Reflections

World Day of the Sick

“It is not good that man should be alone—Healing the Sick by Healing Relationships,” is the theme of Pope Francis' message for the 2024 commemoration of the World Day of the Sick, held on 11 February.

February 11 also coincides with the Feast Day of Our Lady of Lourdes.  It is the anniversary of when Our Blessed Mother appeared to St. Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes, France.  Our Blessed Mother's many visitations to St. Bernadette resulted in the miraculous waters from the springs at Lourdes where thousands of faith-filled sick have been healed. 

World Day of the Sick is held every year on this date and as a theme for this year, Pope Francis uses the words from Genesis that God spoke after creating the first human, "It is not good that man should be alone." 

Unsplash: Laura Vinck

We are encouraged to seek healing by healing relationships—something our world needs to heed when so many wars are the result of humans not believing that we can live peacefully, together on Earth. 

The operative word is LOVE; not like, or tolerate, or endure, or accept but LOVE where one's focus is on the good of the other.

To learn more about this year's theme you can read or listen to the message from Rome here. 

-Sister Elaine Cole, csj

“And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is LOVE.”
— 1 Corinthians 13:13

World Day for Consecrated Life: What’s to Celebrate?

By now, the World Day for Consecrated Life, celebrated on February 2nd each year is not news.  In fact, many people, Catholics included, don’t have any lived experience of any women or men currently living that life, and so the day probably does not have much meaning for them.  Gone are the days when most young Catholics had Sisters for teachers, or when parents and children met or worked with Sisters in Catholic hospitals.  Today there are still some Sisters working in various ministries, here and abroad: pastoral ministers in parishes, hospitals and long term care facilities, or helping out in soup kitchens, or on the missions, but that day-to-day knowledge and experience of sisters, brothers and religious clergy is just no longer our reality here in Canada.  To make matters worse, the horrendous stories of physical, emotional, cultural, and sexual abuse by clergy and religious in the residential schools have done much to destroy any positive images many had of religious and religion in general.  So, what’s to celebrate?

Image: Unsplash/Juan Domenech

Well, I think it is no mistake that this Feast is celebrated on February 2nd, Candlemas Day, a feast for blessing and lighting candles.  We don’t use candles much anymore either, yet their tiny, warm and flickering glow changes the atmosphere in any setting.  We might light a candle to celebrate a birthday, to help us focus for a time of meditation, to create a memorial for a tragic event, or to give mood to a particular setting.  We light candles for all our Eucharistic liturgies.  The truth is that candles, fragile and unusual as they are, do have meaning and purpose.  Of course, the paschal candle is THE Candle, as it reminds us of Christ, the light of life, the Risen One, whose resurrection gives us the promise of eternal life and teaches the reality that apparent death is not the end, but merely a transition to new life in even greater fullness. 

So, as we celebrate today this flickering candle that is religious life, I asked some of the Sisters in my local community what they could most celebrate about their experience of Consecrated Life lived these 50, 60 and 70 years or more.  Their responses sounded like this:

  • “I was a nurse before I entered the community, but after I became a Sister I found that my relationship with patients was different.  Many felt they could trust me in a different way, that I cared for more than their physical well-being.  It was very touching to me and fulfilling at the same time.”

  • “I think the wonderful relationships I have had, the people I have met through my various ministries, and the feeling that I have been helpful to some individuals and have grown through their influence on me.  That is a great gift.”

  • “For me I think the greatest blessing has been living in community.  We get the loving support, the witness, and the challenge of so many wonderful women. And we have a lot of fun together too.”

  • “I have been called to do things I never would have thought myself capable of and have received the grace to grow into many new ministries and challenges.  Living Religious Life has stretched me!”

  • “This life has constantly provided me with the opportunities to grow in my relationship with God, with others and with myself.  I had the opportunity to get the help I needed and that has made all the difference.” 

  • “Community constantly calls us to further growth, in prayer, in loving relationships, in awareness and active responsibility in issues of justice and human rights.  We take very seriously our responsibility to help society become a better place.”

  • “I am just so grateful that God called me to this life!  It has been a blessing to me in more ways than I can name.”

….and on and on and on.

Image: Unsplash/BBC Creative @bethbapchurch

Each of us is a little, fragile candle, shedding a small light and warmth in its immediate circle. “If everyone lit just one little candle, what a bright world this would be.”  That old song carries much truth.  So, let’s celebrate this wonderful gift that Religious Life is and has been for many centuries.  Celebrate those Religious who have gone before us and on whose shoulders we stand. Celebrate our parents who passed on to us the gift of faith and our first lived experience of a faith-filled community in our homes.  Celebrate our teachers, clergy, friends who encouraged us, challenged us and supported us along the journey.  Celebrate all those, in whatever walk of life, who are lighting their own little candles.  Celebrate those who at this moment are receiving a call to a consecrated life and perhaps have not yet said yes.  We cannot know what might come next for Consecrated Life here in the western world, except that this gift to the persons called to it, to those whose lives they influence, to the Church and to the world, will not die.  It will continue to flicker, and to burn quietly, warmly and glowingly until the time is right for it to flare forth. 

