Into the Woods...

I've been going into the woods to find peace, to find solace, to find God. Yesterday was my brother's birthday - Chris died in 2022, quite suddenly of a rare brain disease. Yes, too young. Over the last few years, I've lost several family members, Mom, Dad, Chris, Charles, Dayna, Katie, and Ronnie. Too many, too young. I've found myself adjusting to lives that are complete, rather than lives and relationships that are ongoing. It's a big difference. While we all know we won't last forever, there's something about the finality of death. Like that simple period at the end of a sentence, death is the end of something that had been ongoing. I love my brother and we shared a love of nature and plants and a fondness for crafting things from natural materials. His were from wood, mine from fiber. I lost a brother and friend, and found a new connection to the universe. Chris is there when I walk into the woods, when I enjoy his wife and kids, and when I admire his handiwork. He is there when I inexpertly try to prune a tree and when I discover a new plant or flower. 

Love All God's Creation

Love all God’s creation, both the whole and every grain of sand. Love every leaf, every ray of light. Love the animals, love the plants, love each separate thing. If thou love each thing thou wilt perceive the mystery of God in all; and when once thou perceive this, thou wilt thenceforward grow every day to a fuller understanding of it: until thou come at last to love the whole world with a love that will then be all-embracing and universal.

― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

Blessing for the Brokenhearted

 

Let us agree
for now
that we will not say
the breaking
makes us stronger
or that it is better
to have this pain
than to have done
without this love.

--Jan Richardson

https://www.debbieaugenthaler.com/blessing-for-the-brokenhearted-by-jan-richardson/

Stay-treat

I'm getting ready for a retreat at home again this year. If you have ever done it, you know it is a challenge to get into a retreat space of mind and heart without getting away physically from your space. However, with the pandemic, I think it is the better choice to retreat at home again. 

Having done this with mixed success in the past, I am garnering resources for my retreat at home - or what I'm calling my stay-treat. I thought I might just be able to google this, but alas, it isn't that easy. So I'm gathering some resources and I thought I would share them here - and please feel free to share your resources as well. These are, in no particular order:

    - Pray as you go

    - Meditation Retreat at Home

    - Covid Isolation Retreat

    - Laudato Si Retreat

    - Laudato Si Retreat Guide

    - Women's Christmas Retreat

    - A Path Called Solace

Last year, I did a 'coffee retreat'. Sounds great, doesn't it? Basically, I identified several life-long friends and scheduled a virtual coffee with them during the retreat week. That was the thread that kept my retreat 'on track'. We were able to catch up, honor the God-space in each of us, and nurture that space. What a gift that was. 

This year, I know that I need to put some things in place:

1. Have a gentle spiritual path, with periodic check-ins to help keep on that path. I like directed retreats for that reason. 

2. Have a good walking routine. I love to take long prayer walks, usually several times a day. I usually try to go south during our Missouri winter, so that I can warm up, body and soul.

3. Make sure I have sufficient healthy foods around. I like that about the retreat - not having to worry about food and being surprised by nourishing meals several times a day. 

4. Have a playlist ready, get an ice-skating pass, and prepare to be amazed by grace!

Home style Christmas Lessons and Carols

I was in need of shortened Lessons and Carols for small group worship. Not finding anything on the internet that met my needs, I assembled this service. It has the prayers and readings, and links to YouTubes with singalong style songs and lyrics. Maybe it will help others. 

For the song, go to the link - it will have about a dozen songs on it. After the song title is the timestamp of the song. The link should take you right to it. 

A SERVICE OF LESSONS AND CAROLS

--WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION

CAROL: ONCE IN ROYAL DAVID’S CITY: 

https://youtu.be/t-BcLKW1rQ0?t=3466 - Karaoke: 19 Once in Royal David's City 57:46

THE BIDDING PRAYER

Beloved in Christ, let it be our care and delight this Christmas

to prepare ourselves to hear again the message of the angels: 

in heart and mind let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to pass, 

and with the shepherds and Magi adore the Child lying in Mary’s arms. 

