3/21/2011
Aware of the support and prayer of the whole VMM, our task is to be
true Christian witnesses in the world, with that freedom and
flexibility that invites and embraces all. - Spirit and Lifestyle
A few weeks ago I bought a book: Jesus: A Biography from a Believer
by Paul Johnson. I have read it quite quickly since I want to give it
to one of our building's good samaritans as a token of my
appreciation for her volunteering to pick me up at the hospital after
the cataract surgery. She usually takes public transit but she told
me she keeps her car for these trips of mercy. One chapter especially
peaked my interest: Jesus's New Ten Commandments. The OT Ten
Commandments are not exactly inspiring so I read with interest.
The first is: each of us must develop a true personality ... each of
us is unique ... our personality, as we shape it and carry it, stands
absolutely alone in the face of God. The social and political
implications of personality are infinite and become the essence of
Christianity. Personality, human uniqueness, is the glory of the
human race. It makes us accountable, responsible.
The second commandment is: accept, and abide by, universality. The
consistent, daily, unremitting implication of Jesus's teaching is to
see the human race as a whole. We are all neighbor in the eyes of
God, and we must all become neighbors in our own eyes. For Jesus, the
love of God implied that you loved your neighbor as yourself.
Neighborliness is a wonderful new commandment.
The third commandment is: respect the fact that we are all equal in
God's eyes. Striving to be first was something Jesus found to be
distasteful. Equality as Jesus taught it was not an abstract doctrine
but a living practice.
The fourth commandment is the need for love in human relationships,
at all times and in every situation. You cannot lay down laws of
love. What you can do is to show it.
The fifth commandment concerns mercy. We are to show mercy just as
God shows it to us. It's intimately connected with "love." It is
something which cannot be done in excess and is significant even in
its minutest expression.
Balance is the sixth new commandment: patience, forbearance, self-
control, calmness, serenity, the pursuit and maintenance of quiet
amid the storms of life.
Balance, the sixth, is linked to the seventh: the cultivation on an
open mind.
The eight is the pursuit of truth, whole and unabridged, simple and
pure - I am the way, the truth and the life." The truth is both God's
truth and truth in nature. Jesus loved nature because he loved the
truth. He saw nature as providential,orderly, satisfying, and beautiful.
The ninth concerns power, its exercise and the respect due to the
powerless.
The tenth is to show courage - courage not only in resisting but in
enduring wrong.
Cecily
3/15/2011
We wish rather, to ground our own personal and spiritual growth in striving to become fully human within the context of our work and service in the world. We represent a variety of charisms and lifestyles and may be distinctive only by our commitment and openness to the Spirit of God. Each VMM missionary takes personal responsibility to seek and pursue fullness of Christian faith in his or her own situation and lifestyle - Spirit and Lifestyle
Growth seems to be the theme this week. I love the readings for Lent:
- Your God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love
- Now is the acceptable time!
- Choose life
- They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither
- Is not this the fast that I choose: to loosen the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
- The Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.
On Ash Wednesday, three simple - and sensible - things to do as Lent
begins:
Pray. Find that quiet, private space where you can be alone with your thoughts and alone with God. Taking time for yourself isn't selfish; it is about making room in your life to nurture your relationship with God.
Fast. Try to make healthy choices and support local producers.
Consider fasting from criticism, impatience, inflexibility.
Give Alms. With a generous spirit share what you have with those who have less. And share often. Know that acts of justice and compassion bless both the giver and the recipient.
Cecily
3/7/2011
Our mission begins with our faith in the Resurrection which send us out on the path of Jesus in hope and love to all the world. As lay persons we wish to demonstrate the ability of all men and women to be fully committed Christians whilst pursuing our own lifestyles and work in the world. We do not separate our mission as Christians from our day to day life. - Spirit & Lifestyle
Friday, the World Day of Prayer, Christians in more than 170 countries prayed together. This year's service was prepared by women of Chile: How Many Loaves Have You? Next year, the World Day of Prayer service will be written by the women of Malaysia on the theme "Let Justice Prevail." We were 36 in All Saints Anglican Cathedral yesterday. There I met Suzanne from my condo building - the one who volunteered to pick me up from the hospital on Feb. 3 after my first cataract surgery and who already has the date of my second circled on her calendar. This morning, I noted that the $75,000 collected at the 2010 WDP services were distributed to 35 organizations from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America & the Caribbean, Canada and USA, working for women.
Feb. 22, I sent you the core values of Caritas, the official emergency relief organization of the Catholic Church with a network of 165 member countries. Some countries are very poor but gladly offer to gather funds when there is a disaster such as the earthquake in Haiti in 2010. Lesley-Anne Knight, the Secretary General of Caritas, who was in Edmonton on Feb.17, was refused a second 4-year appointment by the Vatican even though she was the organization's choice. At least 80% of Caritas workers are lay people, a majority are women and most of theme are volunteers. A very small percentage right at the top is composed of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church.
Unfortunately, I'll put it crudely, it seems the Vatican wants to hand out religion with the aid and to maintain a short leash on the Secretary General. Caritas is committed to improved communication with the Vatican but with a proviso: Vatican officials have to understand that dialogue is a two-way street.
Caritas reflects the social mission of the Church, Here are its core values:
Dignity: We see the poor as dignified human beings, not hopeless objects of pity, and we work with them to build a better future for themselves.
Justice: We believe you cannot make a gift of something a person should already have by right. We challenge economic, social, political and cultural structures opposed to a just society.
Solidarity: We work to enhance solidarity with the poor, seeing the world through their eyes, and recognizing the interdependence of humanity.
