2/5/2008
Agrarian Parables
We believe that God calls all People
to peace and unity
through justice and a sharing
of world resources and goods.
We wish to challenge and dissolve
the barriers that divide
people and Church and nations.
We stand for oneness in
the body of Christ.
We commit ourselves
to the service of Our God
to work among all people,
seeking to break down all forms
of injustice and oppression,
and all inequalities
of sex, status, color,
creed or nationality.
Spirit and Lifestyle
I never cease to be amazed at the depth and richness of "Spirit and
Lifestyle." This passage can provide a whole week of reflection.
Nevertheless, I'll add the translation I made for my delegation
companions of the homily on Sunday, January 27, at the mass at the
chapel where Romero was killed on March 24, 1980, in San Salvador:
Jesus started his ministry in Galilee - a region largely
agricultural. Many of the parables are based on the local
agriculture, as well as the danger of traveling and the closeness of
the "pagan" regions. The Galileans are open to ideas, flexible and
brave - a young population. Jesus was raised in Galilee and did most
of his ministry there. He's a country person, a farmer at heart. Many
of the apostles are poor farmers, fishermen, animal herders, simple
folk without great education. They are patient, knowing how to wait.
You wait for results. As disciples of Jesus, we need not get
discouraged in lack of results. We need to be courageous when the
boat is rocked in storms - it's part of life. We need to face
persecution. As fishermen, we need to see - see the time to talk, the
time to act, to be sensitive to the Spirit who lives in us. We need
to see each one as important and not let ourselves be influenced by
external features, appearance, education, power, etc. We need to live
our calling in ordinary circumstances of life.
I met Richard Schmaltz for a short, intense visit in Antigua while
our delegation's luggage was transfered from our Guatemala van to our
El Salvador van. He and Susan send their greetings.
Cecily
2/12/2008
Almsgiving
"Of its very nature
this mission cannot be
a temporary thing.
It is a total commitment
to the Gospel,
and can be nothing less than a way of life."
Spirit and Lifestyle
A total commitment . . . each time I hear from VMs I never cease to
be amazed at how their mission wasn't a temporary thing. Truly in
their lives it is a total commitment.
Lent isn't my favorite season and this year it felt insulting that it
should arrive before I was ready! Barely back from El Salvador and
Guatemala, facing freezing weather, short days and long nights, I
needed to bask a bit longer in the Christmas atmosphere. The message
for Ash Wednesday stressed three lenten practices: almsgiving, prayer
and fasting, but went on to explain that all three practices are ways
of improving our relationships with others, with God and with ourselves.
Almsgiving is a way of sharing with others our gifts and resources,
be they material or spiritual, and thus acknowledging the value of
the other person. I thought of our 13 missioners - they are all
raising as much money as possible but certainly not enough to cover
all the costs involved. Could we, each of us, do a bit more to
support our missioners in the field? VMM is such a great
organization to support - could we each write to a few of the people
who supported us and tell them how much VMM still means to us? We
could give year round - VMM's expenses occur year round!
Prayer, which is dialogue with God, deepens our experience of God's
presence, strengthens our knowledge of God, and makes us more aware
of our dependence on the one who created us and sustains us in life.
I have a hard time finding time during the day and so I get up
earlier, make a cup of coffee and treat myself to 45 minutes of quiet
time. I'm rereading Gustavo Gutierrez' We Drink from our own Wells:
The Spiritual Journey of a People, a few lines at a time, both in
English and Spanish. It's a way to revive HOPE.
Fasting - for me it is "fasting from" - judgments, complaints, over-
busyness, not listening, always being right, etc.
If any of you might like to observe the elections in El Salvador in
2009, CIS (Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad) is organizing 6- and
3-month volunteer sessions for Spanish speakers and observation
sessions of two weeks for the January and the March elections -
www.cis-elsalvador.org. A great way to meet the people of El Salvador!
Cecily
2/19/2008
Merciful
We take the Gospel seriously.
We must live it.
In giving ourselves to each other,
we will come
to fullness of love
and revelation.