Let us read and hear in Holy Scripture the loving purposes of God 

from the first days of creation to the glorious redemption brought us by this Holy Child; 

and let us be glad with our carols of praise: 

But first, let us pray for the

needs of the whole world; 

for peace and goodwill over all the earth; 

for unity within the Church Jesus came to build, 

within the nations of the world, our country, and our neighborhoods. 

And let us at this time remember in his name the poor and the helpless, 

the cold, the hungry, and the oppressed; 

the sick in body and in mind and those that mourn; 

the lonely and the unloved; 

the aged and the little children; 

and all who do not know the loving-kindness of our God. 

Lastly, let us remember before God all those who rejoice with us, 

on another shore and in a greater light, 

that multitude which no one can number, 

whose hope was in the God who came among us, 

and with whom we for evermore are one. 

And let us pray in words Jesus gave us:

Our Father, who art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy Name,

Thy kingdom come,

Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread;

And forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive them that trespass against us;

And lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from evil.

Amen.

May God bless us with grace:

Christ give us the joys of everlasting life: 

and may the God of heaven bring us one day to the company of saints and angels.

Amen.

VENI, VENI EMMANUEL (O COME, O COME EMMANUEL)

https://youtu.be/vrK-fKtNQyY - 7am choir: 1) O Come, O Come Emmanuel (00:03)

LESSON 1: GENESIS 3.8-15 (The Fall)

8 They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ 10He said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.’ 11 He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’ 12 The man said, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.’ 13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, ‘What is this that you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent tricked me, and I ate.’ 14 The LORD God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.’

WHAT CHILD IS THIS?

https://youtu.be/t-BcLKW1rQ0?t=4533 – Karaoke: 25 What Child is This? 1:15:33

LESSON 2: GENESIS 22.15-18 (The Promise of Abraham)

15 The angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven, 16 and said, ‘By myself I have sworn, says the LORD: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, 18 and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.’

CAROL: ANGELS WE HAVE HEARD ON HIGH

https://youtu.be/vrK-fKtNQyY?t=1200 - 7am choir: 7) Angels We Have Heard On High (20:00)

LESSON 3: ISAIAH 9.2, 6-7 (The Prophecy of the Messiah’s Birth)

2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness— on them light has shined. … 6 For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onwards and for evermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

CAROL: JOY TO THE WORLD

https://youtu.be/vrK-fKtNQyY?t=1533 - 7am choir: 9) Joy To The World (25:33)

LESSON 6: LUKE 2.1-7 (Luke Tells of the Birth of Jesus)

1 In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3All went to their own towns to be registered. 4 Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5 He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

AWAY IN A MANGER

https://youtu.be/t-BcLKW1rQ0?t=321 - Karaoke: 3 Away in a Manger 5:21

LESSON 7: LUKE 2.8-16 (The Shepherds Go to the Manger)

8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11 to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’ 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, 14 ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favours!’ 15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.’ 16 So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger.

STILLE NACHT (SILENT NIGHT)

https://youtu.be/t-BcLKW1rQ0 - Karaoke: 1 Silent Night 0:00

PRAYER AND BLESSING

O God, you make us glad with the yearly remembrance of the birth of you only Child, Jesus Christ: Grant that as we joyfully receive our redeemer, so we may with sure confidence see him, when he comes again; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end.

Amen.

May he who by his Incarnation gathered into one, things earthly and heavenly, grant you the fullness of inward peace and goodwill; and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be upon you and remain with you always.

Amen.

CAROL: O COME, ALL YE FAITHFUL

https://youtu.be/vrK-fKtNQyY?t=1314 - 7am choir: 8) O Come All Ye Faithful (21:54)

Abundance on Villa - Solar Project

Abundance on Villa is a project of Religious Life Project which provides an intercommunity living space for Catholic sisters.

        a. The Solar project seeks to convert an intercommunity residence for Catholic sisters to be run completely on solar energy, including charging of electric vehicles. Thus, the sisters can lead the way in their communities and regions toward reducing their carbon footprint.

        b. This project is located in Dogtown Ecovillage, benefitting from the expertise and support of the ecovillage.

        c. Homeowners generally have tax incentives to help with solar installations. However, nonprofits are not able to take advantage of these incentives, so they look to grantors to help make these projects accessible.                   

