The New Orleans paper, The Times-Picayune posted a great story this week — Young lawyer fights for social justice on her way to becoming a nun (January 29, 2012). The article is about Alison McCrary, a young woman who is a lawyer and in the process of becoming a Catholic sister with the Congregation of Saint Joseph. Alison lives with a community of St. Joseph sisters near Bayou St. John.

You might be wondering, A nun AND a lawyer? But of course! Justice and Catholic nuns go hand-in-hand!

Alison sees her role as a lawyer fighting for social justice meshing perfectly with becoming a nun.
“People have such a misconception of what nuns are,” she says. “We’re supposed to run into the world, not out of it. Our eyes are wide open, and our sleeves are rolled up.”

…

“There are so many struggles of the poor and oppressed,” she says. “If I’m not engaged in some kind of social change, then something is wrong.” During an internship with the PeaceWomen Project at the United Nations in 2005, she met impressive women doing the kind of work she wanted to do. “I found out they were lawyers,” she says. “I was inspired by what they were doing, and that planted the seed for going to law school.”

…

She entered the Loyola University New Orleans College of Law in August 2007. During her work as a paralegal and volunteer activities as a law student, she met several Sisters of St. Joseph and saw the important work they were doing, and she felt called to become a nun. “I met Sister Helen Prejean and Sister Lory Schaff and all these incredible women who were living the gospel values, and I thought, ‘I want that,’” she says.

She started meeting with a spiritual advisor, and after finishing law school and passing the bar in May, 2010, she took the first step to becoming a Sister of St. Joseph on Aug. 15, 2010. “I knew I had to find the beauty in the middle of all the struggle,” she says. “My decision is something I feel at peace with.” In a world that values money, power and sex, she is ready to live the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. “I believe our vows have a lot of meaning,” she says. “I feel like I’m called to that commitment.”

As you read Alison’s story, what strikes you? What gives you something to think about in terms of your own life?

I never met Sister Valsa, but she is my sister and yours. My heart breaks for the congregation, family and friends of Sister Valsa John, SCJM, a Sister of Charity of Jesus and Mary who was killed a week ago. See Stephanie Nolen’s piece for the Globe and Mail – Activist nun who fought Indian mining companies brutally murdered (November 17, 2011). Here are some quotes:

Sister Valsa, 52, was from Kerala in south India, and 24 years ago took her vows as a member of the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary. She was one of the remarkable breed of Indian religious figures who are grassroots social activists, who immerse themselves in the most marginalized and impoverished communities and work on literacy, basic health care and human rights. Sister Valsa said she did Jesus’s work by teaching the aboriginal people – known in India as adivasi or “tribals” – about their rights to their land….

Sister Sudha [Varghese, her close friend], who attended the funeral Thursday, said most who knew Sister Valsa believe it was people from the Santhal community, in the pay of the mining company, who killed her. “This is what the companies do: they divide people. When people are this poor, when someone gives them a little money, they can do anything,” she said. “Valsa knew it, and so many times we asked her to leave. But she said, ‘These are my people and I cannot leave them.’ ”

While the proverbial jury’s out in terms of who is actually responsible, news sources tend to name the coal company or possible local people who were angry with Sister Valsa for reporting to police the rape of a woman in the village.

Said Bishop Julius Marandi of Dumka, “Her violent death was a terrible shock and a great loss to the Church. We seek justice, but while we mourn this loss, our mission for the poor, the weak and voiceless will continue, strengthened and renewed by the blood of Sister Valsa, who now intercedes for human rights, justice, dignity and hope of these people.” (source: AsiaNews)

I’ve been reflecting a lot on Sister Valsa’s life and her death. No one knows where one’s vocation will lead — for some, to be a person of compassion, for others a teacher or a missionary or a parent. For all of us, our vocation leads to our death — not directly, perhaps, but in one way or another we find in our death that final statement of how we have lived our life. For some, one’s vocation necessarily entails facing death. I remember my own Sister Alice Baker, IHM, talking about her trip to the Holy Land. She talked about having to discern the possibility of her own death because she was going on a peace mission in a volatile region. I can’t even pretend to know what that means.

I lead a relatively peaceful existence with no threats to life other than the usual ones that all of us human beings face. Sure, I’ve had my share of “close-calls” but I’m intact for the most part! I am blown away by those like Sister Valsa and Sister Alice and so many others who have faced the real possibility of death. For some like Sister Valsa, death has come directly as a result of living fully one’s vocation.

You know, I’ve always wondered why in Compline — night prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours — the last prayer always reminds us of death. “All powerful God, grant us a restful night and a peaceful death.” I think it may be a reminder of our ultimate source and end in God and a reminder to take to heart our vocation. Not sure, but I will definitely keep pondering.

How do you understand “a vocation unto death”?

* * *
Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters”. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page

Today is World Refugee Day, and the message that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has for the world is this: ONE THING. Do just one thing to help people who are refugees. That one thing might be to learn something new about refugees.

Visit the UNHCR webpage DO 1 THING and make a choice to help by learning, spreading the word, or giving. I visited the website and in the section “learning,” I tried the Against All Odds game on the UNHCR website as a way to learn more. The game lets you experience what it is like to be a refugee. While I knew it was not going to be a “fun” game, I was not prepared for how horrible it feels … and this is just a game.

It’s important to that we all know the basics. I found it so helpful, for example, to talk with our Ask Sister guest, Eilis McCulloh, about her experience volunteering with the Franciscans and collaborating with the Lutheran’s ministry to help resettle refugees (see AS075 … audio download will be up by tomorrow but for now you can watch/listen to the video). Here are some basics that we should all know:

• what is a refugee or displaced person?
• why are they forced to flee their homes?
• what happens to their family, community, possessions?
• what options do they have?
• what does resettlement mean?
• why should I care?

Here are some places to explore answer to these questions:

• United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
• Jesuit Refugee Service
• World Church Service
• Catholic Diocese of Arlington
• Catholic Relief Services
• International Rescue Committee

What other sources of information or ways to do ONE THING would you recommend?

Here in the United States, we celebrate the national holiday of Memorial day. Wrote former president Bill Clinton in a memo on the White House Program for the National Moment of Remembrance,

“Memorial Day represents one day of national awareness and reverence, honoring those Americans who died while defending our Nation and its values. While we should honor these heroes every day for the profound contribution they have made to securing our Nation’s freedom, we should honor them especially on Memorial Day.”

Let us also remember those women and men who have pursued and died for peace, justice, and freedom. I think of people like Sister Dorothy Stang, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur who was killed because of her work with and on behalf of the people of Brazil; and Daniel Pearl, an American journalist writing for the Wall Street Journal who strove to build “bridges between diverse cultures” and who was kidnapped and killed by terrorists. I am also reminded of my own nun, Sister John Clement Hungerman, IHM, a remarkable woman and educator.

On this day of remembering, please add  the names of others who have given their life and their death to the pursuit of peace, justice, and freedom … and then join us tonight for a litany of heroes and martyrs during our prayer podcast at 6 p.m. CST (your time zone).

Here at A Nun’s Life Ministry, we’re often asked about what the vow of poverty is and how it is lived both personally and as a congregation. While a significant aspect of the vow is that we hold all things in common and don’t personally own anything, there are other dimensions too. The recent news story about nuns challenging Goldman Sachs over pay, for example, highlights in bold relief the justice nature of the vow of poverty.

According to The Guardian, four orders of Catholic sisters, investors in Goldman Sachs, have requested a review of the bank’s remuneration policies. The orders are the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Boston, Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, the Sisters of Saint Francis of Philadelphia (who also recently questioned McDonald’s about its responsibility for child nutrition), and the Benedictine Sisters of Mount Angel.

As shareholders, the nuns requested a report that would include:

“1. An evaluation of whether our senior executive compensation packages (including, but not limited to, options, benefits, perks, loans and retirement agreements) are ‘excessive’ and should be modified.

2. An exploration of how sizeable layoffs and the level of pay of our lowest paid workers impact senior executive pay.

3. An analysis of the way in which fluctuations in revenues impact: a) the company’s compensation pool; b) the compensation of the company’s top 25 senior executives; and c) the company’s shareholders.”

So what does this all have to do with vowing lifelong poverty in a religious community? In this case, the vow of poverty compels us to call into call into question — responsibly, as the sisters have done — business practices that are unjust. We, like others who choose to live the Gospel, are committed to the just distribution of goods, to caring for those who are economically disadvantaged, and to changing structures that perpetuate the disparity of rich v. poor. (This of course takes us into yet another dimension of the vow of poverty and that is living simply and care of God’s earth … but that’s for another blog post).

I am encouraged and challenged by the sisters for taking a stand and calling the company to accountability — not with unkindness or rashness — but with a genuine sense of care and respect both for the company and for those who work for the company. This civil discourse is notable, especially when various reporters sensationalize the story by using uncivil language such as “a pack of angry nuns” … trash-talking indeed. The sisters call us to expand how we understand stewardship to not just how we handle our own shekels but how we as a human community care for one another.

What are your thoughts on this story? What questions and thoughts does it raise in you?

* * *

Join the sisters and A Nun’s Life community at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE for Praying with the Sisters live podcast and chat.

The Sisters of Saint Francis of Philadelphia are spearheading a proposal for McDonald’s Corporation that they respond to the public health concerns and data about the effects of fast food on the health of children. The Sisters are joined by a number of other religious communities including Benedictines, Dominicans, and BVMs as well as other health, financial, and educational organizations.

The Franciscan Sisters are shareholders in McDonald’s, owning more than $2,000 worth of McDonald’s stock, which gives them the right to make such a proposal.

PROPOSAL NO. 11: Advisory Vote on Shareholder Proposal Relating to a Report on Children’s Nutrition

WHEREAS, the contribution of the fast food industry to the global epidemic of childhood obesity and to diet-related diseases, such as diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease, have become a major public issue …

RESOLVED: Shareholders ask the Board of Directors to issue a report, at reasonable expense and excluding proprietary information, within six months of the 2011 annual meeting, assessing the company’s policy responses to public concerns regarding linkages of fast food to childhood obesity, diet-related diseases and other impacts on children’s health. Such report should include an assessment of the potential impacts of public concerns and evolving public policy on the company’s finances and operations.

For more information, read the full text of the Sisters’ proposal to McDonald’s as well as a story National Public Radio ran about the Sisters’ proposal.

I’ve read a number of comments on blog posts about this proposal and was struck by a few who thought it was odd that the nuns were shareholders at a corporation, especially at McDonalds. The nuns, some commenters implied, should stick to the classroom and out of the world of business and politics. Well, I got news for these folks. Caring for people and God’s creation and educating people around Gospel values must happen at all levels of society — on the immediate, front lines and at the systemic level. We need to tend to the wounds of the sick and influence health care police. We need to teach children in the class room and have a voice in the public sphere to be sure children are protected and cared for.

The Franciscan Sisters of Philadelphia, for example, are not only working on behalf of children and health as shareholders at McDonald’s, but they help run and teach at Mother Seton Academy which offers tuition-free alternative middle school education to the underserved population; they provide housing and support services for women and children; they run a family counseling center to help individuals, couples, and families; and so much more.

So charge on, my Sisters, and know that our prayers are with you as you walk into that board room.

* * *

Join the sisters and A Nun’s Life community at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE for Praying with the Sisters live podcast and chat.

Ralph Ellison, an American author, was born on this day in 1914. I remember the first time I read Ralph Ellison’s novel, Invisible Man. I was in college, an English major. Ellison’s writing was much more sophisticated than my comprehension at the time, but the book still made a deep impression on me.

I was intrigued by his ideas about identity—ideas that were controversial in the late 1940s when he wrote them. Ellison suggested that African Americans had an active role in shaping U.S. culture and defining their own identity. Other African American writers at the time had a different opinion. They suggested that African Americans, as a result of oppression over generations, had lost their cultural foundations and their sense of identity. Two different viewpoints. Two different takes on the world and life. Great writers like Ellison expand our perspectives. Thank you, Ralph Ellison!

For more information about Ralph Ellison, visit the PBS website.

Are there writers who helped you look at the world in a broader way? Please share their names and their works in the comment box below.

* * *

Join the sisters and A Nun’s Life community at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE for Praying with the Sisters live podcast and chat.

Canadian foreign correspondent Stephanie Nolen will rock your world. She was featured last night on the CBC radio show, “Ideas” which broadcast The 2010 Dalton Camp Lecture in Journalism. While I was innocently running errands with my nun, I became totally absorbed in her words as well as the stories and images of the women that she met in some of the most remote, violent places on the earth.

Stephanie, the South Asia correspondent for the Globe and Mail, delivered her talk, “Shrapnel, Snakes and Blistering Rage: On the Occupational Hazards of a Foreign Correspondent,” on September 29, 2010, at Saint Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick. She offers her audience, including many budding journalists, five rules (or six if you count the one about always carrying waterproof matches in case you need to set your foot on fire after a snakebite) for journalism. These rules are in fact very good guidelines for anyone who seeks to engage the world, to pursue truth, to give voice to our own stories and the stories of those who have no voice.

Listen to Stephanie’s talk, Shrapnel, Snakes and Blistering Rage, courtesy CBC Canada and check out their web page for this Ideas episode on the 2010 Dalton Camp Lecture.

Also be sure to read Stephanie’s profile on her website where you’ll discover her patron saint and how many languages she can flirt in. Don’t miss her dispatches including one from the Democratic Republic of Congo called “The War on Women” and others on AIDS in Africa, surviving rape, and children in the midst of war.

* * *

Join the sisters and A Nun’s Life community at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE for Praying with the Sisters live podcast and chat.

Thanks to Eric Simpson over at The Huffington Post for introducing me to Mother Maria Skobtsova, an Orthodox nun and martyr. In his article Those Who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness Will be Filled (The Huffington Post, January 24, 2011), Simpson discusses the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes. In doing so he gives examples of real life people who have had a great passion for God and compassion for the world. One such person, Simpson notes, is Mother Maria Skobtsova, “an aristocrat who became an intellectual, an intellectual who became a nun, a nun who became a subversive force for love.”

She sought to make straight that which had been made crooked among the poor, in prisons, in insane asylums because she saw every human being as intrinsically valuable, as an “icon of God.” In 1942, when Jews were being rounded up in German-occupied Paris, Maria managed to organize the rescue of children who she smuggled out of the sports stadium in garbage bins with the help of garbage collectors. She did not relent in her work on behalf of the oppressed even though she was aware she was under Nazi surveillance.

Finally, she was sent to the concentration camp at Ravensbruck, where, still burning with the holy passion and hunger for righteousness, a desire that had become a flame of love, she continued to assist and care for those who were suffering with her. She nearly made it to the end, and even as Russian troops were advancing on the camp, she put herself in the place of another woman condemned to die, and died in her place. Her hunger and thirst for righteousness was satisfied as she herself became righteous, and, like Christ, she become one who helped others in the cause for justice.

Mother Maria, also known as Saint Mary of Paris, is one of the few examples I know of an Orthodox nun. Her life as a monastic was unusual in that she was a contemplative who was allowed to live outside of the monastery. Her rented house became her convent, a place of hospitality for those in need and a place of spiritual conversation.

