Good Friday

How dare we call this Good Friday! And yet we do. Why?

It is difficult to imagine the sadness and overwhelming grief of walking with a loved one through pain, suffering and death unless you have been there. Today as we walk with Jesus to Calvary, we may have some inkling of what the disciples were going through. This year, at this holiest of seasons, we have far too many clear pictures of innocent victims in so many nations around the world. Balancing our days by being lovingly aware and yet not crippled with grief is a challenge. Can we be brave enough to stand at the foot of their crosses in prayer and appropriate action with all these victims; or with one?

“because we know the end of the story”

Despite the agony of Jesus, His followers and now those who suffer in the name of “religion” find triumph in Jesus’ final message. We must not meet evil with evil but with love, compassion, and courage. Accept gratefully the graces of this season and move purposefully forward because we know the end of the story. I trust in Jesus’ message of hope.

-Maureen Condon, CSJ Associate

Image: Alicia Quan/Unsplash

Holy Thursday

Jesus, the Christ, was a faithful Jew and so it is no surprise that he gathered together his disciples to celebrate the Passover as had been done for generations.

With careful preparation he gathered them and for the most part He followed the long adhered to rituals of telling the story of the Passover, discussing the story, drinking wine, eating matzah, partaking of symbolic foods, and reclining in celebration of freedom. What a surprise it must have been for all gathered when He raised the bread & wine saying THIS IS MY BODY & blood which was to be offered up within the next few hours. Then he asked them to do likewise in His memory. Do this to Remember Me.

How do you handle change ?

We become so used to doing things in a particular way that when that changes we become uncomfortable, cautious, even suspicious. We’ve always done it this way ! How wonderful it is to see Jesus leading the way by calling us to creatively interpreting our faith and greater fidelity. There is more than one way BE Faithful.

 -Maureen Condon, CSJ Associate

Cabrini: the Movie

“What the world needs now, is Love Sweet Love”, some of us may remember this song of Burt Barcharach and Hal David that came out in 1965. As the song says, “It’s the only thing there’s just too little of... No, not just for some, but for everyone...”

Yes, this world needs so much love as we come to a turning point where love is being replaced with hatred, bullying, xenophobia, violence against anyone who is “different” than the white male Caucasian.  Women are belittled, Indigenous peoples in countries world-wide are looked upon as being subhuman or inhuman, hence are treated as if they have no value. People who are homosexual or transgender are not even considered to be human.  What is the criteria for dismissing a human being? Too many politicians exhibit an unconscious or perhaps even conscious assumption that some people in this world are not human...and this is in supposedly educated nations.  Shame on us if we remain silent, for therein is our consent.

Enter, “Cabrini” the movie about a young Italian woman who dared the powers of Church and state to say “no” to the dream of a better world for all.

Not only does the movie take the “religiosity” out of religion, but inserts an interesting dynamic between: women and the men who hold power, Italian immigrants and U.S. citizens, a tribal worldview and an inclusive one, the rich and privileged of New York City, and the poor in the slums.

Frances Cabrini, born in 1850, had only a few years to live because of a compromised lung condition she acquired when she almost drowned as a child. She founded her own Religious order because she was rejected by established orders due to her ill health.  The Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, under Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, felt called to the far east to minister to the poor and forgotten. The movie “CABRINI”, graphically depicts how 6 women were able to effect major change in the hearts of the citizens of New York City after having been commissioned by Pope Leo XIII.

Upon arriving in New York the women experienced firsthand, the plight of the Five Points Slum district in which Italian immigrants lived isolated from the rest of the citizens of NY City (“Rats have it better”, described their condition)

The Institute of The Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus established seven homes and a free school and nursery in its first five years. Its good works brought Cabrini to the attention of Giovanni Scalabrini, Bishop of Piacenza, and of Pope Leo XIII.[2]

In 1889, at the suggestion of Pope Leo XIII, the Sisters came to New York, and opened convents in the Archdioceses of Chicago, Denver, Newark, Seattle, and Los Angeles and the Dioceses of Brooklyn and Scranton.[3] In 1892 they established Columbus Hospital in New York City,[4] which later became Cabrini Medical Center and operated until 2008.

Perhaps the compassionate viewer is able to appreciate these times in which the movie was produced and the actual tenor of the day in the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s. We saw in the portrayal of Mother Cabrini a woman spurred on by intense love for the orphans and abandoned of her society. We also saw how anger fuelled her passion to embrace those who had no love.  Anger and love provided the energy Mother Cabrini needed to accomplish all she did.

-Sister Kathleen Lichti, csj

Image: Felix Mooneeram/Unsplash

This Palm Sunday

This Palm Sunday, March 24, my daughter Rochelle will celebrate her 52nd birthday.  She was born with a myriad of problems and we were told to put her in an institution and forget about her and get on with our lives. How I had longed for this baby girl and never for a moment did I think she wasn’t a gift.

The advice of that pediatrician was harsh, in keeping with the times, but unthinkable.  I would not leave her orphaned; I would not give her up.  When I decided to follow Jesus I knew without a word of a doubt He would be at my side.  I knew He would help and guide me.  I had no idea what we would encounter, what barriers would be presented, what hurdles we would need to jump.  But I believed that Jesus does not make junk and that all life has value and we would do whatever was needed to support her life.

Her birth for me was the triumphant entry into my life path of following Jesus. Rochelle began my Holy week and my commitment to caring for her in the best way I knew how. I knew that with the power of the Holy Spirit and the assistance of my beliefs we would succeed.  For over 50 years we have been a team, breaking barriers and showing others what God can do if you are open.  Her life has been very challenging, but she has been a leader, she has taught so many others countless lessons.  She has been my greatest teacher in life. Often those considered by many in society as “bụi đời”, (less than dust is the translation) those who live undervalued by society give us the servant leaders our direction. My mother gave a poem to me many years ago that reads.

God hatH not promised skies ever blue

Flower-strewn pathways all our lives through

God hath not promised sun without rain,

Joy without sorrow, Peace without pain.

But he hath promised Strength for each day.

Rest after labour, Light for our way

Grace for all trials, Help from above

Unfailing sympathy and undying love.           

Jesus tells us,

What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?  Mark 8:36

Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  Matthew 16:24

-Grace King, CSJ Associate

Image: Tim Mossholder/Unsplash