The GOAL of Abundance on Villa – Solar Project is to convert an intercommunity residence for Catholic sisters to be run completely on solar energy, supporting their work in healthcare, education and social services.

This project is at the forefront of the two prongs of the RLP mission: 

        a. emerging future of religious life that supports sisters' work for the poor and marginalized,

        b. living and witnessing to environmental sustainability and carbon draw-down.

The IMPACT of the Abundance on Villa – Solar Project is two-fold:

        a. Those living in and visiting the intercommunity house will be immediately impacted. 

        b. More broadly the sisters promote knowledge and practice of energy sustainability and reducing our carbon footprint and this will function as a demonstration site for their sustainability education and promotion efforts.

Sisters 2.0 Gathering & Summer Sisters

Gathering

Sisters 2.0 is a group of Catholic Sisters born after 1955 gathering for sharing, networking, and mutual support. 

Due to the challenges of life in COVID and of several of our personal and community situations, we have not been able to meet for several months. However, it's time to gather again. You can go to our FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2025979371043364 or message me directly at amyhereford@gmail.com for more information on our May 7, 2021 online gathering. 

A lot has been happening this year for all of us as we learn to navigate the ever-changing world of COVID and keep abreast with community and ministry. This will be a chance for us to gather and catch up. Then we can begin again with our sharing of our experience of religious life today.

Summer Sisters

Summer Sisters is an idea that we have been kicking around for a few years. The idea is to open our hearts and our homes to one another over the summer. It is open to Sisters in various religious communities. So, we would like to take this opportunity to invite Sisters to stay with us over the summer in St. Louis. We are specifically inviting GV and 2.0 Sisters who would like to spend a little time with us. Call it retreat, vacation, mini-sabbatical, inter-community sisterhood networking, eco-spirituality immersion, urban eco-village experience, etc. You may have heard of couch-surfing... this would be more like convent-surfing.
Summer/retreat/vacation time is a great time to open our doors to one another, to build the networks among us and to nourish the spirit that is moving among us. Reach out to me at amyhereford@gmail.com to see if this is something that can work out for you and for us. 

As always, blessings on your journey.

Amy

Fratelli Tutti

The new encyclical brings the breadth of Catholic Social Teaching on human solidarity to center stage at a critical time, esp considering

the pandemic
the movement for Black Lives
the election
the climate crisis
the economic melt-down
the refugee crisis

We gradually come to know ourselves through our relationships with our brothers and sisters. Sooner or later, we will all encounter a person who is suffering. Today there are more and more of them. The decision to include or exclude those lying wounded along the roadside can serve as a criterion for judging every economic, political, social, and religious project.

If you are longing for an authoritative statement about what it means to be authentically pro-life in today's world, take the time to read the original text.

If you are looking for calm in the face of chaos and hope in the face crisis, take the time to read the text.

Full text;   Summary

Masking and Unmasking

The Coronavirus Pandemic has triggered a global health crisis, as countries - rich and poor - seek to respond as the disease rolls through their population. The pandemic has also triggered a global economic crisis as companies and individuals, governments and municipalities seek to put responsible restrictions in place and limit economic and social action. This response has triggered social unrest as left and right clash, responding to different narratives about the pandemic, about it’s unequal impact, about the science, and about the meaning of truth itself. 

In the wake of this chaos, the killing of George Floyd triggered a massive international outpouring of righteous indignation. The killing of George Floyd came on the heels of the killings of black people including Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery and so, so many others at the hands of the police and armed white nationalists. The sustained and largely peaceful protests against police brutality have been met sometimes with fair and even-handed policing, and at other times protesters have been met with harsh treatment by local police and by federal agents who unleash military-style weapons on unarmed Americans, on US soil, in our city streets. 

At the same time, our ecological crisis is deepening as environmental protections are rolled back. 

And US policy and US agents are holding vulnerable immigrants in inhumane conditions at our borders, violating their human rights and violating our own highest ideals as an American people.

