Spirit brother, Spirit sister

I am… a Mom, a Grandma, a musician, a retired teacher, a Companion — a clay vessel being shaped and reshaped everyday.  It is not the shell I move around everyday with, but the heart that is being molded, all in the Creator’s time.

All my life experience has shaped my heart, raising 4 children, teaching JK/SK students, volunteering as a church musician and in particular, being a member of a “Companions” group.  “Companions” is a group of lay people and one religious sister from the Congregation of Sisters of St. Joseph.  The purpose of this group really is to understand and share and live the charism of the founder of the Sisters of St. Joseph in our daily lives.  This outreach group has had a flow of working/retired, men/women in the group who listen to the movements of the Spirit when praying, sharing, singing, reflecting on personal/world events which impact their lives.

Our most recent “Companions” virtual meeting involved a guest who provided us with his life experience as it related to our topic of reflection: racism.  Our head knowledge of this topic was based on the book, “Me and White Supremacy” by Layla F. Saad.  Our heart knowledge learning was based on listening to this young Indigenous family man and his lived experience of racism. With gentleness, openness, humility and humour he shared his life and work experience.

What immediately struck me and others in our group was his wisdom of heart, being who he was called to be at such a young age (early thirties).  Many of us could relate to him on the level of “being” as we are past the stage of life of “doing”. Living his life, he has realized about right relationship and he expressed a desire to reconnect with his Indigenous heritage after the death of his Indigenous Grandfather.  He spoke the language of right relationship, …love, addressing the needs of others by listening and communicating in a reciprocal manner, especially the elders in his work life. We only have to look at retirement homes during COVID to see where we fail at loving our elders.  He offered practical suggestions of books to read and courses to take which address more truthfully our knowledge of present-day indigenous issues of marginalization.

History books tell the story from the perspective of the dominant person and therefore is a one-sided story coming from a vantage point of power. It was backed up with heart knowledge where inadequate solutions to serious problems caused subsequent physical, social, emotional and spiritual consequences in these communities.  These issues are real, and they are happening to real people. The enduring shame of Indigenous people must be challenged.  We can’t dismantle what we can’t see. We are all racists and our help to address the shame and marginalization, in particular, Indigenous youth must mean we need to relate to them without stereotyping, defining, limiting, and judging.

He shared a story from his work life about his plan to help indigenous youth connect with their heritage in their community.  It was a tree planting project. When he approached the elder (who had no prior dialogue about the plan) as to where the trees should be planted, the elder directed the tree planting group to the outer edge of the boreal forest where this Indigenous community had carved out its community life. The Spirit gave him a moment of humourous reflection with the love lesson of always having meaningful discussions about their needs rather than having a pre built-up plan to solve the issues.

How can an Indigenous community have a boil water advisory for 25 years?! The answer to that question is a personal conversion of heart. Whether it is in omission or commission this suffering in this community is my suffering too.  In order to have common union we must face this community’s suffering and convert our heart.

Our speaker’s passion for learning about his heritage and his desire to claim it was remarkable.  He recognized his homecoming, who he was created to be is the path he must take. What insight, courage, humility, gentleness knowing that his journey is my journey too…who we are called to become, who we are called to be…Love.

Submission from the Pentecost Companions Group:  Jane, Leanne, Jaime, Dena, Sue, Ann.

Be Part of Something Big: Giving Tuesday - December 1, 2020

Giving Tuesday was added to the calendar in 2012, as a global day of giving that falls annually after Black Friday and Cyber Monday. GIV3 and CanadaHelps are co-founders of Giving Tuesday in Canada.  You’re probably already aware of making donations to charities through Canada Helps which offers a very convenient platform to link donors with registered Canadian charities.  This registered charity’s goal of increasing the level of charitable giving has borne great success. However, are you familiar with GIV3 and the story behind it? I wasn’t so I turned once again to my research assistant, Google.