See OrthodoxWiki for more info on Maria Skobtsova and also check out Ask Sister podcast episode AS056 for an interesting discussion about monastics working outside the monastery from a Benedictine perspective.

* * *

Join the sisters and A Nun’s Life community at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE for Praying with the Sisters live podcast and chat.

Happy IHM Founders Day. Since our congregation’s founding in 1845, the IHM Sisters of Monroe, Michigan have been committed to issues of justice, peace and sustainability. This commitment is rooted in the mission of our founders Louis Florent Gillet and Theresa Maxis Duchemin to respond to the world’s most pressing needs.

In order to create a more just, peaceful and sustainable world, the IHM community promotes peace and non-violence; solidarity with the materially poor; economic justice and the development of an ecological consciousness.

Our IHM Justice, Peace, and Sustainability Office has created a short video highlighting how IHMs are working in these areas. We invite you to watch this video and to share the link with your friends. The video is on YouTube and also on our IHM website.

We also encourage you explore our Justice Peace and Sustainability pages on the IHM website. There you will find a variety of pages on topics ranging from Haiti to human trafficking, climate change to the consistent ethic of life.  Each page includes a description of the issue, stories of IHMs in action, prayer materials, resources and recommended actions you can take to act in solidarity with IHM Sisters and Associates.

Many thanks to Sarah and Nancy in our IHM Justice, Peace, and Sustainability Office for their care and ministry!

* * *

Read the past 4 years of IHM Founders Day posts at aNunsLife.org!

* * *

Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

The seven verses of Al-Fatiha, the first sura of the Qur'an.

I admit, I am a lover of books. I do not wish them to be burned or otherwise destroyed. I am particularly fond of books about the Sacred. I reverence the Hebrew and Christian scriptures of the Bible in a particular way because I am a Catholic Christian. But I also respect the sacred books of other traditions, inluding the Qur’an of our Muslim sisters and brothers.

While not a scholar of biblioclasm, I have a general sense that whenever books are burnt, things do not go well. Wikipedia (which is probably backed up so many times that it can’t be burned) has a long list of book-burning events that make me simultaneously sad and horrified. Undoubtedly, the Florida pastor whose Qur’an burning event was just canceled (praise God) will be listed here among other book burning events that sadly were successful. And lest we think the pastor is just one person, we can easily assume that others have this attitude.

As we approach the memorial of 9/11, I suggest a humble alternative to burning books. Educate yourself. Read books. Expand your mind and your heart. Cherish diversity. Allow love and respect for people to dominate all conversations, arguments, and disagreements. It’s not easy. But it’s totally possible.

Here’s a stunning example of how an open heart can be transformative not only for oneself but for our world.

The Healers of 9/11
By Nicholas D. Kristof, Op-Ed Columnist for the New York Times

This weekend, a Jewish woman who lost her husband in the 9/11 attacks is planning to speak at a mosque in Boston. She will be trying to recruit members of the mosque to join her battle against poverty and illiteracy in Afghanistan.

Read the rest of the article, The Healers of 9/11.

On today’s bike ride meditation, I took a country road and thought about God’s good creation, and how we are part of that. I meditated on the second account of creation in Genesis (Gen 2: 4-17), where God creates the human from the earth. Then God breathes the breath of life into the human.

Breathing is a creative act by God, one that I’m really grateful for as I bike, and as I live for that matter! So for today, I will be especially conscious of how I am God’s breath in the world. I will try to be a stellar representative of the Good Creation all day, in all my words and actions. That’s easier to do sometimes than others. So, if I’m tempted to be impatient waiting in a line somewhere, or to get frustrated if my work projects don’t go as expected, I’ll take a deep breath and remember how it feels to be part of the Good Creation.

* * *

Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

The International AIDS Conference is underway in Vienna this week. Over 20,000 people from more than 180 countries are there. Some of the news from the conference is very encouraging, such as the report about a new gel that shows great promise for protecting against HIV.

AIDS activist and singer (one of my favs) Annie Lennox calls funding for AIDS research a “human rights issue.” See http://www.annielennox.com

The study was conducted among South African women by two South African researchers. South Africa has one of the highest AIDS rates in the world. The Wall Street Journal said that the gel is unique in that “it is the first time an HIV-prevention method controlled by women, who bear the brunt of the epidemic in Africa, has been shown to work.” There’s still a lot of clinical work to be done in regard to the gel, and hopefully it will be successful. If it is, women in South Africa and around the world will be better able to protect their own health.

In the meantime, I continue to pray for the people at the conference who are working to end the stigma and the suffering of HIV/AIDS. I also pray for those who are directly affected by HIV/AIDS – people who have AIDS, their families and loved ones, their communities.

I especially keep in mind my friend Tim, who died of AIDS several years ago. May he rest in peace. Please mention other people affected by AIDS for whom you’d like to pray.

For prayer and reflection resources about HIV/AIDS please see the website of my IHM Sisters.

* * *

Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

Sister Paula Gonzalez is a Sister of Charity of Cincinnati and the founder of EarthConnection. She was recently featured in the Cincinnati Enquirer in the article Nun marries science, spirituality: Teaches that all life is sacred and connected by Shauna Steigerwald (July 11, 2010).

A few of my favorite quotes from the article …

On vocation:

… the daughter of two teachers was “a curious little kid” who learned to read at an early age, skipped first grade and was bumped from third grade to fourth, finishing that grade level when she was only 7. She came to the College of Mount St. Joseph on an academic scholarship in 1948, graduating with a bachelor’s in biology in 1952 at age 19. But even at that young age, Gonzalez knew that her life’s calling lay in religious service. She entered the Sisters of Charity two years later, in 1954.

“It just hit me like a ton of bricks, and that was it,” she said. “All of a sudden, I knew.”

On care for God’s creation:

Much of Gonzalez’s reverence for the natural world was instilled by her father, who was raised on a farm and taught his own family to grow food. From his Spanish heritage, he taught her the concept of “La tierra es bendita,” “the land is holy.”

“My father was truly a person of the soil, which got through to me,” said Gonzalez, who calls her own garden her “spiritual director” and cites her spirituality as another contributor to her concern for the planet.

What do you think of the article? What are ways that you recognize “all life is sacred and connected”?

* * *

Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

Please consider offering a donation to A Nun’s Life for our continued ministry. See the blog post We need your help.

I absolutely love this guy!

Have you ever come to a point in your life when you wanted to do more? More to help out those in need, more to develop yourself and most of all….more to make a difference? Well that time is now for me. My name is David O’Mara and I am just your average guy looking to make a change. I have spent years volunteering for one of the best philanthropic organizations in the United States, Real Options for City Kids, otherwise known as R.O.C.K. This is an organization that works tirelessly to help create physical and educational development programs for underprivileged kids in San Francisco. They have changed the lives of many young boys and girls and are about to help change mine.

I grew up in Modesto, CA and had the privilege of knowing someone who committed her entire life to helping others. My Aunt Claire was an educator, a missionary and most of all a wonderful role model for me and my family. She has spent her entire life working to better the lives of others. It is in her honor that I have made the decision to embark on this two month journey. I have left my job and will be riding my bike across America to raise money to support the R.O.C.K. cause. Am I a seasoned cyclist you ask? No. Have I done this before? No. Am I a little bit nuts? Probably. This is my chance, however, to make a change. I realized that I have the capacity to do something that could truly change the lives of others. Yes, it will be a challenge. And, yes, it is a big risk – but, if Aunt Claire taught me anything, it’s that the joy you get from enriching the life of someone else is worth every sacrifice that comes with it. Wish me luck! Here’s to you Aunt Claire…. – Dave O (from Dave’s website, Following Claire)

Now meet his 88-year-old great-aunt, Sister Claire O’Mara, OSU, an Ursuline nun and missionary. Writes Dave, “For most of her adult life, she was an educator and missionary in Latin America and in the Bronx. She dedicated herself to working with the poor and less fortunate wherever she was. She was always steadfast in her commitment to her beliefs and values. In 1995, New Rochelle College honored her, along with Rosa Parks, as a “Woman of Conscience.””

Dave is currently somewhere in Kansas on his trek from California to Washington, DC.

I highly encourage you to check out Dave’s website Following Claire and also to keep an eye on him via Twitter and Facebook. Please consider supporting Dave in his mission — he needs help along the way — donations, a place to stay, a cyclist to keep him company on the road, help spreading the word through the Internet and media!

Pretty cool guy, eh?

* * *
Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters”. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE
… more info on that page.

My Nun’s Life
by Sister Pat Aseltyne, IHM

Greetings from my “nun’s life”, a life that has almost completed the journey (65 years of Vowed Commitment). Sister Julie and I belong to the same IHM Community. Sometimes we think that we must be at total peace before we can believe that the Spirit is with us. If this were so I would not be completing this amazing nun’s life journey.

My life has carried me far and near; from Monroe County, Michigan, where my father happened to have grown up to Chicago, Washington D.C., and back to Michigan. The best part of the journey has been relating to so many people in so many ways — as a teacher, a school principal, a counselor, and now as coordinator of an outreach program.

At present, I live and minister in Houston, Texas. My worship place is Rice University Catholic Student Chapel. My ministry place is with a small agency called Casa de Esperanza de los Niños (House of Hope for little children). The people I meet here are from economic extremes; the rich and the poor and the Casa staff in between. As we touch one another’s lives we get that feeling of wanting to become a part of life together. So, those who have an over abundance, wish to help us to help others who are under nourished in so many material ways. Most of the poor among us seem to have an inside track to the Heart of God where they find so much comfort in their dire circumstances.

The rich wish to connect with me because my life takes me into the midst of poverty; usually to places where most people do not wish to go. They know that I know who the needy are. The poor wish to connect with me because they know that I care about them and so there is a mutual love that inspires courage. I find it difficult to put this into words because the truth is so deep in our souls once we experience this mutual desire to see one another as equals – each in need of something that the other has and wishes to share.

As I think back on joys and struggles in life I realize the place of the Spirit. Most meaningful to me has always been Jesus’ word that he would send His Spirit to nourish our Spirit. Though we may seem old to others, we are still young in Spirit. I do have a quandary about why others expect us “oldsters” to slow down just because we keep adding numbers to our age. Remember the song, “Young at Heart”? That is exactly how most of us want to be perceived. So, please keep this in mind when you meet up with someone who looks like they are a little “withery” or “dithery” in mind or body or both.

What do you hear in Sister Pat’s words that can apply in your own life? What Word from Jesus or one of the saints or holy people of God nourishes you, inspires you?

* * *
Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters”. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

My Greatest Peace Teachers
By Alice Baker, IHM

In reflecting on the question, who are my greatest peace teachers, I’ve come to a simple conclusion; they are all those persons in my life who are Risk-Takers for Peace. So many have touched and inspired me to “step out of the box.” Risk involves just that, and much more. For me, it implies one is grounded in a deep faith and trust in the One who calls — God. For me, Jesus is my prime example of a risk-taker: facing the powers of darkness all around Him with courage and compassionate love. There are many others, too, such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Robert F. Kennedy, John XXIII, Dorothy Day, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, Catherine of Siena. Each one had to listen to that inner voice of Truth that called them to speak their truth to power, risking all. Facing misunderstanding, making mistakes, and suffering through consequences only made them stronger and more courageous workers for peace.

For me, peace work calls me out of myself, stretches my limits, and challenges my status-quo thinking. Never did I dream I would find myself marching for migrants’ rights in the Yale-Croswell-Lexington, Michigan, area in the late 60’s. Nor did I ever see myself driving overnight to a march in support of Daniel and Philip Berrigan and the “Harrisburg 7” in Pennsylvania in the early 70’s. Or did I ever think I would be involved in rallies to save our Catholic schools and parishes in the inner city of Detroit in the 70’s and 80’s. In the last two decades, I’ve found myself responding to peace demonstrations at the School of the Americas, in Ft. Benning, Georgia, and at the nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. And, one of my most recent challenges came when I found myself in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as a member of the Michigan Peace Team in the summers of ’02 and ’04. In all of these peace experiences I find hope from the community of peace activists with whom I walk. Though some immediate effects may not be positive, I know, and believe, the long term effects will always be with me. I have been stretched, challenged, and changed, and have made long-lasting friends for peace.

In Webster’s thesaurus, the word “risk” as a verb or action word can mean: to run a risk, take a chance, lay oneself open to, gamble, do at one’s one peril, go beyond one’s depth, lay oneself open to, go through fire and water, skate on thin ice, fish in troubled waters, live in a glass house, or leap before one looks. Without exception, I am thankful for the many unnamed people in my life that fit these descriptions. They have been present with and touched me deeply. They are Risk-Takers for Peace. May I continue together with them to run the risk – for peace.

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall – always! (from the movie “Gandhi”)

* * *
Who are your greatest peace teachers and why?

* * *
Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters”. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

Sister Dorothy Stang “was Dot to her friends and family and Irma (Sister) Doroteia to the people in Brazil who took to calling her the ‘Angel of the Amazon’ because of her passionate support of poor farmers’ rights to the land and her protectiveness of the rainforest. Dorothy, a Sister of Notre Dame, devoted almost 40 years of her life to the people and land of Brazil. On February 12, 2005, two hired gunmen shot her six times thinking they had finally silenced this gentle, tenacious crusader for the poor.” (dorothystang.org)

Recent news from dorothystang.org, a website of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur:

NEWS from Brazil – 5/2/2010 – Rancher Regivaldo Galvao was found guilty of ordering the murder of Dorothy Mae Stang and sentenced to 30 years in jail. Sr. Jane writes, “The people gathered outside the courthouse at dawn, singing, praying and celebrating that for the first time in the history of Para, we have managed to bring everyone indicted for assassination of someone in a land conflict to trial, and even more convicted! His family, of course, is devastated…they were sure this would not happen….it never has. The people who came for the trial return filled with peace and hope to Anapu. Dorothy lives!”

4/13/2010 – A milestone victory: wealthy rancher Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura has been convicted of ordering the murder of Sr. Dorothy Stang and was sentenced to 30 years in jail. “This conviction sends a strong message to the other masterminds that the impunity is ending,”says Sr. Rebeca Spires, who has worked in Brazil for 40 years.

Related articles:

• Sister Dorothy Stang, SNDdeN: Sister of Notre Dame de Namur: Humanitarian, Mystic, and Martyr, Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur website, Ask an SND
• Conviction of rancher over killing of US nun in Brazil, hailed, Ecumenical News International (May 3, 2010)
• Sister Dorothy Stang, New York Times (May 3, 2010)
• Brazilian gets 30 years for U.S. nun’s murder, Reuters (May 1, 2010)

* * *

Join the sisters for prayer today at 6 p.m. Central Time (check your time zone). Praying with the Sisters is a live podcast where you can chat with us and others in A Nun’s Life chat room. All you need is an internet connection and a heart open to prayer.

http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote an interesting op-ed piece called Who Can Mock This Church? (New York Times, May 1, 2010).