This is the dark picture that we see unfolding around us and we weep. 

Yet it is not all dark: In this time of Masks, we see a lot that is Unmasked.

This current constellation of crises UNMASKS many things - 

    • It UNMASKS deep inequities that already existed in our society, 

    • It UNMASKS deep division that already existed in our politics, 

    • It UNMASKS deep fragility that already existed in our economy, 

    • It UNMASKS the gross negligence of our society that deepens the environmental crisis – it is this cavalier attitude that is in part responsible for this pandemic.

At the same time this current constellation of crises 

UNMASKS our deep interconnection: Fauci and public health professionals have become prophets of community health, prophets of the deep connections that we have, one with another. We must care for one another because we hold each others well-being in our hands.

It UNMASKS - the global nature of our society, politics, economy, ecological system

It UNMASKS the beloved community called for by Dr. King and being birthed on our streets and in our hospitals and across the country. 

Never has it been more important to lean in to our unity as a human community and as a CSJ community. 

We are called to inner healing, hope and conversion. 

And we are called to turn outward in solidarity with POC, immigrants, and the LGBT community. 

We are called to build the beloved community, reach out to the dear neighbor, to learn and to live the economics of the golden rule.

Stay safe, stay connected, and stay active!

Amy

We Dwell in Possibility

As I write this, the pandemic is surging across the United States while it is being brought under control in many other parts of the world. The public health crisis has triggered a historic financial shock. At the same time, we are witnessing a growing social movement in support of Black Lives Matter and increasing grassroots support of action on climate change.

Far from sitting idly by, these times call us to re-commit ourselves to responsible action for the dear neighbor. That action may be as simple as ardent prayer or reaching out to support those with whom we share this pandemic isolation. 

We take a cue from the poet of solitude, Emily Dickenson, in I cannot love with You:

So We must meet apart –

You there – I – here

Surely Dickenson did not get on Zoom calls but found in solitude a way of growing in spiritual depth and of being more deeply present to those with whom she did connect.

We also reach out beyond prayer and solidarity, so that like Dickenson, we can "dwell in Possibility." I nurture hope and I "dwell in Possibility" by responding to today’s challenges.

Stirred by the powerful words of our 2019 CSJ Congregational Chapter, I continue to grow in personal commitment and to work with others to respond to today’s challenges:

Striving to be beacons of hope, we commit to:

• Respond to the crisis of Earth and global warming,

• Deepen awareness of our complicity and work toward dismantling interlocking systems of oppression,

• Articulate and authentically live our vows in ways that witness and speak to today’s realities,

• Walk with women as we claim our voice and work toward an inclusive church and society,

• Use our collective voice to accompany others in speaking their truth.

I can "dwell in Possibility" by committing to small and large actions for justice myself and in community, and by affirming, supporting, and promoting others in their actions for justice.

Will you join me?

Peace,

Amy

Summer Sister 2020

For a number of years, I have extended an invitation to join me in St. Louis, for a period of time during the summer. I imagined it as an experience of community, retreat, sabbath, vacation, R&R, eco-emersion, and nurturing body, spirit while leaning into the future of religious life.
In 2020, the time of coronavirus lockdown, I dared not hope or invite. Yet this year I have been blessed to have a summer sister join me for a few months and it has been all that I had hoped for. Mutual blessing and sharing community, spirituality, and justice. I hope to continue this in future years, and I would definitely recommend that others offer this opportunity if you are able. 
Here's a link to a prior invitation. If you're interested in more information or would like to join me in 2021, drop me a line and we'll talk more.
ALSO - if any women discerning religious life would like to spend several weeks in a live-in experience, let me know and we will see what we can arrange for that too. We have several houses where you might be able to join us.
Amy
www.ahereford.org

Masking for the Dear Neighbor

We are living through extraordinary times. I am reminded of the beginning of Dickens’s book: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. We are facing a pandemic, an economic meltdown, social unrest, violence, and injustice against people of color and against immigrants. As people of faith, we are called to live with an extraordinary commitment to the gospel.

