why he felt he needed to meditate, he explained .....because he was feeling a bit sad because he was missing his parents.

At that young age he had been taught to recognize negative feelings and to react with positivity and to feel closer to God for comfort. Not all classes at his school offer Christian meditation so he went for a few years without that guidance but now at the age of nine the teacher he has this year has the students involved in Christian meditation. I am so very grateful to the teachers who feel that meditation can bring the fruits of the spirit alive in a child thereby enriching a healthy environment for students and teachers.

I’m a grateful Grandmother that my wee little grandson listens to his heart and feels God with him.

P.S. I too am blessed to be practicing Christian Meditation. 

Could it be the ripple effect of that one teacher with one child?

-Holly Kropf, Companion of the Sisters of St. Joseph

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Additional Resources: The Canadian Christian Meditation Community

Braiding New Relationships

Food For Thought: Braiding New Relationships

-by Sister Priscilla Solomon, csj of Sault St. Marie on behalf of Federation Ecology Committee

As I child I learned to identify and pick it. As long as they were able, my parents used to pick it every June or early July.  We were taught that it is the hair of Mother Earth and that it was not to be over-picked. Sweetgrass. We were shown that each single-stem plant is rooted in the earth just as our hair is rooted on our heads. That speaks to a very different relationship to the earth than the kind of relationship that sees primarily financial or economic benefits in the land and its life. I remember seeing braids of sweetgrass, and my Mom teaching me that a single blade of sweetgrass is not as strong alone as three clusters of sweetgrass when they are braided together. I was also taught that sweetgrass is a sacred medicine of purification and blessing.

If you have read Robin Wall-Kimmerer’s book, Braiding Sweetgrass, you might remember her teachings on sweetgrass that are so like the ones I received.

I was thinking of these teachings as I reflected on the recent visit and apology of Pope Francis to Indigenous peoples on this land. Not that there is anything sweet about the horrific history that necessitated an apology but rather, that his apology was one of the strands of a braid that carry the hope of new relationships. He was responding to the Truth and Reconciliation’s Call to Action that the Pope come to apologize to Indigenous people on our own lands. The commission itself, the courage and determination of survivors, the growing awareness of the painful and damaging past as experienced by Indigenous people, and efforts by both Indigenous people and people of Settler origins to develop a new relationship are all part of this strand of the braid.

The second strand of the braid includes the efforts of Pope Francis to engage Catholics and all people of good will in addressing climate change and the ongoing destruction of our planet. Laudato Si’, The Synod on the Amazon, Querida Amazonia and Fratelli Tutti communicate very clearly and powerfully the need to recognize that everything is related. Destruction of one part leads to destruction of the whole; healing of one part can lead to the healing of the whole. Pope Francis listened to the people of the Amazon. He responded with a clear call to us to hear the cry of the earth itself and the cry of poor people of the earth as one cry for healing and the transformation of our relationships with them. Not dominance and extraction but rather, respect, compassion and care. Not arrogance but rather respect for Indigenous peoples’ wisdom gained over centuries, even millennia, of living in harmony with the land and the rest of creation.

“Destruction of one part leads to destruction of the whole; healing of one part can lead to the healing of the whole.”

The third strand of the braid leading us to hope and transformation is the recent preparation for the Synod on Synodality. Already, the work that is being done is engaging people at various levels of the church. Both locally and globally, structures have been created to enable people to speak their truth and offer their ideas and opinions on how we might move together into a new future.  Pope Francis vision is one of a church - a people of faith - walking together encouraging, supporting, serving and strengthening each other in faith, hope and love. This is a vision of church that prioritizes life-giving relationships with other living beings over one that focuses on management and control though structures and laws. Like the apology and the concern for new relationships with others in our common home, this strand of the braid seeks a new quality of community and solidarity with others.

When we braid these three strands together we can create a stronger, more unified effort to transform our own lives, the lives of others and the whole of creation. Even more, we can strengthen and grow our relationships with our Creator, with the Living Word and with and the Spirit who lives and works in each of these strands of life. Let us walk together in hope and trust!