-Sister Mary Diesbourg, a Sister of St. Joseph since 1961

The purpose of the day is "to help the entire Church to esteem ever more greatly the witness of those persons who have chosen to follow Christ by means of the practice of the evangelical counsels" as well as "to be a suitable occasion for consecrated persons to renew their commitment and rekindle the fervour which should inspire their offering of themselves to the Lord" (Saint John Paul II, 1997).

Read Pope Francis’ message on World Day for Consecrated Life.

Thoughtful Soul Food

I have had the privilege of belonging to a women’s reflection group for a number of years. We are a dozen spiritual seekers. We meet virtually every week at 8 a.m. before we set off for our daily tasks. Each of us takes our turn as initiators. In rotation, we take the lead in choosing the topic for our morning get together. Prior to our virtual gathering, the scheduled person on her chosen theme emails to us a poem, an art piece, a series of quotes, or a written excerpt, as a catalyst for our upcoming morning’s reflection and personal sharing.

I offer you one such catalyst, the enriching poem by John O’Donohue which sparked rich sharing during our recent virtual gathering. The format was simple, as is most often the case. We were asked to share on the text or specific lines that touched us. Sixty minutes were easily filled by the insights and experiences of one another.  Hopefully, it will also provide you with food for thought and soul as it did for our band of spiritual seekers.  -Sister Nancy Wales

A Blessing for Presence

May you awaken to the mystery of being here

and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence.

May you have joy and peace in the temple of your senses.

May you receive great encouragement when new frontiers beckon.

May you respond to the call of your gift and the courage to follow its path.

May the flame of anger free you from falsity.

May warmth of heart keep your presence aflame.

May anxiety never linger about you.

May your outer dignity mirror an inner dignity of soul.

May you take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention.

May you be consoled in the secret symmetry of your soul.

May you experience each day as a sacred gift, woven around the heart of wonder.

John O'Donohue (1 January 1956 – 4 January 2008) was an Irish poet, author, priest, and philosopher. He was a native Irish speaker, and as an author is best known for popularising Celtic spirituality. (~ Wikipedia)

Source: O’Donohue, J., (1998). Eternal Echoes. Exploring our hunger to belong. London, Bantam Books. p.139. Image: Unsplash/stefzn

A Winter Snowstorm

Here is what people were saying a few weeks ago, “I guess we will have a green Christmas in 2023. “I don’t mind a little snow from time to time”. “Crops do better when the land has had a winter blanket of snow”.  “I am just glad I don’t have to shovel the stuff.  “These mild days point to climate change, for sure”.

What a surprise when a winter snowstorm rolled into Southwestern Ontario on January 12th.  People pulled on their winter coats and headed for refuge at home.

Darkness fell and a mixture of rain and snow pelted icy windows. I awoke after midnight to the sound of sirens rescuing people who refused to reduce speed.  Later, thumps and bumps signaled that snowplows were clearing roads and driveways. Indeed, it seemed to have the makings of an old-fashioned winter storm.

As I awoke in the semi-darkness and prepared for the day, the storm and wind   abated, but rain was making slush of everything. No doubt, planes would be grounded. I worried that my brother and sister-in-law might be enroute already from Cuba where they had fled Canada in search of sunshine.

In contrast to the present, our country was once a land of ice and snow from early November until late March. We were hearty people brandishing snow shovels and clad in sturdy boots, heavy coats, warm mittens, and bright winter scarves. A favourite pastime was reminiscing around the fireplace about the arduousness of living in Canada through fierce snowstorms.

I was a young teacher in London when a giant storm ripped through the area. I had managed to make it to school and was preparing for class when a telephone call alerted me that my sister, who was close to giving birth, was being transferred by ambulance from a small town an hour’s drive north to an awaiting physician at a hospital in our city. The stormy trip took much over the usual hour before arriving at its destination. I will never forget worrying my way through my teaching as the storm choked the roads and blinded city drivers. Finally, I received a call that a beautiful baby girl had arrived in the early afternoon of January 26th. Soon after the birth, the new father arrived at the hospital as the roads closed behind him. What followed was seven stormy days before safe travelling was restored and the little family headed for home. People had been stranded far and wide and newspapers proclaimed the calamity of the great snowstorm of January 1971. Now that’s an old-fashioned snowstorm!

-Sister Jean Moylan, CSJ