July 26
Our task is then, to continue our works as missionaries
in our own home countries. Our mission is a life long commitment to justice and
transformation. It is a prophetic task. We help renew and invigorate our own
church, for we recognize our own needs, inadequacies and hunger. And we
acknowledge that we too, in the rich and stronger nations are in need of
evangelization. - Spirit and Lifestyle
"The common call of every Christian, by virtue of
baptism, is the call to Discipleship," said Tony Gittens, CSSp, Saturday
morning, at the VMM Assembly. Tony had no time to get through all the hand-out,
so I invite you to fill our for yourself Point 9:
The Outcome - the Fruit - of Discipleship:
• "Encounter": the only way to love, one person
at a time
* "Table-fellowship" ministry: (companionship =
"bread-sharing")
* "Foot-washing" ministry: "As I have
done, so you must do."
* "Boundary-breaking" ministry: mission. Beyond
comfort-zone.
Disturb us, Lord,
when
We are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth, We have allowed
our vision Of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.
attributed - sir francis drake -1577
July 19
Our task is then, to
continue our works as missionaries in our own
home countries. Our mission is a life long commitment to justice and
transformation. It is a prophetic task - Spirit and Lifestyle
"The common call of every Christian, by virtue of baptism, is the
call to Discipleship," said Tony Gittens, CSSp, Saturday morning, at
the VMM Assembly. This week it dawned on me why and how it is a
"prophetic task." Matthew 11: 25-27 (also Luke 10:21-22) which Tony
quoted appeared in the liturgy of July 13: "I thank you Father, Lord
of Heaven and Earth, because you have hidden these things from the
wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes,
Father, for such is your gracious will." Jesus points out that
anyone can be a disciple. One needs to be a learner, not necessarily
learned. An "infant," still illiterate, has no language. The
"learned" are self-excluded. Jesus sends an invitation to those
struggling for something more. "Learn from me," not in an academic
way but as an apprentice. Jesus models for us. We "come to know,"
come to know God in an intimate way. We have a willingness to learn,
to learn from Jesus. We are disturbed enough to keep on going. We are
burdened and we are willing to recognize that we are. The rich young
man could have been given an A+ on keeping commandments 4 to 10. He
did good things and expected God to be grateful. Jesus' call was
different. The implication of discipleship was to follow to Jerusalem
- to change directions - to go where he'd rather not go. The poor
rich man was not willing to be disturbed, not willing to go on a co-
mission, on God's mission, an eternal mission. We are called to
faith, to move mountains.
I'll continue next week but hope many of you moved by Tony's
talk or by the words noted above will join in this shared reflection.
Cecily
July 12
Our task is then, to continue our works as
missionaries in our own
home countries. Our mission is a life long commitment to justice and
transformation. - Spirit and Lifestyle
"The common call of every Christian, by virtue of baptism, is the
call to Discipleship. We will explore discipleship and see where each
of us is called, challenged, and co-missioned," is how the VMM
Assembly program described Tony Gittens, CSSp, Saturday morning talk.
I had grabbed a second cup of coffee to stay awake but instead Tony
woke me with " if you want to know how NOT to be a disciple watch the
apostles. Instead watch the women!" Discipleship (mathetes - "a
disciple' or "to make disciples" occurs 250 times in the Gospels,
Acts, Epistles- a lot of times considering neither John nor Paul nor
early Christians use the term. Matt 11:29 is the call to
discipleship: God's mission shared with Jesus' followers. It's a
"discipleship of equals." In practice in scripture many women are
disciples; yet no woman is explicitly named "disciple."
In Tony's handout the steps to discipleship are listed as:
Encounter/Call - Jesus encounters real, actual people, often by name
(Viktor Frankl); Looks into the eyes; one by one; you can't love an
abstraction (H. R. Niebuhr)
Displacement/Disturbance - Wordsworth: "I have have felt a presence
that disturbs me." God disturbs: we pray to be disturbed; we become
Godly disturbance. "There is a disturbing quality about the urgency
of Jesus' call - a shaking of the foundations - that those who want a
quiet life are bound to resent and resist." from James D. G. Dunn.
Jesus Remembered.
Commission - Initiative or response? The purpose of call is co-
mission: sending forth, centrifugal, exocentric.
