Lenten Journey Home

Once again we begin our Lenten journey, signed with ashes, with strains of Attende Domine wafting through our churches and in our ears and hearts.

Listen, O God and have mercy on us... We have wandered off, lost our way and once again we find hearts longing to set out anew on a journey that leads us back to God, to peace.

This Lent, I find myself thinking of 'home'. It is perhaps because once again I find myself needing to move my residence. So as I begin the Lenten journey, I ask myself where this year's journey will bring me.

I think that the Lenten journey isn't about giving-up, or doing-more, but about finding balance. Where in my God-life do I need to find balance. What one thing would make me more centered, more God-ly, more Christian?

Each Lent, the answer is different. This year, as I contemplate yet another move, I feel that my Lenten journey should be a journey home, a journey that brings me to a more rooted place in God. That will take two directions for me. Groundedness and intentionality.

I think the call to groundedness is a call to settle into prayer, into contemplation with a renewed sense of finding my home in the heart of God. This is where I often find myself in prayer, but I feel the call to a more conscious presence there.

I think the call to intentionality is to accept my journey to a new house, a new location. And to find in that journey a call to that place of groundness in God. So it's a sort of dual call to the same place. A Lenten journey home....

This is my prayer for my own journey, and I pray for you, as we all walk this journey together....

Peace,
Amy 

Let Us Rejoice

Once again we walk the sacred path,

Once again we contemplate sacred mystery,

Once again we are blessed in our remembering,

Once again we die and rise.

Yet this time the stories are deeper because our lives are richer for having lived another year, prayed another year, shared another year. What a blessing it is to be here and now, in the unfolding of life, and of religious life, with its hopes and its challenges.

I am blessed to have the opportunity to plant veggies and flowers, trees and shrubs. As I tend the good things of the earth, I sense Earth's Creator tending me, nurturing my spirit, watering my soul, building and nurturing the dream. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Off the Grid

I'm reading Sandra Schneiders' new book, a sweeping testimony about where religious life has been in the last half century, and occasional glimpses of growing edges.
She writes about the alternate economy that we create with our vow of poverty. Forsaking an independent economic existence, we hold all things in common. That's all things! We sink or swim together. What one has, we all have; what one lacks, we all lack. We try to live that early Christian community proclaimed by Jesus and witnessed in the Acts of the Apostles.
It strikes me that we try to live 'off the grid'.
People in the sustainability movement try to live radically off the power grid - disconnected from electric power. They do this as a witness to the un-sustainability of modern life, and as a challenge to develop a more sustainable life.
By committing to evangelical poverty, we choose to live off the economic grid. Well, to be honest, most of us are only somewhat successful at this off-grid project. We still participate in the over-all economy. Nevertheless, we come together to experiment in Gospel living, in Gospel economics. We forsake an independent economic existence and choose to hold all things in common.
This commitment is much like a married couple who come together to build a life together. Any family can live in interdependence and hold all things in common. In this, religious life is like a large extended family. May we be a blessing to one another as we commit to Gospel economics.
Peace,
Amy

Struggle

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. -- ML King

As we move toward the anniversary of the March on Washington, these words of Martin Luther King come to mind. They seem capture my thoughts as many sisters come away from our chapters and assemblies.

For those not in religious communities, "chapters and assemblies" is nun-speak community meetings in which sisters gather from all parts of the congregation to celebrate unity in charity, to discuss important issues in the life and mission of the community and to elect leadership. They are organized to encourage and facilitate the broadest possible participation.

We have prayed and celebrated, we have faced the challenging truth of our present reality and we have struggled with deep questions: what does it look like to live the Gospel right here and right now as a Sister of St. Joseph, or St. Francis or Mercy, or.....

And in the light of this moment, I hear the words of Martin Luther King. And I take on the challenge of living the Gospel today - this day - right now.

We have big issues facing us. The next 10 to 15 years of religious life will be a time of continuing to mourn the passing of the largest groups to enter our congregations and serve the people of God for generations.

At the same time, there is a new energy emerging. I see it, I hear it, I feel a rising hope. This is a hope that rebels against despair. It is a hope that does not wait for change to roll in on the wheels of inevitability. It is a hope that accepts the challenge of continuous struggle. This is the hope that has been the mainstay of religious life through the ages, and the keystone of Gospel living for everyone.

For me this means choosing joy, when life is not giving rainbows... choosing joy because of the God who is joy and love even in the midst of challenge and pain. This keeps me saying yes to God and choosing life, choosing green, choosing community.

Peace,
--Amy

... the Bee, the Butterfly and the Breeze

In the name of the Bee -
And of the Butterfly -
And of the Breeze - Amen!
--Dickinson

Sitting in the garden, in the quiet of the morning, the short poem of Emily Dickinson came to mind. How lovely and gentle the dynamism of the morning! The energetic, creative bee. The whimsical butterfly, symbol of resurrection. The breeze that blows where it will. We hear the sound it makes, but do not know where it comes from, nor where it goes. All of this brings to my wakening mind and heart the image of the Trinity: energetic and creative, whimsical and re-creative, and the inviting, surprising spirit that brings gifts and energy as a new day dawns.

Here I work in the soil and labor to heal the space and here God works in the soil of my life and labors to heal my own space, plant seeds and bring new life. And Emily's prayer seems to speak of that cycle of life and blessing.

Peace,
Amy

Riverside Meditation

This morning I woke up looking over the Ohio River. It is a lovely, peaceful view. When I first woke, the water was glassy still as the current moved slowly down stream. Then little by little, the wind and waves picked up. Still a gentle scene, but the water is more active, the glassy stillness is gone.
It reminds me of my own waking into a place of contemplation in the early morning hours. There is nothing to disturb my quiet resting in the God of Love. Gradually as the day begins, people and events blow over that glassy stillness as I engage the people of God and the things of God.
As the day flows on, I try to let some of that quiet stillness in the God of Love flow through the day, and flow through me into the people and events I encounter.
Peace,
Amy

New Pope, New Dream, New House

Wow, what a week. The good news about the papal election seems to be indeed good news for the 99% of the church and of the world. People who could use a friend in high places, people who can hope for a better tomorrow. One papal election can't do it all. I think we need moderation and we all have to do our part. But I find the election of Pope Francis to be a tremendous boost to my hopes for living a radically gospel centered life and inviting others to join. What can we all do together for the least of Jesus brothers and sisters?

Then there is this video by Bono on the alleviation of extreme poverty. Not only can we do this, we are doing it. Together, we can end poverty.

And my final good news is the new house. I should be moving into the new inter-community house just after Easter. I believe it is an opportunity to be more intentional about community, about rebuilding the church and about rebuilding a more just and sustainable world.

This period of lenten renewal is an opportunity to open to the spirit and let the dream of God become a reality in our hearts and lives, in our church, and in our communities and world.

Peace,
--Amy