NOTE: To print a reflection without the web site frame, copy the text you want and paste it into a Word document. You will then be able to print only the text.

March

PREACHING GOOD NEWS TO THE POOR?
S. Lucy Edelbeck

My journey started decades ago. At a Prayer Service to support women losing their Welfare checks, I looked around at the participants who were attending this service. I felt uncomfortable and out of place. Not one among us knew from experience what it means not to have food for their children. It was another experience of doing for those in need, rather than doing with them. Fifteen years ago, I challenged myself to do something different. I chose to live in what we call an inner-city neighborhood. There I have found Jesus under many different guises. Join me in looking into some of these ways.

I invited Cassandra, a young woman in a drug rehab program to stay in my home until she could find an apartment and get her children back. I recalled the Gospel story of Jesus going over to the woman with a fever, grasped her hand and helped her up and the fever left here. Cassandra, my sister, was also overcome with a fever of drugs and alcohol. She trusted me.  I held her hand many times before the fever left her. I prayed: “Wisdom of God, speak within me in love and acceptance. Speak not of judgment or rejection.”

Recently, I had another brief conversation with one of the women who frequently walks past my home. She is one who was victimized in childhood and never learned that she is precious, and look for a pick-up to support herself. This is the 3rd time this year I have listened to the story of a woman from the streets. Sophia/Wisdom calls at the gates of the city: “If today you hear my voice, harden not your hearts.”

I pray: “Mother God, You’ve taken me at my word. I asked to share a little of your heart of compassion. I longed to receive without question and without judgment, all who came to my door. Returning home after driving 17 hours in 2 days, through rain and mist I was exhausted. I welcomed the warmth and beauty of my home with all its images and the doorbell rang. Standing in the cold was George, a 16 year old foster child who often comes to stay with Lottie upstairs. George is learning to be a male prostitute. 

George was asking to get in from the cold until his grandmother came. I prayed: ”O God, could You not have waited one more day until I was more receiving?”  “You do not choose the day nor the hour” was God’s response,” So I welcomed George into the warmth of my home, but not yet into the warmth of my heart. Thanks to a God with a Compassionate Heart for bidding me once again to open mine. Dorothy Day understood the Incarnation to be an ongoing fact: God had once and for all assumed our humanity and we could not hope to know God without also turning to our neighbors in love. Such love was not merely a passing glow, but something concrete and active. It meant expending fellowship, sharing bread with the hungry, clothing the naked, standing beside those who are outcast and persecuted.” (Dorothy Day: Selected Writings)

How can I be true to this tradition, taking me back to Jesus who turned over the money tables in the temple, and dared to speak up to the ruling voices? Who speaks authentic tradition for us? I believe that the Spirit has reached through the walls and the barriers and anointed each of us to be about creation, the creation of a world where justice is assured and therefore as a result, a world of peace.”

February 2010

Excerpts from Strangers No Longer:
Together on a Journey of Hope
by the Catholic Bishops of Mexico and the United States

Since the founding, the United States has received immigrants from around the world who have found opportunity and safe haven in a new land. The labor, values and beliefs of immigrants from throughout the world have transformed the United States from a loose group of colonies into one of the leading democracies in the world today. From its founding to the present, the United States remains a nation of immigrants grounded in the firm belief that newcomers offer new energy, hope and cultural diversity.

Our common faith in Jesus Christ moves us to search for ways that favor a spirit of solidarity. It is a faith that transcends borders and bids us to overcome all forms of discrimination and violence so that we may build relationships that are just and loving.

A few thoughts from Communion without Borders by Daniel Groody, CSC, In the liturgy, we acknowledge “Jesus as Lord, who stands with us on the borders between death and life. His self-giving death ties him to all human suffering and his resurrection enables us to journey with him into a new creation. In the Eucharist, we all become immigrants again with Jesus. Our ancestors in faith were all immigrants. Deut. reminds us to “Remember the alien in our midst for you too were once aliens in the land of Egypt.”  To remember the immigrant and welcome the poor is to live a Godly life. It is to welcome Christ. We are called to develop a community that transcends all borders, that sees in the eyes of the immigrant stranger, a brother, a sister and the presence of Christ.

(From a Conference in Cincinnati in 2009) 

January 2010

500 Years

When you read this article, please help us think of ways in which Racine Dominicans can celebrate the 500th anniversary of the coming of Dominicans to the Americas. Please send your response to bwalsh@racinedominicans.org.

Don Goergen, OP wrote this message to Dominicans in his Midwest Province and it was also put on the International Dominican Website (Printed with his permission)

2010 will mark the 500th anniversary of the arrival of the Order of Preachers in the Americas. He is suggesting that all Dominicans celebrate this anniversary. Peter de Cordoba was the first Friar to come. He and his companions were sent from the Convent in Salamanca, with a double emphasis on contemplation and poverty. Their best preachers denounced the Spaniards who held Indians in captivity. They were asked to step preaching and refused. They kept on preaching the truth anyway and were willing to pay the price.

Since that time many church documents urge us to reclaim the same social consciousness as the early friars had in such documents as “Rerum Novarum” and recently in “Caritas in Veritate.” They urge us to reclaim our interdependence, to ensure that poor nations have a voice in decisions that affects their lives, to work toward timely disarmament and food security and peace. They also call for protection of the environment and regulation of migrations. What is truly necessary is “integral human development” described by John Paul VI.