It’s a tough read in the sense that he makes some rather pointed statements about the church’s sex abuse scandals and a church teaching or two. But, his message is that those who wish to “sniff derisively” at the church as a whole ought to first take a look at the “brave souls” who work tirelessly, and many times in very dangerous situations, to live truly the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Among the fine examples is Sister Cathy Arata, a nun from New Jersey. Kristof writes:

Photo by Nicholas D. Kristof/The New York Times. Sister Cathy Arata, a nun from New Jersey who now works with a Catholic project called Solidarity With Southern Sudan.

In the city of Juba, I met Cathy Arata, a nun from New Jersey who spent years working with battered women in Appalachia. Then she moved to El Salvador during the brutal civil war there, putting her life on the line to protect peasants. Two years ago, she came here on behalf of a terrific Catholic project called Solidarity With Southern Sudan.

Sister Cathy and the others in the project have trained 600 schoolteachers. They are fighting hunger not with handouts but with help for villagers to improve agricultural techniques. They are also establishing a school for health workers, with a special focus on midwifery to reduce deaths in childbirth.

At the hospital attached to that school, the surgeon is a nun from Italy. The other doctor is a 72-year-old nun from Rhode Island. Nuns rock.

Sister Cathy would like to see more decentralization in the church, a greater role for women, and more emphasis on public service. She says she worries sometimes that if Jesus returned he would say, “Oh, they got it all wrong!”

She would make a great pope, too.

Check out the full article and let us know what you think. What challenges you about the article? What insights popped into your mind?

Our friend Yvette from the A Nun’s Life Community found this gem. The song is called “I Only Ask of God” by the multinational, hip hop trio Outlandish.

Outlandish is made up of friends Isam Bachiri Azouaoui (Danish born, Moroccan decent), Waqas Ali Qadri Danish born, Pakistani decent), and Lenny Martinez (Honduran born, Cuban decent). They seek to give voice to “the world we live in”. They represent religious diversity (Muslim and Catholic) and proficiency in multiple languages with lyrics in English, Urdu/Punjabi, Danish, Spanish, and Arabic.

The message of this particular song “I Only Ask of God” is powerful. Here’s the first verse:

I only ask of God
He won’t let me be indifferent to the suffering
That the very dried up death doesn’t find me
Empty and without having given my everything

What happens if we truly made this our prayer?

* * *

Join Sister Maxine and Sister Julie for prayer. You can listen to our live podcast and offer your prayer requests at http://anunslife.org/live today at 6 p.m. Central Time (check your time zone).

* * *

You can download music from Outlandish at Amazon.com or at iTunes.

Happy Earth Day! First is a beatiful photo Sister Maxine took of her nephew with a calf. Also we have some link joy for you! Let us know of other cool links to share.

 
A Catholic Earth Day:

• If You Want Peace, Protect Creation by Pope Benedict XVI (January 1, 2010)
• Going Green: For the Sake of God’s Creation by Mary Jo Dangel in Saint Anthony Messenger Magazine (October, 2007)
• Why Catholics Care for Creation by Sister Joan Brown, OSF, in Catholic Update (October 2008)
• Earth Day 2010 Prayer by Sister Jean Coughlin, IHM

Cool Earth Day Stuff:

• Earth Day E-Cards by CatholicGreetings.org
• Ecokids Canada’s environmental destination for kids
• Earth Day 2010 Song created and performed by 13-year-old Leia Schwartz of Florida
• 3 Cool Ways to Celebrate Earth Day with your Family
• Earth Day Recipes
• Green Your Gardening

The Origin of Earth Day:

• History of Earth Day by Earth Day Network
• Earth Day at 40: How it began, where it is going by John Roach for National Geographic News (April 22, 2010)

The Core Issues of Earth Day:

• Advocacy
• Climate Change
• Conservation and Biodiversity
• Education
• Energy
• Food and Agriculture
• Green EconomyGreen SchoolsRecycling and Waste Reduction
• Sustainable Development
• Water

What are you doing to celebrate Earth Day?

* * *

Join Sister Maxine and Sister Julie for LIVE prayer podcast today at 6 p.m. Central Time (check your time zone). You can share your prayer requests with us and the A Nun’s Life community. http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE

Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ, is a Sister of Saint Joseph and has worked tirelessly against the death penalty. She wrote Dead Man Walking which became a film directed by Tim Robbins and starring Susan Sarandon. Because the book and film provoked much discussion and debate about the death penalty, Tim Robbins and Sister Helen began offering the stage play for college and university students as a way “to further widen the circle of public discourse on the death penalty”. Their project is called The Dead Man Walking School Theatre Project.

Here are some selections from a blog post by Rose Mohan, a BFA student at Naropa University, who is learning the role of Sister Helen Prejean:

I thought I was going to have to tone down my feistiness in order to be able to play a nun. Turns out, I have to find new heights of grit in order to be able to do justice to the character of Sister Prejean in Dead Man Walking. In almost every scene, Prejean manages to slice through what she perceives to be someone else’s delusions. She really holds her own with those hard-shelled prison men. I’m still working on getting there; sanely. One day after rehearsal I was so fired up that I had to walk out of the building jumping and punching the air.
…

I have learned so much in this process already. I grew up mildly Christian and when I go to church it still leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. I don’t want some old white guy telling me what to do, as if he understands faith better than I do. A lot of the messages are beautiful but there is no way anyone can convince me that the church provides the only way to God.

Sister Prejean is so refreshing to me because she is not afraid to openly question her faith, to form her own relationship to God outside of the church, to trust her own sense of what is right. It takes a lot of strength to hold one’s faith and be able to question at the same time. But if we are not willing to question, how can we learn?

I also really appreciate her humanness. My acting teacher expressed that she is a gritty, tenacious woman first and a nun second. Throughout the play we see that Prejean makes mistakes, feels afraid, experiences loneliness, questions the authority of the church and her own involvement in prison work and expresses dislike for someone she is trying to help. She is just an ordinary person who has made a commitment that has changed the orientation of her life. I am taking some cues from Prejean — how to not back down, how to be curious, how to continue when you don’t know.

(Do I have to be a nun? post from the Naropa BFA Performance News blog)

It is very cool to see how learning about Sister Helen and playing her can be such a transformative experience. I also like how Rose describes what I would call a “vocation” to performance. It strikes me as being very similar to the calling of wanting to give one’s life to something more, something that is bigger than us like “truth” and “goodness” and “beauty” … and God.

I am beginning to understand why people devote their lives to performance. It is like following an elusive and beckoning beast to try to convey something that means something, something that makes sense of all the somethings that happen to a person. We keep trying to hit something that is the ultimate truth, but of course, that is impossible, and yet it also doesn’t feel far away. It is like truth is already there just watching you try to make a model of it and you can always feel how close you come. I hope that we will capture some part of truth in what we are making.

For more information about Naropa University’s performance of Dead Man Walking as well as other actors’ thoughts, check out Tim Robbins play coming to Naropa in the Boulder Reporter (March 26, 2010).

* * *

Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via a live podcast at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE at 6 p.m. Central Time (check your time zone)

Check out this article Heeding founders’ call, women religious combat racism by Kate Childs Graham in National Catholic Reporter (Feb. 27, 2010). Here are some selections (links mine) …

In 1945, when Mary Paul heard God’s call to religious life, she could not enter any community of women religious in her hometown of Philadelphia, including the Sisters of Mercy. Not because her vocation was untrue, but because she was a person of color. At the time, women of color in the city were referred to three orders: the Oblate Sisters of Providence in Baltimore, the Franciscan Handmaids of Mary in Harlem, N.Y., or the Sisters of the Holy Family in New Orleans — communities comprised mostly of women of color. Paul entered the Baltimore order. Her story is the story of many other women of color who were refused entrance to so-called “white” communities.

…

The Sisters of Providence engaged an organization called Crossroads. Founded in 1986, Crossroads provides ways to understand and combat institutional racism, while establishing structures of accountability to people of color. The organization offers a series of trainings that “provide a framework for institutions that are striving to achieve antiracist and anti-oppressive transformation.” They also help institutions analyze any internal policies and procedures that maintain white privilege, and create antiracism teams that “build an intervention strategy to dismantle these oppressive systems.”

The Sinsinawa Dominicans and Sisters of Mercy have also turned to Crossroads. For all three communities, the journey with the organization began with a two-and-a-half day training, “Analyzing and Understanding Systemic Racism,” which explores the history of racism in the United States, how racism still exists in institutions today, and how this affects people of color and white people.

This first training for the Sisters of Providence was in 1997. “We weren’t just addressing personal prejudice,” said Sr. Jenny Howard. “We all have prejudice about something. What made it different for us was that the definition was: Personal prejudice plus misuse of power by systems and institutions equals racism.”

…

However, the work goes much deeper than providing trainings. It is also about looking at power and privilege and the structures that keep white privilege in place.

“As a white person, I am so accustomed to access,” Howard explained. “Any motel, any restaurant, any neighborhood. Yet I know that experience is not the same for some of the other members of the antiracism team. I will never forget the day, when one of our persons of color from our team said to me, ‘Jenny, you can think about racism whenever you want to. I have to think about racism every day of my life.’

“I haven’t done anything to earn these opportunities, these rights, these freedoms, this access,” Howard said. “So, how can we use this power of privilege in a positive way to work together for racial justice?”

Read the whole article Catholic Sisters Combat Racism.

What are you thoughts this?

* * *

Join the A Nun’s Life community for prayer at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone).

Diversity of perspectives and opinions are always welcome here. We encourage dialogue even when it includes agreement or disagreement with us or with one another. When doing so, it is helpful to keep in mind the way in which we agree or disagree with one another.

Agreeing and Disagreeing in Love
Commitments in Times of Disagreement

from the Mennonite Church (Español y English)

“Making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3), as both individual members and the body of Christ, we pledge that we shall:

In Thought

1. Accept conflict. Acknowledge together that conflict is a normal part of our life in the church. (Romans 14:1-8, 10-12, 17-19; Romans 15:1-7)

2. Affirm hope. Affirm that as God walks with us in conflict we can work through to growth. (Ephesians 4:15-16)

3. Commit to prayer. Admit our needs and commit ourselves to pray for a mutually satisfactory solution (no prayers for my success or for the other to change but to find a joint way). (James 5:16)

In Action

4. Go to the other… Go directly to those with whom we disagree; avoid behind-the- back criticism. (Matthew 5:23-24; Matthew 18:15-20)

5. In the spirit of humility… Go in gentleness, patience and humility. Place the problem between us at neither doorstep and own our part in the conflict instead of pointing out the others’. (Galatians 6:1-5)

6. Be quick to listen. Listen carefully, summarize and check out what is heard before responding. Seek as much to understand as to be understood. (James 1:19; Proverbs 18:13)

7. Be slow to judge. Suspend judgments, avoid labeling, end name calling, discard threats, and act in a non-defensive, nonreactive way. (Romans 2:1-4; Galatians 5:22-26)

8. Be willing to negotiate. Work through the disagreements constructively. (Acts 15; Philippians 2:1-11)

In Life

9. Be steadfast in love. Be firm in our commitment to seek a mutual solution; be stubborn in holding to our common foundation in Christ; be steadfast in love. (Colossians 3:12-15)

10. Be open to mediation. Be open to accept skilled help. If we cannot reach agreement among ourselves, we will use those with gifts and training in mediation in the larger church. (Philippians 4:1-3)

11. Trust the community. We will trust the community and if we cannot reach agreement or experience reconciliation, we will turn the decision over to others in the congregation or from the broader church. (Acts 15)

12. Be the Body of Christ. Believe in and rely on the solidarity of the Body of Christ and its commitment to peace and justice, rather than resort to the courts of law. (1 Corinthians 6:1-6)

Adopted by the General Conference Mennonite Church Triennial Session and Mennonite Church General Assembly, Wichita, KS, July 1995 (Mennonite Website)

We continue to pray for the people of Haiti and ask that you please remember them during your prayer throughout the day.

Please join us in prayer (written by Sister Camille Brouillard, IHM):

We grieve O Loving God, for the people of Haiti,
Who continue to suffer the ravages of nature over and over.
Hear the cry of your people,
Touch the hearts of those with abundance to hear their desperation
and come to their aid.
Be with those who grieve the loss of loved ones, homes, churches,
markets and employment.
Touch their hearts with some hope for a better tomorrow.
Send your angels of mercy to be with them.
Amen.

If you are able to donate, consider the following credible organizations.

• Catholic Relief Services
  

  Sister Michele Denton, IHM, in Haiti in 2009

• Mercy Corps
• Save the Children
• Fonkoze (Haiti)
• Red Cross
• World Food Programme (United Nations)
• Partners in Progress (Haiti)
• Doctors Without Borders

You can even text message a donation using your mobile phone. The Red Cross in conjunction with the U.S. State Department set up this service. Text “Haiti” to #90999 to donate $10.00. You’ll receive a text message saying “To confirm your $10 donation to Red Cross Int’l Response Fund reply with YES. Reply HELP for help or visit RedCross.org.” Once you respond YES, you will be charged $10 on your wireless bill. I just made my donation using this method.

The IHM Sisters (my religious community) has also set up an emergency fund. Those wishing to make donations can send a check made payable to the IHM Sisters with a note in the memo line indicating that the donation is for “Haiti Earthquake Relief.” Checks should be mailed to:

IHM Sisters
Attn: Haiti Earthquake Relief
610 W. Elm Avenue
Monroe, Michigan 48162

A prayer for peace in honor of Memorial Day by Pope John Paul II …

Mary, Queen of Peace, we entrust our lives to you.

Shelter us from war, hatred and oppression.

Teach us to live in peace, to educate ourselves for peace.

Inspire us to act justly, to revere all God has made.

Root peace firmly in our hearts and in our world.

Amen.

For whom would you like to pray this day?

Yesterday’s post on the question Is the habit the answer to vocations recruitment? drew a lot of discussion and perspectives. I want to pull out of there an interesting sub-conversation about what it means to be counter-cultural. In context, the comments are about the extent to which clothing/accessories of nuns are counter-cultural.

But the very concept of “counter-cultural” is understood in many different ways, and, as Jean notes, “I think you have to first talk about what and which cultures one seeks to counter.” My first stop, as always, is a dictionary or encyclopedia, just to get the basic meaning of the word.

Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. A general example would be a competing, dissenting culture that wishes to change the nature of, or at least the dominance of, a predominant culture in a particular society. (Wikipedia)

Now I’ve mentioned in past posts that being a nun is being counter-cultural. But I don’t spend a lot of time consciously thinking about the link between the two. I don’t think that one is a nun in order to be counter-cultural. The counter-cultural part is a kind of by-product of the fundamental desire to serve God and live the Gospel. I don’t wake up in the morning and say, “I wonder how I can subvert mainstream culture today” rather, I wake up and say “Thanks be to God” (… and shortly thereafter, “I need coffee.”)

So say more about this counter-cultural thing … doesn’t necessarily have to be in regard to nuns’ clothing/accessories … but what does it mean to be counter-cultural? Does it always have to be publicly displayed? Does it reside in a single act or belief or is it more of a collective thing? Would you describe yourself as counter-cultural? Why or why not?

Sister Suzanne Jabro, CSJ, is a Sister of Saint Joseph of Carndelet (Los Angels Province) and the founder of Get on the Bus, a free transportation ministry that unites children and their caregivers with a parent who is in prison.

