"Thanksgiving" by Sharon Mollerus is licensed under CC BY 2.0

When we are stuck in a state of restless dissatisfaction—“I want this, I want that”—we can fail to see the value of life and focus only on what is wrong with the situation, ourselves and other people. We may relentlessly push ourselves to achieve success and independence because we want what do not have. And once we have it, we want something else. When we are caught in this dynamic, we do not value the good things we have in life or take joy in God. 

The remedy for this unhappy state is simple: gratitude. It should not surprise us that people who feel thankful acknowledge inner richness and deeply appreciate small things that many of us take for granted—good health, the beauty of nature, a kind word. Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, often speaks about the joy of breathing! 

Are we supposed to be thankful even in times of suffering? How are we to respond to the tragedies and evils that cause us such great pain and turmoil? Gratitude does not mean ignoring hardships in life. True gratitude exists only where compassion and awareness of evil are present. It is strange but true: when we have struggled with illness, we appreciate health; when we experience a broken relationship, we rediscover the importance of friendship, when we have experienced the agony of defeat, we appreciate the sweetness of success. 

In good times and bad, may we allow gratitude to open us to the presence of God. May we learn to savor God’s loving relationship, who gives us this day our daily bread. As Dominican mystic Meister Eckhart states, “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.” 

As you celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday, take time to reflect on your practice of gratitude. Do you easily give thanks for the many gifts in your life in a spirit of inner contentment for what you have, or are you easily caught up in the sense of dissatisfaction with life, forgetful of your blessings through lack of time or attention? How might you cultivate gratitude in your life? 

Blessings, 

Sister Sara

Sister Carol Coston, OP, has brought to our Motherhouse a new vision of Earth ethic, called permaculture, (permanent agriculture). This new vision serves to correct the skewed vision perpetuated by the food industry. As Sister Carol writes, “Currently, much food production is viewed as big business for profit—not as a response to each person’s right to eat. Efficiency is measured by total profits rather than by the quality of the food or the condition of the soil. The land is often abused rather than “cared for.” Seed-bearing plants are not seen as a gift from God to be shared but as the first step in a vertical integration of agribusiness.”

Permaculture is a design based on natural ecosystems that would put food production back into the hands of local farmers with the support they need to sustain it. Cities and communities would be arranged in such a way that people would have direct access to locally grown food instead of importing it from thousands of miles away. Tax breaks, water subsidies, price and other supports would be designed to aid small farmers rather than agribusiness. A key principle of permaculture, Sister Carol states, is “to give back to Earth as much or more than you take from her.”

As you look at the world, what new vision is needed to promote the reign of God which includes the care for the entire earth community? What actions are you willing to take to make your personal vision a reality?

Blessings, 

Sister Sara

"I voted" by Quinn Dombrowski is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Even though we elect our public officials, I believe that God elects every human being to serve the world according to their unique giftedness. For God, there is no need for campaign speeches and ballot boxes to prove our worthiness to love and make a contribution to the common good. In the eyes of God, there are no winners or losers, only the victory of God’s love embracing all of creation. All people are created with an innate dignity and special capacities to make the world a better place. The real challenge is discernment, that is, making a decision in conversation with God about how and what we will do to promote the reign of God’s justice and peace on earth.

In this “land of the free,” are we making life-decisions from a place of internal freedom? God always works through interior freedom, never forcing us, but allowing us to respond out of our deep desire for love. The famous Jesuit, Father Pedro Arrupe, puts it this way: “Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you will do with your evenings, how you will spend your weekends, what you read, whom you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love—and it will decide everything.” What love is worthy of the commitment of your freedom? What love has your vote?

Blessings,

Sister Sara

"Deya Jumping at Christ the Redeemer" by Nan Palmero is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Only 48% of American Catholics are certain that you can have a personal relationship with God (Pew Religious Landscape Survey, 2008). Only 5% of “practicing” Catholics are what Sherry Weddell* calls intentional disciples, that is, women and men who have a growing personal relationship with Christ, and have made a definitive choice to dedicate their lives to God through prayer, study, virtuous living in love of neighbor as self, service for the common good and public witness to their faith. The majority of Catholics, she says, are in one of the earlier, essentially passive, stages of spiritual development characterized by trust, curiosity, and openness but have not yet reached the levels of serious seeking and the commitment to a life of discipleship.