Spirit and Lifestyle
Taking the Gospel seriously is not easy. Today - Monday of the Second
Week of Lent - the Gospel is Luke 6:36-38
Jesus said to his disciples: "Be merciful, just as your Father is
merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn,
and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven;
give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down,
shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the
measure you give will be the measure you get back."
Each year at the end of Lent, I put away the booklet of daily
reflections I used for that year. Three years later, the same
readings return. "Sacred Journey" from Novalis uses excerpts from
books they have published for the daily reflections. The Feb 2008
excerpt is from Janet Malone's Transforming Conflict and Anger into
Peace and Nonviolence: A Spiritual Direction and focuses on Etty
Hillesum, a Jewish women in Holland during the Nazi occupation.
Hillesum writes: "Do not relieve your feelings through hatred, not
seek to be avenged on all German mothers for they, too, sorrow at
this very moment for their slain and murdered sons." Malone remarks
that "Hillesum noted that hatred can be petty .... Indignation, on
the other hand, must run deep and get to the core issues of
injustice, violence and oppression".
In the 2005 version of "Sacred Journey", Vivian Ligo (Singing the
Lord's Song in a Foreign Land: Reclaiming Faith in a New Culture)
writes: "The tragedy of our world lies in the victimizer's inability
to seek forgiveness, and the victim's inability to grant it. We
demand justice, but do not demand forgiveness from ourselves. So we
repeat the cycle of violence and we teach our children to hate."
The third from 2002 is in French and here one person, an elementary
school teacher, writes the daily reflections. She concentrates on the
last verse on the good measure - some people give with good measure
in all kinds of activities and services. Not only are they generous
with their time, but they breathe the joy of living. They aren't
lonely or bored and rarely complain, although we know they also go
through hard periods.
The Gospel has so much to say to us today. Let's take it seriously!
Cecily
2/26/2008
Hapiness
We pursue our mission with
the same trust and confidence
that Christ had,
for we know that
God is with us
and will not leave us alone:
"And He will give you another Advocate
to be with you forever; that Spirit
of truth whom the world can never
receive, since it neither sees nor
knows the Spirit is with you, and
in you. I will not leave you orphans."
Jn 14:16-18 Spirit and Lifestyle
Having been with over 20 delegations in Latin America, I have often
heard the comment: "They live in such poverty but they are so happy."
The oft-heard comment makes me cringe. Yes, the people are smiling,
they are glad you are visiting them - aren't you happy when people
visit you and even if you aren't you're polite and look happy.
Visitors mean food and also a community gathering. Dawn and I will
tell you that it doesn't take much to make you happy when there isn't
much around. A chocobanano (frozen banana wrapped in chocolate),
hearing water running at 2 am and being able to fill the pila before
it runs out, a rainbow (rare in Chahal), a good joke, scrounging
enough vegetables to make soup. Your list of "wants" is whittled
down to nothing. Instead, you rejoice at the surprises. Just hearing
the bus going by at 4 am gave me hope; hearing the generator that
powered the corn grinder at 4 am also made me happy. All was right
with the world in Chahal.
On the last day of the delegation I participated in this January , a
young American Jesuit in training at UCA in San Salvador, started
his presentation with the words: "Our presence here is a sign of
hope." Just being here, whether as a member of a delegation or an
American working in El Salvador, or being here as a villager in a
reconstructed town or as a member of a coffee cooperative, or being
here in a community that's risen like a phoenix from the ravages of
the 2001 earthquakes, or being here still waiting to build a house
after more than two years of living in a church after Hurricane Stan
- all these are signs of hope.
Jon Sobrino wrote that "the greatest sin is despair." It means that
we think God cannot overcome failures. There's no hope. If we place
our trust in bank accounts, titles, jobs, we will despair when we
lose these. In Latin America, more frequently, the response to
adversity is profound faith and hope. There isn't a special word in
Spanish for "despair" - it is "perder toda esperanza", to lose all hope.
The people we meet in the delegations live the words of Spirit and
Lifestyle: "We pursue our mission with the same trust and confidence
that Christ had, for we know that God is with us and will not leave
us alone." Along with their warm welcome, this is the message they
have for us North Americans.
Cecily
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