From my notes: Fugitives run away but disciples run in the other
direction. A call to discipleship often is a call to make a 180
degree change of direction, to go where we would rather not go.
Everybody can be a disciple; there's no elitism here.
I'll continue next week but hope many of you who were moved by Tony's
talk or by the words noted above will join in this shared reflection.
Cecily
July 5th
Our task is then to continue our works
as missionaries in our own
home countries. Our mission is a life long commitment to justice and
transformation. It is a prophetic task. Spirit and Lifestyle
I sit here in the dark, light all around me but none ever penetrating
my hard skull. Kids smiling, laughing and talking everywhere I look.
I'm surrounded by people yet I've never been so lost and alone. As an
infant your soul's like a seedling, freshly planted, watered daily,
being prepared to grow into a strong, unwavering structure. But
unlike others as I grew older, the watering became less frequent, the
sunlight began to fade, and my leaves began to drop. Now while my
classmates' souls have grown strong and healthy into powerful oaks
and beautiful wills, mine has not. If you were to look into my eyes,
past my worn and cracked glasses, you would see my soul. And what you
would see would make you weep. Past the smile I paste on day after
day is my tree stuck in eternal winter, leaves gone, sky dark gray,
bark cracked beyond repair. You would pray for me that maybe it's
only a winter slumber, that when the spring comes 'round again it
will spring back to life in all its previous glory. But now I know
the truth that leaves me without hope. I know that the sun could
shine harder than ever before, day and night. That the heavens could
open wide and drop all its rains upon my rocks, and it still wouldn't
change a thing because beyond my fake smile, my tree is beyond
repairing, beyond watering, beyond caring. It is dead. My soul is
dead. - Alexandra Martin, grade 9.
This is the message Alexandra placed with her self-portrait. She was
one of 32 grade 1-12 students out of over 1100 whose art work was
selected for THE WORKS, an art and design festival in 27 venues in
downtown Edmonton. This year the volunteers were sporting lime green
t-shirts with USE YOUR RIGHT BRAIN FOR A CHANGE. Students from
Alexandra's art class designed an open mask of their head and face to
reveal what was inside. Behind Alexandra's mask was an oak tree whose
dark trunk and branches stood grimly against a steel-grey, desolate
winter sky.
I read and reread Alexandra's message. I wondered if the lowest
branch that had been cut off - an unusually large branch -
represented something cut off from Alexandra's life. I wondered if
the art teacher was concerned about the message; if the Public School
Board committee that had framed the winning entries, and typed
Alexandra's message had worried about Alexandra. I wondered if
Alexandra was among Edmonton's foster children. This year, in
Edmonton, 58 foster children gathered to celebrate their Grade 12
graduation. Among the graduates, Miranda Moniuk, 18, who lived in 29
foster homes since she was four, moved into group homes an an
independent minor at 16, before eventually getting her own apartment.
"One of the first things I learned in foster care is you're not even
worth a goodbye. Life feels fragmented. You feel pretty worthless....
High school is the biggest thing that defines me as a person. I
didn't think I'd be able to do it. I've always had great marks, but I
didn't think I had the motivation to do it, to graduate, to come this
far and go to post-secondary, but I had to. I had to prove people
wrong. I had to be like, 'I can do this. I'm not a failure," said
Miranda defiantly posing as a Warrior Queen ready to take on the
world, in her black party dress, her long thick auburn hair cascading
from a gigantic black top hat. Part of Miranda's success was her
choice to remain at Sturgeon Composite High School in St. Albert (a
town just north of Edmonton) all three years, even when she had to
endure long bus rides.
On the other hand, former foster child Stormie Stephen, who addressed
the graduating foster children, moved into her last foster home when
she turned 12 and remained there until age 19. There, she learned to
let someone else be the adult. "It's hard when you're used to doing
everything yourself and relying on you. It was nice to have the
freedom to grow, but have that structure to know that I don't need to
be in control all the time. I can let other people be in control....
It was just weird having that wholesomeness, but it was just nice
they were very welcoming." Today, she's completing her nursing degree.
We'll never know Alexandra's story. I pray her tree, her dead soul,
revives.
Cecily
|