Blog
Some wisdom for our time from John Lederach on the Importance of the Few, the "Critical Yeast".
John Paul Lederach is a senior fellow at Humanity United and professor emeritus of international peacebuilding at the University of Notre Dame. He is also the co-founder and first director of the Eastern Mennonite University’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. In 2019 he won the Niwano Peace Foundation Peace Prize.
Header Image: Karyna Panchenko/Unsplash
As I recall Claire Oliver’s words: “I will lovingly accept the ‘bad’ and ‘the good…and try to see everything that happens as a gift of love. (From Maxim 10 1 E).
My youngest sister Cathy died very suddenly at the beginning of May – which sent her immediate family – husband and daughters, as well as her 7 remaining siblings and friends into deep grief and shock. “This cannot be true, I just played cards with her on Saturday night; I had breakfast with her two days ago on Mother’s Day; I had a long chat with her on the phone not three days ago…”
My dear sister, Cathy.
My acceptance of Cathy’s death took some inner work and acceptance of my own feelings of loss and down-right anger at what happened to her.
Why? Why her? She’s too young. The family needs her, she was the connector for the rest of us.
Going into an 8-day retreat in August was going to be time that I could get some direction around how to really live this new reality with a deeper faith and trust. So, with my ‘take charge’ attitude I was going to find out some answers to my questions. As I sat one morning quietly by the window asking God about the day Cathy died my questions were: What was it like? Was she afraid? Were You with her? Who else was there? Did she just take Your hand and look back at all of us and wave goodbye? Is she okay?
“I SAT ASKING GOD, WHY?”
Sitting with these questions and letting them just be in the universe and outside of myself, I closed my eyes and waited. Suddenly, I had a sense of inner peace and could hear Cathy laughing and clearly saying to me “Gotch ya!” Her laughter and those words often came when she knew she had one upped me on something- so I knew intuitively that this was a response from her.
Keeping my eyes closed, I saw my parents, my other sister Mary Jane and her husband Don standing with some of the members of the Community who were significant women in my life and who loved me – standing with Cathy and they just said “Ann, Cathy is fine, she is with us – with all of us who loved you and she will be okay.” I was overwhelmed and thought - I’ve lost my mind here! When I shared this with the Director later that day her words were: “Ann, you have had a visit from the Communion of Saints…and Cathy is among them now.”
My remaining days of retreat were filled with the gift of looking at death and not being afraid – and I spent time with the following quote from John O’Donohue:
“Death is actually a re-birth. Where does the soul go? It goes nowhere (Eckhart). The eternal world is not some faraway galaxy-but it is HERE. The dead are here with us, invisible to us, but we can sense their presence. They are looking out for us. For the dead, time is a circle. Eternity is pure presence, pure belonging. When you are in the eternal, you are outside of nothing. You are within everything, enjoying the fullest participation. There is no separation. You are embraced in the purest circle of LOVE. You are everywhere and you are nowhere. BUT you are in complete presence – DO NOT BE AFRAID. (Walking in Wonder)
As I go forward this new year, I choose to live into the deeper meaning of this Maxim as I continue to “see everything that happens as a gift of LOVE.”
-Sister Ann MacDonald, csj
What a generous Creator we have and what fruits and blessings are ours from Mother Earth!
Autumn colours along the Hay River
We have been gifted in so many ways. As the Season of Creation ends, and we ready ourselves for Thanksgiving weekend, my heart is moved by all I have experienced, been taught, and so graciously been gifted.
During the past 34 years, living and working in the Diocese of Mackenzie – Fort Smith in the Northwest Territories, sharing life with many Indigenous brothers and sisters, I have come to grow in the spirit of generosity and thankfulness.
One of the valuable lessons I have been taught is to always be thankful and respectful to the Creator and Mother Earth for the gifts that have been given. The years I have lived in the fly-in community of Lutsel K’e, on the East Arm of Great Slave Lake and now, among the Dene at Katlodeeche First Nations in Hay River, I have become more aware and try to live in a spirit of gratitude. As my friend, Georgina reminds me, “We must always be thankful and say Mahsi and then give back to the land”. Often the gift of tobacco is offered.
I have learned to be aware and grateful for such gifts as safe passage on the lake and the river, the abundance of fish, many varieties of berries, sap dripping down the trunk of a spruce tree hardening to spruce gum, many plants with medicinal and healing qualities.
