Introducing ... National Catholic Sisters Week

Today is International Women's Day. It also happens to be the first day of the Inaugural National Catholic Sisters Week (March 8-14)! As a woman and a Catholic Sister I am happily celebrating both and invite you to do the same.

There are National Catholic Sisters Week events happening in certain parts of the country (like my young friends Sister Julia Walsh and Sister Julie Viera appearing on a special "Sisters Stories" event in collaboration with the awesome people at the Moth Radio hour - it will be live streamed today at 3PM Eastern).

The internet is also the place to be if you think #nunsrock, with websites and Facebook and Twitter happenings galore.

• Official National Catholic Sisters Week Facebook page
• Sister Story website and Facebook page
• A Nun's Life has lots of National Catholic Sisters Week action 
• There's a NCSW page on Pinterest
• National Catholic Sisters Week is on Twitter @NCSWeek

If you are on Twitter, enjoy the fun with these hashtags: #NCSW, #NationalCatholicSistersWeek, #CatholicSisters, and my personal favorite, #nunsrock.

The Facebook and Twitter (@SistersofPeace) pages of my own groovy Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace will also have special posts for National Catholic Sisters Week each day. Be sure to check them out!

Giving Voice to the Importance of Peers

Me with some of my GV Sisters at our
2013 National Conference

Regular readers of the blog know that I am involved with (and presently on the leadership team of) Giving Voice, a grassroots peer-led network of younger women religious that creates spaces for younger women religious to give voice to their hopes, dreams, and challenges in religious life.

Having a peer group is something that many of us take for granted in our lives. We grow up with the kids in our neighborhood and/or our classmates in school. In college we bond with age peers with similar interests as we explore new territory and learn by making mistakes. Young married couples with small children often find that they have more in common with the parents of their children's friends than with friends going through different stages of life.  We naturally seek, and developmentally we need, peers with whom we can journey through the ups and downs of life.

In religious life, our elder Sisters in community have always had a large ready made group of age peers to share ministry, prayer, and community life. They have grown up together and are growing old together. While the large group they entered with at 21 has certainly dwindled over the years, as they swam through the choppy waters after Vatican II and aged gracefully, they still share community with a sizable group of women within 5 to 15 years of their own age.

This reality is vastly different for younger women entering religious life today.  Often we are the only younger women, or one of a small group of younger members, in our particular community.  As our elders Sisters retire or move into active prayer ministry, we are just beginning our ministries or seeking to apply our energy to new endeavors.  As our elder Sisters look at leadership and community decisions with more years of religious life lived than on the horizon, we seek to find ways to bring our vital charisms to a needy world with smaller numbers and a very changed society over a longer horizon with many unknowns ahead. 

This also leads to a unique situation in community life. On the one hand, on a daily basis we navigate an unusual dance where women 20, 30, 40, or even 50 years older than ourselves are the women with whom we share prayer, community life, and sometimes ministry. As a result, even though we are by no means their age peers, in many ways as community members we relate as peers. Truth be told this is one of the unexpected gifts of religious life in the early 21st Century, which has become a laboratory for intergenerational and intercultural community living.  I have dear friends in community who are 75 or 84 or even 90. As I've been in the community longer, my treasure chest of shared experiences, in-jokes, and deep love is filled all the more. In many ways, I wouldn't trade this intergenerational experience for a large group of age peers in community. 

On the other hand, there is no denying that it is vitally important to have age peers in religious life as well.  Try as they might, my single or married friends outside community just cannot understand how funny x or y is that happens in community or why even though it makes absolutely no sense not only do I have to z, I really want to.  And try as they might, my elder Sisters in community just cannot understand what it is like to be part of such a small age minority at this transformational time in American religious life.

Luckily, I have always had women within 10 years of my age in community, albeit a small group. Since my novitiate classmate Chero and I entered almost 10 years ago 5 more women have entered. This is a gift.

Another gift has been my network of Giving Voice friends across congregations. I attended my first Giving Voice gathering, a retreat for Sisters in their 20s & 30s, during my novitiate.  I cannot tell you how much that retreat meant to me at that point. Oh wait, actually I already did, in a blog post way back in 2008:

In addition to our times for prayer, play, and more play, we also had some deep conversations about our lives and this larger religious life experience. It helped to have other voices expressing similar thoughts. I left feeling much stronger and part of something bigger. Religious life may be different, it may be smaller, but it will continue. These women are passionate about their communities, passionate about their ministries, and passionate about religious life. God is in the mix, and all shall be well.

In the years since, my Giving Voice peers have been an integral part of my own growth and development as a woman religious in the 21st Century.  We laugh, cry, play, and dream together, across the miles. Another amazing gift of this unique time in religious life is the opportunity to experience so many different charims mixing and mingling.  After every Giving Voice experience, whether it is a conference or a retreat or a conference call, I find myself amazed at the power of the Spirit moving through history.

Our Giving Voice network continues to grow, deepen, and develop with exciting opportunities on the horizon.  I can see more and more how my life as a Sister of St. Joseph of Peace will be strengthened and supported  by my Giving Voice peers across congregational lines well into our shared, if unknown, future. When I dream and pray about the future of religious life, I know what I knew at that first retreat as a novice. My Giving Voice sisters and their passion for God, life, religious life, and their own communities will help create that future even as we live it now. God is in the mix, and all shall be well.

I've aged out of the 20s/30s retreat, but it continues! In fact, there's a great article in the Catholic Sun (Phoenix Diocesan paper) that just came out. If you want some positive energy, do yourself a favor and click the link to read the article.

As for me, I continue to be energized and find great hope in my work on the Giving Voice Core Team. And this summer, I will be part of creating a new chapter in our shared history as I help to host our first Giving Voice retreat for Sisters in their 40s! God, my friends, is very good. And so is having peers.

Religious Life Today and Into the Future

Illustration from the America article.
For the record, I own one of these t-shirts.

My friend Sister Julia Walsh, FSPA has an amazing article in the current issue of America Magazine titled "Changed, Not Ended: A View of Religious Life from a Young Sister." I know Julia through Giving Voice, a group regular readers of the blog should be very familiar with. Giving Voice is a network of younger women religious, an opportunity for us to connect across congregations with our religious life age peers, to pray, reflect, have fun, and share our hopes, dreams, desires and experiences of this amazing yet counter-cultural way of life.

For the past few years, I have been honored to be part of the peer-leadership of Giving Voice. This has given me a real bird's eye view into the landscape of religious life, particularly as viewed from the horizon of younger women who have entered in the past 10-15 years.

While Julia is clear that she is writing from her own perspective, I must say that I resonate with so much of what she writes in this peace. For example:

About Giving Voice

• "Hope is obvious at [every Giving Voice] gathering. "
• "The collaboration and connections made possible through Giving Voice help us to keep saying yes to our vocations."

About living religious life today as a younger Sister

• "I appreciate my experience as it is."
• "This experience, of course, does have its challenges. As modern religious life—and its size—evolves, even the most hopeful and eager need to deal with practical consequences of transition. For me, the hardest element of the quickly shrinking population of my community is the regularity of death announcements."
• "I love being a sister because I am permitted to be the best version of myself within a community of like-minded, prayerful women."
• "The religious vows, prophetic in nature, free me to move to the edges and encounter God in new realms. This vocation creates opportunities to live a life of radical simplicity, solidarity and accompaniment with those who are oppressed."
• "Being a sister has warped my perception of age. Even though I am [41 - Julia is] 32, I feel as if anyone under 60 is my peer. That said, my experience of intergenerational communal living is energizing. I gain wisdom from my elder sisters; I am enriched by what they have lived through. I am humbled to know we young sisters are receiving their legacy."

