A Man of Integrity

People in South Africa celebrate Freedom Day on April 27 to commemorate the first democratic post-apartheid non-racial elections that were held on the day in 1994 and saw Nelson Mandela elected.  On 10 May this anti-apartheid activist, lawyer, and former political prisoner was inaugurated as President of South Africa. 

Photo: Matthew Willman

My friend Matthew Willman, a renowned South African photographer, is known for his amazing photos of President Mandela.  One day, while visiting his friend Madiba, he was inspired to ask if he could take his red office chair out into an open field. In the photo he took out in the field you can see children run by the chair into the distance, to symbolize the impact Mandela would have on future generations of South Africans.  What might these children, now adults, most remember about the great Mandela? This well-known story, shared many times on social media and elsewhere, illustrates what made this exceptional man so great.

“After I became president, I asked one day some members of my close protection to stroll with me in the city, have lunch at one of its restaurants. We sat in one of the downtown restaurants and all of us asked for some sort of food… After a while, the waiter brought us our requests, I noticed that there is someone sitting in front of my table waiting for food. I told them one of the soldiers: Go and ask that person to join us with his food and eat with us. The soldier went and asked the man, so the man brought up his food and sat by my side as I asked and began to eat. His hands were trembling constantly until everyone had finished their food and the man went.

“Go and ask that person to join us with his food and eat with us”

The soldier said to me: the man was apparently quite sick. His hands trembled as he ate!! “No, not at all,” said Mandela. “This man was the guard of the prison where I was jailed. Often, after the torture I was subjected to, I used to scream and ask for a little water. The very same man used to come every time and urinated on my head instead.”

Credit: South Africa Archives Online

So, I found him scared, trembling, expecting me to reciprocate now, at least in the same way, either by torturing him or imprisoning him as I am now the President of the State of South Africa…

But this is not my character nor part of my ethics.” (SoulAlchemy Facebook)

Every year on 18 July, we mark Nelson Mandela International Day not only to commemorate this great man but to emulate his amazing accomplishments by making a difference in our own communities. Perhaps we are not as magnanimous as Mandela as depicted in the story above, but we all have the ability and responsibility to change the world for the better, especially during this pandemic.

-Sister Magdalena Vogt, cps

Lift a glass to our Mothers…

This Sunday families gather, many virtually, to celebrate our Mothers.  We want to celebrate these wonderful women who gave us life, and whose lives were spent in selfless giving and loving.  What we might say today with our words is important but less important than what these woman have said with their lives.  Their actions show us what love really looks like.  Were they perfect?  No, they were not, but their responses to us, their children, created a tapestry of love full of meaning and memories that influence how we live today. 

“a tapestry of love full of meaning and memories that influence how we live today”

There is a song sung by the Wailin’ Jennys called the “Parting Glass”.  After my mother had died, my large family went back to mom’s home to be with each other.  As we so often did, we started to play music filled with memories and had a very strong sense of my mother’s spirit with each of us.  We started sharing stories of my mother and realised that those stories and memories will never leave us.  She is still with us.  So we asked my brothers and sisters who play musical instruments to play something to mom.  Then we found a bottle of wine and poured a wee bit of spirit in each glass and sung this song called the “Parting Glass”.   This might have been my mother's wish to each of her children. So whether our mothers are alive or gone, I ask you to lift a glass to your mothers and say thank you for so much.

-Sister Joan Atkinson, csj

Trees Do Dance

Some years ago, the thought seized me, that before we were people, we were trees.  In my deepest knowing and from out of the blue, I knew this in my bones to be true then, as it is now.  Don’t we often refer to our body as our “trunk” and extremities as our “limbs”?  Maybe my toes are remnants of roots cut off?  That is what I sometimes imagine.

My imagination tells me that in our more primitive lives we freely danced and roamed about as trees. Trees were not rooted in one property. Somehow, they lost almost total mobility.  Did that happen because of getting attached to one property, like some of us today?  Eventually, they formed a community of trees or woods, that to this day do not discriminate, but welcomes all, birds, squirrels, other animals, insects, vines, and maybe even poison ivy.  They all live together in harmony and are in many ways, light years ahead (of the educated, scientific, research-focused homosapians), in their evolution and relationship to each other, earth, and the Divine.  

Today when I see and feel the wind, or gentle breeze rustle through shiny green leaves, on thin stems, I feel the trees clapping.  They are clapping upon seeing me and for me.  They want to awaken me to be more inclusive and embracing relationships with all people without discrimination.  I think also they might scold me for a less than generous response, to cleaning up the environment I am partly responsible for polluting.  Meanwhile, trees, rooted almost everywhere on the planet, given their own unique personality, unselfishly commit to creating shade every day, which is especially appreciated when it is excessively hot outside.

Perhaps the millions and millions of trees that grow in the Amazon region of Peru, need to have protection such as the legal status given to the Whanganui River in New Zealand in 2017. That river forever considered sacred by the aboriginal people now is legally recognized as having, all rights and privileges of the human person.  Soon the government will recognize a mountain as a legal person as well.  As for water, it is essential to life, yes, but trees manufacture oxygen, a vital factor essential for every cell and molecule in my body, dogs, cats, etc., etc.  I find it all a staggering, complex, and sacred concept to comprehend.  We people are so blest, so small, and all is a gift.

Now I ask, what might it be like if our churches, places of worship and leadership, stretched their boundaries to integrate in new ways, something of the sacredness of earth reality into our Sunday rituals?  The Encyclical Letter, “On Care of Our Common Home” Laudato Si, written by Pope Francis would contribute enormously to study and a collective effort for personal reflection and sharing.  That would enhance our efforts to broaden our awareness and live and act in right and responsible relationship in “our common home”.  Excellent resources for Laudato Si such as YouTube videos are available free on the Internet.  It would be wonderful to think that our experience of chaos with Covid 19 would open new patterns of enlightenment and problem solving around serious environmental issues for our planet.

 -Sister Patricia St. Louis