Haskaps, sheltered by their leaves
This past summer I experienced an opportunity to be grateful to Mother Earth for the gift of haskaps, a berry I had been introduced to a few years ago. My friend, Sheila, was thinning her bushes and gave me 5 or 6 saplings, rather scrawny looking ones. Although scrawny, their roots were tender but strong. I planted them and the saplings survived the first winter and then the next. In the third year the saplings had grown into a low bush and produced blossoms. Last summer a few berries appeared. This summer the bush produced abundantly.
Just enough haskaps for a recipe
The haskap bush produces fruit in the month of July. To look at my bush you would think it was only a lovely green shrub as the berries grow inside, under the leaves. In abundance, I picked every few days. It seemed like the bush never stopped giving. I picked just what was needed for the recipe I was following.
As I picked, I was very aware of my responsibility to be grateful for the berries that grew. I did not have tobacco to offer the land for her generous gift of the berries. I thought, “What gift can I give? What are my gifts that I can share in thanksgiving to the Creator for the generosity of these berries?”
I live beside the river, and I have been gifted with a beautiful singing voice. And so, I offered a song. I sang “By Cedars They Shall Stand”. I sang in thanksgiving not only for the berries but for the ways I am gifted each day.
-Sister Maggie Beaudette, CSJ
Early this summer, our senior family members were invited to my brother and sister-in-law’s home to meet their first grandchild. She was born during the pandemic and few of us had the privilege of meeting her. On this special day, she was almost two years old and made her entrance in her mother’s arms following an afternoon nap. She stayed close to her parents until she felt safe enough to wander around the large deck and meet the gang.
We enjoyed a wonderful July afternoon sipping cool drinks and catching up with family happenings. We watched with pride as the birthday girl opened her gifts: storybooks which she loves and a fluffy pale blue bunny that can no doubt be found in her crib these days.
Following a delicious summer supper, we continued to relax under the two large awnings. Suddenly the sky became overcast, there was a thunderclap and rain began to sprinkle the deck. Our little girl quietly stepped into the space between the awnings and opened her tiny hands to receive the falling drops. All was silent as we watched the scene unfolding before us. Obviously, this child in her pretty blue dress was experiencing a new and deep awareness of a special part of nature. There she continued to stand, perfectly still, contemplating the raindrops meeting her being.
Image: Unsplash/Mike Kotsch
The rain fell slowly at first and then with increasing intensity until it suddenly poured. She laughed and ran for shelter and her waiting grandpa. Suddenly, I realized that we had witnessed a profound contemplative moment, seen through the eyes of a child.
How much we take for granted in the everyday wonders of our world: the beauty of summer, the change of seasons, the force of nature, a sudden cloudburst and the miracle of life and love portrayed in the blessing of our newest little family member.
-Sister Jean Moylan, csj
Image: Unsplash/Deleece Cook
I recall my childhood experience in late August each year, of anticipating the start of a new school year. I eagerly longed to see my classmates, anticipated being elevated to a new grade, and meet my new teacher. On September 6, 2022, thousands of children in the London area will arrive at school proudly displaying new shoes, new clothes, and colorful backpacks full of such supplies as crayons, pencils, erasers, and notebooks. They will be eager to begin their experience of a new school year. But not all children will have a backpack; some will endure the humiliation of “making do” with worn clothing and a lack of all the items listed as “essential supplies” by their schools. Parents will suffer with their children. However, our City of London responds to the needs of children and there is a community-wide effort to ensure that no child will be deprived of school supplies.
In 2001, Natalie Trimble and Chantal McLaughlin started” Supplies for Schools” in their basement. This nascent program has evolved into “Best First Day”, a community-wide drive to donate school supplies to children in need. United Way Elgin Middlesex, Thames Valley Education Foundation, and The Salvation Army coordinate this drive, which, in 2021, donated nearly 3,200 backpacks full of supplies to students of all ages in London’s school districts. Backpacks and supplies are distributed to public, Catholic, and Indigenous schools. Donors may purchase supplies online, participate in workplace collections, or leave supplies at a drop-off location until September 2nd. Several businesses have chosen to become drop-off locations. Individuals have given supplies, or sometimes formed teams to collect and donate money or supplies to this project. Donors may, if they choose, select particular schools as recipients for their contributions; the donated backpacks and other supplies will be distributed through the Thames Valley Education Foundation.
If you wish more information about how you might help children in need to have a happy and successful educational experience, you will find an excellent source of information by visiting: Best First Day.
Sister Pat McKeon, CSJ