About the future of religious life

• "Some people, focused almost exclusively on numbers, are concerned that religious life is in decline. This narrows our ability to see what God is doing."
• "Religious life is not in decline; it is simply changing. And it should change. New paradigms of religious life can emerge only if we are open to God changing us beyond our limited imagining and dreaming. We need to remember that numbers do not make communities. In fact, I prefer to be part of a community that feels more like a family than an institution. The freer and more open we are, the better we can live the Gospel according to God’s vision and not our own ideas. We can experience the freedom to have meaningful conversations about “right-sizing” and new forms of ministry. We acknowledge it can be life-giving for the size of community to decrease; lower numbers can open up new opportunities for healthy, intimate relationships." [I LOVE this entire paragraph and will be borrowing the term 'right-sizing']
• "I am not worried about changes in religious life; I am excited. I trust that God is up to something amazingly good. I believe that God is helping religious life evolve to meet the changing needs of society. "

And I LOVE and affirm her last sentence: "Thank God, by grace, we are in this together."

Thank you Julia for articulating so well what religious life looks like from the horizon of those in our 20s, 30s, or 40s.  

For any of you reading this who might be thinking that maybe possibly God might be calling you to this wonderful crazy life ... come on in, the water's fine! Seriously though, if anyone has any vocation or religious life related questions, my email box is always open. The address is in the side bar.

I may not know what the future of religious life will look like, but I know there are incredible needs in our world, powerful and prayerful women on the journey, and a loving God who is calling us into the future. Trust. Love. Risk. Live. Together!

Young Nun Gathering

Our Giving Voice National gathering is just two days away!  We've already got some press from Catholic San Francisco, the diocesan news service in the Bay Area!

Young sisters to gather in Bay Area for national convention
July 3rd, 2013
Under-50 Catholic sisters will gather at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont July 5-8 for the Giving Voice National Gathering. The sisters, most of whom are the youngest members of their religious orders, will pray and reflect on the future of mission and ministry in the church and society in the 21st century. Sister Yolanda Tarango, congregation leader of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word and a renowned theologian, will share her insights on the conference theme of “Mission and Ministry in the 21st Century.” 

The four-day national gathering will bring together vowed women religious from across North America representing more than 30 religious orders. Participants will pray, reflect and creatively imagine what the future ministry of Catholic sisters might look like given the growing number of people living in poverty or on the margins on society as well as the increasing intercultural reality. The sisters themselves represent this intercultural reality, and simultaneous translation will allow English- and Spanish-speaking participants to share in their own language. 

Religious life is in the midst of an historic shift, as the large novitiate classes of the 1950s and 1960s age and fewer women enter religious life today. On July 8, the sisters will participate in an outdoor interactive exercise to imagine “going on a mission” in smaller numbers in the future. 

Giving Voice is a peer-led grassroots national organization of Catholic sisters under the age of 50 that creates spaces for younger women religious to give voice to their hopes, dreams and challenges in religious life. The July conference is the seventh national gathering of younger women religious organized since 1997 and the first to take place on the West Coast. Previous gatherings have taken place in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland and Milwaukee.
For more information, visit www.giving-voice.org. 

From July 5, 2013 issue of Catholic San Francisco.
- See more at: http://www.catholic-sf.org/ns.php?newsid=27&id=61576#sthash.2Dwfakgz.dpuf

By the way, we will be blogging a bit from the conference.  Follow along on our Giving Voice 2013 blog!

Telling Stories & Jokes in Heaven - Sisters Joan and Mildred

I heard news this week that two of my CSJP Sisters passed away, Sister Joan Tresch, CSJP in New Jersey and Sister Mildred Morrissey, CSJP in Seattle.  Both had celebrated more than 60 years as Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace and will be dearly missed.  I never got a chance to get especially close to either one, yet they both welcomed me in their own special way to the community when I first entered and helped to make dark days lighter and lighter days even more enjoyable through their gift of story telling.

I first met Sister Joan when I was a candidate.  Long-time readers of the blog might remember that I went on a spy mission to get the lay of the land of our New Jersey community before I entered the novitiate. Joan was one of those who first introduced me to our CSJP tradition of gracious hospitality on that trip.  Tea, cake, and stories were on the menu.  Later when I had entered the novitiate and was having a hard time, on more than one occasion a funny story from Joan about days gone by would lift my spirits.

The funniest Joan story ever, which I know I cannot do justice to, was on the topic of swim suits in the first years after the Vatican Council.  As I recall the story, the Sisters were still wearing ancient swim costumes when they spent their week of vacation at our retreat house on the Jersey shore. They were old and cumbersome, with sleeves and skirt-like contraptions. One day after nearly drowning in the ocean when the skirt flipped over her head, the young Sister Joan went to the superior and asked if they could get modest modern swim suits for safety reasons.  After some consideration, the superior agreed, provided they wear long sleeve black t-shirts with the modern swim suits. Now, it was up to the local superior of each house to buy the long sleeve black t-shirts.  The superior of Joan's house couldn't find them, so she bought short sleeve t-shirts thinking they would suffice.  Flash forward to the next summer. Joan is swimming in her modest modern suit with short sleeve black t-shirt.  The same Sister who she had spoken to the last year (the head superior not of her house) summons her from the ocean with crooked finger. She asks about the t-shirt.  Joan explains.  The next thing Joan knows she is told to go up to the attic, fish out some black stockings, and sew them to the arms of her suit.  Crazy, but she does it.  All she really wants is to get back in the water.  The next thing she knows, the salt water turns the stockings that are now sleeves greeen!

It's been many years since I heard that story.  I'm sure I have the details wrong, but that doesn't matter.  What matters is that when I remember that story, I remember the dark day when I needed to laugh and she told me that story as we looked out at the same ocean where the story took place.  She lightened my heart and my load that day.

Sister Mildred, or Millie as we called her, was also known for her stories and quirky jokes.  I got to know Millie pretty well the year after the novitiate when I was living at groovy sister hq.  I had many of my meals with Millie.  We bonded because I'd come from Portland, Oregon and she'd grown up in Sheridan, Oregon.  More times than I could count, she'd look at me with a conspiratorial grin and launch into one of her many stories.  Even if I'd come to know the story, it was always a joy to hear her tell it.  What was most enjoyable was seeing how much she enjoyed making people laugh.

In recent years, both Sister Joan and Sister Mildred have had health issues which no doubt have made their lives less enjoyable than in years past.  I am comforted to think that they are both now in heaven with their loving God, telling stories and jokes to pass the time.

As for me, I am grateful for the chance to get to know both of these wonderful women.  They modeled for me the importance of laughter and sharing on the path of peace.

Eternal rest grant to them O God, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace for ever.  Amen

Dancing with God ... Sister Mary Matthew

I got word today that one of my CSJP Sisters passed away after a sudden stroke.  One of the hard parts of being away from community during this time for my studies is not being able to be with the community as we celebrate the life and love our Sisters who have gone home to God.  I know that the stories which will be told in the coming days of our dear Sister Mary Matthew Griffin will bring laughter and tears to all who loved her. Saying that she will be missed is an understatement.  We will not be the same community without her here on Earth, but I know she is praying deeply with us and for us now that she is with her loving God.

