An Encounter on a Winter Walk

Early Sunday morning I embarked on London’s Thames Valley Trail amid brilliant sunshine, gleaming snow and –12 C weather.  As I walked along the River Thames, a thirtyish man walked from his small tent at the river edge up to the trail. He asked if I was one of the women who had left some Tim Horton’s donuts for him. I had not.  He introduced himself (I will call him “John”) and we shook hands; his enclosed in thin gloves and mine in bulky fleece-lined hide mitts. Asked about being cold with his thin jacket and flimsy tent, he stated that he was warm enough.  He then spoke about a sixty-one-year-old friend. The man’s bicycle had been stolen. A month earlier, the man had suffered an injury caused by a tree falling on his ankle - the same ankle that had been fused following a previous injury. The friend had crawled a fair distance through the scrabble along the river edge to John’s tent and John arranged for an ambulance to transport his buddy to the hospital. John had not been able to locate his pal and was concerned. He wondered if his friend would be able to walk again. When I told John that I would pray for him he asked if I went to church on Sunday. He was on his way to meet a pal at a nearby church.  He described a church in east London that had become so crowded that a second site was opened across the city.  John asked if I knew anyone who might need help for tasks such as clearing snow from their sidewalk.  He liked to help older people. I had no suggestions and we amicably continued along our respective paths.

This weekend a convoy of trucks and a multitude of supporters in Ottawa are angrily protesting mandatory vaccines, obligatory masks, vaccine passports, and other covid restrictions.   I reflected on my chance encounter with a man who was living in a tent in -12 C weather.  He expressed no anger, blame, or frustration about living in a tent, covid restrictions, or food insecurity.   Rather, he was cheerful, grateful for an anonymous gift of donuts, concerned about others, and confidently lived his faith in God.  I wondered if John would have felt welcomed and at home in my church. And I thought that if Jesus should make an appearance in our city whether he would feel more welcome and comfortable in John’s church than in mine.

-Sister Pat McKeon, csj

Future Is An Attitude

Those of you who follow our CSJ blog posts may be familiar with how I draw inspiration from TV commercials while enjoying my morning coffee.

Let me make a disclaimer before I continue - I have no stock in Audi! This morning, I heard the current Audi slogan, “Future is an attitude.” What I found while googling this reiterated phrase of Audi provided me with greater detail concerning the car company’s self-professed vision and how it sees itself.

-Abraham Lincoln

Audi advertises that its vision is not only embodied in how it designs cars but also in how it sees the future. This company shares its belief that what we create today will lead, (as in their case) not only to better cars but to a better future. They assert that their 100-year constant progress relies on, “Seeing possibilities where others perceive impossibilities. And inspiration, where there are obstacles.”

Attitude, seeing possibilities, and inspiration got me thinking. On a personal level, I was made more aware of how my attitudinal stance in the present, has the ability, to some degree, to shape my future circumstances and experience of the now. My current attitude does, in fact, create what’s in my control going forward. For instance, if I feel hopeful that I will be able to meet the changing nature of COVID circumstances, there is a much better chance that I will be able to do so.

“Our congregation’s intention is to respond daily to the inspiration of God’s Spirit.”

On a communal level, attitude, seeing possibilities, and inspiration connect me to the spirit of our current congregation’s Direction Statement, Moving with Love. In part, it states:

Immersed in Life and Love

We embrace this moment of possibility

as a graced path to Transformation.

In essence, the above words express much the same spirit that is contained in the Audi tagline, “Future is an Attitude.” Our congregation’s intention is to respond daily to the inspiration of God’s Spirit. We trust that our communal attitude can influence the whole-making energies released in ourselves and in the planet for the healing of the world.

-Sister Nancy Wales, csj

---

Image: Unsplash/Rianne Zuur

World Day for Consecrated Life

World Day for Consecrated Life - February 2, 2022

Every Thanksgiving weekend our Congregation gathers to celebrate the lives of women who have lived their commitment to consecrated life for 25, 50, 60, 70, 75 and 80 years. It is a celebration of God’s fidelity and the Sisters’ joy of being called to minister to God’s people. 

Before I entered, I appreciated two songs that seemed to sum up my call: “The Simple Life” by Valdy and “Shower the People” by James Taylor. Even more now, the world celebrates “excess and extravagance.” “Give me the simple life, don’t want to worry about tomorrow,” sings Valdy. When you live simply, you are able to focus on what is truly important. James Taylor reminds us, “Shower the people you love with love, show them the way that you feel.” What a blessing it is to be able to pour yourself into your ministry so that those on the margins are seen and cared for.