As GIV3’s website indicates, “GIV3 is a privately registered Canadian charity which does not solicit donations from Canadians but it encourages everyone to be more giving through volunteering and donating to registered charities of their choice. The GIV3 movement stands on three pillars: Giving, Inspiring others, and Volunteering. Its mission is to engage Canadian charities and the public in activities to encourage these pillars. Watch this 2-minute video to learn how one granny’s birthday gift started a movement and inspired a generation to care, connect, and contribute to their communities.

Retailers bombard shoppers with bargains available on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Similarly, as Giving Tuesday approaches, an increasing number of social agencies also request your contributions to support your neighbor. You have the pleas of Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday all competing for your dollars. The first two designated days encourage shopping while the third option suggests donating to a charity of your choice. Giving Tuesday encourages a donation of time, resources and talents to address community needs.

Giving Tuesday has already proved increasingly successful since its inception in 2012. Canada Helps announced that more than $21.9 M was donated to charities on Giving Tuesday last year. However, this year the COVID Crisis is upping the need for generous donors. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, charities are facing increased demands for their services while finding their resources dwindling and their usual fundraising activities curtailed or cancelled.

You can make a much-needed difference. Celebrate Giving Tuesday. Contribute to a charity of your choice and be part of something big!   -Sister Nancy Wales, csj

ADVENT 1

How do you experience hope? Did you enjoy the warmth of the sun in the first week of November? We had snowfall a few days earlier and yet nature teased us once again to take in the healing rays of the sun. Meteorologists and scientists will give us a logical explanation. Poets and musicians express it in other words. Perhaps you even began singing the Beatles song, “Here Comes the Sun”, or maybe that memory is before your time!

It strikes me that in the midst of COVID challenges these gifts of nature are bursting with hope, and sheer abundant blessing.

On the first Sunday of Advent we will pray the psalm antiphon: Restore us, O God, let your face shine, that we may be saved. These words too are full of hope. Listen: Let your face shine, “Here comes the sun”! Our Advent hearts seek the Son – the One who has come, and who will forever be present. We have such longings this year. We yearn for a healed world, reconciliation of divisions, laying down of weapons, deep conversations that help us understand each other better, creative responses to ecological disasters, a permanent shelter for our tent neighbours, a living wage for all, resources and caregivers to tend to our elderly loved ones, and on and on. . .  And we well know that longing must move us to intentional caring and if possible action.

Let’s carry these thoughts with us throughout the season, nestled within a vessel of advent hope. Scripture assures us of God’s promise - fullness of life. The Son did come. Christ did indeed take on flesh and blood, experienced pain, expressed frustration, even anger. What he also did was offer a deep knowing of another conscious reality – the mystery of divine love. That love was generously poured out in his life and continues to be poured out day after day by caring human beings and by nature revealing its cyclic pattern of dying and rising. The earth pulses with the rhythms of ebb and flow, like a heart-beat. Microcosms enrich the earth so that new life may grow. Water warriors strive to promote clean water for all people. Volunteers gather up plastics from our lakes and oceans. Advocates write letters and petitions to effect systemic change. Women of wisdom pray, sending loving, healing energy.

Our civic environment will become festive with trees alight and wreaths on doors, and we will hold onto the hope known other years in family visits and meals shared. Seasonal music will fill the air, and darker nights will draw us into comfy chairs where our hearts may just focus on the hope that is dearest to us. Let your face shine on us O God.  HERE COMES THE SON!

- Sister Loretta Manzara, csj

Be the Bridge

New bridge opens in London, Ontario on the Thames Valley Parkway

I have always been fascinated by bridges.  How they are constructed across chasms and raging rivers intrigues me.  Hence, I was excited to learn about two new bridges being constructed in my neighbourhood, one of which can be seen in the photo above. A recent sunny Sunday was the perfect time to check out those twin bridges and trails that opened earlier this month.   Truth be told, there rarely is anything that is ‘perfect’ not even a sunny Sunday.  Yes, though the weather was ‘perfect’ it was a bittersweet day for early in the morning the news broke of the death of the beloved, iconic Jeopardy game show host, Alex Trebek. 

