Christian Meditation

The Fruits of Christian Meditation

For several years I was introduced to many different forms of meditation. Meditations of loving kindness, meditation of soft music, and many forms of guided meditation. I always expected something out of the ordinary to pop into my mind or some great aha moment. Hmmm, but little did I know...my grandson James, who attended the SK class at St. Ann Ancaster practised meditation.

We had just finished playing a game at the kitchen table and he was going to play in the other room while I made lunch. But as he walked across the room he turned around went back to the chair he was on before, he crossed his legs and put his hands on his knees, closed his eyes and began to meditate. I was truly amazed, I had no idea he was learning meditation. When I asked James what he was doing he said “my teacher told me that this is what I should do when I feel like this“. So I had not noticed any change in his demeanour. So when I asked why he felt he needed to meditate, he explained .....because he was feeling a bit sad because he was missing his parents.

At that young age he had been taught to recognize negative feelings and to react with positivity and to feel closer to God for comfort. Not all classes at his school offer Christian meditation so he went for a few years without that guidance but now at the age of nine the teacher he has this year has the students involved in Christian meditation. I am so very grateful to the teachers who feel that meditation can bring the fruits of the spirit alive in a child thereby enriching a healthy environment for students and teachers.

I’m a grateful Grandmother that my wee little grandson listens to his heart and feels God with him.

P.S. I too am blessed to be practicing Christian Meditation. 

Could it be the ripple effect of that one teacher with one child?

-Holly Kropf, Companion of the Sisters of St. Joseph

A Taste of Christmas

How better to enter into the spirit of Christmas than by attending a special evening with London’s award-winning King’s University College Chamber Choir.

A group of us Sisters made the two-minute trip to the magnificent chapel at our former home, Windermere on the Mount.

Upon entering, we were bathed in the serenity of the setting.  Against a backdrop of plush blue and green backlit panel draping, the grand piano, violins, viola, and cello sat ready. The musicians took their places.  The uplifting tone of the evening was set.  Talented conductor, Janet Loo, stepped onto the dais, and thirty-nine beautifully gowned and suited sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses walked across the stage and stood on the tiers before us.  Thus began an exhilarating selection of intricate choruses to ring in the festal season.  In the acoustically superb chapel, the crystal-clear voices in multiple harmony soared and descended in beautiful choral renditions from a tingling, “Gloria in Excelsis Deo”, to “Rosa Mystica” and the haunting, “Lo How a Rose E’er Blooming”.  In a change of pace, there was eager audience participation with the ever old ever new, “O Come, All Ye Faithful” and “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing”.

In one seamless evening of outstanding repertoire, we left the world of noise behind us and lived suspended in peace and calm.  As the performance ended and we headed back into the night, we were uplifted to have spent an evening where music nourished our inner selves. It was calm for our souls, pride for our hearts and a blessing to witness such outstanding musical talent. 

Sister Jean Moylan, csj

Light Up the Night

On Dec. 1st as the bright, waxing moon looked down on our neighbours St. Joseph’s Hospice of London, a group of special people gathered outside the hospice to celebrate Light Up the Night.

Supporters of hospice, staff and people who had lost loved ones who had spent their last days within those loving walls, gathered to distribute lanterns in memory of their loved ones.  Amid brightly lit candles, a huge lighted LOVE sign, singing and camaraderie, the crowd sipped cocoa and joined in the activities.

Inside hospice, the doors were adorned with paper lanterns highlighted with names of deceased loved ones printed on them.  Some contained messages of love.  We Sisters who live next door to hospice, purchased two lanterns for the celebration.  One, for all the Sisters in our Congregation who have died this past year, and the second for all the women and men who are homeless on our streets and who have died this year.

Sister Ann pictured in the middle, between Hospice staff/volunteers.

 As we mingled with the colorful group, some sporting necklaces of flickering Christmas lights, we became part of a heartwarming event that praises the gift of life and gives thanks for wonderful hospices that provide supportive, compassionate care to those experiencing their final weeks of life.

-Sister Jean Moylan, csj

Prepare The Way

“Prepare the Way”. This familiar Advent refrain wakes us up from our everyday complacency and evokes in us a much deeper interior challenge and invitation. As our preparations for Christmas get underway these early December days, thoughts often turn to plans for setting up home decorations, baking goodies, writing cards, creating gifts, singing carols, and finding ways to help those less fortunate.

What if… all of these actions flowed from minds and hearts radically transformed in the Great Love and Divine Light of the Prince of Peace? 

What if… the coming of God in 2022 meant seeing and hearing the Divine compassion lifting up the wearied, poor and broken-hearted?

What if… you were that prophetic voice, authentic witness, bringing the Good News to life anew?   

In days of old, John the Baptizer, an austere hermit, came forth from the desert of Judea and began to preach on the banks of the Jordan River. Awakened by his unique calling, John embraced being the humble forerunner, the prophet sent to prepare the way, mandated with the mission to announce that the day was drawing nearer. Prepare your hearts. Soften the divisions and break down the barriers, roll out the carpet for the expectant arrival of the King of Peace. John proclaims a way of justice and peace and love is coming upon the earth. The new WAY was going to be given in the person of Jesus, the Christ. John was chosen to bear witness and proclaim that the One who is coming was greater than he and “he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” into a brand new way of seeing and being.

“Jesus ...the One who came to heal broken hearts, to give peace and to lead us further into the truth”

From his pulpit on the river banks, he called for repentance and baptized people in the river waters. John’s repentance, metanoia, meant having a radical change in one's thinking. It meant seeing the world in a completely different way and embracing a whole new set of values. He was the “voice crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” John pointed to Jesus as the One who came to heal broken hearts, to give peace and to lead us further into the truth. We can only imagine John’s surprise when Jesus just "showed up" in the crowd by the river one day and asked John to baptize him.

Photo of Pope Francis by Eric Gay/Associated Press, July 26, 2022.

This image of our humbled and repentant Pope Francis alone in prayer by the shores of Lac Ste. Anne in Alberta is a striking prophetic, healing voice in our time. On July 26, it is estimated that 10,000 pilgrims gathered at or around the lake to witness his words and actions that day. Both Indigenous and Church elders challenge all of us to “Prepare the Way” for God’s love and healing mercy to restore hearts through conversion and reconciliation. Pope Francis traveled to Canada on this “pilgrimage of penance” to apologize to Indigenous peoples for the abuses committed by the Catholic Church and its missionaries in our country’s notorious residential schools. When Pope Francis ‘showed up’ on our Canadian shores, the crowds mingled in sharing stories with gestures of welcoming and generosity, supporting the healing and hope long awaited.   

How are you preparing the way for God’s coming? The challenge of repentance is to put on the mind and heart of Christ. It must begin with the truth: if there are old wounds and potholes in your heart, take courage, face the consequences of hardening the arteries and energies of loving, seek restoration and communion. If your mind is cluttered and disturbed by its righteous opinions, take courage, face the consequences of division and disharmony, seek wisdom and right relationship with all.  

Advent challenges us to spend time in solitary prayer asking God to comfort, restore, and heal those bumps and bruises that life’s circumstances have caused. The new highway of world peace is being paved with good intentions, right actions for systemic justice and nonviolent communication. It is coming slowly but it is coming. It is for each one of us to play our part.

-Sister Rosemary O’Toole, CSJ