As Sisters of St. Joseph, we are called to reach out to others, whom we call our ‘dear neighbor’. There is no stranger for a Sister of St. Joseph. There are only dear neighbors to whom we reach out in prayer, kindness, and service. We have been asked to wear face coverings. In some regions and organizations, we are mandated to wear masks. We have learned that our masks provide limited protection to the wearer and substantial protection to the dear neighbor whom they encounter. Public health professionals tell us that we are all interconnected. The health of all is interconnected. Public health officials echo the charism of the Sisters of St. Joseph: we are all Dear Neighbors. So I am wearing a mask for the dear neighbor.

Stay safe and healthy!

Peace,

Amy

Rhythm and Blues

As a the Sisters of St. Joseph team and council, we have completed our first half-year. Early in our term, one of the sisters advised me, "You’re just freshmen. Give yourselves time to adjust." Th at has been such a great image for me. We have a four-year term and we have just completed our first semester. I feel like I’m beginning to get a rhythm for the ministry of Province Leadership. We continue working for you through the post-Christmas lull and its associated winter blues, and we ask for your prayers in our mission. So yes, you guessed it. I’m talkin’ rhythm and blues!
As for the rhythm, the team and council meet for three days at the beginning of every other month. We begin with time for prayer and sharing of the heart. We also try to include time for relaxation and celebration during our days together.
We have been inviting the department heads to come in one-by-one and discuss their current operations and plans moving forward. These have been good opportunities to further our understanding of the province departments and to work toward open communication. At the January meeting, we met with the Health and Wholeness staff to better understand this important ministry and the hopes and challenges of serving our sisters’ needs.
We review the province's financial report, discuss our ministry fund and approve some requests. We also discuss updates on various projects and aspects of province life.
In addition to these semi-monthly meetings, we serve as the province investment committee that meets quarterly.
As a team, we meet weekly on Wednesday mornings. We begin with prayer and sharing. We often bring the week’s prayer requests to our circle along with upcoming meetings and events, holding them in prayer. Th en we move into the more immediate business. We share projects or concerns and get input from each other. We try to finish our morning with those gathered in Holy Family Chapel for the regular Wednesday Midday Prayer.
I’m also trying to strike a balance personally with prayer, community, family, consultation ministry and personal wellness. Let me say it’s a work in progress.
For the blues part, after the hustle and bustle of the holidays, the cold dark days of winter can be challenging to many of us, myself included. Many are also facing illness and death among family and friends, personal illness and major life transitions. It is a time to count on the indomitable promise of spring in the seasons of Earth and the seasons of our lives. The waiting of Advent gives way to the waiting of winter, and that can test our patience.
I have to choose what gives me life and reminds me of this promise of spring. I nourish my mind, body, and spirit with healthy foods and with good reading and good friends in community and beyond. I exercise my mind, body, and spirit by walking and ice-skating, and by exploring new ideas and new friendships. I find time to rest and relax alone, with my friends and with my God.
Let’s pray for each other and let the meaningful beat of our personal and community’s “rhythm and blues” intermingle in a chorus of hope.

Ecosia

Greta Thunberg has been chosen as Time Magazine's person of the year for her fearless advocacy for action on climate change. In her honor, I want to post some actions that people can take to make a difference in their own lives.

1. Plant trees while you search the web. Ecosia uses the profit they make from your searches to plant trees where they are needed most. Get the free browser extension and plant trees with every search. The short video to the right gives five reasons to switch to Ecosia as your default engine, including trees, environment and privacy.
2. Explore the Drawdown project at https://www.drawdown.org/. Project Drawdown is a world-class research organization that reviews, analyses, and identifies the most viable global climate solutions, and shares these findings with the world. Understand these solutions, advocate for them and choose one to implement in your life. Once you have implemented that solution, choose another. 
3. Choose radical hope. It is easy to be overwhelmed by the enormity of the problem and by the lack of adequate response. Don't be discouraged, choose hope and choose to act. Join with others and be part of the solution.
4. Rejoice in God's gift of creation: humans, plants, and critters. Trust in the power of the Creator and the Spirit of redemption and renewal. 

