A Shift in Perspective

Image: Unsplash/Vicky Sim

A recurring line from a TV commercial caught my attention. Repeatedly, we are asked, “What’s strong with you?” Not wanting any viewer to miss the query, the line is printed several times across the screen.

Upon reflection, I decided to adopt this line as my focus this Advent. What insights might I gain if I sat with the question,

“WHAT’S STRONG WITH ME?”

How might my experience of Advent change if I stopped asking “What’s wrong with me?” and started to ask, ‘What’s Strong with me?’ Placing the focus on my inner strengths and the graces given to me by the sacred strength Giver. How might this shift in perspective open my heart to new graces? What might I discover about what buoys up my spirit? What messengers of new strength might I identify as the ones who bring tidings of good news and encouragement into my daily life? Who in my circle of interactions might I find an opportunity to thank for their recurring strength?

During this season of Advent, I challenge you to join me in reflecting upon your own life and asking,

What’s strong with you?

Sister Nancy Wales, csj

UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal, Canada

Today was the first full day of meetings at COP 15, an international meeting of 196 countries working toward an agreement on biodiversity protection — a ten-year plan.

What’s biodiversity?

Image: Unsplash/Sonika Agarwal

Biodiversity is the term used for the wide variety of living things on earth — everything from bacteria and fungi to insects, rodents, birds, fish, mammals and more. The complex relationship formed between different life-forms is what enables ecosystems to flourish.

Why does it matter?

All life-forms depend on healthy ecosystems to survive, from the oxygen we breathe to the food we eat. But earth’s ecosystems are under threat due, in part, from biodiversity loss caused by human patterns of economic activity like cutting down forests, clearing wetlands for things like housing and highways, and drilling for mines in ways that strain species in the area.

What are some of the issues the delegates are grappling with?

Here are a two:

  1. Around the world, Indigenous peoples are playing a critical role in protecting biodiversity. But they are also in endless disputes to get title to their traditional lands. Indigenous advocates and their allies are pushing for language about Indigenous rights and title to be included in the COP 15 agreement.

  2. Another issue concerns nature-based solutions to biodiversity loss.  One of the key questions for our global human community is: How can we shift economic patterns so that hundreds of billions of dollars will flow toward protecting land, water and earth species rather than making billions by extracting raw materials from nature?

There is much to figure out but the world must move forward.  As a youth delegate said this morning, “The dysfunctional status quo is not acceptable.”

Sue Wilson, CSJ | Office for Systemic Justice | Federation of Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada

Christian Meditation

The Fruits of Christian Meditation

For several years I was introduced to many different forms of meditation. Meditations of loving kindness, meditation of soft music, and many forms of guided meditation. I always expected something out of the ordinary to pop into my mind or some great aha moment. Hmmm, but little did I know...my grandson James, who attended the SK class at St. Ann Ancaster practised meditation.

We had just finished playing a game at the kitchen table and he was going to play in the other room while I made lunch. But as he walked across the room he turned around went back to the chair he was on before, he crossed his legs and put his hands on his knees, closed his eyes and began to meditate. I was truly amazed, I had no idea he was learning meditation. When I asked James what he was doing he said “my teacher told me that this is what I should do when I feel like this“. So I had not noticed any change in his demeanour. So when I asked why he felt he needed to meditate, he explained .....because he was feeling a bit sad because he was missing his parents.

At that young age he had been taught to recognize negative feelings and to react with positivity and to feel closer to God for comfort. Not all classes at his school offer Christian meditation so he went for a few years without that guidance but now at the age of nine the teacher he has this year has the students involved in Christian meditation. I am so very grateful to the teachers who feel that meditation can bring the fruits of the spirit alive in a child thereby enriching a healthy environment for students and teachers.

I’m a grateful Grandmother that my wee little grandson listens to his heart and feels God with him.

P.S. I too am blessed to be practicing Christian Meditation. 

Could it be the ripple effect of that one teacher with one child?

-Holly Kropf, Companion of the Sisters of St. Joseph

A Taste of Christmas

How better to enter into the spirit of Christmas than by attending a special evening with London’s award-winning King’s University College Chamber Choir.

A group of us Sisters made the two-minute trip to the magnificent chapel at our former home, Windermere on the Mount.

Upon entering, we were bathed in the serenity of the setting.  Against a backdrop of plush blue and green backlit panel draping, the grand piano, violins, viola, and cello sat ready. The musicians took their places.  The uplifting tone of the evening was set.  Talented conductor, Janet Loo, stepped onto the dais, and thirty-nine beautifully gowned and suited sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses walked across the stage and stood on the tiers before us.  Thus began an exhilarating selection of intricate choruses to ring in the festal season.  In the acoustically superb chapel, the crystal-clear voices in multiple harmony soared and descended in beautiful choral renditions from a tingling, “Gloria in Excelsis Deo”, to “Rosa Mystica” and the haunting, “Lo How a Rose E’er Blooming”.  In a change of pace, there was eager audience participation with the ever old ever new, “O Come, All Ye Faithful” and “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing”.

In one seamless evening of outstanding repertoire, we left the world of noise behind us and lived suspended in peace and calm.  As the performance ended and we headed back into the night, we were uplifted to have spent an evening where music nourished our inner selves. It was calm for our souls, pride for our hearts and a blessing to witness such outstanding musical talent. 

Sister Jean Moylan, csj

Light Up the Night

On Dec. 1st as the bright, waxing moon looked down on our neighbours St. Joseph’s Hospice of London, a group of special people gathered outside the hospice to celebrate Light Up the Night.

Supporters of hospice, staff and people who had lost loved ones who had spent their last days within those loving walls, gathered to distribute lanterns in memory of their loved ones.  Amid brightly lit candles, a huge lighted LOVE sign, singing and camaraderie, the crowd sipped cocoa and joined in the activities.

Inside hospice, the doors were adorned with paper lanterns highlighted with names of deceased loved ones printed on them.  Some contained messages of love.  We Sisters who live next door to hospice, purchased two lanterns for the celebration.  One, for all the Sisters in our Congregation who have died this past year, and the second for all the women and men who are homeless on our streets and who have died this year.

Sister Ann pictured in the middle, between Hospice staff/volunteers.

 As we mingled with the colorful group, some sporting necklaces of flickering Christmas lights, we became part of a heartwarming event that praises the gift of life and gives thanks for wonderful hospices that provide supportive, compassionate care to those experiencing their final weeks of life.

-Sister Jean Moylan, csj