Stewardship: We believe the planet and all its resources are entrusted to humankind and seek to act in an environmentally responsible way as true stewards of creation.
As stated in Spirit & Lifestyle, this mission of its very nature cannot be a temporary thing. It is a total commitment to the Gospel, and can be nothing less than a way of life.
I am VM of March on the VMM website - check it out!
Cecily
3/1/2011
We take the Gospel seriously. We must live it. In giving ourselves to each other, we will come to fullness of love and revelation. We pursue our mission with that same trust and confidence that Christ had, for we know that God is with us and will not leave us alone: "I shall ask God 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, but you know, because the Spirit is with you, and in you. I will not leave you orphans." (Jn.
14:16-18) Spirit and Lifestyle
Trying to make my city a better place for all to live was a full-time job last week. On Feb 18, a local botanist, Elizabeth Beaubien, forwarded me the report from the Edmonton Public Works Department in response to a councillor's inquiry on the feasibility of a pesticide restriction bylaw in Edmonton and asked if I would write one of my "famous letters to the editor" on this topic and attend a committee of City Council meeting on Restriction of Pesticides. I never said yes but the next day I read the newspaper article on the release of the report: "Pass on pesticide ban: Prohibitions difficult to enforce, raise maintenance costs." And I read the articles on pesticides I had filed away since 2004 and realized that since 2004 a small group of city councillors had struggled unsuccessfully to restrict pesticides. I wrote the letter to the Edmonton Journal, sent a copy to Elizabeth and said I would speak to the committee. I spent several more hours writing my five-minute presentation for the Feb 23 meeting. The first 30 minutes of the meeting which began at 1:30 were devoted to presentations by two guests invited by the Public Works Department - a representative from federal Pest Management Regulatory Agency and one from Alberta's regulatory agency assured us lawn care pesticides were needed and were perfectly safe and that the danger was actually not using them. Government regulatory agencies side with the industry! There were 21 presenters - three from various cancer groups, three from environmental groups and 15 from the lawn care industry, including a few of "what I do on my property is no one's business." A front page report from the Edmonton Journal Civic Affairs Writer was entitled: Lawn lovers decry pesticide 'extremists:' City committee hears from both sides of green grass vs chemical dangers question." The presentations ended at 5 pm and I went off to a projects committee meeting at Change for Children. I
missed the evening news but various people "saw" me on the news!
Friday my letter was published in the Journal and Elizabeth sent me a bunch of reports on dioxins. Would I write a one-page primer on dioxins for the City Council committee? I didn't respond but yesterday I spent 5 hours reading and writing a one-page primer!
My second City Council committee meeting was on Thursday. It wasn't supposed to be this way. It was originally scheduled to be in January. This time we were only 7 presenters - 4 of us to preserve a park named in honour of a long time social worker in the inner city and three on behalf of the local businesses of Chinatown to get rid of homeless who frequent the park and convert it into a traditional Chinese garden with an entrance fee. This meeting was much easier.
Here's my presentation:
Mayor Mandel and City Councillors
Something I regret is not having known Mary Burlie that well. I first met her at Change for Children, - the founders of CFC Hank and Tillie Zyp are here today - where she volunteered and served on the board because she believed in making a difference through grassroots development projects in the Third World. She also believed in human dignity for those less fortunate in our own city. When she found out she had little time left to live she decided to have a wake while she was still well enough to enjoy it. For hours, people filed into the basement hall of Sacred Heart Church. Everyone was welcome. Everyone had a story. Over the years her family had grown as she welcomed into her home anyone who needed a home.
Mary Burlie Park was an honour bestowed on this wonderful woman before her death in 1996. It was an honour she accepted with humility and with joy. I have no doubt that she foresaw it would be a meeting place and given the location, a meeting place for those on the street, with sore feet, tired from carrying all day their belongings, a rest place from dumpster diving. Maybe also a place to wait before visiting someone in the remand centre - A place to have a quiet conversation. There are fewer and fewer such places in the inner city. It is a shame to have 2,500 homeless in Edmonton and to have
57 who died in 2010 from causes stemming directly or indirectly from homelessness. Homeless people, the elderly escaping a dreary basement room, the poor, the unemployed, need places to spend the long hours but they are not welcome. City Centre removed the comfortable seats they had on the various levels of the shopping centre.
I hope you will consider keeping Mary Burlie Park where it is now. I would also recommend providing it with real bathrooms just like the ones found in Emily Murphy Park and with regular cleaning of the park. I would also suggest various inner city agencies visit the park and provide coffee and snacks and that all of us not hesitate to drop by. To convert this park into a private area where the homeless once again are not welcome would be a travesty of the park's original designation.
I’ll finish with Mary Burlie’s own words recorded in 1970: (Mary was a Black woman who came to Edmonton from the USA and never lost her way of speaking)
People are always saying: Mary, you’re doing a doing job.” When I see poverty is growing, when I see a woman lost her house, losing her job, being cut off from her social assistance … “Yes, Mary, you’re doing a blood good job. You’ve got awards … I feel I’m part of the system.” I can’t begin to explain how awful it feel. How can I feel comfortable, when I know a men and women are struggling to keep food on the table because the guidelines don’t allow them to access assistance. I would really feel good if I could see change turn- around; If the government sit down with the poor and say ‘we’re going to start program to get employment.”
It take us all the change to have a consciousness about our responsibility not only in the community but in the government and in the churches. If we don’t start getting serious about poverty, we’re going to have a situation we’ll have no say over.
It seems the Mayor got the message. Friday's report in the Journal quoted him: "There are homeless people down there, but they have nothing to do all day. What kind of facilities are we going to have for them?"
Cecily
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