Blessings
Amy

The Face of Poverty

Women’s voices are important to the project of integral ecology because women are most deeply impacted by ecological degradation. By every metric, women have less access to the good things of the earth: to food, to water, to sanitation, to health care, to education, to security, to property, to rights, to employment, to wealth, and to technology. when resources are limited, when society is unstable, women and children suffer most acutely. Nearly three-quarters of the world’s poor are women, and the poor are often forced to further degrade their environment simply to survive. The united nations and many international organizations involved in promoting health and sustainable development are increasingly realizing that the face of poverty is a woman’s face.

Pope Francis recognizes the connection between ecology and poverty. he recognizes that the weight of environmental degradation falls most heavily on the weakest and most vulnerable. he points out that all human beings have certain basic human rights, and in speaking of these things he refers to men and women, to our brothers and sisters. yet it is most often our sisters who find themselves to be the poorest and the most defenseless. and, in a poor society, women are often victims of men who are only slightly better off than the women are. All too often, these men turn to violence and to drugs and alcohol at the expense of their wives and children. The global community has come to realize that giving women access to education and basic resources is among the most effective ways of helping the poorest in our society; organizations directly involved in such efforts realize that the face of development is a woman’s face.

Integral Ecology from Below

In Laudato Si’, Pope Francis describes an “integral ecology, one which clearly respects its human and social dimensions” LS 137). The human and social dimensions of ecology point to natural sustainability in which human persons are a part of—not apart from, much less above—nature. The encyclical notes that it is not enough to merely live healthy human lives; we are also called to seek lives that are sustainable in relationship with the natural world, lives that are spiritually meaningful and culturally rich. and finally, we are called to seek sustainability and meaning in a way that is equitable for all peoples across the globe, which in turn preserves valuable resources for our children’s children.
One reading of the creation story sees God high above in the heavens, in transcendent glory. Humanity is set as the pinnacle of creation, with a mandate to fill the earth and subdue it. This is a mandate that seems to place human beings apart from and above the rest of creation. In this reading, humans see creation as a thing to be used, and even abused; the innate value and the beauty of each living creature and of all that God has created are subordinate to their utility at the service of human beings and human civilizations.
In contrast, a different reading sees creation as God’s garden, as the outpouring of the heart of our loving God, inviting all creatures into existence and into a loving relationship with the Creator. Pope Francis turns to Ali Al-khawas, a Sufi mystic poet, to help describe the relationship:

The universe unfolds in God, who fills it completely. Hence, there is a mystical meaning to be found in a leaf, in a mountain trail, in a dewdrop, in a poor person’s face. (LS 233)

Why Do I Stay?

Sometimes people pose the question: Why did you become a nun? Why did you enter the convent? 

This prompts me to return to that moment years ago when I first thought about becoming a sister. I was in college and I had all the high ideals and lofty hopes typical of a young college student. I wanted to make a difference, I wanted to change the world, I wanted to live a meaningful life. The notion of a religious vocation came into my life in this liminal space that was charged with high-minded dreams.
When the notion of vocation first struck me, it came loud and clear, fast and furious. I was gobsmacked. Who? Me? God? Calling? It took time to sort out the meaning of this experience. I explored, visited, prayed, and discerned. Yet I still remember the afternoon in my college dorm when I first intuited a call to religious life. For some it is a gentle tug, for others a deep longing, for others an undeniable certainty.

People also ask: Why do you stay? Why are you still here after all these years?

This is harder to answer. I could return to that first moment, that first sense of call. My life, with all its highs and lows, its consolations and desolations, has been a 'living out' of that first sense of call. Some say that when I come to religious life, the first decades make me who I am. There are the years of formation in which I deepen my sense of call, learn about religious life, about prayer, community, and mission. And then after the decade of initial formation, I begin living religious life. It becomes natural. My personal identity and my community identity become integrated. I am a Sister. I am a Sister of St. Joseph. After decades of religious life, you can take the sister out of the community, but you can't take the community out of the sister. So I stay because this is who I am, who I have become.

