4/1/2008
Funeral Gathering
In Spirit and Lifestyle, Edwina quotes at length from Evangelization
in the Modern World, one of the documents from Vatican II.
"Above all the Gospel must be
proclaimed by witness. Take a
Christian or a handful of Christians
who, in the midst of their own community,
show their capacity for
understanding and acceptance, their
sharing of rite and destiny with
other people, their solidarity with
the efforts of all for whatever is
noble and good. Let us suppose that,
in addition, they radiate in an
altogether simple and unaffected way
their faith in values that go beyond
current values, and their hope in
something that is not seen and that
one would not dare to imagine.
Through this wordless witness these
Christians stir up irresistible
questions in the hearts of those who
see how they live: Why are they
like this? Why do they live this
way? What or who is it that inspires
them? Why are they in our midst?
Such a witness is already a silent
proclamation of the Good News, and
a very powerful and effective one.
Here we have an initial act of evangelization."
Beautiful!
I have just come back from a memorial for the father of Esther, Ruth,
Sarah, the husband of Betty, a gracious woman who practiced medicine.
The girls were born in close succession, 1963-1966. The two older
ones were my students at the French school where I taught sciences
from 1975-82.
Ruth joined us, a group of her classmates and their parents, after
lunch. Her father was outstanding in many ways: outstanding lawyer
for 48 years, outstanding in sports - tennis, skiing, and outstanding
in flying - 42 years of very frequent flying without an accident,
four Cessnas, culminating in his beloved twin-engine pressurized
turbo-prop. We commented to Ruth on the beautiful slide show. She
said that they had no photos from his childhood in Germany. With WWII
they had lost everything. When I said that I would have liked to see
family photos with the three girls when they were young, Ruth said
that there weren't any of those either. Her father was seldom home in
those years. He was too busy working.
4/8/2008
What is a Call?
Whenever possible, therefore,
VMM missionaries
live together in small groups,
or renew and strengthen each other
through visits, correspondence or
regular shared activities.
And so the VMM missionaries
say Yes to Christ,
and Yes to our mission of
transformation.
We say Yes to the Christian Community
of which we are part,
and we offer to the Church
our service, our commitment
and the vision and the vigor
that we bring.
Spirit and Lifestyle
When I was in Guatemala with VMM, we lived together. For the first
two years only Dawn and I were VMs but we had 7-10 companions,
volunteers from as many as 4 other countries besides Canada and the
USA. The last year I had only Flor from Spain and Irela from
Nicaragua. We also had VMM visitors. Gabe, Glenn and Mary Jane, the
Central American Coordinators and some of the VMs. It meant a lot to
us that someone would come from El Salvador all the way to Chahal to
visit us. I thought about that Sunday morning when I answered Gabe's
and Dawn's letters and wrote a birthday card for Glenn. I mentioned
yesterday to someone the wonderful visit I had with Richard (Richard
and Susan still minister in Guatemala six months of the year and
spend the rest of the time in Canada fundraising and planning) on the
sidewalk in Antigua while my delegation companions transferred our
luggage from our Guatemala van to our El Salvador van. Yes, we do
renew and strengthen each other in this way.
As I read the 2nd and 3rd paragraphs of this passage of Spirit and
Lifestyle, I reflected on what is meant by "call." When I was young,
there was a great emphasis on "higher" vocations vs "regular." The
harder it was, the better. We prayed for "vocations" and hoped it
wasn't us. We were influenced by what our parents wanted for us - may
be to answer the call they felt they would have liked for themselves
but never had the opportunity. The calls came from above and we had
to be attentive and respond. It might not come again. Then a
wonderful counselor told me to listen inside - to listen to what
caused my heart to leap! What I really - really is the important word
here - really wanted in my heart of hearts is what God had placed
there for me to discover. Sometimes what we really want is too much
trouble. Like the rich young man, we turn away sadly. Often where we
are now is where we need to be but we don't take time to reflect on
that - we don't appreciate what we have.
Still it's nice when people tell you you did something right, you
made a difference. The former students I met at the memorial service
last week said that I had been a good teacher; that if they passed
physics or chemistry it was because of the way I taught them. I'm
always glad when I hear that because I learned my learning style
early on and what worked for me. I knew everyone can learn math or
chemistry or physics. What really surprised me last week is that the
students thanked me for being with them at every basketball game. I
had forgotten that. There was no phys ed teacher to coach the girls
but there was a volunteer willing to do it. The only thing was that a
teacher needed to be present at all times. I accompanied them that
year. I had played basketball when I was in high school, and as non-
athletic as I was, I still greatly enjoyed it. I wanted them to have
this opportunity. I remembered that I had liked being with them. I
was touched that they remembered.
Cecily
4/15/2008
Our Own Wells
We must be men and women
whose action
is motivated and strengthened
through prayer.
We gather together
to share our worship and prayer,
recognizing that Christ is
at the center of our lives,
and that as People of God,
celebration and worship
means sharing and gathering.
Lent is over but I am still reading We Drink from our own Wells by
Gustavo Gutierrez. A large part of his book is on prayer. Here are a
few quotes:
"I said in part 1 that some sectors of the Latin American church are
passing through a time of prayer. It is surprising to see a people
becoming increasingly better organized and more effective in the
struggle to assert its rights to life and justice and at the same
time giving evidence of a profound sense of prayer and of a
conviction that in the final analysis love and peace are an unmerited
gift of God.
"One Christian community that had suffered a harsh trial writes with
simplicity: 'We tell all our Christian brothers and sisters that we
have the courage to continue to celebrate our faith in groups as
often as we can.' "As often as we can'" the harsh situation in which
a people lives forces it to pray "in the catacombs." The footnote
indicates that the letter is from the communities of El Quiche,
January 1981, after massacres in that part of Guatemala and the
forced withdrawal of the bishop (Gerardi) and pastoral ministers.