Not only does Get on the Bus offer free transportation, but they provide “travel bags for the children, comfort bags for the caregivers, a photo of each child with his or her parent, and meals for the day.” On the way home children receive “a teddy bear with a letter from their parent and post-event counseling.” All this is provided at no cost to the family.

This year Get on the Bus is celebrating its 10th anniversary. It started when Sister Suzanne and other members of an interfaith delegation visited a state prison to see how they could help female inmates. It came down to one thing: the women, some of whom had been separated from their children for 9 years, wanted to see their kids. Sister Suzanne knew that the effects of separation for both a parent and a child were traumatic and that reuniting them could bring not only some healing but also help with the imprisoned parent’s rehabilitation.

Sister Suzanne got her nuns on board and eventually they were able to get together a bus with children from nine families to visit their mothers on Mother’s Day. This Mother’s Day, reports Good Housekeeping, “48 buses, sponsored by churches, synagogues, and other agencies, will bring children from all over California for Mother’s Day visits.”

I encourage you to read the entire Good Housekeeping article, A Mother’s Day Gift by Nicole Gregory (May 2009) which tells the story of Sister Suzanne and Get on the Bus. Also, learn more about the program at the website Get on the Bus.

What I love about this story is that Sister Suzanne exemplifies nuns on mission — she saw a need and she did everything she could to meet that need, even when faced with obstacles such as lack of funding and a reluctance to help incarcerated parents.

… for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me … (Matthew 25:35-36)

I received an email from an A Nun’s Life reader alerting me to TIME Magazine’s finalists for the list of 100 most influential people of 2009. You can vote online for your top pick. Among the list of “leaders, artists, entrepreneurs and thinkers” is Sister Mary Scullion, RSM, a Sister of Mercy who ministers on behalf of homeless people in Philadelphia. According to the TIME profile on her, “over 95 percent of those who cycle through her Project H.O.M.E. program have never again been forced to live on the streets, a success rate which has made the program a model for dozens of other U.S. cities.”

It’s awesome that TIME is featuring a Catholic sister on their list of influential people. I’m proud of Sister Mary for the work she is doing and for representing nuns and the awesome work that nuns do throughout the world — from the cloister to corporate office to impoverished villages.

Check out TIME’s list and be sure to vote for Sister Mary!

VOTE NOW

I’m sure that rocker Jon Bon Jovi voted for Sister Mary!

For more info on Sister Mary, check out the Project H.O.M.E. website as well as various media coverage.

• Philadelphia Inquirer – Ask Sister Mary Scullion – Sister Mary questions about homelessness (February 26, 2008)
• Philadelphia Magazine – The Good Generation – Jon Bon Jovi and Project H.O.M.E. (December 2007)
• NBC News – Philly nun aims to end homelessness: Organization she founded has already cut homeless population in half (November 16, 2005)
• MSNBC The Daily Nightly – More About Sister Mary (November 15, 2005)

Nunday has arrived and today we have not one, but two Catholic sisters from the Congregation of the Humility of Mary, a religious community of women based in Davenport, Iowa. From their website:

Like the woman in the gospel who lights a lamp to search for lost treasure, we seek the will of the Spirit in the signs of the times.

Motivated by compassion and justice, we give ourselves wholeheartedly wherever the needs are greatest.

Sister Marilyn Schierbrock, CHM, standing, is a neighborhood advocacy coordinator in downtown Davenport, Iowa. Here she is helping neighborhood women to establish a community garden.

Sister Cathleen Real, CHM, has been personally trained by Al Gore to provide education on climate change and the threats it poses to humanity and the planet as a whole. From a faith based perspective Sister Cathleen utilizes materials from The Climate Project training, including evidence of temperature increases, the serious consequences of global warming and recommendations for taking action to lessen the impact on the earth.

For other Nunday features, see the A Nun’s Life Facebook photo album. If you’ve got a photo of a real Catholic sister or nun, check out the details on submitting your photo for consideration.

Make a difference — Vote for the earth by turning off your lights tonight at 8:30 p.m. local time for one hour. One flick of the switch will signal your vote to care for the earth and to say no to global warming. This is a global effort — learn more at EarthHour.org.

Tonight HBO2 will premiere the film, called “They Killed Sister Dorothy” at 8 p.m. EST (see HBO write-up). The film is a documentary about Sister Dorothy Stang, SNDdeN.

Sister Dorothy was shot and killed in 2005 in Brazil amid a dispute with ranchers over Amazon rain forest land she wanted brought under Brazilian government protection.

The 73-year-old Sister Dorothy spent three decades trying to preserve the rain forest and defending the rights of poor settlers. She and her community worked with the poor in the rain forest of the Amazon basin in Anapu, Pará, Brazil. When wealthy cattle ranchers began destroying huge areas of the rain forest to make way for grazing land, Sister Dorothy became active in the Brazilian government’s Sustainable Development Project, also called PDS. She also became a Brazilian citizen.

For more information visit www.theykilledsisterdorothy.com.

I will be writing a review on the documentary within the next couple of weeks.

Nuns are amazing women. They minister to the whole world — sometimes by traveling to the far reaches of the globe, sometimes by their powerful prayers from within a monastery. There is no place that we Catholic sisters and nuns will not go to minister to God’s people and to tend the precious world that God has entrusted to our care.

Today’s Nunday photo is a powerful reminder of this. My blogging friend Sister Susan Rose Francois of the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Peace sent this photo and story of her nun, Sister Eleanor Gilmore.

From Sister Susan …

Sister Eleanor Gilmore, CSJP, is retiring from her health care ministry to the people of El Salvador. Sister Eleanor has lived in San Salvador since 2001 when she founded the Paz Salud health ministry which brings volunteer doctors and nurses to staff temporary health clinics for the poor of El Salvador. She had previously ministered in El Salvador during the civil war. From 1988 to 1993 she worked with Jesuit Refugee Services to coordinate health care in the capital for people from the repopulation villages. This was all the ministry she began after she “retired” from community leadership.

I was privileged to visit Sister Eleanor in El Salvador two summers ago. As we toured around the countryside, she would meet families that she had helped during the Civil War. It was as if she was a member of their family – they would embrace and catch up on all their news. Occasionally she would also tell us more grim stories – but always with a sense of humor. Like when we drove by the police station where she’d been held overnight. Or the Jesuit Refugee Service house she was staying overnight at in El Salvador – she had some appointments in the City the next day – only to be awoken during the middle of the night by police commandos who arrested her (again). Life was dangerous during the war to be sure, but she felt called to be there with the people.

Another Sister has taken over the ministry in El Salvador. Sister Eleanor will be returning to our west coast headquarters for some much needed rest and relaxation.

There’s been some interesting articles about Catholics sisters and nuns in the news this week.

Black nun discusses her role in ‘60s rights movement by Chaz Muth for Catholic News Service (February 17, 2009)

As a black Catholic nun, Franciscan Sister Mary Antona Ebo risked her well-being to participate in the legendary 1965 civil rights protest in Selma, Ala. But she said her fears for her safety subsided upon her arrival, when a young black girl burst through the crowd and tossed her arms around her while noting she had never before seen a nun who shared her dark skin.

Be sure to check out the documentary film Sisters of Selma for more about Sister Mary Antona and other Catholic sisters who participated in the protest in Selma.

Sister Anne’s Hands (Picture Puffins) by Marybeth Lorbiecki (Author) and Wendy Popp (Illustrator) (Puffin Books, 2000)

This children’s book was recently mentioned by Pat McNamara of McNamara’s Blog: Musings of a Church Historian from Queens, New York. Publishers Weekly says, “An African American nun challenges the beliefs of her second-grade students in this thought-provoking picture book set in the 1960s.”

Good day and welcome to our special feature “Monday is NUNDAY”! I’m Sister Julie, host of A Nun’s Life, and a Catholic sister belonging to the IHM Sisters of Monroe, Michigan. On today’s program we have a nun guest hailing from the Sisters of the Divine Savior, otherwise knows as the Salvatorians. Please welcome Sister Elizabeth “Liza” Segleau, SDS.

Sister Liza has a masters degree in behavioral health and ministers as a social worker and counselor. She lives in a rural, mountain town in Arizona called Show Low. Sister Liza currently works for a private practice but is actively working with the director to set up a nonprofit counseling/outreach center called Gabriel after the archangel.  Once Gabriel is up and running, Sister Liza will work there fulltime. Says Sister Liza, “This is certainly walking out on a limb and trusting in God’s providence. I have not been involved in a start-up in quite some time. So enthusiasm, trust, joy, strength and patience will be required. Your prayers will be appreciated as we gently go about getting Gabriel started.”

The photo of Sister Liza is from when she ministered at Catholic Charities in Milwaukee. She served as an outreach working in their immigration program.

For more on Sister Liza and her Sisters, check out the Meet Sisters page of the Sisters of the Divine Savior website.

Send in your photos of real Catholic sisters and nuns. See more photos of sisters and nuns who have been featured on Nunday at A Nun’s Life.

Today’s Nunday photo and story come from a recent visit of IHM Sisters to Haiti. The IHM Sisters of Monroe together with the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the Immaculata IHMs, and the Scranton IHMs, have a corporate commitment to care for the people of Haiti. Here is our corporate statement:

We, the Oblate Sisters of Providence and the IHM Sisters, impelled by the Gospel, stand in solidarity with the people of Haiti, the poorest nation in the Americas, in their struggle for dignity, life and human rights both in Haiti and the United States.

You can read more about the Haiti Project on our OSPIHM.org website.

Periodically sisters go to Haiti to help, some stay for a short time, others for a while. Sister Michele Denton, an IHM sister from Monroe, was recently in Haiti with The World Community for Christian Meditation, an organization founded and led by Benedictine monks.

You can read about Sister Michele’s experience in Haiti at our IHM website in the article Sister Bears Witness to Haitian Struggles.

Send in your photos of real Catholic sisters and nuns.

See more photos of sisters and nuns who have been featured on Nunday at A Nun’s Life.

Question from Therese …

Dear Sister Julie, First of all, congratulations on a beautiful website, and thank you for the chance to ask a question of a real live nun!

I’m in a “helping profession,” and find that often times doing a good job–or even a great job, isn’t enough. The expectation is for us to be “perfect.” This means satisfying people with a broad range of expectations, some of which I’m not always aware of.

Relatedly, I find that my own flaws (many of which I’m not aware of) come to the surface to surprise me (smack me in the face, more like).

I know that I’m “technically” doing a good job. The question is do you have to deal with the expectation (when encountering laypeople) that a nun must be “perfect,” despite the fact that we all are also human and make mistakes? How do you cope when someone you are trying to serve is disappointed in you because you don’t meet their notion of the “ideal”? (Sorry if this is a strange question)

Dear Therese, Thank you for writing! I’m glad you stopped by. Let me first reassure you that you are not alone in terms of what you are feeling. I think many in helping professions experience what you described so well. Needs rarely come packaged in neat, discreet boxes. They are often jumbled together and come spilling out when we encounter someone who is there to help. A visit to a physical therapist for an ankle injury, for example, might cause one’s deep hurt at not being able to run to surface in unexpected ways. Sometimes it’s clear what’s happening, other times, not so much.

In answer to your question, yes, I do have to deal with the expectation that a nun must be “perfect” — and interestingly it’s not just from lay people but from anyone, including myself! A Catholic sister or nun is often expected to be perfect in charity, holiness, virtue, and prayer. We are expected to always be perfectly present to others at all times, whether we are at our “day job” or standing in line at the grocery store. I have had the experience of going to the doctor for my own checkup and end up listening to his personal concerns and spiritual questions! But, even in the grocery line or at the doctor’s office, I’m still a nun. I’m not “off duty” because being a nun pervades all that I am, 24/7. I don’t stop being a nun when 5 p.m. hits, just like my sister is never not a Mom.

Honestly, I don’t always cope well but I am learning. An important first step is for me to know that I don’t have all the answers — and to be okay with that. When I bump into someone who expects me to be perfect, I try to acknowledge my own personal feelings (Hello?? You’re the doctor here. You’re supposed to listen to my aches and pains!) and also to move beyond them to a place of genuine compassion. Sometimes that means spending a little time with someone around their concerns. Or sometimes that means graciously refocusing them on the needs I can help them with or redirecting them to others who can help with the other needs that spill out.

In the end, as you know, not everyone will be satisfied. Not everyone will thank you or even recognize that you are trying your darnedest to help them. But don’t be discouraged. You are doing good, and the Spirit helps bring all good endeavors to grow and prosper, even if we are not there to see the fruits!

Today is Blog Action Day: Poverty. Bloggers, podcasters, and videocasters across the globe are addressing the issue of global poverty so that together we can raise awareness and trigger a global discussion. A Nun’s Life blog is participating today by hosting a discussion on poverty in light of faith by using Jon Sobrino’s book No Salvation Outside the Poor. This morning, I’d like to start off with a simple” question:

What does “no salvation outside the poor” mean to you?

Special Note:
For those of you on Plurk or Twitter, Denise205 will be covering the comments on A Nun’s Life throughout the day.

These are just a few Catholic resources on poverty that I have used and found helpful. Please add others that you have found helpful via the comment section below.

Catholic Charities USA on poverty in America

Catholic Relief Services

Catholic Campaign for Human Development

Catholic Social Teaching Internet Resources

Pope Benedict XVI on Tackling Poverty

Putting a Face on Poverty

A “Dialogue” with Archbishop Oscar Romero

IHM Sisters Action Alerts

Mercy Volunteer Corps

Jesuit Volunteer Corps

Tomorrow is Blog Action Day 2008 on Poverty. A Nun’s Life will be hosting a book discussion using Jon Sobrino’s book No Salvation Outside the Poor (Orbis 2008) as a springboard. It is not necessary to have read the book, but for those of us who have, please bring in your ideas, questions and thoughts.

Many of the thoughts in Sobrino’s book are based on the words of Ignacio Ellacuría, a Roman Catholic Jesuit priest who was also a theologian and philosopher who contributed to the work of Liberation Theology. He was martyred in El Salvador in 1989. Sobrino says in the prologue to the book that his reflection is based on the words of Ellacuría in a speech given in Barcelona 10 days before his assassination:

“This civilization is gravely ill–sick unto death, as Jean Ziegler says; to avoid an ominous, fatal outcome, the civilization must be changed.” With absolute and radical clarity Ellacuría added, “We have to turn history around, subvert it, and send it in a new direction.” (page ix)

I’d like us to think on this quote a bit and also consider the title of the book itself — “no salvation outside the poor” — and what it means to you personally. I’ll also post a few other compelling quotes from the book as we go through the day. Please let me know if there are specific questions that you would like us to consider. There are no “experts” checking in, just you, me and the rest of the A Nun’s Life community to reflect on and ponder these questions. As always I welcome your thoughts.

Blogs across the World Wide Web will be writing about poverty tomorrow. Be sure to check them out for other lenses through which to view the issue of poverty. My hope is to offer a faith-inspired lens through which to look at not just poverty abstractly but to stand with our sisters and brothers who are poor.

Let us dare to dream that we can do something to eradicate poverty and to love and support all people.

