Soulful Politics

VOTE  2020

 

Election Reflection

As members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) in the United States we invite you to join us in our 2020 Election Reflection Process, Towards a More Perfect Union.  Each week until Election Day, November 3rd, we will highlight a reflection and dialogue theme.  This week’s Election Reflection is entitled, Soulful Politics.  Please pray, reflect and dialogue along with us.

Towards a More Perfect Union 

Soulful Politics

  

  

Quotation

Politics, according to the Social Doctrine of the Church, is one of the highest forms of charity, because it serves the common good. I cannot wash my hands. We all have to give something! A good Catholic meddles in politics, offering the best of him or herself, so that those who govern can govern. (Pope Francis, September 13, 2013.)

 

 

Reflection

In every life there is a crossover moment after which a person will never be the same again. Somewhere, somehow the challenge comes that sets us on a different path. The path of purpose. The path of integrity. The path of transcendence that lifts us—heart, mind and soul—above the pitiable level of the mundane.

It is the moment at which transcending the expected, the petty, the daily, becomes more impacting, more holy-making than any amount of political success.

As a culture, we may have come to that point in this culture en massse. It is a call to all of us to be our best, our least superficial, our most serious about what it means to be a Christian as well as a citizen.  

The system we have divided from itself must be put together or we may never really be One, be united as a people, again. MORE (Joan Chittisster, OSB, “A Moment for Something More Soulful than Politics:” Fall 2017.)

 

Music

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize  (Sweet Honey in the Rock) 

Questions for Reflection and Dialogue

How would you name the prize (“Keep Your Eyes on the Prize”)?What does it mean to live the deepest values of the Gospel inthe exercise of citizenship? Where might spiritual and civic selves meet? 

In the midst of the polarization and disunity that seems to surround us, where we find hope for our souls and the soul of our nation? 

Closing Prayer

God of all, in this year of election, in these days of discernment, IGNITE us with fire of your love. ENFLAME our hearts with courage to embrace dialogue that transforms and truth that frees. KINDLE our love with kindness to heal divisions and reconcile relationships. LIGHT our imaginations with insight to envision and create a world where all are one. STIR our actions with justice and peace to engage critical concerns and cherish all of life. FIRE our lives with audacity and hope to risk all for God’s mission. 

-- Roxanne Schares, SSND

A New Web Look!

 Cluny Sisters Announce

 

New Web Look

https://clunyusandcanada.org/

New Items Include

Daily Thoughts of Anne Marie Javouhey

In Memoriam Photos and Stories

Secure Website

Season of Creation Sunday 4

 

Earth is crying out!  The poor are crying out!

The existence and wellbeing 

of future generations is threatened.

This all constitutes a strong and urgent call

To conversion in all dimensions of life.

The Fourth Sunday of the Season of Creation, puts the focus squarely on personal responsibility for embracing the integral ecological conversion essential to healing Earth, caring for the Web of Life.

Penitential Rite

Conscious of God’s mercy, patience, compassion, and  call, let us enter into the  quiet of our spirits… asking  for forgiveness, protection from the  crises of this time, the grace to see  and understand God’s ways for us in these times  … 

Creator God, our ways of living on Earth  as a human family woven  into the  vast, complex  web of life have  not been Your ways and now are  threatening all life as we know it with suffering and destruction.

Creator  Spirit of God, have  mercy.

Christ Jesus, Your teaching warns us that words  are not enough. Our actions must reveal our inner  conversion and commitment to live with the same attitude that guided  You, to live the Way that You revealed and lived out among us as one of us in humility and obedience.

Word of God, have  mercy

Holy Spirit of God, You are  at work in us, among us, and through us, teaching us Your ways and preparing a time of sacred Jubilee in response to the  cry of the  Earth  and the cry of the  poor.

Wisdom of God, have  mercy.

May God, the Creator of time, space and the

vast Web of Life in which we live, have mercy on us, free us from our sins, and guide us into the fullness of divine Life.     Amen

The Prophet Ezekiel  reminds us that conversion is the personal responsibility of each of us.  God will judge  us in the  end upon  the  choices we each make  of how we will live with each other in the  community of creation. It is never too late  to choose God’s ways. God is always  compassionate and forgiving, ready to teach us the  way.

  

Psalm 25  recalls God’s compassion and mercy, asking  God to forget the  sins and frailties of our past and show us the  way we are  to live. Conversion requires growing  in knowledge of our sinfulness and failings, prayer for forgiveness, and willing trust in God’s compassion and forgiveness.

Remember Your Mercies

Psalm 25

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKI9uCZZqUw

The Parable of the Two Sons  Jesus calls attention to the  all too familiar  reality that we may learn  the  right things to say, but that what matters is what  we actually do, our actions. Jesus challenges the  chief priests and the  elders to change and act in the  way of righteousness and justice that John preached.

Gospel of Matthew 21:28-32

 “But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go work today in the vineyard.’ And he answered, ‘I will not’; but afterward he regretted it and went. The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, ‘I will, sir’; but he did not go. 

Which of the two did the will of his father?”

They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.