Am I happy? Yes. Do I struggle? Yes. Is it all worth it? Yes, and Yes, and Yes.

Laudato Si' and the Amazon

Laudato Si’ is in continuity with a great deal of good work that has taken place in fields dealing with ecology, sustainability, eco-spirituality, and the integrity of creation. The encyclical makes reference to many important voices, and significantly leaves aside others, in the conversation about the current ecological crisis, global poverty, and sustainability. It situates conversations about ecology within important discussions about morality, justice, poverty, technology, and globalization. By articulating an integral ecology from below, it challenges everyone to a new level of co-responsibility. The document invites all people into a conversation about “our common home,” a term that the pope repeatedly uses in referring to this planet we share. “Our common home” is a term that points to the deep unity of all creation, and the important connection that we all share as part of the natural community.

We all make simple daily choices regarding food, energy, transportation, and consumption. Each of these choices affects the world we live in, and hence each choice affects each of our brothers and sisters. The cumulative effect of our choices, whether for good or for ill, impacts every living thing on earth. Environmental degradation disproportionately impacts the poorest and weakest in the human community and in all other communities of plants and animals.
While it does a great deal to bring care of creation into the mainstream of Catholic social teaching, Laudato Si’ is not without its faults and its critics. While it represents a step forward, it also has flaws that exemplify some of the challenges we face today with regard to gender issues in the church and in sustainable development. The Amazon Synod seeks "new paths for the church and for an integral ecology" and there is some hope that gender issues are beginning to be raised in the conversation.

Circles of Collaboration

Circles of collaboration are a distinct facet of religious life today that has emerged in recent decades. These circles of collaboration provide spaces for the newer generations of sisters to build support networks, engage in joint projects and nurture emerging energies. Alongside the leadership conferences, vocation, and formation conferences, there are networks that the newer generations of religious have established:

• Giving Voice
• Sisters 2.0
• Leadership Collaborative
• Federation gatherings of sisters

The development of these various collaboratives demonstrates the dynamic interaction of personal relationship, social media, community organizing, and in-person meetings. These grass-roots movements take their place in the unfolding story of religious life, affording sisters a space where evolution can occur. They are places for building the relationships and networks that will help to support them in the coming decades of religious life. There will be fewer and fewer sisters taking on more and more of the leadership roles in their communities, with the dual task of hospicing the greatest generation of their community’s history and fostering the life and evolution of the minority cohort. Both tasks are critical. 

Community and Ministry

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The balance between community and ministry is shifting. In the early- and mid-twentieth century, the balance was strongly on the side of ministry. People grew up in larger families, and religious communities lived in large houses. Community was assumed, or rather communal living was assumed. Some communities, just as some families, fostered deep and lasting relationships. There were also cases of merely functional communities that met one’s physical needs but left spirits empty, if not wounded by abuse and dysfunction. People, particularly women, entered community to live a life of service and of ministry in education, in health-care, in pastoral service, and in social service. In that era, for many women, community was assumed, ministry was not.
Fast forward to the current century and the default living situation is increasingly solo and options for ministry are wide open to those who wish to pursue them. For many, the option to choose a particular field of ministry is broader outside of religious life. Obtaining the appropriate preparation for ministry is possible, if expensive, outside religious life. We are moving away from a world in which community is the norm and ministry is not. And we are moving toward a world where ministry and service are available, if not the norm, and community is increasingly a rare commodity. Many entering religious life today come from a life of ministry and service. They desire to enhance their life of ministry and service by banding together with others who hold similar values and with whom they can live in mutual support. They often live singly, having grown up in smaller family units than those found in households of earlier decades.
Vocation is still a mystery of the Spirit, a mystery of call and response, and that mystery is lived out in the very human context of our hearts and our lives and our society. This vocation is lived in a distinctly different context that calls for different instincts in inviting young people into our communities. It requires a shift in how we welcome and incorporate these women and men. It is important that we welcome them in a way that nurtures their vocation and prepares them for the distinctive challenges and opportunities of the current century.
--from Beyond the Crossroads, Religious Life in the 21st Century by Amy Hereford