My friends on Plurk continue to pass along good info about which to blog. I learned from @TeresaDKG that today is World MDG Blogging Day. MDG stands for Millennium Development Goals which are as follows:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
2. Achieve universal primary education.
3. Promote gender equality and empower women.
4. Reduce child mortality.
5. Improve maternal health.
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Create a global partnership for development with targets for aid, trade and debt relief.

According to the United Nations:

“The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 – form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest.”

Did you know that there are 1.2 billion people who live on less than $1 a day? Too often we simply think of such people as “the poor” but never with a name or face. Partly, I think, we just can’t cope with the reality of poverty and the suffering of others and so it’s easier to generalize and relegate it to the nebulous “poor”. Keeping it abstract keeps us safe from having to do anything. I know that’s harsh, but I feel it too and honestly don’t really know how to deal with the reality of poverty which I witness right in front of me here on the streets of Chicago.

I am hoping that our October 15 discussion on poverty for Blog Action Day 2008 will help us not only reflect more on the call to end poverty but also some practical ideas for how we can do so in our daily life. Sobrino’s book is not all that easy to read (so I’ve found) but over the next two weeks, I’ll pull out some interesting quotes that we can reflect on together or if you are reading the book, let me know what stirs you.

In honor of Blog Action Day 2008: Poverty, A Nun’s Life will be having a discussion on poverty on Wednesday, October 15, 2008. We will be using Jon Sobrino’s book No Salvation Outside the Poor (Orbis 2008) as a springboard (click below to order from Amazon).

No Salvation Outside the Poor

While the book is not necessary to be part of the day’s conversation, it’s a good opportunity to read something new and to get deeper into what poverty is and how the Gospels call us to respond. It’s a short book (147 pages) comprised of 6 essays.

Get your copy and start reading. I’ll post more as we get closer to October 15.

On October 15, 2008, Blog Action Day has invited bloggers to have a conversation about poverty on their blogs with you, our readers. This is a world-wide effort to raise awareness about, learn about, and find ways to end poverty.

I’m happy to announce that A Nun’s Life will be participating in this effort. On October 15 (feast of Saint Teresa of Avila), I’ll host a conversation around the theme of poverty with you and other readers. I’d like your help in this. I want to know what you’d like to do on this day. Is there a particular aspect that you’d like to discuss? or would you rather focus on fund-raising? or look at the Catholic Church’s social teaching on poverty? Please use the comment box below to offer your ideas and suggestions. If you’d like to help out in any way, let me know that too. I’m looking forward to the day and will write more about it closer to the day.

If you are a blogger, please consider hosting a conversation about poverty on your blog too.

Sister Bernie Galvin, cdp, is a Catholic nun belonging to the Sisters of Divine Providence of San Antonio, Texas. She’s been in the San Francisco newspapers because she recently retired from Religious Witness, an organization which she founded to help people who are homeless. Here’s what Heather Knight of the San Francisco Chronicle writes about Sister Bernie today:

Sister Bernie Galvin, a Catholic nun and former junior high school teacher turned homeless advocate, founded Religious Witness with Homeless People 15 years ago and has been a regular City Hall presence ever since.

She’s fought against sweeps of homeless people and against city efforts to hand out tickets for crimes like camping on the sidewalk and holding an open booze container. She famously held a three-day memorial service in 2005 for the nearly 2,000 homeless people who had died over 18 years in the city.

But she’s exhausted herself in the process and following the recent deaths of her mother and sister, she needs a break. She is leaving her organization to spend a year in solitude – likely at a retreat praying, reading and painting.

“Whatever feeds my soul,” she said.

She’s leaving Religious Witness permanently, but not retiring. She’ll be back in some fashion, she told supporters in a letter.

“This sabbatical year is not to be construed as ‘retirement,’ ” she wrote. “For me, the age of 75 years is much too early to consider retirement, for heaven sake!”

Blessings to Sister Bernie on her year of sabatical. Our prayers are with you.

Sister Dorothy Stang, SNDdeN, was a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur who was killed in February 2005 because of her work with and on behalf of the people of Brazil. She had lived in Brazil for over 40 years ago and worked with the Pastoral Land Commission, an organization of the Catholic Church that fights for the rights of rural workers and peasants, and defends land reforms in Brazil. The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur have a web page dedicated to Sister Dorothy Stang.

There was a lot of news coverage recently because one of the persons responsible for her murder was acquitted. Then this article came out about Sister Dorothy’s brother, David Stang — “Nun’s Dream Lives On” by Colleen O’Connor of the Denver Post. Though the story emerges from the terrible tragedy of Sister Dorothy’s death and the ongoing oppression of the poor in Brazil, it is filled with hope and with light.

Dorothy’s murder had a profound affect on her brother David. According to this article, the murder “thrust David — blissfully retired and tending his coin and stamp collections — smack in the middle of an international drama of land wars and death lists.”

[David] Stang, who is studying Portuguese, has traveled to Brazil nine times, attending all the trials. He has trekked deep into the rainforest to visit Dorothy’s grave and to sleep in the bed where she spent her last night….

Over the past three years, he has met with Brazilian politicians and embraced countless farmers who grieve the loss of Dorothy.

And he has worked with journalists from CNN and international newspapers to keep her story alive. A week after the murder, he traveled to Brazil with Denver independent filmmaker Daniel Junge to be part of his documentary “They Killed Sister Dorothy,” which won first prize at the South by Southwest Film Festival and will be featured this fall at the Denver Film Festival.

“I think it’s incredibly brave for someone in his stage of life to really put himself out there in the way he has,” Junge said. “I don’t think he planned to spend his retirement this way.”

The investment of time, however, helped the prosecution, said Brent Rushforth, the Washington, D.C., lawyer who represented the Stang family at the trials.”His presence as a representative of the family, and keeping the spotlight on the story, is one reason why the Brazilian guys have done their job,” he said….

Stang, who calls himself “the living spokesperson for Dorothy,” … vows to keep her legacy alive, even if it means spending time with people such as Henri des Roziers, a French priest in Brazil who, according to local journalists, has a price on his head of 100,000 Brazilian reais — about $38,000, or twice the amount allegedly paid for Dorothy’s murder.

When des Roziers invited Stang to attend the opening of a new school named for Dorothy in Xinguara, at the heart of the violent conflict, he didn’t hesitate. The trek included two airplane flights and a four-hour drive in a pickup truck on rutted jungle roads deep into the frontier, where he was greeted by hundreds.

“The workers wore hard hats and were standing at attention. The kids came out in their uniforms. Everyone sang songs. There were hugs and tears. If I’m a symbol of pride to them, then, yes, I’ll be there.”

Do read the full article in the Denver Post and check out the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur’s web page dedicated to Sister Dorothy Stang.

Just came across this great website — FreeRice.com — which donates 20 grains of rice for every word you correctly define. FreeRice.com, sister site of the world poverty site, Poverty.com, works with the UN World Food Program to help end hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

You don’t need to sign-up, log-in, or give out any personal info. You just have to define words. This is a great way to not only help others for FREE, but to improve your own vocabulary. It’s a bit addictive as I sat for I don’t know how long amassing a donation of 10,000 grains of rice. But what a great thing to do for others. I highly encourage you to check it out. Also, get your kids on the site — it helps them to learn words, have some fun and help others in the process!

Don’t miss this article by Boston Globe columnist Kevin Cullen, “Quietly Doing God’s Work” (April 17, 2008). Here’s a quote from the article:

At approximately the same time the pope was standing in the White House, Sister Carmen Soto was standing in a food pantry on Monroe Street in Mount Pleasant, 3 miles north of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave….

Earth Day Reflections by Sister Mary McCann, IHM

Earth Day Prayer Service by the Sisters of the Holy Family

Faithful Stewards of God’s Creation by the US Catholic Bishops

Prayers celebrating God’s Creation by the US Catholic Bishops

Earth Day Catholic e-Greetings Cards

How Earth Day became … so everyday

Sister Mary McCann, one of my IHM Sisters, has been writing wonderful reflections in A Time to Sow, an IHM quarterly publication on the spirituality of sustainability. Mary is a beloved Sister, a very good writer, and a prayerful woman with stunning insight into life, God, and God’s creation.

In preparation for Earth Day (April 22) Sister Mary’s reflections are featured at wwwReadTheSpirit.com, a media website focusing on religion and spirituality. The site, under the leadership of David Crumm, is also “a network of professionals — writers, editors, photographers, artists, clergy, scholars and people from other disciplines, as well, who are building cooperative partnerships to produce books, Web content and videos.

You can read the reflections by following these links and scrolling down a bit:

Who’s Spiritually Embracing Earth Day?
Prayers and Eager Hands Are Rising Around the World for Earth Day

And these …

A Glimpse of Geese
A Meadow Moment

Enjoy, my friends!

This is a powerful video … click play and check it out.

I’m proud to say that Loyola Press, my place of ministry, is publishing A Persistent Peace, the newest book by John Dear, SJ. Father Dear is am amazing guy and has done so much to reach out to people, to work for nonviolence and peace, and to truly live the Good News of Christ Jesus.

There are some great quotes in support of John Dear including quotes from Joan Baez, Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ, Desmond Tutu, and my childhood hero Fred (Mr.) Rogers.

I encourage you to spend some time on Father Dear’s web site, A Persistent Peace. You’ll definitely find some inspiration there.

My IHM community is a member of Michigan Interfaith Power and Light. In 2007 we received an ENERGY STAR for Congregations award and so NBC affiliate WDIV did a story on us, highlighting some of the ways we “nuns go green!”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8boRiRh-b4]

On this 5th anniversary of the Iraq War … 

“How to Live a Peaceful Life” by John Dear, SJ
(click the link at end to read more)
 
FIRST – Become a contemplative of peace and nonviolence.
The only way to deepen in nonviolence is through prayer. We need to become contemplatives and mystics of peace, people who sit with the God of peace, who take intimate time each day for our relationship with the God of peace, who allow the God of peace to disarm our hearts of our violence and the wars within us so that we can be disarmed and become people of nonviolence …
 
SECOND – Become an activist of peace and nonviolence.
Oscar Romero said, “None of us can do everything, but all of us can do something.” Every one of us is needed in the grassroots movement for justice and peace. Every one of us has something to offer … 

THIRD – Become a student and teacher of peace and nonviolence.
Study the writings of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. King and Dorothy Day and the movements of nonviolence in history. Learn the methodology of nonviolence as a way for social change. Then, start teaching the techniques and lessons of nonviolence to everyone, everywhere … 

FOURTH – Become a visionaries of peace and nonviolence.
… Lift up the vision of a new world of nonviolence. Point the way. Help lead others back from the brink of violence, and imagine their lives, their communities and the world as a place of peace, justice and nonviolence.
 
FIFTH — Become, like Dr. King and Gandhi, a prophet of peace and nonviolence.
Break through the silence, complicity and acceptance of our culture of war, denounce the false spirituality of violence and speak out publicly the truth of peace and nonviolence. Say the unpopular truth[s] …

(read more at How to Live a Peaceful Life)

Here is an essay from Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ. It was aired on the NPR segment, This I Believe, ”a national media project engaging people in writing, sharing, and discussing the core values and beliefs that guide their daily lives.”

To listen to the Sister Helen’s essay, Living My Prayer, click here and then click on “Listen Now”.

Living My Prayer
by Sister Helen Prejean

Sister Helen Prejean’s work as spiritual adviser to death row inmates formed the basis of two books, including Dead Man Walking. A native of Louisiana, Prejean became a nun in 1957. In 1981 she dedicated her life to helping the poor of New Orleans.

Weekend Edition Sunday, January 6, 2008 · I watch what I do to see what I really believe.

Belief and faith are not just words. It’s one thing for me to say I’m a Christian, but I have to embody what it means; I have to live it. So, writing this essay and knowing I’ll share it in a public way becomes an occasion for me to look deeply at what I really believe by how I act.

“Love your neighbor as yourself,” Jesus said, and as a beginner nun I tried earnestly to love my neighbor — the children I taught, their parents, my fellow teachers, my fellow nuns. But for a long time, the circle of my loving care was small and, for the most part, included only white, middle-class people like me. But one day I woke up to Jesus’ deeper challenge to love the outcast, the criminal, the underdog. So I packed my stuff and moved into a noisy, violent housing project in an African-American neighborhood in New Orleans.

I saw the suffering and I let myself feel it: the sound of gunshots in the night, mothers calling out for their children. I saw the injustice and was compelled to do something about it. I changed from being a nun who only prayed for the suffering world to a nun with my sleeves rolled up, living my prayer. Working in that community in New Orleans soon led me to Louisiana’s death row.

So, I keep watching what I do to see what I actually believe.

Jesus’ biggest challenge to us is to love our enemies. On death row, I encountered the enemy — those considered so irredeemable by our society that even our Supreme Court has made it legal to kill them. For 20 years now, I’ve been visiting people on death row, and I have accompanied six human beings to their deaths. As each has been killed, I have told them to look at me. I want them to see a loving face when they die. I want my face to carry the love that tells them that they and every one of us are worth more than our most terrible acts.

But I knew being with the perpetrators wasn’t enough. I also had to reach out to victims’ families. I visited the families who wanted to see me, and I founded a victims support group in New Orleans. It was a big stretch for me, loving both perpetrators and victims’ families, and most of the time I fail because so often a victim’s families interpret my care for perpetrators as choosing sides — the wrong side. I understand that, but I don’t stop reaching out.

I’ve learned from victims’ families just how alone many of them feel. The murder of their loved one is so horrible, their pain so great, that most people stay away. But they need people to visit, to listen, to care. It doesn’t take anyone special, just someone who cares.

Writing this essay reminds me, as an ordinary person, that it’s important to take stock, to see where I am. The only way I know what I really believe is by keeping watch over what I do.

Independently produced for Weekend Edition Sunday by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman with John Gregory and Viki Merrick.

(source)

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has established a relief fund for the thousands of Bangladeshis who are displaced and have lost their homes, crops and livelihoods after the cyclone. If you can help, please, please do. Click on this link to donate now …

http://www.crs.org/bangladesh/2007-cyclone/

And please keep the people of Bangladesh in your prayers. I am especially reminded of Mary who is known (among other titles) as “Our Lady of Sorrows”. Mary certainly knew sorrow in her life especially witnessing the passion and death of her son Jesus. I ask Our Lady of Sorrows to watch over all those who are suffering with a mother’s tender love and care. (icon by Father William McNichols, SJ)

Check out this article from CNS … my comments are at the end …

Nuns who help prostitutes say exploited women have spiritual needs

Nov-12-2007

By Victor Gaetan
Catholic News Service

ROME (CNS) — With her hair dyed an unnatural shade of red and a thin green shawl draped over her, Carmelite Sister Begona Arroya stands out among nuns in a convent overlooking St. Peter’s Square.

But when she is ministering in southern Spain to prostitutes from all over the world, she blends right in.

“I dress so I won’t intimidate the women I need to reach,” said Sister Begona, 41, with a smile. “I have no office, just a cell phone and a car.”

Good Shepherd Sister Magdalena Barsan Bilibok, 28, of Romania is studying in Italy. She participates in a street outreach group in Rome that befriends exploited women.

