Back from a fabulous weekend with almost 2,000 Catholic women at the Seattle Convention Center. Couldn’t have imagined a better place to be this weekend. The theme was "Uprising of Hope" and I am indeed feeling very hopeful. Figure I could share some of the seeds of hope I gathered. These randomly sorted thoughts are from my notes which recorded gems from the keynote speakers (Bernice Johnson Reagon, Elizabeth Johnson and Edwina Gately), prayers, songs and rituals, and conversation with other women. Enjoy!
"I sing better since I laid my burden down."
"Apathy and despair come when we find the task of taking up the reign of God’s justice to be too much trouble to bother."
"We must confront the shadows and offer new possibilities and creative solutions. It’s not going to be easy or clean."
"Each of us has to make a choice for life, for new possibilities."
"It doesn’t matter what happens to you if you act from your core."
"Hopelessness adapts and hope resists. We must resist all forms of diminishment, violence, destruction."
"What can we do? We can come up with a million different ways to be a collective pain in the ass."
"Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity."
"To the end that we do not stand up for justice, we are complicit."
"The mystery of infinite love is the firmest ground on which to place our anchor of hope."
"Divine creativity hovers close to turbulence."
"When we move towards chaos, rather than everything falling apart new wonders sometimes emerge at the edges. It is the Spirit at work."
"Right in the middle of chaos our voices must rise up with the vision of Jesus."
"We are not alone on this journey – the 3rd person of the Trinity is with us."
"Our faith and our hope are centered on God."
"Our actions don’t have to be huge. In fact, we will probably only be effective if we each work on our own little part."
"We ourselves are expectant with the power of God."
"It is the crack of your heart that lets the mystery in. Perhaps that very crack will be the source of new life."
"We need to reclaim and practice the gifts we have been given to participate in co-creating the world with our God."
"The Holy Spirit is loose and free and moves among us to call us to spiritual and moral leadership for which we and the world hunger."
"Hear my sisters’/brothers’ prayer, for it is my prayer too."
"Be not afraid to be who you are. Trust the spirit. Find your strength to carry on."
1 comment:
{happy sigh} Thanks for sharing these, especially that last line. One of the things I've struggled with in my own life is being me and I'm learning that God made me to be me, not anybody else and indeed, the world needs me to be me just as much as I need me to be me.
Thanks also for a lovely blog. I hope to be a regular reader.
God bless you during your vacation! :)
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