When I first met Sister Mary Matthew at a community assembly day, I wasn't quite sure what to make of her.  Unlike most of our Sisters at groovy sister hq, she wore a blue veil and suit. Most of our Sisters, no matter what their age, dress simply and wear our Peace Cross as their symbol of identity, per our Constitutions.  We have not had a community habit for several decades outside the Peace Cross.  But Sister Mary Matthew felt at home in her blue suit and veil (and Peace Cross).  She also was fairly outspoken.  We ended each of our community assemblies with an open mic session.  You could always count on Sister Mary Matthew to saunter up to the line and use the microphone to share her passionate opinions about some current issue with her Sisters.  What made this remarkable to me as an inquirer and later a candidate and novice was that her viewpoints were not always ones that resonated with most of her Sisters.  And yet she held her convictions deeply and spoke them with integrity.

I will never forget the assembly when it clicked ... Yes Sister Mary Matthew might be focusing on different aspects or perspectives on current issues than most of her Sisters.  But she loved our community deeply, just as she loved Jesus deeply, and she was able to be herself with us even when that might have made her different.  When I think of what makes a Sister of St. Joseph of Peace a Sister of St. Joseph of Peace, there's not just one thing.  We don't all look the same.  We don't all think the same.  We don't all act the same.  But in addition to the deep love of God, desire to follow Jesus and seek God's promise of peace for all God's people there is something.  There's a spirit, a spark, an integrity that shines through.  Sister Mary Matthew had that spark in spades.  It was just her own special variety. In many ways, I think Sister Mary Matthew kept us real.  She challenged us.  She loved us.  And we loved her.

One of my favorite memories of Sister Mary Matthew was at the end of one of our recent community assemblies.  After our intense day of prayer, conversation and business, we generally celebrate with a dinner and party.  Some of us like to roll up the carpet, push back the couch, and have a little impromptu disco dancing.  You haven't experienced CSJP community until you've danced!  Generally it's the younger ones of us (in spirit if not age) who enjoy this particular community activity.  In recent years, Sister Mary Matthew has joined us.  She was a blast, full of joy and energy, dancing with her Sisters.  I thought I remembered a picture of one of those gatherings, and sure enough, I found it.  Here's how I want to remember Sister Mary Matthew ... embracing her CSJP Sisters joyfully and playfully.

Eternal rest grant to her, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her.  May she rest in peace with you forever.  Amen.

Putting On my Bowling Shoes

Young Nun Valentine's Day Fun

Many moons ago, before the thought of becoming a Catholic Sister ever entered my mind, I was a run of the mill bureaucrat working a fairly boring government job with some great people.  Every month or so, we'd head out after work to go bowling.  It was a blast.  I'm not a very good bowler, but with this bunch of people, some of whom were excellent bowlers and one a former state champion, it was fun.  What wasn't so fun was renting shoes.  You see, I'm tall and as my mother was fond of saying, tall girls have big feet. So more often then not, I'd end up renting men's shoes.  Eventually the thought of renting shoes that had to be sanitized before each user led me to buy my own pair of bowling shoes.  Shortly thereafter, for reasons that I've been told are entirely unrelated to my purchase, we stopped our regular bowling outings.  But I still had these snazzy black suede bowling shoes.  As a result, in the decade + since I bought my own pair of bowling shoes, they have been used sparingly.  Yet whenever there is a chance to practice my not-so-good bowling skills, either on a visit with my niece who was living in Europe at the time or with my CSJP Sisters on St. Joseph's Day, my shoes and I are there.

I packed my shoes when I moved to Chicago to go to grad school.  And tonight I'm happy to report that they came off the shelf for a night of young nun bowling.  I have a good group of friends from Giving Voice, younger religious from different communities, who are living here in Chicago.  Tonight three of us went out bowling to celebrate Valentine's Day.  I couldn't have imagined a better way to spend the evening.  Was I a superstar bowler? No.  But I'm satisfied with my respective scores of 84 and 85.  As one of my friends who is a pretty good bowler said, at least I'm consistent!  An added bonus was to discover that there was also a skeeball machine at the bowling alley.  I only played two games of skeeball but earned a 220 and a 180.  I'm a much better skeeball player than I am a bowler!

Soon I'm hoping to give my shoes another test drive with some seminarian friends of mine from the philosophy class I took last Semester.  And who knows, there might be some more young nun bowling in my future as well!

All in all this was a good night to cap off a pretty intense first week of the Spring Semester.  I'm taking some GREAT classes, but the topics are pretty serious: Ethics of Power and Racism; Ministry, Spirituality and Human Rights Abuse Survivors; Methods in Theology & Ethics; and Sexual Ethics.  I think I might need something like periodic bowling outings to help decompress from all deep conversations and heavy reading lists!

Sister Noreen ... Beauty, Creativity & Hospitality

This week at west coast groovy sister hq, our CSJP community will be celebrating the life, love, and ministry of Sister Noreen Linane, CSJP.

While I am greatly enjoying the opportunity to study at CTU, one of the hardest parts of being away is not being able to join together with our Sisters, Associates, and friends as we celebrate the lives of our Sisters who have died.  The vigil for Sister Noreen will be tonight, the funeral on Monday.  I will be there in spirit.

How do you begin to describe Sister Noreen? If you want to know a bit about her years of faithful love and service as a Sister of St. Joseph of Peace, this obituary does a good job.  Since she entered our aspirancy in Ireland as a young woman during the WWII years, she ministered throughout the Pacific Northwest as a surgical nurse, hospital administrator, hospital chaplain, and office manager for a transitional housing program for women.

One of Sister Noreen's masterpieces

I only knew her in her "retirement" years at St. Mary-on-the-Lake where her ministry seemed to be art, beauty, creativity, a loving presence, and hospitality ... all with a gentle smile, a slightly mischievous twinkle in her eye, and an ever present Irish lilt in her speech. She helped make St. Mary-on-the-Lake our home.

Noreen was always on the go, creating incredibly beautiful flower arrangements and adding little touches of beauty to our Sisters' retirement residence on the shores of Lake Washington. She had many medical challenges in the years that I knew her, but she always got up, dusted herself off, and did all she could do to share her love of God and God's creation with those around her.

Last year I visited her during the Christmas holidays while she was recovering at a skilled nursing facility. She made me feel so welcome in her temporary home, like she was entertaining a guest, even without the usual touches of beauty she would add to her environs.  I still remember our conversation. We talked about the Eucharist and I am still reflecting on the insights and loving wisdom that she shared with me that day.

It is an understatement to say that the CSJP community will dearly miss Noreen.  Her sister Elizabeth is also a Sister of St. Joseph of Peace.  They have been a pair for so long, I am sure this will be a difficult transition for her and for all the Sisters at St. Mary-on-the-Lake.

Thank you Noreen for your gracious hospitality, your gifts of beauty, creativity and love.

Twinkling in Heaven

I got news this morning that Sister Mary Ann Reichlin, a constant and faithful presence at St. Mary-on-the-Lake passed away this morning.  The news came as quite a shock to me.  I received another email this afternoon that it came as a shock to everyone else as well.  She had not been sick, and in fact this week had been going about her regular tasks.  She lectored at mass on Monday. And the night before she died, she made her regular nightly rounds with her walker making sure that all the doors were securely locked.  She died peacefully this morning.

Sister Mary Ann was one of the first Sisters I met when I visited St. Mary-on-the-Lake for a vocation retreat in 2004.  I stayed overnight and I remember clearly her stopping by my room to make sure that I had everything I needed. She was always making sure that folks had what they needed, quietly, behind the scenes with a knowing (and I think ultimately mischevious) twinkle in her eye.  It's so very hard to imagine life at St. Mary's without her shuffling around or sitting in the dining room drinking her tea or coffee, observing the goings on.

