Fourth Sunday of Lent 2022

Image: Unsplash/Tiffany Nguyen

Be sure and pick a rose for this Sunday. Yes, the Fourth Sunday of Lent is called Laetare Sunday, and the liturgical colour is rose. “Laetare” meaning ‘rejoice’, has its place in our Lenten journey similar to “Gaudete Sunday” in Advent when we pause to anticipate the joy of Christ’s coming. Laetare is a more solemn anticipation, but nonetheless a moment in our penitential Lenten path to remember our Creator is a God of love who invites us to healing of body, mind and spirit. The grace of God’s compassionate love is always beside us in our trials and struggles of life.

Simnel cake has been eaten since medieval times as both a rich, sweet treat and a symbolic ritual. The fruit cake is topped with eleven marzipan balls to represent the eleven apostles of Christ, minus Judas.

With the change of colour we recognize it’s a time to briefly glimpse the joy and celebration that awaits us at Easter, like a spring crocus unexpectedly breaking through the earth. In medieval England simnel cakes (special rich fruitcakes) were a treat given out on this day. It is a signal time of hope and encouragement. Always our Creator is a God of compassionate mercy. Our lives follow a cycle of God’s birth life, death, and resurrection and Laetare Sunday reminds us to keep our perspective of the whole journey in mind and heart. As we are born of the Earth, so our spiritual lives are birthed and rebirthed. Soon the fields will break into green garments, the song time of returning birds will be heard and flowers appear in tidy gardens - and in the most impossible cracks of our pathways. Hope will once again be birthed in God’s creation.

“Soon the fields will break into green garments, the song time of returning birds will be heard and flowers appear in tidy gardens - and in the most impossible cracks of our pathways. Hope will once again be birthed in God’s creation. ”

In today’s scripture the themes of God’s generous nourishment and abundant forgiveness is traced through the readings. In Joshua there is the celebration of Passover with the first produce of the land of Canaan that year. And in the Gospel God’s unconditional love and forgiveness is illustrated in the parable of the ‘Prodigal Son’. Although we might well quibble that the lost son didn’t deserve such a feast upon his return from squandering his father’s inheritance, God’s stance in the father’s actions turns our worldly logic upside down. Repentance and sincere contrition are the only the grounds for God’s unconditional love. The way home to our true self in God’s heart and love is open to us.

Each of us have our lost and shadow selves that we would rather not admit to having. Although we’d rather hide them, sometimes our shortcomings and fears, unworthiness and self-doubts are calling out to us for acceptance and compassionate love. As John 4:18 writes, “perfect love casts out fear”. Fear can be an astute warning sign of danger, but when it overtakes us, fear becomes a self-punishment. That is not God’s way, and the message of Jesus constantly reminds and assures us of this ultimate reality. God’s embracing love is there to clothe us in resilient hope and new courage in all times and circumstances.

St. Paul calls us to be ministers of reconciliation, for as we know God’s forgiveness and compassionate love, so we are called to share the abundance of compassion with those we encounter. It is the way of the heart. And it is the message of the rose.

-Sister Linda Gregg, csj

World Water Day - March 22, 2022

Seeing with new eyes

Image: Unsplash/Silvan Schuppisser

I turn on the tap and water flows. But where does it come from?

London, Ontario's water system and supply of clean water come from both Lake Huron and Lake Erie, through a network of treatment plants, reservoirs, and pumping stations made up of more than 1,620 kilometres of pipes.

Being a city gal, I am used to the fact that water from the Great Lakes moves through pipes to purification stations and then into my tap. I have childhood memories of visiting relatives at their summer cottage where my aunt pumped water from the well directly into her sink. That water comes from aquifers.

Aquifers are geological formations of rocks, sands and gravels that hold water. This water feeds springs, rivers, lakes, and wetlands, and also seeps into the ocean depending on the geographical area. The water accumulates from rain and snowfall.