-Sister Priscilla Solomon, csj of Sault St. Marie on behalf of Federation Ecology Committee

Ever-expanding Horizons

Ever-expanding Horizons: The Wondrous Gift of the James Webb Telescope 

By Sister Mary Mettler, Toronto, csj

A new telescope – the James Webb space Telescope has arrived and is delivering absolutely stunning pictures of the cosmos.  Do you remember when the book, “The Hand of God: Thoughts and Images Reflecting the Spirit of the Universe,”(1.) first came into your hands?

It was printed in 1999 and showed amazing pictures of galaxies with stars forming and others dying.  For many of us non-astrologers it was the first most significant revelation of the majesty of the universe and the wonder of space and of God’s creative activity.

These past months, we have had our minds truly blown wide-open with the pictures shown by the James Webb Space Telescope.  It reveals a truly infinite expanse of deep space, far beyond the work of the earlier Hubble telescope which has been beaming back jaw-dropping photographs of psychedelic nebulae whirling galaxies and radiant gas formations for more than 30 years.  Those are the pictures in the book referred to above.  Until the Hubble telescope, few of us ever knew that beyond the visible stars, moon and occasional planet, there lay worlds without end.  Yet the stars have always drawn us and like the ancient artists drawing petroglyphs on cave walls we too experience both awe and terror at the unknown. The universe has always captured us with its beauty and its mystery.  It has also left us with the existential question of its purpose and meaning.

Image: Pixabay

Brian Swimme reminds us that “we are the first humans to look into the night sky and see the birth of stars, the birth of galaxies, the birth of the cosmos as a whole.  We are the first generation to live with an empirical view of the origin of the universe.  Our future as a species will be forged within this new story of the world.” (2.)

In 1992, there was a gathering of scientists and religious leaders who came together in Assisi to hear and learn from each other.  The era of the separation of religions and science, brought about at the time of the Enlightenment needed to end.  The scientists were awestruck by what they were learning about the universe and knew that there was another dimension here beyond science but they didn’t have the language to speak of it.

And the religious leaders and thinkers of the time knew that the story of the universe being revealed through science needed to be brought into the religious sphere of knowledge and truth.

In his book “The Phenomenon of Man,” de Chardin wrote,

“Neither in its impetus nor its achievements can science go to its limits without becoming tinged with mysticism and charged with faith”. 3

The question for us today is: will these two, science and religion, once again come together as One – science expanding religion and religion enriching science?  May we live creatively in these challenging and awesome times.

- Sister Mary Mettler, Toronto, csj

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1.       Reagan, Michael, editor. The Hand of God: Thoughts and Images Reflecting the Spirit of the Universe. Templeton Foundation Press. 1999

2.       Ibid pg. 156

3.      Ibid pg. 90

World Kindness Day

World Kindness Day was initiated in 1998 to promote kindness throughout the world. It began in response to the increasing violence in the world as a way for participants to make the world a better place by celebrating and promoting good deeds and pledging acts of kindness for the days ahead. It continues to be celebrated in many countries including Canada, Japan, Australia, and the USA to name a few. Many schools take the opportunity to engage students of various ages in learning about kindness, compassion, and empathy in their curriculum. The theme for 2022 is Be Kind Whenever YOU can.

As spiritual people we have always been encouraged to be kind long before 1998 and not just for one symbolic day per year.

For the Islamic people displaying acts of kindness is a fundamental aspect of their religion. Islam encourages kindness, compassion towards everyone no matter what colour, status or religion they follow.

For Christians we are reminded that by our works we shall be known. We should treat others as we want them to treat us. We are to be lovers of all creation and so love is patient and kind, is not arrogant or rude. Love rejoices in the truth.

So, what is kindness? Well, it’s not difficult but it is a consistent choice. It is a type of behaviour marked by acts of generosity, consideration, helping without expecting praise or compensation in return. You know this in the core of your being!! It’s the little things you do choose to do every day, without thinking wave to your neighbour, smile at a stranger, pet a dog, call a friend, wear cheery colours, send a card, drive a friend, take muffins to a shut in. We’ve got this! The challenge is for us to make kindness as contagious as covid but way more fun.

Keep up the KINDness every moment, it’s good for your health!

Maureen Condon, Associate of the Sisters of St. Joseph