“There are places in Rome where men in cars come to buy sex and there are many, many women, all from foreign countries, lined up to go with them,” said Sister Magdalena. “Of course, pimps are behind almost all the girls on the streets.

“It is so terrible. The girls get in the car, and when they come back, most look completely gone, like they don’t exist, they are destroyed by this,” she said. “We talk to them and pray with them. We serve them hot tea.”

Consolata Sister Eugenia Bonetti, who spent 24 years in Kenya before returning to Italy “as a missionary in my own country,” recalled the words of a woman who sought shelter in a safe house run by women religious.

“She said, ‘They destroyed my life.’ And she repeated it, ‘They destroyed my life.’ And a third time, again. Every word was like a bomb,” said Sister Eugenia.

Sisters Begona and Magdalena shared their experiences and knowledge of prostitution and human trafficking with women religious from around the world who gathered in Rome in mid-October to consider their unique role in confronting sex trafficking. The conference was funded by the U.S. Department of State and was organized by the U.S. Embassy to the Vatican and the Italian Union of Major Superiors.

The nuns created a new organization, the International Network of Religious Against Trafficking in Persons.

Under the guidance of Sister Eugenia, who has emerged as a world leader fighting human trafficking, participants presented detailed assessments of trafficking trends in their countries, as well as strategies to prevent women and girls from being lured into prostitution.

Many of the participants had been engaged in activities to help people in prostitution — men as well as women — for decades.

In the Paris neighborhood of Pigalle in the 1970s, Sister Magdalena was part of a group of nuns and a priest who converted a brothel into a bar and restaurant to become integrated in the community and serve its spiritually needy residents.

“Our goal was to give compassion to women in violent situations. We helped hundreds of people,” she said.

“I will always remember one woman in particular, from Gabon. She was involved in drugs and prostitution, deeply despairing. After a few years, we helped her find her birth father, and we helped her find a new job. She’s a flight attendant, with a child today.”

In Colombia, a New Zealand nun who identified herself as Sister Mary said she teaches English six hours a day to raise money for her real job.

“I serve the girls and transvestites in the street, dear,” said the youthful looking 65-year-old. “I love what I do. They are so badly, badly mistreated.”

Sister Mary, a Marist, exemplifies the ability of the nuns to withhold personal judgment of the prostitutes while rejecting those who enslave them.

“The drug lords own the sex clubs that drag these vulnerable people into a life that is very hard to escape,” said Sister Mary.

She said she hopes Colombian church leaders will do more to confront sex traffickers.

“Many of them are Catholic and know our priests through the sacraments. We should use our influence to tell them to stop exploiting people in sex,” she said.

Sister Eugenia said women religious have a long history of reaching out to people in distress, especially women and children.

Some congregations, for example, Spain’s Sisters of Adoration, Slaves of the Blessed Sacrament, were founded specifically to confront the abuse and social exclusion suffered by women in prostitution.

“We have a unique charism to be the good Samaritan. Women religious will reactivate our communities through our commitment to protecting human dignity, fighting human trafficking,” Sister Eugenia told the nuns gathered in Rome.

“We must be silent witnesses of personal suffering but eloquent denouncers of social injustice,” she said.

END

WOW … I got chills reading this article. These nuns rock. This one article touched on a number of major issues: faith, redemption, religious life, habits, compassion and justice, sacraments, witness … These women religious remind me that we are to be the healing hands, the welcoming arms, the loving heart of Jesus especially to those people who are poor and vulnerable. Sometimes that means being able to “withhold personal judgment of the prostitutes while rejecting those who enslave them.” That is a tough thing for anyone to do, but it clearly exemplifies the Sisters mentioned in this article.

Yesterday I watched the flick Fried Green Tomatoes (1991). I thought I had never seen it before but it seemed strangely familar as I watched it.

“In this adaptation of Fanny Flagg’s novel, flashbacks reveal the remarkable and mysterious story of soul mates Idgie (Mary Stuart Masterson) and Ruth Jamison (Mary-Louise Parker), whose antics cause an uproar in their rural Southern town during the 1920s. Feisty Ninny Threadgoode (Jessica Tandy) tells the tale to a repressed Alabama housewife (Kathy Bates), who becomes obsessed with Idgie and Ruth, and ultimately finds inspiration in their story.” (source: Netflix)

While there is defintely a sense of “girl-power” throughout this movie, there is a very powerful underlying message about the evil of racism. Actually, a lot of “isms” are turned upside down in this movie. Interestingly, the style reminded me a lot of Jesus’ parables, where you think one thing is going to happen and your expectations are totally turned upside down as Jesus seeks to communicate a deeper message.

For example, a scene early on has Ruth trying to get to know Idgie by going with her to the train yard, hopping on a train car and rifling through the skids of food. Prim and proper Ruth is agast as the train begins to move and Idgie starts hurling cans of food, boxes, ears of corn and other food items through the open door. “That food isn’t yours to take,” Ruth says indignantly (or some other words to that effect). Idgie keeps tossing out food and then Ruth sees what is going on. The train had been passing through a very poor area of town with people living in tents and huts. People are shouting, “Someone’s throwing food from the train!” and adults and children start running along the slow moving train. It dawns on Ruth that Idgie is giving the food to the poor. It is her concern for and connection with (she looks into the eyes of the children looking up at her, hoping for food) the people that moves Ruth to join Idgie in taking the food (i.e., stealing, something Ruth probably had never done) and giving to the people who were in terrible need of it.

In this brief scene, one sees a turning upside down of expectations and a conversion of heart — in Ruth certainly, but perhaps in the viewer as well.

Have you had a “parable moment” recently … something happen that turned your expectations upside down and revealed a deeper message?

God of life,

Every act of violence in our world, in our communities, between myself and others, destroys a part of your creation.

Stir in my heart a renewed sense of reverence for all life.

Give me the vision to recognise your spirit in every human being, however they behave towards me.

Make possible the impossible by cultivating in me the fertile seed of healing love.

May I play my part in breaking the cycle of violence by realising that peace begins with me.

St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace
London 7 July 2005

This past weekend as I relaxed and recovered from what seems like weeks of traveling, I popped in the DVD “Pay It Forward” (2000).

Young Trevor McKinney (Haley Joel Osment) responds to an assignment from his teacher (Kevin Spacey) with a plan to help three people … who will help three more, and so on, in an ever-widening circle. Trevor touches more people than he expected in director Mimi Leder’s gentle drama: his abused mother Arlene (Helen Hunt), his physically and emotionally scarred teacher and a journalist who hears of the plan and starts investigating.

Although little Haley Joel Osment of “I see dead people” fame got on my nerves after awhile, he did a great job as a truly soul-filled kid who honestly believes he can change the world. His character Trevor is blown away by a teacher’s bonus assignment to think about a way to change the world and then put it into action. How his consciousness begins to change as well as the consciousness of people around him is truly amazing and the heart of the story. The rest of the drama swirling around this key message gets a bit weepy and exaggerated at times, but the message is compelling enough that the excess drama is tolerable.

The character Trevor is told the seemingly impossible: that he can change the world. As he’s riding his bicycle home after school, he passes an area where people who are very poor live. Trevor realizes that he can do something about it by bringing one person home, feeding him, and letting him sleep in the garage. When asked by the man how he can repay him, Trevor tells him to pay it forward: help three other people and tell them to do the same when they ask how they can repay the kindness.

In the novel Pay It Forward which inspired the film, Trevor explains:

“You see, I do something real good for three people. And then when they ask how they can pay it back, I say they have to Pay It Forward. To three more people. Each. So nine people get helped. Then those people have to do twenty-seven.” He turned on the calculator, punched in a few numbers. “Then it sort of spreads out, see. To eighty-one. Then two hundred forty-three. Then seven hundred twenty-nine. Then two thousand, one hundred eighty-seven. See how big it gets?” (source)

Catherine Ryan Hyde, the author of the novel Pay It Forward, created quite a book in that she embedded within fiction a plan of action to help others out of kindness and without expectation of reimbursement. Since writing the book, Hyde and others have started the Pay It Forward Foundation “to educate and inspire students to realize that they can change the world, and provide them with opportunities to do so.”

I am pleased to know that the “pay it forward” concept is not just fiction, but that there are people out there who are trying to put this into practice. I think we all struggle with the knowledge that things in the world and in our own neighborhood are not as they should be. Yet we feel powerless to do anything about it or we feel like there is a chasm between “us” and “them”. Children are often much more adept at crossing lines because they don’t see the chasm or the boundaries. They’ve not grown old enough to construct all kinds of social/cultural/political/emotional barriers like we adults do. Jesus’ simple request that we become like little children was indeed loaded when looked at from this perspective.

Have you ever felt like you could change the world? What did you do or, what stopped you? Is there some need right in your own neighborhood that you could address, even if in a small way?

Now here is a platform that I could totally stand behind:

“My name is Susie Flynn. I am running for President of the United States of America to help the nine million children who have no health insurance. This is a crisis. These children have been let down, yet the people accountable are doing too little to solve it. By running for President, I intend to make everyone in America aware of the issue so that it will no longer be ignored. Under your next President, every child in America must get the health insurance he or she deserves.”

Through a very clever ad campaign, the Children’s Defense Fund is trying to get across the message that we must do something to take care of our children.

I couldn’t agree more that we must build a society in which the most vulnerable among us is cared for and has the resources they need to flourish as human beings.

I’d highly encourage you to check out Susie’s web site Elect Susie to learn more about what you can do to help out. Susie’s web site has a petition going to get “9 million signatures for the 9 million children without health insurance”. There’s also a MySpace web site for Susie.

The New York Times has an intersting article on Susie’s message — “If You Knew Susie …” (April 17, 2007)

ROME, MARCH 14, 2007 (ZENIT.org).- Superiors-general of religious institutes are calling on congregations to observe March 30 as a day of prayer and fasting for peace.

The International Union of Superiors General made the appeal “to participate in a day of prayer and fasting for an end to violence and war in Darfur, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Northern Uganda, Nepal, Colombia, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and any place in the world where discord and division reign.”

The convocation uses words from Pope John Paul II’s 2002 Message for World Day of Peace: “Precisely for this reason, prayer for peace is not an afterthought to the work of peace. It is the very essence of building the peace of order, justice and freedom.”

The superiors-general add: “We think that setting aside one day during Lent to pray together, as members of religious congregations, for peace on earth could have a powerful effect on our world.”
ZE07031428

]]> http://anunslife.org/2007/03/30/join-religious-in-praying-for-peace/feed/ 12 http://anunslife.org/2007/03/22/world-water-day/ http://anunslife.org/2007/03/22/world-water-day/#comments Thu, 22 Mar 2007 12:56:37 +0000 Sister Julie http://nuns2day.wordpress.com/2007/03/22/world-water-day/

From the World Water Day web site … “The world water crisis is one of the largest public health issues of our time. Nearly 1.1 billion people (roughly 20% of the world’s population) lack access to safe drinking water [1]. The lack of clean, safe drinking water is estimated to kill almost 4,500 children per day [2]. In fact, out of the 2.2 million unsafe drinking water deaths in 2004, 90% were children under the age of five [3]. Water is essential to the treatment of diseases, something especially critical for children.

“This problem isn’t confined to a particular region of the world. A third of the Earth’s population lives in “water stressed” countries and that number is expected to rise dramatically over the next two decades [4]. The crisis is worst in developing countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

“The world water crisis is created by a confluence of factors including climate and geography, lack of water systems and infrastructure, and inadequate sanitation, something that 2.6 billion people (40% of the world’s population) lack access to [5]. Some of these countries have additional problems, including high levels of arsenic and fluoride in drinking water [6].

“Many women and young girls in rural areas in Sub-Saharan African and other parts of the world must trek as much as six miles everyday to retrieve water for their families [7]. Due to this manual labor, such women and children are prevented from pursuing an education, maintaining their households or earning additional income [8].

“Thus, the lack of clean water, coupled with the lack of basic sanitation and a dearth of hygiene education, is one of the largest obstacles to progress and development in these regions and across the world. The UN has prioritized water access among its Millennium Development Goals because it contributes to such widespread suffering, including increased poverty, high child mortality rates, depressed education levels, and political instability. Without question, the world water crisis condemns billions of people to a perpetual struggle to survive at the subsistence level, [9] thus inspiring millions to engage and alleviate this problem. Join us. Get involved today.”

Sources: [1] WaterAid, 2005 [2] UNICEF/WHO Water for Life, Making it Happen, 2005 [3] UNICEF/WHO Water for Life, Making it Happen, 2005 [4] BBC News October 19, 2004 [5] UNICEF/WHO Water for Life, Making it Happen, 2005 [6] Department of International Development, Water Action Plan, March 2004 [7] UNESCO/ International Year of Fresh Water 2003 [8] UNESCO/ International Year of Fresh Water 2003 [9] UNICEF/WHO Water for Life, Making it Happen, 2005

Check out the World Water Day video on my sidebar.

What will you do to honor this day?

]]> http://anunslife.org/2007/03/22/world-water-day/feed/ 2 http://anunslife.org/2007/03/14/the-eucharist-and-the-consecrated-life/ http://anunslife.org/2007/03/14/the-eucharist-and-the-consecrated-life/#comments Wed, 14 Mar 2007 19:32:03 +0000 Sister Julie http://nuns2day.wordpress.com/2007/03/14/the-eucharist-and-the-consecrated-life/

From the recent apostolic exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis (February 22, 2007) of Pope Benedict XVI on the Eucharist as the source and summit of the Church’s life and mission …

81. The relationship of the Eucharist to the various ecclesial vocations is seen in a particularly vivid way in “the prophetic witness of consecrated men and women, who find in the celebration of the Eucharist and in eucharistic adoration the strength necessary for the radical following of Christ, obedient, poor and chaste.” (225) Though they provide many services in the area of human formation and care for the poor, education and health care, consecrated men and women know that the principal purpose of their lives is “the contemplation of things divine and constant union with God in prayer.” (226) The essential contribution that the Church expects from consecrated persons is much more in the order of being than of doing.

Footnotes:
(225) Propositio 39. Cf. John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata (25 March 1996), 95: AAS 88 (1996), 470-471.
(226) Code of Canon Law, can. 663 § 1.

]]> http://anunslife.org/2007/03/14/the-eucharist-and-the-consecrated-life/feed/ 10 http://anunslife.org/2007/03/09/a-couple-requests-for-help/ http://anunslife.org/2007/03/09/a-couple-requests-for-help/#comments Fri, 09 Mar 2007 12:44:09 +0000 Sister Julie http://nuns2day.wordpress.com/2007/03/09/a-couple-requests-for-help/

In the last week I’ve received a couple personal requests for help. Normally I do not write about such things because requests are often difficult to verify, but these two really struck me as authentic calls for help. Both have web sites which you can check out should you choose.