He add as a footnote to the above: "I offer as an example of the
following prayer in which Bishop Jose Dammert sums up the feelings of
his people: "Lord, the men and women of the Andes cry to you because
of the utter poverty in which we live, subject to the vagaries of
nature and even more to oppression by other human beings. With
resignation and patience and while contemplating the sorrowful
passion of your Son as an image of our own sufferings, we have for
centuries endured the scarcity of food and the lack of work for a
large majority of our young who have no alternatives but wretchedness
and delinquency. There is no future for them on a tiny parcel of land
that is exhausted by millennia of tilling. The fruit of our labor in
the fields and mines is appropriated by others who leave us but a few
crumbs. Necessity compels us men and women of the Andes to toil from
childhood on, an the harshness of our life leaves us no respite. We
know, nonetheless, that you are a God of mercy and that you take pity
on the needy. Therefore we renew our cries - often in silence like
Mary at the foot of the cross - from the depths of our hearts. We
adore your providence and we intensify our hope of the human
fellowship that your Christ teaches us and that we practice with
generous hospitality."
The same attitude finds expression in this prayer of Luis Espinal, a
Jesuit priest murdered in Bolivia: "Lord of mystery, let us feel your
presence at the heart of life; we desire to find you in the depths of
everyday things."
Twenty-five years have passed since these words were written, these
prayers said. Let us gather this week and pray OUR prayers and
through prayer, find motivation and strength to act.
Cecily
4/22/2008
Dorothy Day
Our prayers, as well as being
shared and public,
also involve personal and silent encounters
with God for which there can be
no substitute.
We learn to be still and to listen
in all types of prayer,
not only to the needs
of our brothers and sisters
in the noise and action
of today's world,
but also to that silent movement
of God's action within us
which leads us to a deeper
awareness of God's love for each of us
and a greater sensitivity and caring
for all God's People.
We bring together in harmony
the voice of the people and
the voice of the Spirit,
and we strive
to respond to both.
Spirit and Lifestyle
The editor of the Western Catholic Reporter wondered, on the 75th
anniversary of the founding of the Catholic Worker movement, where
Dorothy Day would be a thorn on our side today.
I think she would have been at the Edmonton City Council zoning
change hearing last Thursday where the "developer," Habitat for
Humanity, and a small delegation of prospective Habitat owners faced
a large delegation of irate and fearful neighbors intent on
preventing the "loss" of their neighborhood and the inevitable
increase of crime that would come from the 47 families in 23 semi-
detached houses on what used to be the established neighborhood's
last homestead, donated by the family's estate to Habitat. Habitat
had already made numerous changes to comply to the community's
demands including reducing the number of units from 72 in 4-plexes to
47. The reporter who was there at 10:30 PM when the council voted
after the all-day hearing, entitled his report: "Little humanity
shown in Habitat debate: Bergman housing project approved after harsh
council session," and started his column with "Some days at City Hall
you want to shriek," and commented "No one spoke for them, the 25
families lost a chance to become an unwelcome neighbor in Bergman."
Yes, Dorothy Day would have been there.
Yes, Dorothy Day would have met the Pope in New York. Perhaps like
the poor woman invited to address the Pope at a mass in the poor
neighborhoods in Pinochet's Chile in 1987. She departed from the
carefully scripted text she had been given, to pour her heart out
telling the Pope the way it was in the poor neighborhoods. Even I,
who understood little Spanish at that time, understood every word.
"No banners allowed," the heavily armed police and army told a group
who arrived with a huge banner. They relented when the participants
said that it was a greeting to the Pope in his native Polish. The
international press focused on the banner which denounced the
violence and repression in Chile, and which unlike the army and
police, they could translate for the rest of the world.
Yes, yesterday, Dorothy Day would told the Pope and the world
watching about the sin of spending 42.2% of every income tax dollar
in the USA on the military - on the average, $2,700 per household,
compared to $2,600 for social security, $330 for education.
Where did Dorothy Day get the strength to continue to prod us to be
all encompassing in our devotion to the Gospel which directly
challenges our apathy and our NIMBY reactions? In the same place
where Edwina urged us in Spirit and Lifestyle to find that strength,
that awareness and sensitivity and caring for all God's People - in
prayer.
You will find the complete WCR editorial and also an article on the
Guatemala Bishop defending the rights of his peoplefor land and water
against a Canadian gold mine at www.wcr.ab.ca
Cecily
4/29/2008
Choosing Civility
VMM missionaries
are therefore listeners,
Our witness will be seen
when God's Spirit
is so strong within us
that it is visible
in our lives and actions
Christ was available to all,
and reached out
to the poor, the sick
and the rejected.
His mission is now ours.
It is a call to be wherever
there is injustice
of any kind.
Spirit and Lifestyle
This morning's paper had an article on considerate conduct, a program
based on Pier Massinmo Formi's book Choosing Civility. Civility for
the sake of impressing people, the civility of politicians and sales
persons, is not convincing. But the civility that comes from who we
are - the one we have to work so hard to achieve - comes from God's
Spirit within us and is so strong that it is visible in our lives and
actions. The first ten of Formi's 25 rules are: Pay attention,
Acknowledge others, Think the best, Listen, Be inclusive, Speak
kindly, Don't speak ill, Accept and give praise, Respect even a
subtle "no", Respect others' opinions.
A modified version of last week's reflection appears as a letter in
the latest issue of the Western Catholic Reporter at www.wcr.ab.ca
Cecily
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