All That A Life Can Bear

This morning, as I sit quietly looking out my window, the sky begins to paint itself deep pink verging on red. The colour bleeds into the expanse of the sky and within minutes, the magic recedes again into blue-grey sky. I know that this will happen again and again for the watching.

As I look down at my iPad, news breaks of war in Iran. The United States have cemented their bond in a joint attack on Iran. The goal explicitly and somewhat confusingly expressed is regime change. People are both exhilarated in the hope of some form of liberation and terrified. They realise that to kill the Ayatollah and a few visible leaders is not the end of a violent and repressive system. The world is holding a common collective breath.

“The world is holding a common collective breath.”

Time to shift and get ready to see my brother who is hospitalized after a stroke leaving his right and dominant side severely compromised. We are close. I watch as he works hard and methodically to open a single serving milk carton solely using his left hand. He lifts the milk carton with the same hard-working left hand and drinks. One more mission accomplished for now.

These three events all within the opening hours of a Saturday morning in late February, 2026. They are clearly not unique to me. They are common in their own way to all of us.

These questions surface:

• How much can the human nervous system bear?

• How much of life can we digest in these short time frames?

• And most importantly, how can we become safety and belonging for and with each other?

-Sister Margo Ritchie, csj

Images: Victoria Morgan/Tim Christopher Klonk/Unsplash

The Journey Through Lent

I remember our parish’s Good Friday pilgrimages, when we walked from our small village to the neighboring one, taking turns carrying the cross. It was a trek marked by enthusiasm, joy and excitement where we would transfer the cross from one pair to another so each of us would reach the end without a sense of agonizing pain. Some ran ahead with youthful abandon while others lagged.

Likewise, the journey through Lent follows a determined course that proceeds from beginning to end. Some actively count off the days and weeks until we reach Holy Thursday with a final focus on Christ’s journey during the Triduum. Even as I write, there is a temptation to note that we are in the Third Week of Lent – partway through – as if the destination is the goal. “Keep your eye on the prize,” as the saying goes.

Christ suffered agonizing pain in his final hours; did he know beforehand the pain he would endure on our behalf? He did not pass the cross to another to make it easier on himself. In fact, each step he took throughout his mission required a dying to self so that we might live.

The 15-week Buddhist "Walk for Peace" from Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington, D.C. that concluded on February 10, 2026 has inspired me. In one of his daily teachings, the The Venerable Monk Bhikkhu Pannakara spoke of the need to look at ourselves in the mirror when brushing our teeth each day and then immediately wipe the spots of toothpaste off the reflection staring back at us. “Don’t leave it for later when it's much harder to get off,” he said.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” says the old Chinese saying or as my Spanish teacher used to say, “Poco a poco, se va legos” (little by little, one goes a long way). Focusing on each step, and the presence of God’s spirit within those steps, is what makes the Lent journey meaningful. Travelling the spiritual journey is a step by step walk on God’s Holy Ground.

-Susan Hendricks, csj associate

images: Jamie Ginsberg/Art Institute of Chicago @artchicago | Unsplash

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I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20

The Spiritual Path of Lent

Lent is that annual time of year when I am challenged to examine the spiritual path I’m walking on.  Am I even walking on a SPIRITUAL PATH?

To walk a spiritual path presumes there have been choices along the way which keep me focused on what I cannot see.  Here is one example.

Why are the leaves on my plant all facing toward my window?  If I turn the plant, then over time the leaves again all face toward the window.  Do they have a longing to be outside growing beside that tree in the backyard?  Or do they have some inner awareness that their life depends on the light energy coming from outside my window?  I am a witness, not of the energy my plant is using for its life but I am a witness of the effect the invisible energy is having on the actions of my plant.

I think our lives are more complicated because we have to CHOOSE to face the direction of the energy we need for our lives.  Am I even facing in the direction of the energy I need to walk on a spiritual path?  Love is that energy.  Life is about experiencing being loved and respected and giving love and respect to another.  Life is about relationships, about receiving and about giving.  The way I receive and give love energy is a choice I make. 

During LENT we witness the life of Jesus; we witness all His loving relationships no matter the hardships he suffered.  His primary gaze was loving obedience to the will of the Father and then actively sharing that love with his followers.  Approaching Holy Week, I ask myself, am I even on that spiritual path with Jesus?

Finish this Lent, by going home and letting your plants teach you how to follow the energy you need for saving the life of your soul. 

-Sister Elaine Cole, csj

Images: Erika Osberg/Cemrecan Yurtman/Kelly Sikkema | Unsplash

Protecting the Wellbeing of Water: A Letter to Premier Ford

Ontario's water sources are under stress from climate change, land development, and population growth. That's why water permits (an important tool in assessing, monitoring and managing water sources) are important. They can help Ontario to pursue economic development within a wider vision that protects the wellbeing of water.

We invite you to read the attached letter from our Federation Office for Systemic Justice to Premier Ford expressing concerns about water and reminding the government that “it is more important than ever to have ongoing and careful assessments of the frequency and quantity of water-taking permits [which] requires strong structures for tracking, evaluating, and managing cumulative withdrawals across water sources…”.

Read the letter here.

-Sister Sue Wilson, csj

Image: David Becker @beckerworks/Unsplash