1. Brittany Harrison is a young woman who is seeking entrance into a religious community. She has student loans to pay off before she can enter. This is a requirement of Canon Law, that a person entering religious life be debt-free. This can often be a challenge, especially for those of us who put ourselves through college. Brittany has asked people to help her pay off her student loans so that she can enter the community. Visit Brittany’s blog Into the Deep to learn more about her story.
2. Velia Koppenhoefer is the mother of Efren Paredes, Jr. She is asking for justice for her son, a Latino honor student who was arrested at age 15 and sentenced to life in prison for a murder and armed robbery he did not commit in 1989. Velia is asking for people to learn more about her son’s story and to consider signing a petition seeking a new trial for her son. You can read more about the petition and Efren’s story at www.petitionspot.com/petitions/4Efren. You can also check out the following web sites:

• www.4Efren.com
• www.myspace.com/4Efren
• www.facebook.com/p/Efren_Paredes_Jr/751765345

]]> http://anunslife.org/2007/03/09/a-couple-requests-for-help/feed/ 3 http://anunslife.org/2007/01/21/ihm-nuns-working-for-peace-in-the-middle-east/ http://anunslife.org/2007/01/21/ihm-nuns-working-for-peace-in-the-middle-east/#comments Sun, 21 Jan 2007 11:59:55 +0000 Sister Julie http://nuns2day.wordpress.com/2007/01/21/ihm-nuns-working-for-peace-in-the-middle-east/

Commenting on my post “Catholics Respond to the President’s Iraq Proposal” Donna said, “I do believe that a good number of sisters/nuns have been prophetic in this area. Many can be role models for us all. Julie: Might you have any stories about sisters presently working for peace and understanding?” I checked around a bit … didn’t find anything specifically on Iraq, but did discover the following articles and prayers by my IHM sisters plus some additional material on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. We’ve had IHMs regularly go to the Middle East working for peace. The info below is from our IHM Web site. Also, check out the other material under the menu “Justice, Peace & Sustainability” on our Web site as well.

IHMs in Action

“The Geography of Occupation” by Jill Kress

“Infrastructure and Family Life” by Alice Baker, IHM

“Poems on Palestine” by Barb Beesley, IHM (PDF, 77 KB)

“Witness to Occupation”  by Barb Beesley, IHM (PDF, 101 KB) 

“Michigan Peace Team 2006 Summer Delegation – Update #1″ by Liz Walters, IHM and Jill Kress (PDF, 31KB)

Michigan Peace Team 2006 Summer Delegation – Update #2″ by Liz Walters, IHM and Jill Kress (PDF, 60 KB)

Prayer and Reflection Materials

“Jewish and Palestinian Women: You and I are the Conscience” - Bat Shalom (PDF, 672 KB)

“Jerusalem Peace Prayer Card” – Churches for Middle East Peace (PDF, 672 KB)

“Worship Resource: Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem” - Churches for Middle East Peace (PDF, 67 KB)

“Season of Prayer for Peace in the Middle East” - from the National Council of Churches

Resources

“Learn More about the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict” - An annotated bibliography (PDF, 49 KB)

Action You Can Take

Ask President Bush to Restore Peace to Gaza and Lebanon - By Faithful America.

If readers have links, stories, or suggestions they’d like to share about about sisters presently working for peace and understanding, please comment below. Thanks.

]]> http://anunslife.org/2007/01/21/ihm-nuns-working-for-peace-in-the-middle-east/feed/ 0 http://anunslife.org/2007/01/16/catholics-respond-to-the-presidents-iraq-proposal/ http://anunslife.org/2007/01/16/catholics-respond-to-the-presidents-iraq-proposal/#comments Tue, 16 Jan 2007 12:59:52 +0000 Sister Julie http://nuns2day.wordpress.com/2007/01/16/catholics-respond-to-the-presidents-iraq-proposal/

Throughout history, nuns and sisters have understood their calling from God to be not just for their own personal growth in relationship with God but also to work on behalf of and pray for the needs of our world and church. Though we in the U.S. espouse the separation of church and state, the love and activity of God know no boundries. The Church is compelled to bring to bear the Gospel message on the happenings within our world. And so women and men religious have made it a part of their mission to be advocates for justice and peace wherever there is violence, injustice, wrongdoing, and oppression. This is the call of all who live the message of the Gospel.

Recently a number of concerned Catholics issued a statement condemning the President’s strategy in Iraq and calling for an alternative policy of diplomacy and development. The statement was published by the Center of Concern (a Catholic social justice think tank) noting that radio reports “noted that the majority of Americans polled disagree with the President’s strategy.” Click here to read the Center of Concern’s post “IRAQ: Diplomacy, not Troops.” Below is the statement.

RESPONSE TO THE PRESIDENT’S PROPOSAL FOR A CHANGE OF COURSE IN IRAQ

January, 2007

On January 10, 2007, President Bush announced a change in Iraq policy. We, as organizations of Catholics and as individuals, come together to respond to these new Iraq initiatives.

We respond in the context of Jesus’ call to us in the beatitudes to be people of peace (Matt 5:9), and to love our enemies (Luke 6:27) as well as the November 2006 statement by the President of United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bishop William S. Skylstad. In that statement, Bishop Skylstad notes that the pain and destruction of the war in Iraq is “measured in lives lost and many more injured, in widespread sectarian strife, civil insurgency and terrorist attacks, and in the daily struggles of Iraqis to build a decent future for their devastated nation.” He noted further that the way forward is bleak and stated that “The Holy See and our Conference now support broad and necessary international engagement to promote stability and reconstruction in Iraq.”

We are keenly aware that the members of the U.S. military and their families are shouldering the heavy burdens of extended service in Iraq. They risk death and injury of both body and spirit. However, it is crucial to recognize that political and economic concerns, not military issues, are fueling the continuing strife. Therefore, only solutions that combine the political, diplomatic, economic and religious issues Iraqis face will effectively resolve the underlying conflict and bring peace to Iraq. As the last three years have demonstrated, increasing the U.S. troop presence in Iraq will neither address the root causes of civil strife nor quell the violence. Increased U.S. military action will needlessly endanger our troops and detract from effective action to achieve a cease-fire and create peace.  Therefore, the escalation of military presence in Iraq is detrimental to our men and women in the armed forces.

The escalation of military action is far more harmful to Iraqi citizens who are paying the ultimate price in ever-increasing numbers through violence, hunger and lack of ordinary services. Every day, more and more ordinary Iraqis are fleeing their homes and becoming refugees – either within Iraq or in neighboring countries. This dislocation spreads religious, economic and political instability around the region, making it increasingly difficult to handle the influx of those traumatized by this war. The escalation of military action is detrimental to the Iraqi people and the surrounding region.

United States citizens are keenly aware that the military is not an effective tool for bringing peace to Iraq. U.S. citizens understand that Iraq is in the midst of a civil war that requires the engagement of all parties in a peace process in order to resolve the issues. Military action in this context only brings more violence and bloodshed and no end to this conflict. The escalation of military action is detrimental the desires of people of the United States.

Finally, only those in the military and their families are sacrificing for the sake of this war. There has been no effort to finance this war with taxes or other military offsets and the war has been funded without consideration of its impact on the overall federal budget. This fiscal irresponsibility will hamper future generations as they are forced to pay the bills for this generation’s war. The escalation of military action is detrimental to the economic future of the United States.

THEREFORE:

• We oppose the proposed escalation of U.S. troops in Iraq noting that prior escalations have not resulted in increased peace and stability. Troop escalations in Baghdad in the late summer and early fall of 2006 resulted in increased violence and death for both U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians.

• We support the President’s call for economic development in Iraq, noting that the current unemployment rate is running at 40 to 50%. Additionally, 60% of the population is under the age of 25 and is in dire need of alternatives to imagine a better future. Any economic development should directly benefit the Iraqi people and their communities, not contractors from other corners of the world.

• We urge the President to engage in diplomatic and political negotiations seeking a comprehensive cease fire by all factions in Iraq and the region. The rejection of a comprehensive diplomatic effort is a short-sighted view of American interests. A surge of diplomacy, not an escalation of troops is what is required.

SIMONE CAMPBELL, SSS, Executive Director
NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby

CAROLE SHINNICK, SSND, Executive Director
Leadership Conference of Women Religious

T. MICHAEL McNULTY, SJ, Justice and Peace Director
Conference of Major Superiors of Men

ALEXIA KELLEY, Executive Director
Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good

DAVID A. ROBINSON, Executive Director
Pax Christi USA.

JIM HUG, SJ, President
Center of Concern

MARIE DENNIS, Director
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns

JOE MOLONEY, OSF, President
Franciscan Federation of the United States

AMY WOOLAM ECHEVERRIA
Columban JPIC Office

JANET GOTTSCHALK, MMS, Director
Medical Mission Sisters’ Alliance for Justice

FRANK McNEIRNEY, National Coordinator
Catholics Against Capital Punishment (CACP)

SEAMUS FINN, OMI, Director,
Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate
Justice, Peace & Integrity of Creation Office

MARY WASKOWIAK, RSM, President
Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas

]]> http://anunslife.org/2007/01/16/catholics-respond-to-the-presidents-iraq-proposal/feed/ 7 http://anunslife.org/2007/01/15/the-soul-of-martin-luther-king/ http://anunslife.org/2007/01/15/the-soul-of-martin-luther-king/#comments Mon, 15 Jan 2007 13:11:08 +0000 Sister Julie http://nuns2day.wordpress.com/2007/01/15/the-soul-of-martin-luther-king/

Treat yourself to a great segment on National Public Radio (NPR). The program American Routes features the segment “The Soul of Martin Luther King“. Here’s a preview from the program’s Web site:

“We visit with two great performers who carry on the legacy of MLK in life and spirit. First, the great songwriter, arranger and performer Isaac Hayes who defined R&B for a generation recalls his participation in lunch counter sit-ins and Memphis protest marches, and integrating the Stax office staff.

And ’60s soul singer “Able” Mable John talks about recording strong statements like “Stay Out of the Kitchen,” and “Don’t Hit Me No More” as well as her work now as a minister in Los Angeles.”

]]> http://anunslife.org/2007/01/15/the-soul-of-martin-luther-king/feed/ 0 http://anunslife.org/2007/01/11/sisters-of-selma-documentary-update/ http://anunslife.org/2007/01/11/sisters-of-selma-documentary-update/#comments Thu, 11 Jan 2007 12:51:01 +0000 Sister Julie http://nuns2day.wordpress.com/2007/01/11/sisters-of-selma-documentary-update/

A while back I wrote about Sisters of Selma: Bearing Witness for Change (click here to see my original post). The film is a one-hour documentary produced by Hartfilms in association with Alabama Public Television.

“During the bloody marches of 1965 in Selma, Alabama, a startling new group of leaders joined the battle for civil rights: African American and white Catholic nuns. Nine nuns look back at the events that changed their lives and helped make Selma a turning point for Martin Luther King’s movement and for religious Americans.”

Starting in February which is Black History Month, the film will be aired on PBS Stations. Go to the film’s web site and click on “airdates” in the left menu bar, and then on “broadcast” to see when it might be aired on your local station. You can also see a very compelling video preview in the same window that opens up for “airdates” … click on “video preview”.

I haven’t yet seen the film and am looking forward to it. If you’ve seen the film, please let me know what you think about it.

]]> http://anunslife.org/2007/01/11/sisters-of-selma-documentary-update/feed/ 0 http://anunslife.org/2006/12/19/sisters-of-selma-bearing-witness-for-change/ http://anunslife.org/2006/12/19/sisters-of-selma-bearing-witness-for-change/#comments Tue, 19 Dec 2006 13:14:09 +0000 Sister Julie http://nuns2day.wordpress.com/2006/12/19/sisters-of-selma-bearing-witness-for-change/

I read this news article by Catholic News Service and had to find out more about the Sisters of Selma. Below is some of the background which is taken directly from the film’s web site. Here is a list of the congregations who were the “Sisters of Selma”. Each link explains how that congregation’s sisters were involved.

• Franciscan Sisters of Mary

• Sisters of St. Joseph  of  Carondelet

• Sisters of Loretto

• Sisters of St. Joseph of Rochester

• Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

from the film’s web site …

Sisters of Selma: Bearing Witness for Change
a one-hour documentary in production for Alabama Public Television

In 1965, American nuns from St. Louis made civil rights history in the streets of Selma, Alabama. At a time when many church leaders were reluctant to address the treatment of Blacks in the South, these courageous women defied authority—and a long history of simply praying for causes—to proudly take their message to the streets. When the image of these women of the cloth, marching alongside other protesters, graced the front pages of newspapers and magazines, Selma became a turning point for Rev. Martin Luther King’s movement and for religious people in America.

A Few Steps in the Right Direction

The time was the Sixties; the place, the deep South. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had been working to bring voting rights to the region’s African Americans. For decades, local laws had all but prevented Blacks from voting. And those who did venture to the ballot box often faced harassment and even violence. Rev. King had decided to challenge the status quo once and for all. On a dreary Sunday in early spring, dozens of peaceful protesters gathered to demand voter registration reform. But the quiet resolve of the assembly was shattered when state troopers and the sheriff’s posse on horseback struck down scores of Black citizens. Dozens were badly injured and two killed in the days following. With much of the debacle shown on television news, “Bloody Sunday” stunned Americans, focusing nationwide attention on civil rights for the first time. A new feeling of outrage emerged, and civilians were not the only ones to join the fray.

Religious leaders left their pulpits to take to the streets—ministers, rabbis, and priests. Fiftyfour from St. Louis, Missouri took two chartered flights to Selma.

Four habit-clad sisters were in the first plane. Sister Mary Antona, a Sister of St. Mary, was accompanied by Sister Eugene Marie, her superior at St. Mary’s Infirmary. Being African American, Sr. Mary Antona had suffered racial segregation in her own novitiate program. She had prayed to go to Selma, knowing full well that sisters simply didn’t do such things. When the call came, Sr. Antona realized: “God was calling my bluff.” Sister Ernest Marie and her companion Sister Thomas Marguerite were on the same flight. They were Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and college teachers. They knew little about the Black struggle for voting rights beyond the buzz on campus, but going to Selma seemed the right thing to do.

In the second plane were Loretto sisters Sister Ann Christopher and Sister Christine Mary. They lived and worked with Black inner-city residents of St. Louis who embraced Rev. King’s peaceful methods. These Blacks were the people the sisters wanted to represent in Selma.

They did not anticipate the reactions of the South and of the Catholic establishment.

In Selma, the Missouri sisters were surprised by how much the Black residents trusted them. This was due in large part to the years of bridge-building by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Rochester. They had met the education and health care needs of the poor Blacks of Selma since 1940. The Archbishop of Mobile-Birmingham had prohibited them from joining the demonstrations, so they fed, housed, and nursed waves of civil rights activists from elsewhere. They welcomed the nuns from St. Louis.

On the Wednesday following “Bloody Sunday,” the sisters led a procession defying a ban by church, city, and county authorities. Though the police cut the demonstration short, the images of these women in the national and international media had tremendous impact. People were shocked. A Gallup poll showed that the majority of Americans felt sisters should remain cloistered in their convents. For Dr. Martin Luther King the presence of the visiting nuns in the Selma demonstrations “had a special significance because the public knows a nun to be a woman of great sacrifice and dedication.”

For thousands of their peers, however, these women religious had made a thrilling statement because the event coincided with the Second Vatican Council, an ambitious four-year effort by Rome to modernize the Catholic Church. Sisters around the country were rethinking their vow of “obedience,” their missions, and their own segregation from the life of the nation. In the following weeks, many went to Selma to join the marchers. These Catholic women religious who marched in Selma inspired many American nuns to seek social and economic justice through their ministries well beyond the traditional realms of teaching and nursing.