This year for World Water Day, March 22, 2022, we are invited to celebrate and recognize the importance of groundwater (water from aquifers) – the invisible gift that supports drinking water, sanitations systems, farming, industry, and ecosystems.

People who draw drinking water from private wells do not currently have any enforceable safeguards. “Over 40 municipal drinking water systems throughout Ontario are not covered by the Clean Water Act.” See: https://watercanada.net/feature/ontario-drinking-water-safe

The data sheet for World Water Day 2022 states that almost all liquid freshwater in the world is groundwater, and it will play a critical role in adapting to climate change. Life will not be possible without groundwater.

So how do we protect groundwater?

Contribute to the voices opposing the provincial government’s permit to Blue Triton to continue to take 3.6 million liters of water daily from the Aberfoyle Plant, and 1.1 million liters of water per day from the Hillsbourgh location.

Read Wellington Water Watchers, World Water Day Statement: Wellington Water Watchers.

To avoid depletion requires policies on energy, land use and irrigation.

For a good news story, read what is developing among the Dairy Farmers of Canada: https://dairyfarmersofcanada.ca/en/who-we-are/our-commitments/sustainability/water.

World Water Day each year reminds us to cherish water as gift, as medicine,  as sacred, and to ensure that water is available for everyone without becoming a commodity.

2 billion people live without access to safe water. Let’s support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #6 to achieve water and sanitation for all by 2030.

Raise a glass and look with new eyes!

World Water Day 2022

-Sister Loretta Manzara, csj

We are a Blue Community.

March 21, International Day of Forests

March 21, International Day of Forests

Image: Unsplash/Maxim Hopman

Forests evoke a sense of mystery and awe for me. I recall the wonder I felt walking alone in a pine forest in our Northwest Territories: I am mesmerized by photos of giant trees in BC that beckon me and awake a longing to spend silent retreats in their midst. Yet such forests also evoke sadness.  Stories of new oil pipelines and clear-cut logging in what remains of the never-to-be replaced old-growth forests in BC seem catastrophic. Why is it that we have not protected this national heritage?   And then there is the Amazon rain forest. In the March 17, 2022 edition of The Washington Post, an article by Terrence McCoy “The Amazon Undone; Death in the Forest” describes the ongoing destruction of a place of beauty, a place that preserves our climate. Along the 500 mile Highway 319 which runs through a largely preserved area of the Brazilian Amazon.  New sideroads, extreme violence, land grabbers, fires, and deforestations are present. People disappear and their bodies are never found. Large new farms on illegally deforested land are hidden among the trees.  And there is conflict between environmentalists and citizens. For example, Manaus, a city of 2.2. million is cut off from Brazil’s highway system and wants the highway to make travel easier and enable development. Yet environmentalists claim: “What has historically been a carbon sink could suddenly become a ‘carbon bomb’ upending the world’s efforts to avert catastrophic warming.”

I believe action to preserve forests is required of all of us. Some wonderful work has been done by researchers in Canada and the Amazon. We need to keep ourselves informed of such research, stories about the destruction of forests, and add our voices to those who protest these events.

-Sister Pat McKeon, csj

International Day of Forests

image: unsplash/Geran de Klerk

Spring has arrived! On Tuesday, March 22nd we will celebrate World Water Day! And in between, you might want to nestle into the breathing lungs of our planet: trees!

The International Day of Forests, celebrated every year on March 21st raises awareness about the values, significance, and contributions of the forests in balancing the lifecycle of the earth.

Nalini Nadkarni shares her love of the forests, the trees that drew her into a career in forest ecology. By researching religious texts of many faith communities, she celebrates with profound awareness, the gift of trees.  Her energy and insight are brought to us in conversation on Tapestry: Connecting to our Roots: the Spirituality of Trees. I found this a joy to listen to. Why not join me in wonder and delight.

Earlier this month Nalini spoke with the CBC, and asked us to reimagine our relationship with trees. Read & listen here.

 -Sister Loretta Manzara, csj