Prayer  Our Loving God, You alone  judge  rightly  and search the  depths of the  human heart. You alone offer  the  grace and courage to transform our lives and renew the  Earth.  Make us quick to do Your will, slow to judge  our neighbor, and eager to care for Your creation with wisdom, compassion, and love. 

Grant that we may walk with those who follow the  way of repentance and ecological faithfulness in caring for the  family of creation and Earth,  our common home.  We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the  unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever  and ever.  Amen.

Glory and Praise to Our God

Dan Schutte

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YculmbiRhME

200,000 Americans Dead

How Many More Americans

Will Die?

 It didn’t have to be this way

Our Country Unites to Lament and Mourn

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny join our fellow Americans to remember, lament and mourn the death of over 200,000 people  who have died in the United States from COVID-19. We celebrate their lives, remembering their oneness in their death and diversity.  Today as one nation, one community, one people let us remember.  Let us do all we can to honor them by how we live and move and have our being.  We recognize they are more than a number or statistic.  They are our family, friends, neighbors and strangers.  They are US.

 

We Lament, We Mourn

 

† Hear our cry, Almighty God. Listen to our prayer.

How long will we have to hide in our homes from this invisible enemy? Where will it strike next? And whom? And what if…..? Our screens relay a continuous escalation of suffering and death here and around the world. Panic and anxiety abounds. Our souls are weary from the strain of the life-altering unknowns.

Heavenly Father, from the depths of our pain and confusion, we cry out to You. From fear-filled hearts and anxious minds, we plead with You. Rescue us, Father of compassion and grace. We lift up our eyes to You, Lord God, the One who sits enthroned in heaven.

On all who have contracted the virus

Lord have mercy

On all who have lost loved ones to this sickness and are in mourning and anguish               Lord have mercy

On all who are unable to earn an income because their jobs have been suspended           Lord have mercy

We cry out

We cry out for healing and needed resources

We cry out for comfort and peace

On all medical professionals and caretakers attending to those infected with the virus                      Christ have mercy

On all scientists and technologists striving to find a vaccine and to make it available           Christ have mercy

On all leaders of institutions and governments as they make decisions to try and contain the virus           Christ have mercy

We pray for strength in the long and exhausting hours of labor 

We pray for wisdom in the research and difficult decisions

On all who have not yet contracted the virus

Lord have mercy

On the most vulnerable of our society who are unable to buy extra food or get proper medical attention 

Lord have mercy

On all disciples of Jesus Christ discerning how to reflect His love to others within this crisis                   Lord have mercy

We plead for protection of health

We plead for all to remain calm and kind

The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the expanse of the universe. And yet this earth is no longer as You created it to be. 

Life is sacred and precious in your sight. 

You are the God Who sees us and sustains us.

Nothing can separate us from the Father’s unfailing love and kindness, not even sickness or the fear of tomorrow. You are our Light as we walk in this darkness. We will remember to celebrate the beautiful gifts You have given us in this present moment.

Almighty God, You are our Rock, our Refuge from the enemy, our hiding place. You calm our frantic thoughts and fill our despairing hearts with joy and strength. In Your Presence there is faith, hope and love in the darkness.

May our people now rest in peace.

AMEN.

 

Celebrating the Life of RBG

A group of masked mourners, some carrying signs, gathers on the steps of the Supreme Court in the hours after Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on Friday due to complications of metastatic pancreas cancer, the court announced.      She was 87.

Ginsburg was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1993 by President Bill Clinton and in recent years served as the most senior member of the court's liberal wing, consistently delivering progressive votes on the most divisive social issues of the day, including abortion rights, same-sex marriage, voting rights, immigration, health care and affirmative action.

"Our Nation has lost a jurist of historic stature," said Chief Justice John Roberts. "We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today we mourn, but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her -- a tireless and resolute champion of justice."

First Woman to lie in State in the Capitol

Justice Ginsburg will become the first woman in history to lie in state in the US Capitol when her casket is placed in National Statuary Hall on Friday.

The historic event, which was announced by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday, will feature a formal ceremony for invited guests only because of the coronavirus pandemic.  

Lying in state is a tribute reserved for the most distinguished government officials and military officers, while lying in honor is a distinction given to private citizens.

Mourners’ Kaddish

There are so many ways to honor the legacy of the great Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who passed away on Friday, September 18, 2020, just as the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashana was about to start. One of them is to say the Mourner’s Kaddish, the poignant Jewish prayer recited when mourning the dead.

On Tuesday, a Virtual Kaddish for Ruth Bader Ginsburg was held on Zoom. The moving 15-minute service, poignantly lead by Rabbi Sari Laufer, was an opportunity to collectively grieve the passing and celebrate the legacy of this relentless Jewish icon. 

https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=350711216279483&ref=external

  

Ginsburg, who died on the eve of the Jewish new year, was surrounded by her family at her home in Washington, DC, the court said. A private interment service will be held at Arlington National Cemetery.

The Power of Shared Heartbreak

  VOTE  2020

Election Reflection

As members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) in the United States we invite you to join us in our 2020 Election Reflection Process, Towards A More Perfect Union.  Each week until Election Day, November 3rd, we will highlight a reflection and dialogue theme.  This week’s Election Reflection is entitled, The Power of Shared Heartbreak.  Please pray, reflect and dialogue along with us.