How does this information about American Catholics resonate with you? Are you certain that you can have a personal relationship with God? Who is Jesus for you? Are you taking conscious steps to grow in your prayer life, theological understanding of your faith, personal maturity, commitment to serving the last and the least in our society, and willingness to publicly witness to your faith?

*I attended the National Religious Vocation Conference (NRVC) this past week. One of our keynote speakers was Sherry Anne Weddell, co-founder, and co-director of the Catherine of Sienna Institute, an affiliated ministry of the Western Dominican Province. Over the past twenty years, Sherry has developed a variety of formation resources and has worked with an international team that has formed Christian disciples in hundreds of parishes, in 137 dioceses on 5 continents.

Blessings,

“Mermaid” by AK Rockefeller is licensed under CC BY 2.0

In Hans Christian Anderson’s classic fairytale, “The Little Mermaid,” the love-struck mermaid, Ariel, gives up her beautiful voice in exchange for legs. She makes a deal with the evil Sea Witch to become what she is not in order to achieve her idea of success—to become human and marry the handsome prince. This seemingly innocent fable illustrates our contemporary temptation to lose our true self in order to achieve our ideal of success.

A colleague of mine, who is now a career development specialist, shares with college students how he had fallen victim to this very temptation. As a college student, he knew he had a real talent for working with people and took great joy in listening to others and helping them find their way in life. And yet, because careers in public service were not high-paying, he sacrificed his real calling for a career in accounting. He got married, had children, and made a lot of money. Like Ariel, he silenced what made him special in order to meet his definition of success.

The consequences of this false bargain bore fruit several years later when he fell into a deep depression. He hated accounting and each day was a drudgery. He realized that he had traded in his true self and vital access to God for a bigger paycheck. Only through honoring his true nature could he begin to survive on the inside, where it counts.

Have you ever suffered from what we could call the Little Mermaid Syndrome? Have you ever silenced some essential aspect of yourself in order to be loved, to be successful? What were the consequences? Consider what you need to do in order to be reconnected to that dimension of yourself that seems to be lost at sea.

Blessings,

Sister Sara

This week's blogger is Sister Judith Benkert, OP.

There is a definite warning in that old saying, “Give and inch, take a mile.” I grew up with it. I was told to be careful, don’t get over involved.  Don’t let “them” take advantage of your generosity. Guard your heart.

Then there is the other side of the coin of life echoed in Jesus’ words to me. If someone asks for your shirt give your coat as well. Love your enemies; do well to those who hate you. Search for the common good and perhaps you will find your heart and soul for the Beloved.

I just returned from the School of the Americas (SOA) Watch: Convergence at the Border. SOA Watch traditionally holds protests every November at Fort Benning, Georgia, the site of the School of the Americas. This U.S. government-run school trains military officers from Latin American countries how to engage in warfare tactics, which are often used against their own people. The traditional November rally calls for the close of the SOA, whose graduates have committed countless murders and human rights violations against their own people.

This year, we met at the border between Nogales Mexico and Nogales Arizona to protest the militarization of our border.  We were a group of hundreds of people, young and old, men and women, able bodied and handy capable, with no competition or ownership. We were putting on Christ and learning to express the mind of Christ. We walked and prayed, shouted slogans referring to injustices that became very apparent during the gatherings in workshops. Everything associated with the Convergence was geared to educate toward becoming a more just and inclusive world.  

It isn’t the ‘wall’ that was so apparent in Nogales. The Disconocidos (Unknowns) are not only those lost in the desert but those lost at sea, shut out of countries, and in the ravages of climate tragedies throughout the world that need the assistance. How am I able to open my heart to put on Christ and be of help to the suffering peoples and places on our Earth? Go ahead, Judith, give the inch and let it become a mile. 

Sister Carol Coston, OP, reflects on her personal discernment process: “As I think back on these experiences and on the way I have changed over the past six and a half decades of my life, I recognize that my personal transformation has been more evolutionary than epiphanic. The movements have involved gradual changes, a sort of unfolding, rather than abrupt shifts— although, once I complete the internal shift, the external decisions to act on the internal change have always come quickly.”

Three deep impulses have guided Sister Carol’s life: her quest for God, her struggle against racism and class prejudice, and her commitment to social justice and care for Earth. She helped found, and for 10 years served as the first director of NETWORK: A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby, based in Washington, DC. Sister Carol was also a founding member of the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Portfolio Advisory Board, serving as the Board’s chair for 12 years and representing our Congregation in dozens of shareholder resolutions on issues of justice in the global economy. 

