What Do You Wake Up For?

Another product tagline caught my attention. Recently, as I sipped my morning coffee, I heard the question, “What do you wake up for?” on a TV mattress [1] commercial. This question, amid the coming approach of autumn, became a catalyst for deeper thought. The start of the school year, the resumption of meetings and another year of activities often acts for me like a mini- New Years inviting me to renew or make new resolutions. I am given the opportunity to begin a change I want to initiate. This seasonal change offers me the necessary prompt to consider what needs addressing in my life?

Still enjoying my morning coffee, these lines from a poem often attributed to Pedro Arrupe came to mind.

What you are in love with,
what seizes your imagination, will affect everything.
It will decide
what will get you out of bed in the morning,
what you do with your evenings,
how you spend your weekends,
what you read, whom you know,
what breaks your heart,
and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.

-Joseph Whelen, SJ

Indeed, what we are in love with, what seizes our imagination, will affect everything. It will decide everything. What motivates us? Is it time to make mid-year resolutions?

- Sister Nancy Wales, csj

[1]  Tuff and Needle Canada | Image: Unsplash/Timothy Eberly

Choosing a Lens for 2023

Many of us at the beginning of a new year make resolutions or set new goals for ourselves. Recently, I had the opportunity to view one of the TED Talks given by Dewitt Jones. Dewitt Jones is an American professional photographer, writer, film director and public speaker, who is known for his work as a freelance photojournalist for National Geographic. The title of his talk, Celebrate What’s Right with the World could easily be adopted as a very worthwhile attitude to adopt for 2023.

“… our vision controls our perception, and our perception becomes our reality” as Dewitt emphasises through his words and photographs during his twenty -minute presentation.

How might our moods and daily lives be altered if we set our personal compass on finding goodness, abundance, possibilities and what is right in the world.

Let’s pick up and use that lens of celebration!

-Sister Nancy Wales, csj

Pothole Territory!

“The sun is out. The grass is ris. I wonder where the birdies is?” Obviously Mother Nature is not familiar with the old days. The joy of living in Canada! Eh! It makes us who we are as staunch Canadians. This begs the question “What makes a staunch Christian?” “The SON is out. The LORD is Ris. I wonder where the Christian is?”

We walk on, entering another week during Lent pointing toward Jerusalem. Just like the city roads and highways, I’m sure like myself, you’ve encountered many potholes – large and small. It is also the same with our spiritual lives. We can choose to do a quick fix (six weeks of Lent) or a semi-permanent fix which will last for at least a few years (real conversion).

Like the city roads folks may be short of funds because of poor planning (sorry Mayor Joe); therefore, some of the potholes receive only a hit and miss mending. So too with the results of our own Lenten resolutions, we may not have planned well or we may have overestimated our ability for conversion. The important thing to remember is that conversion is the work of a lifetime.

Think of the cars and trucks that don’t see or anticipate the potholes. Here we find ourselves again, just from a different angle. Either we avoid or we tackle the potholes?! Challenges from every side! But we forget all that as spring progresses and summer is on the horizon. When summer arrives let’s make sure we look in the rear-view mirror, it will call us to look to reality. Like our Christian life each season has its joys and challenges making for “never a dull moment”.

Keep your eyes wide open for those potholes or they will find you every time. Will you patch or fix? Just remember the Lenten road is heading into the final march toward death and resurrection.

I wonder if there were any potholes on the road to Jerusalem?

Barbara Vaughan, CSJ