Yet her presence I know will continue, just in new and different ways.  One of those will be her continued prayerful presence.  The email I received today said that she recently told one of the Sisters that she would be going to Rome for the Canonization of Kateri Tekawitha.  And as the email said, now she shall!  Which is only fitting.

Let me explain.  In 2006 when I was a candidate, I remember getting this email on our CSJP prayer listserv from Sister Mary Ann:

Please pray for my grandnephew, 6 year old Jacob Finkbonner and his parents.  Jacob has a tissue destroying infection after a face injury which persists even after several surgeries.  Also, kindly ask Kateri Tekawitha if she will help us with her prayers in this difficult case.

If you follow such things, Jacob is the little boy who was healed from what the doctors otherwise felt was a hopeless case leading (finally) to the canonization of Kateri Tekawitha.  Sister Mary Ann's family are members of the Lummi Nation.  Jacob had a flesh eating disease that the doctors at Seattle Children's Hospital could not stop.  His parish priest, knowing that the family and community had a devotion to Blessed Kateri, asked the local community to pray for her intercession.  Sister Mary Ann of course asked our CSJP community for prayers, which I clearly remember sending up to heaven after receiving the email.  Another CSJP, Sister Julie Codd, has ministered with the native American community for many years.  She was able to obtain a relic of Kateri from a Sister who works at the Tekawitha conference who happened to be traveling to Seattle.  The family held the relic to Jacob's body as they prayed for the intercession of Blessed Kateri.  His prognosis was grim and the doctors did not know what to do.  After the visit with the relic, he improved and the infection stopped spreading.  Jacob is doing well today.

Next week, Blessed Kateri will become Saint Kateri.  The Finkbonner family will be in attendance, as will Sister Julie Codd as the Seattle Archbishop's delegate.  And now, Sister Mary Ann will be there in spirit, looking on with a twinkle in her eye, however such things work in the after life.

An amazing story.  An amazing woman.  Thank you Mary Ann for welcoming me that first night, for welcoming me every time I saw you since, for your prayers, your presence, and your love for the CSJP Community, the Church, God and God's people.

Navigating the Shifts - Some Highlights

I promised to post the transcript of Sister Pat Farrell's address to the LCWR Assembly when it was available.  Do yourself a favor and read the whole thing when you have a chance.  It is powerful and deeply rooted I suspect in her own experience as a peacemaker in Latin America.  Until you have time to sink into the whole speech, here are some of the passages I found most powerful:

• Some larger movement in the Church, in the world, has landed on LCWR.  We are in a time of crisis and that is a very hopeful place to be.
• I think It would be a mistake to make too much of the doctrinal assessment.  We cannot allow it to consume an inordinate amount of our time and energy or to distract us from our mission.
• I also think it would be a mistake to make too little of the doctrinal assessment.  The historical impact of this moment is clear to all of us.
• The human family is not served by individualism, patriarchy, a scarcity mentality, or competition.  The world is outgrowing the dualistic constructs of superior/inferior, win/lose, good/bad, and domination/submission.  Breaking through in their place are equality, communion, collaboration, synchronicity, expansiveness, abundance, wholeness, mutuality, intuitive knowing, and love.   This shift, while painful, is good news!  It heralds a hopeful future for our Church and our world.
• How else can we go forward except from a place of deep prayer?
• Here is one image of contemplation:  the prairie.  The roots of prairie grass are extraordinarily deep.  Prairie grass acutally enriches the land.  It produced the fertile soil of the Great Plains.  The deep roots aerate the soil and decompose into rich, productive earth.  Interestingly, a healthy prairie needs to be burned regularly.  It needs the heat of the fire and the clearing away of the grass itself to bring the nutrients from the deep roots to the surface, supporting new growth. 
• As the burning of the prairie draws energy from the roots upward and outward, contemplation draws us toward fruitful action.   It is  the seedbed of a prophetic life.  Through it, God shapes and strengthens us for what is needed now.  
• Considering again the large and small shifts of our time, what would a prophetic response to the doctrinal assessment look like?   I think it would be humble, but not submissive; rooted in a solid sense of ourselves, but not self-righteous; truthful, but gentle and absolutely fearless.   
• St. Augustine expressed what is needed for civil discourse with these words:  “Let us, on both sides, lay aside all arrogance.  Let us not, on either side, claim that we have already discovered the truth.  Let us seek it together as something which is known to neither of us.  For then only may we seek it, lovingly and tranquilly, if there be no bold presumption that it is already discovered and possessed.”
• There is important wisdom to be gleaned from those on the margins.  Vulnerable human beings put us more in touch with the truth of our limited and messy human condition, marked as it is by fragility, incompleteness, and inevitable struggle.  The experience of God from that place is one of absolutely gratuitous mercy and empowering love.
• We have effectively moved from a hierarchically structured lifestyle in our congregations to a more horizontal model.   It is quite amazing, considering the rigidity from which we evolved.   The participative structures and collaborative leadership models we have developed have been empowering, lifegiving.  These models may very well be the gift we now bring to the Church and the world.
• The breaking down and breaking through of massive paradigm shift is a violent sort of process.  It invites the inner strength of a non-violent response.  Jesus is our model in this.
• What, then, does non-violence look like for us?  It is certainly not the passivity of the victim.  It entails resisting rather than colluding with abusive power.   It does mean, however, accepting suffering rather than passing it on.  It refuses to shame, blame, threaten or demonize.  In fact, non-violence requires that we befriend our own darkness and brokenness rather than projecting it onto another. 
• We can absorb a certain degree of negativity without drama or fanfare, choosing not to escalate or lash out in return.  My hope is that at least some measure of violence can stop with us.  Here I offer the image of a lightning rod.  Lightning, the electrical charge generated by the clash of cold and warm air, is potentially destructive to whatever it strikes.  A lightning rod draws the charge to itself, channels and grounds it, providing protection.  A lightning rod doesn't hold onto the destructive energy but allows it to flow into the earth to be transformed.  
• Jesus describes that coming reign in the parable of the mustard seed.  Let us consider for a moment what we know about mustard.  Though it can also be cultivated, mustard is an invasive plant, essentially a weed.  ... Granted, it’s a beautiful and medicinal weed.  Mustard is flavorful and has wonderful healing properties.  It can be harvested for healing, and its greatest value is in that.  But mustard is usually a weed.  It crops up anywhere, without permission.   And most notably of all, it is uncontainable.  
• We can, indeed, live in joyful hope because there is no political or ecclesiastical herbicide that can wipe out the movement of God’s Spirit.  Our hope is in the absolutely uncontainable power of God.  We who pledge our lives to a radical following of Jesus can expect to be seen as pesty weeds that need to be fenced in. 18  If the weeds of God’s Reign are stomped out in one place they will crop up in another.  I can hear, in that, the words of Archbishop Oscar Romero “If I am killed, I will arise in the Salvadoran people.”   
• And so, we live in joyful hope, willing to be weeds one and all.  We stand in the power of the dying and rising of Jesus.  I hold forever in my heart an expression of that from the days of the dictatorship in Chile:  “Pueden aplastar algunas flores, pero no pueden detener la primavera.”  “They can crush a few flowers but they can’t hold back the springtime.”  

Amen. I'm going to be praying with these images of the prairie, lightning rod, and mustard seed for a long time.