She founded and directed two Partners for the Common Good loan funds, raising more than $11 million in religious investments to provide low-interest credit to low-income communities in the United States, Latin America, and South Africa. She also co-founded and co-directed Santuario Sisterfarm, a sanctuary for cultivating diversity and sustainable agriculture in the Texas Hill Country. 

Sister Carol is the first and only sister to receive the Presidential Citizens Medal, given by the President of the United States “in recognition of U.S. citizens who have performed exemplary deeds of service for our nation.”

What internal change are you noticing in your own life? How has this internal shift borne fruit in external action? What deep motivations guide your life?

"I Dream of Equality" by Paul Domenick is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

This week’s blogger is Sister Marilyn Barnett, OP.

What led me to promote racial equality throughout my life? Maybe it was because my parents were born in Jamaica, or maybe it was the cultural diversity of my own birthplace and years of growing up near Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I was taught at the side of my parents that God loves every one of us, we are all made in God’s image, and every nation on Earth is held in the gentle palm of God’s loving hand. I know that God’s call to enter religious life and encounter people of different cultures came while working with the Hispanic community in southern Colorado.

As a young person, I observed the actions of others in my neighborhood – those who would have nothing to do with persons of color or those who would cross the street if there were people who were not part of “their group.” I remember being told by older people that it was probably not “wise” to associate with different races since we had nothing in common with them, i.e. language, features, customs, food, and religious affiliation. 

At the time these so called “words of advice” caused me to wonder, and later to brood over this seemingly widespread attitude of discrimination. I began to clearly recognize the subtle and overt ways minorities were portrayed, and the dislike, cruelty, and hatred that developed. I began to study, read, and immerse myself in actions that would promote racial equality wherever I ministered.

The Adrian Dominican Sisters have recognized, encouraged, and supported this deeply profound truth of God’s love for all. Our Vision and Enactments, both past and present, have given me the freedom to live this truth.

"Tear" by Quinn Dombrowski is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

True love, the foundation of discernment, never avoids conflict. This kind of discernment is the most difficult to practice. It arises out of a situation in which we are suffering from a situation that we think is caused by the person or community that we love the most. We might refuse to ask the person or community for help in understanding and dealing with our hurt.

Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist monk, tells of a young Vietnamese man who went off to war, leaving his pregnant wife behind. When he returned after three years, his young wife and son welcomed him home with tears of joy.

When his wife went out to buy food for their celebration, the young father tried to get his son to call him daddy. The little boy refused, saying, “You are not my daddy.  My daddy is somebody else. He visits us every night and comforts mommy when she cries. Every time my mommy sits down, he sits down, too. Every time she lies down, he lies down, too.” 

The young father was stunned, heartbroken, and humiliated by these words. When his wife returned, he refused to talk to her or even look at her.  He stormed out of the house and spent the day at a bar. This went on for several days. Finally, the young woman was so distraught over her husband’s change in behavior that she threw herself in the river and drowned.

When the young man heard the news, he returned home, and lit a lamp. Suddenly, the little boy exclaimed, “Look, it’s my daddy! He’s come back!” He pointed to the shadow of his father on the wall. 

In reality, his mother had been so alone in the house that every night she had to talk to her own shadow. Now her husband’s false perception was corrected, but it was too late. His wife was dead.  

We all fall victim to our misperceptions every day. When in a painful situation of conflict, we must check things out with the other person before taking action if we want true love to guide our lives.

Sister Sara Fairbanks, OP

This week’s blogger is Sister Ellen Burkhardt, OP.

“I don’t believe you brought me this far to leave me.”

These words are from a hymn we sing in my parish in Detroit, one of my favorites. We sang it one week while I was discerning a call to religious life, and honestly, I thought the words were jumping off the page and into my heart with a message specially formulated for me! God seemed to speak directly to me through the words “I haven’t brought you this far just to walk away from you now. Trust me, now and into the future.”

As is often the case for those struggling with a discernment issue, I was filled with questions: How can I know that this is where God is leading me? Why won’t these questions go away? I also had concerns about giving up my home and a career I loved. I worried about entering religious life and then discovering that it doesn’t fit me. What would I do then?

Over time, with the help of prayer and spiritual direction, I came to a deeper trust that the same God who led me this far, will accompany me today and each day that follows.