This is a story of “aggiornamento,” (Pope John XXIII) the “updating” of societies resistant to change. More importantly, it is the story of a few women who took it upon themselves to become the agents of that change. What did they change? How were they themselves changed by the experience? Was it all for the better? Now in their 60′s and 70′s, the women reassess their roles in the Civil Rights Movement.

]]> http://anunslife.org/2006/12/19/sisters-of-selma-bearing-witness-for-change/feed/ 0 http://anunslife.org/2006/12/02/the-4-martyred-churchwomen/ http://anunslife.org/2006/12/02/the-4-martyred-churchwomen/#comments Sat, 02 Dec 2006 15:42:25 +0000 Sister Julie http://nuns2day.wordpress.com/2006/12/02/the-4-martyred-churchwomen/

Today we celebrate the lives of the four Churchwomen who were martyred in El Salvador. They are witnesses to all of us of the commitment to God and to love of one’s neighbor, even in the face of danger and death. The following comes from the People’s Companion to the Breviary, pages 500-501.

On the evening of December 2, 1980, two Maryknoll Sisters, Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, were returning to El Salvador from a retreat in Nicaragua. They were picked up at the airport by an Ursuline Sister, Dorothy Kazel, and a young lay woman, Jean Donovan, who worked in the refugee camps. On the road from the airport, they were stopped at a military roadblock. They were taken to a remote spot along a side road, brutally abused, and then executed. They have become part of the martyrology of the Christian communities throughout Latin America.

 In her eulogy, Sr. Melinda Roper of Maryknoll said:

…God, in His/Her loving kindness, has raised up witnesses in our midst. God is calling each of us to a more radical discipleship—one which will not be understood by the powerful of our day. We must be wise as serpents in naming and denouncing the evil which pervades our world. We must be filled with compassion for those whom suffering from lack of basic necessities has become a way of life. We must be moved to action which will clearly identify us with the poor. Above all, let us not be filled with fear. Let us be filled with courage and hope, for “in the tender compassion of our God, the dawn shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

]]> http://anunslife.org/2006/12/02/the-4-martyred-churchwomen/feed/ 0 http://anunslife.org/2006/11/06/vote-its-a-privilege-and-a-moral-obligation/ http://anunslife.org/2006/11/06/vote-its-a-privilege-and-a-moral-obligation/#comments Mon, 06 Nov 2006 12:37:22 +0000 Sister Julie http://nuns2day.wordpress.com/2006/11/06/vote-its-a-privilege-and-a-moral-obligation/

As Election Day approaches, I’m reminded of how our right to vote is both a privilege and a moral obligation. As Catholics, we must be informed about and participate in the politics of our local community and our nation. The world of politics is a place like any other in our world where we are called to be light in the darkness.

In the Catholic tradition, responsible citizenship is a virtue; participation in the political process is a moral obligation. All believers are called to faithful citizenship, to become informed, active, and responsible participants in the political process. (USCCB Administrative Committee, Faithful Citizenship: A Catholic Call to Political Responsibility, p. 8.)

Politics . . . should be about an old idea with new power—the common good. The central question should not be, “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” It should be, “How can ‘we’—all of us, especially the weak and vulnerable—be better off in the years ahead? How can we protect and promote human life and dignity? How can we pursue greater justice and peace?” (USCCB Administrative Committee, Faithful Citizenship: A Catholic Call to Political Responsibility, p. 2.)

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has done a lot in terms of articulating how our Catholic tradition impels us to be faithful citizens. Check out their Faithful Citizenship web site which provides resources that “are designed to help you learn, share, and act on Catholic teaching about how our faith can and should shape our choices and opportunities as citizens, so that we can build a world more respectful of human life and dignity and more committed to justice and peace.”

]]> http://anunslife.org/2006/11/06/vote-its-a-privilege-and-a-moral-obligation/feed/ 0 http://anunslife.org/2006/10/26/banker-to-the-poor/ http://anunslife.org/2006/10/26/banker-to-the-poor/#comments Thu, 26 Oct 2006 12:05:02 +0000 Sister Julie http://nuns2day.wordpress.com/2006/10/26/banker-to-the-poor/

Here’s an amazing story about how one person made a huge difference in tackling the issue of poverty. This is quoted in whole from the Grameen Web site.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006, divided into two equal parts, to Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank for their efforts to create economic and social development from below. Lasting peace can not be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty. Micro-credit is one such means. Development from below also serves to advance democracy and human rights.

Muhammad Yunus has shown himself to be a leader who has managed to translate visions into practical action for the benefit of millions of people, not only in Bangladesh, but also in many other countries. Loans to poor people without any financial security had appeared to be an impossible idea. From modest beginnings three decades ago, Yunus has, first and foremost through Grameen Bank, developed micro-credit into an ever more important instrument in the struggle against poverty. Grameen Bank has been a source of ideas and models for the many institutions in the field of micro-credit that have sprung up around the world.

Every single individual on earth has both the potential and the right to live a decent life. Across cultures and civilizations, Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that even the poorest of the poor can work to bring about their own development.

Micro-credit has proved to be an important liberating force in societies where women in particular have to struggle against repressive social and economic conditions. Economic growth and political democracy can not achieve their full potential unless the female half of humanity participates on an equal footing with the male.

Yunus’s long-term vision is to eliminate poverty in the world. That vision can not be realised by means of micro-credit alone. But Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that, in the continuing efforts to achieve it, micro-credit must play a major part.

Oslo , 13 October 2006

I find this truly inspiring and visionary. I believe each of us has the capacity for this kind of “ordinary heroism” and to truly be light for the world.

]]> http://anunslife.org/2006/10/26/banker-to-the-poor/feed/ 0 http://anunslife.org/2006/10/20/school-teacher-suspended-for-wearing-a-veil/ http://anunslife.org/2006/10/20/school-teacher-suspended-for-wearing-a-veil/#comments Fri, 20 Oct 2006 12:10:52 +0000 Sister Julie http://nuns2day.wordpress.com/2006/10/20/school-teacher-suspended-for-wearing-a-veil/

In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal there’s an article called “U.K.’s Criticism of Practices of Muslims Raises Tensions” (Oct 19, 2006, A6). The authors of the article cite a case last week in which “a U.K. school suspended a teacher for refusing to remove a veil that left only her eyes uncovered. Mr. Blair this week came out in support of the suspension.”

With all the violence and abuse in this world and specifically in our schools, I find it so strange that a teacher would be suspended from her job simply because of her choice of dress and her public statement of who she is as a Muslim woman. I know that wearing the veil has been seen by some (not this nun) as, in the words of UK Speaker of the House, “a visible statement of separation and difference.” I don’t know all the circumstances that led up to this suspension. I’m also not a school teacher or administrator so I don’t know all the things that they must deal with in situations like this. However, on the face of it, it doesn’t look good. How many schools or other organizations could have brought the same argument against women religious? After all, many of us did and still do wear habits that could easily fall under the category of ”a visible statement of separation and difference.”

The issue of a teacher being suspended because of the way she chose to respectfully make public her beliefs gives me pause. It makes me examine my own beliefs and practices and how it is that I treat other people who are seemingly different from me. Am I able to respect and appreciate people for who they are? Am I willing to stand up for people who are deemed “separate and different”? Can I place my own fears aside and step up to the plate in a spirit of gentleness, compassion, and justice? These are big questions but ones that are worth wrestling with.

]]> http://anunslife.org/2006/10/20/school-teacher-suspended-for-wearing-a-veil/feed/ 0 http://anunslife.org/2006/10/16/ny-times-article-on-ihms-and-care-for-creation/ http://anunslife.org/2006/10/16/ny-times-article-on-ihms-and-care-for-creation/#comments Mon, 16 Oct 2006 13:00:29 +0000 Sister Julie http://nuns2day.wordpress.com/2006/10/16/ny-times-article-on-ihms-and-care-for-creation/

The New York Times published an article on October 15, 2006 called “Citing Heavenly Injunctions to Fight Earthly Warming” by Neela Banerjee.  In the article, the writer talks about the IHM motherhouse campus in Monroe, Michigan and our committment to caring for the earth. Here’s a clip from the article:

The Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a Catholic religious order for women, used an opportunity to renovate their 73-year-old mother house in Monroe, Mich., to create a model of sustainable energy and water use.

The 376,000-square-foot building is heated and cooled by geothermal power, provided by some 240 wells dug on the order’s property. Water from sinks and showers, or “gray water,” is fed into a natural filtration and treatment system in a series of ponds and then recycled for use in toilets. Some lawns have been given over to natural meadows to reduce watering and mowing. Insulation is made of recycled materials. The building now saves $200,000 annually in energy costs.

Some neighbors find the shaggy meadows unsightly. The city had to be persuaded to allow the gray water scheme. But the order, the average age of whose members at the mother house is 86, is also asked regularly to advise other groups, religious and secular, on building energy efficient facilities.

“We are recreating the monastery of old, where people come to learn how to live into the next century,” said Sister Janet Ryan, a member of the order’s leadership council. “Our dream is that the mother house serves as something of an ecological lab. For a bunch of elderly women, we have a huge agenda.”

]]> http://anunslife.org/2006/10/16/ny-times-article-on-ihms-and-care-for-creation/feed/ 0 http://anunslife.org/2006/09/10/56/ http://anunslife.org/2006/09/10/56/#comments Sun, 10 Sep 2006 20:26:28 +0000 Sister Julie http://nuns2day.wordpress.com/2006/09/10/56/

The Letter of James has been on my mind a lot as I ponder how best to respond to the needs of people on the streets. The passage in particular that is percolating is the one “faith without works is dead” (James 2:15-16) which I included in my 9/10/6 comment on “How to Help People Begging on the Streets?”

Coincidentally the second reading at Mass today was James 2:1-5.

My brothers and sisters, show no partiality
as you adhere to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.
For if a man with gold rings and fine clothes
comes into your assembly,
and a poor person in shabby clothes also comes in,
and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes
and say, “Sit here, please, ”
while you say to the poor one, “Stand there, ” or “Sit at my feet, ”
have you not made distinctions among yourselves
and become judges with evil designs?

Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters.
Did not God choose those who are poor in the world
to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom
that he promised to those who love him?

This is a challenging passage to be sure. The only response I can muster up right now is to pray: Loving God, teach me to show no partiality and to be present to all your people with a spirit of love, compassion, respect and delight.

]]> http://anunslife.org/2006/09/10/56/feed/ 0 http://anunslife.org/2006/09/05/dorothy-day-pray-for-us/ http://anunslife.org/2006/09/05/dorothy-day-pray-for-us/#comments Tue, 05 Sep 2006 12:32:55 +0000 Sister Julie http://nuns2day.wordpress.com/2006/09/05/dorothy-day-pray-for-us/

Dorothy Day is one of those people I go to when I am struggling to be more open and sensitive to people who are poor and when I feel helpless before a social system that perpetuates poverty.

“As for ourselves, yes, we must be meek, bear injustice, malice, rash judgment. We must turn the other cheek, give up our cloak, go a second mile.”

“I believe that we must reach our brother, never toning down our fundamental oppositions, but meeting him when he asks to be met, with a reason for the faith that is in us, as well as with a loving sympathy for them as brothers.”

“I firmly believe that our salvation depends on the poor.”

“The bridge – it seems to me – is love and the compassion (the suffering together) which goes with all love. Which means the folly of the Cross, since Christ loved men even to that folly of failure.”

Dorothy Day quotes from brainyquote.com

]]> http://anunslife.org/2006/09/05/dorothy-day-pray-for-us/feed/ 0 http://anunslife.org/2006/09/04/how-to-help-people-begging-on-the-streets/ http://anunslife.org/2006/09/04/how-to-help-people-begging-on-the-streets/#comments Mon, 04 Sep 2006 14:54:30 +0000 Sister Julie https://nuns2day.wordpress.com/2006/09/04/how-to-help-people-begging-on-the-streets/

This morning it is raining outside. I’m still thinking about how to respond to people on the streets who are homeless and/or beg for money. I’d like to believe that everyone out there found a dry place to stay overnight. Last night I kept thinking about what I could do. I feel like there’s not much I can do … the situation of poverty and homelessness is a huge social problem. Yet, when I’m walking and run into someone asking for spare change, I am face to face with a fellow human being, not some abstract “social problem.” The very cliche phrase “What would Jesus do?” haunts me.

I started formulating a possible plan — I don’t know if this is realistic nor do I know if it would really be helpful to others or if it is more to assuage my own feelings of helplessness. What if I got together little packages of stuff … some food, some change, etc. … and when I ran into someone, I’d be prepared. I’d say hello and see if the person wanted anything. Such encounters are always highly unpredictable (see Jen‘s comment on my last post “Can You Spare Some Change?“). But, I don’t think unpredictability should stop people from responding (with great care and common sense) to the needs of others. As I write about my “plan” it sounds kind of goofy, but I think, what the heck? Maybe at the least it will open a door for me to get more in touch with the needs of God’s people and find a way to do something in my little corner of the world. We live in hope.

]]> http://anunslife.org/2006/09/04/how-to-help-people-begging-on-the-streets/feed/ 0 http://anunslife.org/2006/09/03/can-you-spare-some-change/ http://anunslife.org/2006/09/03/can-you-spare-some-change/#comments Mon, 04 Sep 2006 00:05:26 +0000 Sister Julie https://nuns2day.wordpress.com/2006/09/03/can-you-spare-some-change/

In the Bible, the book of Micah has a line that in some ways summarizes how we are to live. “You have been told … what is good, and what the LORD requires of you: Only to do the right and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).

This is one of my favorite mantras. The verse reminds me how I am to be in the world. I’ve been thinking about this verse alot today. At Mass this morning, the readings centered around how we to live as people of God. The response to the psalm (Psalm 15) was “Those who love justice shall live in the presence of God.” I had to ask myself: Do I love justice and exhibit this in my own life? Who are the people in my life who are suffering injustice? What does God call me to do?

One of my biggest struggles is how to respond to people on the street who ask for money. These folks are usually at the traffic light when I exit the highway or hanging out on my street block. I run into people asking for money near bus and train stations and just about everywhere downtown. I’ve lived in a number of big cities and (sadly) I’ve gotten used to seeing homeless people and people begging for money. At one level I am horrified by the abject poverty I see. At another level (I am ashamed to say) I don’t know what to do so I walk right by. Occasionally I give money or food. Now I’m better at always saying hello and making eye contact. I know there are people who object to handouts … “they’re just going to use it for drugs or alcohol.” But you know, that is a major cop-out. It is not up to me to judge or try to predict how a person is going to use the money. But it is up to me to decide if I am going to hear the call of the poor or if I’m going to ignore it and walk away. In theory, of course I want to “do the right”. But when it comes to relating to people who live on the street and/or beg for money, what is the proper response? I’m not really sure and that troubles me to no end.

Please share your insights, questions, and comments on this.

]]> http://anunslife.org/2006/09/03/can-you-spare-some-change/feed/ 0