5/6/2008
My Dream
This short article was just published in the Seed Keepers, the
magazine of the Catholic Network for Women's Equality. They had asked
me to contribute a short article On Imagination: Spring's Daughter to
accompany the Mary Oliver's quote: "Whoever you are, the world offers
itself to your imagination."
>
>
> My dream was to be a missionary. In 1955, to be a missionary, one
> had to enter a religious order. So I did. Years passed. It became
> obvious I would not be sent to a foreign mission but I kept hoping
> and longed to escape the college where I was teaching in Montreal.
> I was dying inside. I left.
>
> Thirty-three years later, I met Edwina Gateley, a woman who also
> had a dream to be a lay missionary but did not take "no" for an
> answer. After four years in Africa, teaching in a school run by
> missionary sisters, she knew she wanted to be a missionary but as a
> layperson. She heard Vatican II call for laity’s full and active
> involvement in the Church’s life and mission. So she did the
> impossible: she founded a movement of lay missioners, the Volunteer
> Missionary Movement. By the time I met Edwina, the word
> "missionary" scared me but in the three years I spent in Guatemala
> with VMM, I knew that my dream had come true. I was a missionary.
>
> I continue to be a missionary each day. Sometimes this involves
> accompanying delegations to Central America. Most days it means
> volunteer work, writing, and teaching. Weekly, I write a reflection
> for the VMM e-group. Often I quote from Edwina’s Spirit and
> Lifestyle. Edwina’s prophetic words never cease to fire my
> imagination and give wings to my dreams:
>
> Our mission begins with our faith in the Resurrection
> which sends us out on the path of Jesus
> in hope and love to all the world.
>
> As laypersons 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.
>
>
Cecily
We work and live
side by side with the people
sharing our talents, friendship and love.
This pre-supposes an openness
to the needs of others
and the humility to meet them
wherever they are at.
It calls for a spirit
of confidence and poverty
which is ever ready
to listen and respond to others.
This spirit of poverty
makes itself available
as fertile ground open
to whatever fruit the Lord
wishes to plant.
We may never see
the results of our work.
Spirit and Lifestyle
The first delegation I led with Witness for Peace, in Nicaragua, in
October 1992, was intimidating. The group consisted of select
delegates for a special delegation to the 500 Years of Indigenous,
Black and Popular Resistance conference in Managua. In the
preliminary introductions, in our WFP group, one delegation said: "I
am an activist." Then I never thought I would become an activist and
I was sure that if I did I would not declare that I was an activist.
Guess what? I did become an activist and I am getting closer to
saying with some degree of comfort: "I am an activist," although it
feels more comfortable to say: "I am socially, culturally and
politically committed." Confirming that my uncertainty is not
unusual, activist Santiago Caballero Nuñez reported at the World
Conference of Secular Institutes in 2006, that this commitment
presents many difficulties and pitfalls:
- We often experience a sense of powerlessness in the face of the
magnitude of the economic and political structures that run our
lives, we feel defenseless in the face of the magnitude of evil and
sin in the world.
- We don't know how to do things, how to participate, where to focus
our endeavors
- We have a certain degree of suspicion or fear regarding public
commitment: "Politics and power have a corruptive effect and distract
us from what is essential in life." Strange, many outstanding
Christians are/were strongly committed to public life.
- We fear the difficulty of the journey, the wear and tear. True,
active social and political participation requires "long distance
runners," people with a long term vision of things, and this is not
easy but is also part of the demands of our baptism and our vocation.
There are many associations, such as VMM, which in a stable and
organized way, enable us to provide continuity and amplitude.
- There are personal pitfalls, countless and quite varied with their
half truths: "I have no time," "I don't feel prepared," "It's not
possible to be everywhere," etc. We forget that a little done by many
people accomplishes great things.
Caballero Nuñez presents two basic convictions:
- In our faith, we have received a gift and a responsibility. The
Gospel sheds light on the human situation. We have much to
contribute. Better than anyone else we know the profound aspirations
of the human heart, as well as the dignity embodied in each person by
virtue of God's love for us.
- We also know the impact of a minority. The world is managed and
moved by economic, political, religious and mass media minorities.
Active minorities get things done! Early Christian communities dared
to tackle a pagan civilization and transformed it. We need to "think
globally and act locally." Or in the words of Margaret Mead: "No one
doubts that a small group of thoughtful and committed citizens can
change the world." Each one of us is called to find our space, mode
and level of action. There is an extensive range of possibilities for
action in public life. Some of these activities will be more external
or visible, while others will support them from behind the scenes.
All are equally necessary.