Musings of a very lucky fly

Sisters in LCWR leadership being blessed by St Louis
Catholics at vigil outside Old St Louis Cathedral

This week, I have been a very lucky fly on the wall at the LCWR Assembly.  I was there representing Giving Voice.  Our core team had a booth in the exhibit hall so that we could share information with leaders of women's religious communities about how their younger sisters might connect with other age-peers in religious life through Giving Voice gatherings and virtual connections.  That part alone was a wonderful experience.  On the one hand, when a Provincial or Congregation Leader would come to the booth and I knew one of their younger Sisters, I was able to say to them, "Oh, you are in [insert Sister's name here] community.  She is a wonderful woman.  She brings so much to our gatherings" ... or some variation thereof.  On the other hand, it was equally cool to tell the story of Giving Voice to Sisters who weren't aware of us.  I look forward to the fruits of those connections, namely new faces and voices joining our growing network of younger women religious!  What grace.

As if that wasn't exciting enough, here I was a just-perpetually-professed Sister at the LCWR assembly, in the midst of 900+ deeply prayerful, faith-filled, hopeful and prophetic women.  Not only that, I was in their midst at this history-making moment just months after making my own life-long commitment to religious life.  I have long felt that I am standing on the shoulders of our founders, pioneer Sisters, and those who have gone before us.  This week however made me realize that I also stand both on the shoulders and at the same time stand with this generation of women who have embodied the vision of the Second Vatican Council. This is a blessed time to be a woman religious--a time with great responsibility and risk, but much grace.

I of course was not in the executive sessions, but as an exhibitor I was able to join in the opening prayer sessions each day and heard the keynote address, the panel on the future of religious life including a talk by my friend Sister Jennifer Gordon, SCL--and the powerful Presidential Address by Sister Pat Farrell.  I am still reflecting on and processing all that I heard and look forward to hopefully reading transcripts in the future.

While I was not privy to their discernment or discussions, I was able to soak in the energy and general vibe of the gathering.  This is hard to describe, but it was combination of love, hope, creativity and passion.  Yes there was some frustration and pain underneath, but at no point did I sense overwhelming anger or fear.  Instead, the presence of the Holy Spirit was palatable.  In her address, Sister Pat said that a prophetic response to the doctinal assessment should be "humble, but not submissive ... rooted in a solid sense of ourselves, but not self-righteous; truthful, but gentle and absolutely fearless."  From the perspective of this not so impartial observer, I would say that the women gathered in St Louis embodied the best of this ideal.

Aside from the serious and historic elements of the experience, it was also just fun to be there soaking it all in.  At one point on the first day I found myself playing "Spot the famous nun."  Simone Campbell.  Joan Chittister. Sandra Schneiders. Teresa Kane.  Just to name a few. I even got to talk with some and have my picture taken with others.  My high school principal Sister Janet Stolba, in leadership for her community the Religious of Jesus of Mary, was there.  I find it so funny how our paths in life take such interesting turns! I also got to see my own Sisters in leadership connecting with their peers, and felt deep love, gratitude and a dash of pride for all they do for our Congregation.  And I did all of this with my own Giving Voice companions, sharing the experience, soaking it all in, filled with joy and hope for the future of religious life.

I am indeed a very lucky fly on the wall.  Next up, I'm headed to spend a few days with my Dad.  Most likely I won't be blogging for a few days, but I wanted to share these impressions for those who are curious what it was like to be here.

For those who want actual news and other opinions about the goings on in St Louis, I recommend checking out the SisterNews website.

Meetings in Saint Louis

I'm in transit on my way to St. Louis, Missouri--by way of Albuquerque which is a new airport hub to me. I'm meeting the other members of the Giving Voice core team in St. Louis.  We're scattered hither and yon and normally do most of our business virtually via skype conference calls, but it is important to gather together in the same space from time to time for prayer, conversation, and planning.

For newer readers of the blog, Giving Voice is an organization made up of younger Catholic Sisters in their 20s, 30s, and 40s.  Most of us are in a decided age minority in our own religious congregations, so having the opportunity to build relationships with age-peers across congregations is so important!  I've written about Giving Voice before here on the blog. Let's just say that my vocation is strengthened and my belief in the future of religious life renewed every time I have the chance to connect with my Giving Voice Sisters.

Last year I was invited to join the Giving Voice Core Team.  We do the behind the scenes work that makes our yearly retreat for Sisters in their 20s and 30s, national conference every two years, and online connections via Facebook, our website and Skype possible.  It's a great group of women and I'm really looking forward to the chance to spend some time with them in the same room as we plan our activities for the next few months.

While we're in St. Louis for our own "young nun" meetings, we will also be staffing a booth for Giving Voice at the nun meetings.  All of the elected leaders of the communities that belong to the Leadership Conference of Women Religious will be gathering for their annual assembly this week in St Louis.  We are there to make connections and share information about our opportunities for their newer and younger Sisters.  I'll be spending most of my time in the exhibit hall rather than in the meeting rooms.  Still, given the historic moment that we are in at this point in religious life it is a unique opportunity to be there and able to provide support and prayer in person!  I'm looking forward to seeing our own Sisters in leadership as well as some others I know.

This meeting of LCWR is very important.  If you are the praying sort, please pray for an openness to the Spirit for all involved.  While you are at it, some prayers for our Giving Voice core team would also be appreciated!

Peace

The Inseparability of Spirituality and Justice

I grew up with a very sacred text in my family.  Yes, we had a family bible, but being Catholics that wasn't read very often.  No, the sacred text I refer to is the Washington Post, the Francois family paper of record. We were a political family which placed a deep value on keeping abreast of world and national issues.  Dinner table conversations were often prompted by an article or editorial someone had read.  My Dad still reads most of the paper each day and as a result keeps his pulse on what is happening in the world from his assisted living appartment.

In my world of course, one of the biggest happenings of late has been the recent hullabaloo between the men who make up the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church and the women called to leadership of religious communities like my own.  Regular readers of the blog will know that I've not written much here about that situation here, mostly because I want to respect the process and place my trust in our leadership and the Holy Spirit.

The Church for the most part moves slowly, and women religious tend to make decisions through consultation, dialogue and consensus which is also a pretty slow process.  I keep waiting for the mainstream media to loose interest in this slow as molasses process.  It's not your typical conflict and doesn't readily meet the mold of our 24 hour news cycle.  And yet, I think there is also a certain level of fascination with a conflict where there are not quick flash points and he said she said accusations.  Yes, there are inevitably elements of that, which the media latches on to and broadcasts widely whenever it does happen, but I think for the most part people from the outside-looking-in sense the love that all involved have for the Church and the deep level of prayer and commitment to a resolution that is worthy of the followers of Christ.  How that plays out is different for the various players involved of course.

I continue to be impressed by the commitment to nonviolent engagement on the part of the Sisters in leadership. My guess is that those on the outside-looking-in are also intrigued by this rarity, as illustrated by last month's Fresh Air interview Sister Pat Farrell and today's profile of Sister Pat in the Francois family paper of record, aka the Washington Post.

Today's WaPo story focuses on Sister Pat's life of ministry with people who are poor and oppressed, much of it in a Latin American context.  Truly I think this does give her, and many women religious, a unique experience to draw upon.  The article highlights her experience in Chile, where she took over a ministry from Maryknoll Sister Ita Ford who was moving to a new ministry in El Salvador.  A few months later, Ita was of course one of the 4 church women who were tortured, raped and murded by death squads in El Salvador in 1980.

Sister Pat spent a few years in Chile, and then moved to work in a refugee camp in El Salvador.  This is where her story touches mine tangentially.  You see, she went to work in the refugee camp where some of our CSJP Sisters had been living in solidarity with refugees of the brutal civil war. Later, she moved to Suchitoto to minister with the people.  This is a town that I have visited and where two of our CSJP Sisters, Sister Susan Dewitt and Sister Margaret Jane Kling, live today.  Sister Susan runs our health care mission in El Salvador and Sister Margaret Jane, who had lived at the refugee camp, now teaches English to children and grandchildren of those she had known in the camp during the war.

