Month: November 2021
Reflection Advent is a time when we renew our hope that through living the message of Jesus change is possible. It is a time when we deepen our commitment to the meaning of his life and words. We are not waiting for someone to come. We know he was already born and that he taught a new vision of living, a new way of understanding what it means to relate…
Anniversary of Dorothy Day Reflection A writer, editor and social reformer, Dorothy Day was born, in New York City on November 8, 1897. She was a radical during her time, working for such social causes as pacifism and women’s suffrage. Arrested several times for her involvement in protests, she even went on a hunger strike after being jailed for protesting in front of the White House. Dorothy was intrigued by…
First Sunday of Advent Reflection Advent engages us in the mystery of the visible and invisible. It is a time to become aware, to be receptive to the touch of the Spirit. It encourages the belief that our humanity can be made godlike and God can be expressed through what is human. Advent provides a vision of a creation that is whole and integrated –the peaceable kingdom where the lion…
Reflection Jesus expressed symbolically what he saw and how he understood the tender mercy and creative and all-embracing Divine-Unfolding that could not otherwise be expressed in finite words. Language and symbols as Jesus used them were meant not for the intellect and mind, but, primarily to transform our hearts and to deepen our relation with one another. Jesus was a man of vision concerned primarily for the ‘reign of God”,…
Reflection As you prepare for the holiday season, do you long to reconnect with the holiness that is the root of the word “holidays”? Does it strike you as odd that people are programmed to rush to stores at ungodly hours to buy some item that has been specially priced and hyped as indispensable? This is the season when the pressure to buy comes to us wrapped in the clever…
Thanksgiving Day Reflection “Gratitude is the memory of the heart”. It is the awareness that having come into this world with nothing, we have received everything. It is having eyes open to see the love of the family into which we were born and of the friends we have made. Gratitude enables us to live in wonder at the world revealed by our senses, the amazing capacity of our…
United Nations Official Commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women Reflection Violence against women and girls is one of the most widespread human rights violations in our world today and remains largely unreported due to the stigma and shame surrounding it. According to the United Nations, 35% of women and girls globally experience some form of physical and or sexual violence in their lifetime with…
Reflection Whenever we confront a difficult, frightening, painful or disturbing experience in which we are challenged or pushed to the limit, whenever we feel threatened and vulnerable, we either find the courage to defeat fear or face being defeated by it. Life requires courage. When our first instinctive reaction is to flee, courage is the strength or resolve to meet the scary situation head on. Courage is not the absence…
Remembrance of Mother St. John Fontbonne Refounder of the Sisters of St. Joseph Reflection Today we honor the memory of Mother St. John Fontbonne. During the French Revolution Jeanne Fontbonne was caught in the political turmoil of the times. She was a woman who at the age of twenty-six had been elected superior of a thriving convent and who at the age of thirty-four was in prison facing probable…
Feast of Christ the King Reflection God’s kingdom is a kingdom where the chief goal is to bring all people to fullness of life and humanity. It is the kingdom of the Beatitudes, of the great reversal of worldly values where those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted; where those who are first will be last, and those who are last will…