“When you live simply, you are able to focus on what is truly important. ”

Image: Unsplash|Billy Pasco

You cannot live this life without being in relationship with the Source of all Being. This relationship supplies all the energy, direction, hope, love and grace that is required to be happy. It is not rainbows and balloons every day, but even in difficult times there is peace in the depths. And when one gets off track, there is plenty of mercy and forgiveness. There are many ways to live one’s life, to become a saint: single life, married life, religious life and priestly life, to name some. Each one offers a person a way to be in relationship with God and with the Church and the world. Religious life is a fulfilling adventure if you are called to it. Are you experiencing a desire to live a simple life? A life of joy and grace? A life of faith, hope and love? Consider life as a vowed consecrated person.  There’s no life like it!

-Sister Pat Carter, csj

Living with Christ/Bayard Presse Canada. Used with permission.

---

Pat Carter, CSJ is a disciple, a teacher and an advocate for the poor.She has been a Sister of St. Joseph for more than half of her life and loves to use words to inspire faith and laughter.

St. Elsewhere

I have not thought about the TV series, St. Elsewhere, in years. Not until this morning, when my dear friend Jack referred to it in an email, he sent me.  Do you remember watching this American medical drama in the early 80’s?  I watched it in South Africa. The show was about the lives and work of the staff of fictional St. Eligius Hospital, an old and disrespected Boston teaching hospital.  According to Wikipedia, “The hospital’s nickname, “St. Elsewhere”, is a slang term used in the medical field to refer to lesser-equipped hospitals that serve patients turned away by more prestigious institutions.”  

You may be wondering where I am going with all of this.  It all started when my quirky mind jumped into gear while I read this in Jack’s email, “… one must admit, [it is hard] when one wishes for St. Elsewhere, when here is the moment we have.”  Of course, the moment Jack refers to is this pandemic with all its endless challenges and restrictions.  For me, as you already know, the moment is here, nestled in my room during this particular Covid outbreak. As well you can imagine, hunkering down in my hermitage for the fourth time, was not high on my to-do list.  I had other plans.  Still, once again, I had to face, as John Lennon put it, that “Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans.”

At some point during this alone time, I began to wonder what God’s plan might be in all of this untimely stint of isolation.  “I know the plans I have for you...plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” we read in the Book of Jeremiah 29:11.  Did these plans have to include yet another stint of being sequestered in my room?  As wonderful as it is to make plans and dream about being elsewhere, we should not be surprised if God brings us somewhere else.  Ah, yes, there is that saying that we should let God be God.  Still, sigh, I would like to have a say about my destination St. Elsewhere! 

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

— Jeremiah 9:11

There are times in our lives when all of us would rather be anywhere else but where we are.  Sure, being in isolation once again is reason enough to wish I were anywhere else but here. Where else would I rather be? Where is that place called Elsewhere? Obviously, this is not about Fernweh or Wanderlust. This is something different.  In my present situation, I am wondering if it is because I am tired of being alone with myself. It is one of life’s ironies that, no matter how much we want to get away and be elsewhere, wherever we go, there we are.

Yes, wherever I am, there I am. But more importantly, God is there too.  One of my favourite scripture quotes, “Make your home in me, as I make mine in you” (John 15:4)  invites me to be rooted in God, my home, my dwelling place, the place where I abide.  Home, then, is wherever I am and not elsewhere.  Which begs the question, can I be happy here and now, sheltering in place during this “winter of [my] discontent?” In my warm home St. Here, instead of wishing I were elsewhere, can I be fully present here and now?  Yes, I can. With the grace of God, here and now, though I am weak, I am strong.  So here I am, with myself, in isolation, choosing to be content and at peace with my situation in St. Here, not hankering for that place called St. Elsewhere.

During these frosty winter months, the sun rarely shines into my room, except briefly around noon.  What gift, to feel the sun’s warmth on my face here and now. Warmed like this, I count my many blessings and refrain from stressing over things I cannot change. Instead, I will shine some warmth by calling a friend and sending emails to those I know feel isolated and lonely. Perhaps you, who read this are one of them.  Be blessed, my friend.

Sister Magdalena Vogt, cps