When I was a novice, I had the opportunity to visit El Salvador in the company of two of our Sisters who were there during the war.  The visit moved me deeply and gave me great insights into the call of women religious today.  Countless times during our tour, we would drive by a police station or other sight that would prompt a humorous story of close misses, where our Sisters were arrested or threatened by the powers that be simply because they were standing with the oppressed people they lived and ministered to.  I hear echoes of those stories in the WaPo profile of Sister Pat.  "We had some scary moments with the military ..." she says.  Indeed.  I can't help but think how well this has prepared her to engage conflict nonviolently.  She had daily training for years on end in learning how to live with integrity in the face of oppression.

The current hullabloo is not about one person and by no means do I intend to compare it to a civil war.  But it is still part of the shared experience of women religious in the past half century.  Sharing is a key element here that I think outsiders might not quite understand.  In fact, given the unique shared leadership structure of LCWR, Sister Pat will still be involved in leading the group over the next year, but there will be a new President and a new woman elected next week who will become President after her.  

So while it's not about one person, it is about shared experience and approaches to life, ministry and faith.  Over the past 40 years, many women religious have lived  and ministered with people on the margins of society, whether that is with AIDS patients or homeless urban Native Americans, with children with multiple disabilities or families without health insurance. We have a saying in our community that wherever one of our Sisters is, we are all there.  So while I have not had these ministry experiences, my Sisters have, and this in turn has informed our shared experience of life as followers of Jesus who pay special attention to the "little ones."

Toward the end of the profile, Sister Pat is quoted as saying: "For me, that spirituality and the work of justice are entirely inseparable.  If either one is authentic, it leads to the other."

This rings so true to me and speaks of authentic experience.  In our CSJP Constitutions, we say:

Our history calls us to a special love
for those who are poor.
The weight of suffering and oppression
borne by so many people today ...
cries out to us for action.
Our response demands a firm commitment
to work for justice
in solidarity with our sisters and brothers. (21)

Our intimacy with God
unifies our prayer and activity
so that we are moved to action by prayer
while action urges us to pray.
In unity with the Church
and with all of creation
we give praise and thanks to the Giver of all gifts.
We open ourselves to the liberating power of God
whose Sprit in us leads to peace. (28).

Amen.  Please join me in praying for our Church, for the Bishops appointed by Rome to engage with LCWR, for the women in leadership who will meet in St Louis next week, and for all of God's people.  That we may learn to follow Jesus with integrity and love, open to the call and presence of the Holy Spirit, living the good news in service of God and all of God's people, especially the most vulnerable.

Goodbye Dorothy - Advocate, Writer, Sister, Friend

Sister Jeanne Keaveny and Sister Dorothy Vidulich in lively
conversation at my table at a community assembly day

How does one describe Sister Dorothy Vidulich?  Words truly can't even begin to capture her energetic spirit, love of God and passion for justice.  I first met her in 2006 in her later years of retirement.  Our Novitiate house was located next door to our retirement community in New Jersey, and I spent many an afternoon in lively discussion and debate with Dorothy about the state of the world and the future of religious life and the church.  Dorothy and her "partner in crime," Sister Jeanne Keaveny, were incredible mentors to me and my novitiate classmates in our early months of formation, true kindred spirits and role models who journeyed with us through challenges that in retrospect seem small but at the time almost insurmountable.

When I first met Dorothy, I felt like I was meeting a rock star.  Because you see, even though I had never met her in person she had already played a key role in my own discernment through her book, Peace Pays a Price: A Study of Margaret Anna Cusack, the Nun of Kenmare.  I found her book during my late night explorations of the community library during my first vocation retreat at our west coast regional center and read the entire thing in one sitting.  It tells the story of our founder, Margaret Anna Cusack and the community she founded. What a beautiful story, and how beautifully told.  Here were women who not only spoke the pretty prose of peace through justice, they did something about it!

That description certainly fits Dorothy.  She started out her 60 years as a Sister of St. Joseph of Peace in the ministry of education for 12 years.  Soon however, the ground of religious life shifted with the call of the Second Vatican Council.  She worked with Sister Jeanne, Provincial in the East at that time, to implement the changes of renewal.  "This assignment of six years was exciting," she wrote on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee which she celebrated earlier this year, "but painful as many new and enriching changes took place."


In 1974 she founded a Center for Peace and Justice located on the grounds of our eastern regional center.  It was located in fact in an old coach house that would have been part of the property when it was bought by Margaret Anna Cusack.  She wrote in Peace Pays a Price that this gave a "rootedness to the goals of the Center." Through the Center, Dorothy and other CSJPS "worked for structural change in many of the social problems confronting the church and society of those days."  Later, the Center moved to the new Congregational offices in Washington, D.C. which enabled Dorothy to collaborate more with other women religious.  She became a coordinator with NETWORK, the Catholic Social Justice Lobby founded by Catholic Sisters which has been in the news so much these days with the "Nuns on the Bus."  Dorothy worked there for five years bringing the social teaching of the church to the heart of social justice issues on the national stage.

She drew upon this experience for the next ten years, while she worked for the National Catholic Reporter as a Washington correspondent.  Looking back on her years at NCR on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee, she wrote: "My research, interviews and work with Arthur Jones, editor, filled my days with excitement, joy and challenge."  Thanks to the wonders of the internet, you can still read some of her articles online.  For example, here is a link to a story she wrote about women theologians from 2000. Here's another one from 1997 about efforts of religious men to work against violence. And here is a 1998 column about the unsung role of women in the Irish peace process.

Reflecting on her life as a CSJP, Dorothy wrote that the highlight was being invited by the Congregation Council to research the life of Margaret Anna Cusack.  This research of course became the book I mentioned earlier, Peace Pays a Price.

When I was a novice one of my highlights--and life savers--was getting a chance to talk with Dorothy.  I remember one particular conversation when she said something about how impressed she was with the women in the novitiate.  She said that she wondered how the community ever managed to get women like us, or something to that effect.  I looked her in the eye and said, "Well, your book for one thing! It was a major inspiration for all of us."  How often do we get to share our gratitude with the people who inspire us, especially when that inspiration helps lead to one of our biggest and best life choices?  It was an unforgettable moment.  I'm also happy to say that I managed to get her to autograph a copy of her book for me.  She was so humble I was afraid she'd say no!

Dorothy passed away today in New Jersey.  The past few years have carried more than a few health challenges for her, so in many ways it is a blessing. She will be greatly missed though, most deeply by her friend and colleague of so many years, Jeanne.  But she will be missed by all of us.  In every community there are a handful of members who make a deep and lasting impact.  I think it is safe to say that Dorothy was one of our giants in that respect. I for one am comforted to know that she will be praying and advocating in heaven, for the CSJP community, for all those living on the margins, for conversion of the hearts of the powerful, and perhaps most strongly for our Church that we may embody and give life to Christ's promise of peace and justice for all.

I'd like to end this post with the final words of the epilogue to Peace Pays a Price.  Where it says "Margaret Anna Cusack," I think you can also read "Dorothy Vidulich."

Margaret Anna Cusack's life story intensifies the awareness that to keep alive the charism of the Congregation, the task of renewal is a constant concern.  The cost of such commitment may vary with individuals, but as the history of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace so consistently indicates:

Peace pays a price.

