Sister Christer

earth day

happy home day

3600 seconds

On March 29, 2008 at 8 p.m., join millions of people around the world in making a statement about climate change by turning off your lights for Earth Hour, an event created by the World Wildlife Fund

Earth Hour was created by WWF in Sydney, Australia in 2007, and in one year has grown from an event in one city to a global movement. In 2008, millions of people, businesses, governments and civic organizations in nearly 200 cities around the globe will turn out for Earth Hour. More than 100 cities across North America will participate, including the US flagships–Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix and San Francisco and Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver

We invite everyone throughout North America and around the world to turn off the lights for an hour starting at 8 p.m. (your own local time)–whether at home or at work, with friends and family or solo, in a big city or a small town.

si, yes, oui, uh-huh.

risking my heart (because I believe that's what it's for.)

the rubble

"Rubble is the ground on which our deepest friendships are built. If you haven’t already, you will lose someone you can’t live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and you never completely get over the loss of a deeply beloved person. But this is also good news. The person lives forever, in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through, and you learn to dance with the banged-up heart. You dance to the absurdities of life; you dance to the minuet of old friendships." --Anne Lamott

My prayers and those of my sisters are with the community in Blacksburg, Virginia.  Because I so recently have been affected by loss of a loved one, I can readily imagine the pain of loss and the grief that the families of the victims will be dealing with.  I am quite sure that their grief will be unbelievably more difficult because of the deaths. 

At the school with which I minister we will be having a prayer service for victims of violence.  I know there are many resources out there and I'm probably late to the story/sharing.  But, here are two links that helped me plan and prepare.   1. NFCYM (the National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministers) has a violence resource page that can be found here.  2. NFCYM links to St. Mary's Press which has a prayer service for times like these.  It can be found here.

We will be praying for those who died in Virginia this week.  And all those too who have died all over the world this week, these weeks, this month, this year... in unexpected violence.  And what violence, really, is anything but unexpected.

We                 Can Create
                                A Better World
                Every                 Act of
                Compassion
                Makes a Difference!
                Every Day Counts
                for A Better World
                One Heart, One Day
                at a time!

knit for peace

Knit for Peace: March 21, 2007

for the earth

Earth Day I (March 20)

 

 

Sleeping in the Forest

I thought the earth remembered me,
she took me back so tenderly,
arranging her dark skirts,
her pockets full of lichens and seeds.
I slept as never before,
a stone on the riverbed,
nothing between me and the white fire of the stars but my thoughts,          
and they floated light as moths among the branches of the perfect trees.          
All night I heard the small kingdoms breathing around me,
the insects, and the birds who do their work in the darkness.
All night I rose and fell, as if in water, grappling with a luminous doom.
By morning I had vanished at least a dozen times into something better.                 

--           Mary Oliver

 

 

Aarrrrr!

Today be Talk like a pirate day and The Harlot has the knitterly scoop.

G'day, then.  I'm off to swindle me some grog!

this then is my pope

From the Pope's homily the day before: 

Judgement - doesn't this word also make us afraid? On the other hand, doesn't everyone want to see justice eventually rendered to all those who were unjustly condemned, to all those who suffered in life, who died after lives full of pain? Don't we, all of us, want the outrageous injustice and suffering which we see in human history to be finally undone, so that in the end everyone will find happiness, and everything will be shown to have meaning? This triumph of justice, this joining together of the many fragments of history which seem meaningless and giving them their place in a bigger picture in which truth and love prevail: this is what is meant by the concept of universal judgement. Faith is not meant to instil fear; rather it is meant to call us to accountability. We are not meant to waste our lives, misuse them, or spend them simply for ourselves. In the face of injustice we must not remain indifferent and thus end up as silent collaborators or outright accomplices. We need to recognize our mission in history and to strive to carry it out. What is needed is not fear, but responsibility - responsibility and concern for our own salvation, and for the salvation of the whole world. Everyone needs to make his or her own contribution to this end. But when responsibility and concern tend to bring on fear, then we should remember the words of Saint John: "My little ones, I am writing this to keep you from sin. But if anyone should sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one" (1 Jn 2:1).    "No matter what our hearts may charge us with  - God is greater than our hearts and all is known to him" (ibid., 3:20).

In a speech about reason and the place of theology in the university, Pope Benedict XVI quotes part of the forceful argument (disputatio) of an ancient Christian.  He uses the quote to illustrate the depth of passion the speaker (that ancient Christian) in speaking to a person of another faith.  It is one sentence in a speech that is itself passionate about the role of reason in faith.  Aside from the arguably unwise insertion of that quote, the speech is quite interesting.  The academic and Scriptoral knowledge and articulation thereof is moving, interesting, intelligent, cohesive, coherent, thoughtful and profound. 

That quote, however, taken out of context and given emphasis manages to weaken the whole message.  Could the Pope have made his argument without the quote - absolutely, yes.  Would his argument have been as powerful - I think so.  Why, then, is it included?  Why would an intelligent, thoughtful, faithfilled person injudiciously say something that could be used against him, his Church and his persuasive argument?  Unless he tells us, we can't know.  Here are some guesses, though...  He's busy, harried, running ragged; he's hopelessly academic and assumes others will understand the context and usage of the quote; he's weak, he's tired, he's traveling, he's excited to be back in a university setting, he's talking to other academics.... ummm, he's human? 

If using that quote in a university lecture, if the Pope's using that quote in a university lecture is a sin... well, he alone will face the judgement of that.  (Though we may all suffer in the here and now.)  We all face the judgement sooner or later.  And I for one like the way this Pope articulates that. 

got a question for the world?

I do.

Dropping Knowledge

Today's really big smile

Christian Peace Team members rescued.  Thank God.  Thank you, God. 

I believe in the intercession of the saints.  I believe Tom Fox had a great deal to say to God for the remaining members of his team.  Thank you, Tom.  Blessings on all peace activists and all those in harm's way: soldiers, civilians, and especially the children.  May they all be freed.