Those of you who do not know who Alex Trebek was, may wish to look him up on the internet to learn what an amazing man this Canadian-American was.  For those of you who know who he was, here is a bit of Jeopardy fun: “It is a rare, unusual ‘animal’ that could be seen regularly on Jeopardy.” I bet you know the answer!  And the answer is: “Who is Alex Trebek the G.O.A.T.?”  (G.O.A.T. being the acronym for the Greatest Of All Time Jeopardy tournament)

“ With God’s help we can be the reason someone feels welcome, seen, heard, valued, loved, and supported. ”

I have watched Jeopardy for a long time and always admired how Alex Trebek was such gentleman, such an amicable host of the show.  Though it was a game show he was hosting, one always had a sense that this game show host welcomed the contestants as if he were graciously welcoming guests to his home. Alex was a charming bridge-builder, always making contestants feel at ease.  So, while I was walking on the new path and crossed the two bridges last Sunday, my thoughts dwelled on the life and death of Alex Trebek, a bridge-builder.

If you look at the bridge in the photo above undoubtedly your eyes will be drawn to the massive concrete underpinnings upon which the bridge is resting.  The word ‘underpinning’ causes me to connect with the word ‘understanding’ which is something I admired in Alex Trebek.  He had a knack for asking contestants questions to help him understand who they are.  For Alex, and for all of us who desire to understand others, the best way to be bridge-builders, to be a bridge between the other and ourselves, is to understand or rather to ‘stand under’ in support.  Just as the bridge above rests upon what stands under it, so too, we do well to establish underpinnings upon which we can span the distance between others and ourselves, to build a bridge. Such understanding of others is what Margaret J. Wheatley alludes to in her quote, “When we seek for connection, we restore the world to wholeness.  Our seemingly separate lives become meaningful as we discover how truly necessary we are to each other.”

Sadly, we have seen such a lack of understanding or standing under, such a lack of connection in the aftermath of the US elections.  However, we do not have to look across the border to see evidence of what divides people.  It is also evident right here where we are, in our own neighbourhood, our own backyard. It so happened that this week I read the following on the Facebook of the Shalem Institute.  “Here's to the bridge-builders, the hand-holders, the light-bearers, those extraordinary souls wrapped in ordinary lives who quietly weave threads of humanity into an inhumane world. They are the unsung heroes in a world at war with itself. They are the whisperers of hope that peace is possible.” (L. R. Knost; Shalem Institute)

Last Sunday, while I stood on one of those new bridges for quite some time savouring the view, I kept wondering  how I can become more of a bridge-builder right where I am, in my daily life. Crossing a real bridge, especially a suspension bridge, can be rather unnerving, as can be spanning the distance between ourselves and others.  Reaching out to another can feel like crossing the bridge of unknowing with only a glimmer of hope that we will create a connection with the other.  Yet, as expressed by Noah Curran, “When you underestimate what you are capable of, you underestimate what God is capable of doing through you.”  It sounds to me as if God, the bridge-builder par excellence, has entrusted to each of us the mission to be a bridge, to build a bridge especially between ourselves and those who seemingly appear to be so different from us.

“When you underestimate what you are capable of, you underestimate what God is capable of doing through you.”

We are sent to bring light to our dark and desperate world.  We are to go.  To build bridges.  To stand under so we can understand and be bridges despite our differences.  With God’s help we can be the reason someone feels welcome, seen, heard, valued, loved, and supported.  I remember reading about the Backalley Barbers in Singapore who offer free haircuts for impoverished people.  They are young volunteers who learn basic hair cutting skills from professionals and then offer their hair cutting skills to those who cannot afford a haircut.  It seems to me here a pair of scissors is the bridge between these young volunteers and the impoverished in their midst. There are as many ways of being a bridge as there are people.  We can do this.

-Sister Magdalena Vogt, cps