There will continue to be women and men who choose to make a dedication of time--or a lifetime--to purse the goals of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace.

Amen. Pray for us Dorothy.  We need it!

Jubilee Celebrations

This weekend we celebrated seven women who have spent a collective 395 years as Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace.  In this crowd of amazing women we have an artist, a writer, teachers, a college professor, a nurse, a hospital administrator, a retirement home administrator, a member of the Congregation leadership team, a social outreach worker, a minister with the Native American community, parish catechists, and a food bank provider.  Yes, there are many more ministries than there are Sisters, because over the years these women have grown, taken risks, tried new things, and answered the call to follow Jesus wherever that may take them as Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace.

Jubilee Celebrations are a wonderful time to gather as community, to celebrate our Sisters, to celebrate our lives together.  During the liturgy, all the Sisters present are invited to stand and renew their vows as Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace.  It is always a touching moment, in the presence of the family and friends of the Jubilarians and our Sisters and Associates to stand and recite our renewal of vows.

As our CSJP Constitutions say:

As we live our vows each day
we trust that Christ's blessing promised
 to peacemakers will sustain us,
knowing that God working in us
will accomplish more than we can ask
 or imagine. (Constitution 62)

Only 19 years to my own silver Jubilee! I know the years will fly by!


 

A Strong Advocate ... Sister Cecilia Marie

Our CSJP Community will gather tomorrow for our Jubilee Celebrations in Bellevue, Washington.  But first, this morning, we will gather to say goodbye to one our most beloved Sisters, Cecilia Marie Gri, who passed away earlier this week.

There is so much you can say about this amazing Sister who would have turned 99 next month.  She was one of the most engaged, active, powerful and faithful women I have ever been honored to know.

When I first met Sister Cecilia Marie, she was preaching the homily ... at her 75th Jubilee ... at the age of 91.  And she broke open the word like nobody's business, preaching in a clear, strong voice in love and with a deep faith that shined through her and into everyone who listened. This picture is one I took from her 80th Jubilee.  She was the lector, and again in a strong voice she proclaimed the word of God for all to hear.

At our vigil service last night for Sister Cecilia Marie, we prayed the rosary, an important element of her prayer life, and shared stories.  Such wonderful stories! I shared my own story of Sister Cecilia Marie and her regular support for our ministry at the peace and justice center.  She was a regular donor, always sending a small donation with a lovely note.  In fact, she sent her last donation right before she moved up to our retirement center two months ago!

Sister Cecilia Marie is a model for us all.  She loved God and God's people and gave her all.  When she turned 90 in 2003, she wrote:  "I am involved in Parish ministry on a voluntary basis.  Since 1988 I have been coordinator of homebound ministry. I am also lay presider, eucharistic minister, parish librarian, leader of Vigil services for deceased parishioners, and a leader of the ecumencial prayer service at one of the retirement homes.  Every month for about ten years I write an article or two for our Parish newsletter.  On several occasions I have given a homily at Mass.  In summary, I am a 'jack-of-all-trades.'" Indeed. Keep in mind this was after 30+ years of teaching and 13 years working in one of our hospitals.

I just trolled my old blog posts for something I remembered writing after the first Jubilee celebration I attended, which was Sister Cecilia Marie's 75th.  At the celebration afterwards, a young priest friend of Sister Cecilia Marie shared this story.  I'll end my post with this re-post:

The youngish priest (YP) and Sister C (SC). were out visiting a sick parishioner. They shared the Eucharist and prayed with the gentleman and his family. While they were inside, it started snowing heavily outside. This posed a problem as the family lived at the bottom of a steep hill. They were worried they wouldn't get back up the hill, so YP borrowed some kitty litter that he spread out on the snow to create some traction. YP & SC said fairwell to the family and got in the car. The kitty litter helped a bit, but they were having a hard time making it up the hill. YP was driving and SC was sitting in the passenger seat. On the first failed attempt up the hill, SC started praying the rosary. On the second failed attempt up the hill, she started saying her Hail Mary's even faster. YP looked over worriedly at SC before the third attempt, and she said "Don't worry Father, the third time's a charm I'm sure." He looked over at SC and said, "I hope so Sister. You keep praying and I'll try one more time." So they did and almost made it to the top when they started to slip back down again. At this moment SC stopped saying her Hail Mary's and yelled emphatically, "Come on Mary, get out there and PUSH!!!!!." At which point the car spurted up to the top of the hill without any problem. YP ended the story by saying, "I knew Sister was a holy woman. I didn't realize she had a direct connection and could boss Mary around."

Thank you Sister Cecilia Marie for the gift of your life, love, strong intellect, courageous spirit, and generosity.  I know that you will be a strong advocate for our Sisters, for people in need, for our church and for our broken world.

Watching Paint Dry ... Leadership & Peacemaking

From the World Paint Watching Photo Contest

Yesterday I had the honor and privilege of speaking to 48 rising juniors (all boys).  They were at my alma mater DeMatha Catholic High School* in Hyattsville, Maryland, for a three-day Leadership Institute.  I was across the country in my office in Seattle, appearing via Skype for an afternoon session (morning my time).  The wonders of technology!

Our topic was leadership from the perspective of peacemaking.  I was on the panel with MJ & Jerry Park, two lovely people who run Little Friends for Peace and if I'm not mistaken were named "Teachers of Peace" by Pax Christi USA a few years back.  So let's just say they know of what they speak.  I spoke from my own experience as a peacemaker, from some early inklings and attempts in high school to joining a religious community that is seeking peace together through justice.  I felt that the young men were very interested and connected to the topic, a bit more than I expected truth be told, especially given it was the post-lunch spot.  They had great questions!

One of the questions was something along the lines of how do you keep going when you are in a situation that seems hopeless.  Another question built on that one, what do you do when you are stuck in a tense situation with no apparent resolution in sight.  He didn't use this phrase but I think he was talking about engaging conflict when you are at an impasse, when you seem to have hit a brick wall, when the different opinions are so entrenched that you can't imagine how you'll ever get through.

To be honest, I don't remember exactly how the three of us answered the question.  Except that I know there were themes:  persistence, patience, listening, openness to change, relationship building.

I've been thinking about the question and realizing that when you follow the nonviolent path of peacemaking to engage impasse, it's a bit like watching paint dry.  From the outside, there are generally not major flash points or quick resolutions so it can look like nothing is happening.  From the inside, sometimes you have to let the paint dry before you can apply another coat.  Change happens gradually, slowly, often with repeated coats applied, sometimes in different shades or tones.  As a leader, the call is to be faithful to the process, to carefully and prayerful discern the next action, to act quickly when required, to be patient when you need to be, and to openly and honestly engage the whole process.

The leadership of LCWR met this morning in Rome with Vatican Officials and American Bishops.  It seems from the LCWR public statement and news story that the meeting was at the very least "another coat of paint," an open dialogue and opportunity for conversation.  I keep waiting for the media and general public to lose interest in this whole process ... it's going to take a lot of time and seem at many times like watching paint dry.

On the other hand, I find myself hoping that the media and public stay focused on the issue.  If nothing else, it seems to me our Sisters in Leadership are being faithful to their call to engage impasse through peacemaking for the sake of the Gospel.  And on their part, judging by the public statements about this meeting, it seems as if the Church leaders are engaging it as well.  Think of what a model this might be for a world that chooses quick and often violent paths to engage or ignore impasse, rather than the slow and sometimes messy path of nonviolence.  May everyone involved remain open to the Spirit that leads us to peace.