Where are we as Catholics and Dominicans on these moral issues? We have lost sight of, or perhaps never had a consistency in our ethical vision that gives witness to the gospel as a whole. The right to life has become an issue of the right and the promotion of justice is an issue of the left. Are we too aligned with political groups rather than with the Gospel mandate to support life at every age and stage?  In his message on the World Day of Prayer for Peace, the Pope talked about erasing poverty to build peace. He noted that almost half of all those living in poverty are children.

In Sept. 2007 Scientific American reported in an article:
In the next 30 minutes, 360 preschool children will die of hunger and malnutrition, twelve a minute, around the clock, more than six million a year. But that is only the tip of the ugly iceberg. One in four pre-schoolers in developing countries suffers from hunger and nutritional deficiencies…. More than 800 million people – two and a half times the population of the US- live every day with hunger. The problem does not stem, as some might think from insufficient production. The world is awash in food and more and more people are overeating. The main reason hunger and nutritional deficiencies persist is poverty. .

Pope Benedict also said: “Effective means to redress the marginalization of the world’s poor through globalization will only be found if people everywhere feel personally outraged by the injustices in the world and by the concomitant violations of human rights” Another area of concern is the connection between disarmament and development. The current level of military spending gives us great cause for concern.

Here are questions to ponder:
Can we not in these areas of social concern, think in terms of both/and rather than either/or? Can we not be pro life and pro justice and pro care for the earth? To have the right to be born or to have the right to survive: Is that the question?

If so, both to be able to be born and to be able to survive- that is the answer. We can only do so much. Pick some issues /efforts we can be involved in. Can we join in with other members of the Body of Christ and see how all our efforts can work for the common good?

Our final question: Are we ourselves open to conversion? Conversion implies an openness to re-structure our way of thinking. It is not easy. We may lose friends. But is this not what the Gospel asks of us?  Am I open to rethinking what I have been doing or not doing in relation to these urgent questions? Whatever our individual contributions to developing a culture of non-violence, a civilization of love, or the new evangelization, ought we not all recognize that non-violence means the non-violence of the personhood of all.?  Let us all work together to promote deeper care for the earth, justice, life and peace– to promote the right to live and the right to live with dignity – as we prepare to commemorate the arrival of the Holy Preaching in this part of the world.

Reader Response
S. Clarice Sevegney, OP

WHAT DOES THE BABE IN THE MANGER CALL ME TO?

Advent is a time of waiting. It is a time to anticipate the coming of Jesus. Christmas spotlights God becoming human as the babe in the manger. The mystery of Christmas is that the wonder of this event is ever present to us. We anticipate the coming of Jesus every day of our lives.

One summer, I was working in the kitchen at Siena Center. One of our young maintenance men waited for the pager to call his name so that he could leave and accompany his wife to the hospital for the birth of their first child. We, the Sisters at Siena Center, were awaiting the announcement that Sister Elaine had completed her earthly journey. The juxtaposition of these two events of waiting to birth new life and new eternal life led me to a new understanding of Advent time. The spirituality of the waiting times in our lives takes openness to God’s presence. As we yearn for the grace to long for the presence of Jesus in our lives, we believe that the mystery of the Christ child in the manger in Bethlehem is the key to this awareness.

********

December

WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO CREATE
A CULTURE OF FORGIVENESS?
S. Brenda Walsh, OP

There is much conversation recently about the need to change a culture of revenge to a culture of forgiveness. What will it take? In the Lords Prayer we say, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” What is involved in forgiving?

- First of all it is a choice we make, an alternative to an “eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” approach. It means I must let to of negative judgments and resentments and a hope for revenge and replace these negative thoughts with reconciliation and peace. It means I must also identify and name the hurt and feelings I need to let go of.

- Acknowledge past hurts and draw on spiritual resources to move toward forgiveness and reach out to a higher moral ground than that of the one who has injured us. Remember forgiveness is a spiritual gift.

- We need to claim our own dignity and gifts in order to forgive. It will be the foundation of our reaching out in forgiveness. Often our wounded pride or our inability to get our own way is a stumbling block to forgiveness.

- Remember God’s generous forgiveness of each of us. That will enable us to practice forgiveness toward those who have injured us.

- Think of the value of forgiveness in your own life, in the life of the community and in the interest of a peaceful world.

- We can do nothing about what has happened. We cannot control what other people think or how they respond. We need to find a new way of relating to what happened to us. Think of a way to use the experience to build a better future and to help others.

- We can only offer forgiveness to the offending person. 

- Can we use the experience to learn some truth about ourselves and possible roles in the conflict?

- Forgiving oneself is also very important aspect of our faith life. It is a choice and a process that helps liberate us from bitterness, anger, hatred and a need for revenge. God is willing to forgive us and shower us with gracious, merciful and forgiving love.

-After September 11, 2001, an Episcopal priest wanted to start a Forgiveness Garden at Ground Zero. He surveyed the people who might be interested and only three percent said “yes” to the idea. They were not ready for such a response. We also know that corporate forgiveness can transform our world.

As people of faith, we must continue to strive to create a better and safer future for all people. On a personal level, we will have little peace until we allow the gift of a forgiving heart to govern our daily actions and choices. We can ask ourselves what role might forgiveness play in breaking the cycle of violence in our families, churches, on the streets, and in our local communities. Where have you seen forgiveness at work and producing positive results. Is there an action that you consider unforgiveable?

At year’s end, it is a good time to claim our power to forgive. With God’s help, it is in our minds and hands. Let to free ourselves to risk full forgiveness and enjoy the peace and wholeness that it brings to our lives, our communities and our world.

If you would like to participate in this discussion, please contact bwalsh@racinedominicans.org