(*DeMatha is my alma mater, and yet DeMatha is an all boy's school.  I've explained how that happened before on the blog)

Seeking Right Relationship ... lessons from history

This morning I met with my congregation small group, a small group of Sisters and Associates who meet regular for faith sharing, prayer, celebration and conversation.  We didn't have any official agenda from the Congregation for this meeting, so since I had offered to be the facilitator it was up to me to come up with some sort of prayer and process.  I was inspired by the following letter from the early days of our Congregation's history.  It was written, no doubt after a time of great prayer and discernment, by Mother Evangelista--one of our first Sisters and great friend of our founder Mother Clare (Margaret Anna Cusack)--and Sister Ignatius, another of our founding Sisters--to Bishop John J. Keane of the brand new Catholic University of America in Washington D.C.


Let me briefly set the stage (more details can be found on pages 476-482 of The Nun of Kenmare, the autobiography of Margaret Anna Cuscak, which you can read online via Google Books.)  Mother Clare was travelling at the request of her bishop in NJ, seeking to raise funds for the new community's works with Irish immigrant women and hoping to establish a ministry to the Catholic blind.  Unfortunately, she was blocked from success by a great deal of opposition from the (mostly Irish) bishops in America who did not appreciate her writing for social reform, which often called the role/response of the hierarchy to systemic poverty into question.  There were apparently many harsh words spoken and written about her.  Bishop Keane, the founding rector of the Catholic University of America, even went so far as to call into question her mental state.


These words against their founder, friend and Sister caused Mother Evangelista, Provincial Superior, and Sister Ignatius, Local Superior to write these words to Bishop Keane.  I will let their letter speak for itself.  It was written in 1886 or 1887, shortly before Mother Clare felt it necessary to leave the new community in order to save it.

Convent of the Sisters of Peace 

Jersey City, NJ  

My Lord—Our Mother General, most generally known as the Nun of Kenmare, was sent by our bishop, the Right Rev. W. M. Wigger, to Baltimore and other places South, in March 1886, for the purpose of seeing several bishops, partly to try and interest them in the establishment of a home for the Catholic blind, and partly hoping that, by a personal interview, she might be able to satisfy them, by the documents which she brought with her from Rome, that the many and cruel slanders which have been circulated about her were not only false, but absolutely without foundation whatever, and were originated by persons who dislike her great zeal for souls, and her wonderful energy in good works. 

In this mission she failed, not from want of proof of the divine character of her mission, and of the full approval of it by the Holy See, but because the ecclesiastics to whom she applied preferred to believe scandals which did not exist, and would not accept the denial of them by the Holy Father and Propaganda.

Now, my lord, you were one of the bishops who has not only spoken but written what is most scandalous and calumnious of our beloved superior, and we have the evidence in your own handwriting.  You, with others, have helped to deprive the Catholic Church of the services, and to break the loving and tender heart of one of the truest and most devoted of God’s spouses.  

We understand that your lordship is advanced to a most distinguished position in the Catholic church of America, a position which places in your hands the future of the Catholic church of America.  As you will have the formation of the characters of the future priests, we suppose that you will teach them that justice to poor as well as to rich, and that reparation for wrong done, is as much the duty of the priest as the layman. 

I inclose a copy of your letter in which you have brought these scandalous charges against our superior.  Your present position makes it most important, both for yourself and for us, that they should be fully and publicly retracted.  I may add that the circulation of such scandals about our superior is also a grave injury to the Holy Father, as people naturally ask, how is it that this sister is spoken of by ecclesiastics when the Holy Father has granted to her the extraordinary favor of being foundress of our new order?  Why should an American bishop demand that ‘she should go back to her convent in Ireland,’ when the Holy Father has authorized her to leave it for a new and most important work? Why should she be treated with suspicion and contempt when Propaganda has officially declared that ‘she is worthy of trust and confidence of all who may place themselves under her guidance?’ The original of this document is in the possession of our English ecclesiastical superior, the Right Rev. G. W. Bagshawe of Nottingham.  What are her ‘many plans?’ We who have been her spiritual children for years, are aware of only one plan, it has been to work for God’s poor.  When and where has she ever failed in obedience to ecclesiastical authority?  It is easy to invent and circulate reports, but a time may come when something more than an assertion will be demanded from those who speak such reports.  Suppose that the whole miserable story of our Mother’s treatment by ecclesiastics in America were put before the public, and your lordship will be please to remember we have written proof, what would be said?  Are priests in this new Catholic university to be educated to be honest men, or as men who will not pay ordinary respect to truth and justice and to the decision of the Holy See? When did our Mother go ‘from one part of the world to another’ without permission of her bishop? Even this Fall, when several eminent doctors declared her life depended on her spending the winter in the South, it was with great difficulty that we could induce her to go, and it was only when our bishop said that he wished her to do so, that she consented.  

Your lordship would not have been troubled with this letter, but we feel that the time has come when it is our duty to claim recognition and respect for the Holy Father’s decision.  Why should your lordship or other American bishops refuse our mother ‘sympathy?’ Surely, you should have the deepest sympathy for one who has so long suffered in silence when she might, at any moment, clear herself of all blame by publishing the documents in her possession when she has refrained from doing so simply because the public discredit would fall, and fall justly, on those very ecclesiastics who have cared so little for her unmerited sufferings, and why should it not? Within the last two years we have been offered ten good foundations by priests in different parts of America, and their respective bishops have at once refused to allow our order to spread, influenced by false reports such as those in your letter.  Protestants are amazed when they find this to be the case.  Protestant institutions, seaside homes, etc, are being established all over the country for working girls, and even in the very places where we have been refused permission to establish homes blest by the Holy Father.  These homes are filled with and supported by Catholic girls, as we can prove.  

We are well aware that there is in America one ecclesiastic whose prejudices against our mother-general are so strong that even the benediction and authority of the Holy Father has no weight with him, and it would be amusing if it were not very sad to see how some Catholic authorities make so much of the least word from Rome when it is in their favor, and treat with utter contempt such as are against their prejudices, but is this truly loyalty to the Holy See? This ecclesiastic has, we know, considerable power over all the other bishops, but, my lord, surely each bishop has a conscience of his own and a duty of his own to the Holy See.  

We shall be most happy, with the permission of our bishop, to go to Washington and bring the original document of the Holy Father’s founding our order, for the information of the bishops assembled at the laying the foundation of the Catholic  University.  

We can, ourselves, or any other of our sisters who are long professed under our dear mother’s care, give personal evidence as to the good she has done for souls and the forbearance with which she has born persistent calumny.  

We trust for the sake of the Catholic faith, and for your lordship’s own easement of conscience, that you will obtain from all the bishops a public denial of the charges made against her.  I am, my lord,                                    

Yours very respectfully,                                           

Mother M. Evangelista, Mother Provincial 

Sister M. Ignatius, Local Superior

We read this letter reflectively today in our small group and sat together in contemplative silence to listen to what their spirited words say to us today.  In our sharing, we were struck both by the strong voice of our charism of peace in this letter, the respectful yet engaging tone, and the desire to be in right relationship with the Church hierarchy.  Most religious communities have stories such as these, struggles with the institutional church as they sought to follow their charismatic call to be of service to the Gospel and people who are poor.  We stand on such strong shoulders and carry their lives, their loves, their hopes, their dreams (and no doubt their sorrows) with us.  As the words of the prayer written for those who wish to pray in solidarity with LCWR these days so beautifully say:

May the holy ones who have gone
before us inspire us by their courage
and wisdom and affirm that we are
not alone.

Pray for us, our pioneer Sisters. Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful with your love as we strive to be in right relationship and be Church for the sake of the Gospel.  Amen.