Towards a More Perfect Union

  

The Power of Shared Heartbreak

  

  

Scripture

“The Lord rebuilds Jerusalem, and gathers the dispersed people of Israel, healing the brokenhearted, and binding up their wounds.” (Psalm 147: 2-3) 

 

 

Reflection

Despite our sharp disagreements on the nature of the American dream, many of us on the left, on the right, and in the center have at least this much in common: a shared experience of heart-break about the condition of our culture, our society, our body politic. That shared heartbreak can build a footbridge of mutual understanding on which we can walk toward each other. 

Our sharpest disagreements need not be the seeds of democracy’s destruction. If we know how to hold their tensions in ways that open our hearts, they can become proof of democracy’s genius and drivers of its renewal. -- Parker Palmer, Healing the Heart of Democracy (Hoboken: Jossey-Bass, 2011), 59.

 

Music

You Can Do This Hard Thing (Carrie Newcomer)

 

Questions for Reflection and Dialogue

 

What are your primary concerns about how our democracy is functioning? What breaks your heart?

Do you believe it’s possible for people who deeply disagree with each other politically to come together around shared concerns for democracy itself?

Closing Prayer

God of all, in this year of election, in these days of discernment, IGNITE us with fire of your love. ENFLAME our hearts with courage to embrace dialogue that transforms and truth that frees. KINDLE our love with kindness to heal divisions and reconcile relationships. LIGHT our imaginations with insight to envision and create a world where all are one. STIR our actions with justice and peace to engage critical concerns and cherish all of life. FIRE our lives with audacity and hope to risk all for God’s mission. 

September 21st International Day of Peace

 

Coronavirus continues to cause significant uncertainty for millions of people across the world. In challenging times like these, our local communities are stronger when we come together to support one another.

The International Day of Peace Theme, this year is, Shaping Peace Together, focusing on solidarity.

This Peace Day, let us to do something small (or big!) to build peace.  

We can together, build a world free from violence.

https://www.peacedirect.org/us/take5forpeace/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI2Mqb9_Ht6wIVuymzAB1-twXpEAAYASAAEgKd2vD_BwE

Peace  Builders

 

Keeping  The  Dream  Alive

Blessed are the Peacemakers

 

They are called God’s Children

Matthew 5:9

Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace

Where there is hatred, let me sow love

Where there is injury, pardon

Where there is doubt, faith

Where there is despair, hope

Where there is darkness, light

Where there is sadness, joy

O Divine Master

Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console

To be understood, as to understand

To be loved as to love

For it is in giving that we receive

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned

And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life

Let There Be Peace on Earth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ITXaL2Sk2A

Season of Creation Sunday 3

 

“Doomsday predictions can no longer be met with irony or disdain.

We may well be leaving to coming generations debris, desolation and filth.

The pace of consumption, waste and environmental change

Has so stretched the planet’s capacity that our 

Contemporary lifestyle, unsustainable as it is, 

can only precipitate catastrophes…

The effects of the present imbalance can only be reduced

By our decisive action here and now.”

- Laudato si’  #161

The Third Sunday of the Season of Creation, remind us that God’s ways are not our ways.  The Scriptures invite us to contemplate some of God’s Jubilee ways of living on Earth, giving birth to the New Creation.  The planet is warming dangerously because of our use of fossil fuels and our systems of production and consumption. The ways our economies function and the  values they  serve are  depleting and wasting Earth’s resources, creating great inequalities, suffering and injustice, and exceeding Earth’s regenerative capacity. Earth  is crying  out, the poor  are  crying  out, the  existence and wellbeing  of future generations is threatened.

Opening Prayer

Our loving God most high, Your ways are  not our ways, for Your kindness and love are  lavished equally  upon  all and guide  all creation. Teach  us to welcome Your mercy toward others even  as we hope  to receive Your mercy ourselves. Teach us to love and care for all creation, Your gift to us all, wisely and well. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the  unity of the  Holy Spirit, one God for ever  and ever.  Amen.

The Prophet Isaiah  We enter into contemplative reverence in the midst of creation before the greatness of God, the  source of Earth  and all the universe. Love of God’s creation in all its beauty, intricacy, and lavish goodness can spark  love in our hearts and guide  us in caring for creation as it needs to be cared for.  Isaiah’s urgent call to seek  God while God is near and can be found  resonates deeply  with the warnings of climate experts for these times:  that “only with rapid  and far-reaching transitions in the  world economy on a scale  and at a rate without historical precedent” can humanity avoid the  tipping  points that will bring great devastation to life around Earth.

The Parable of the Landowner and the Worker   God’s ways are  not our ways. The parable in the  gospel in which the  owner of the vineyard gives a full day’s wage  to all, regardless of how long they  worked  often stirs  complaints about fairness.

But those who worked  the  longest, the  whole day, received what  they  had agreed was a just wage.

The wages of day laborers are  often all that their family has  to survive on for a given day; and so the  generosity of the  vineyard owner served to meet the  people’s basic  daily needs.

This parable shows  us a compensation system based on the  agreed-upon value  of certain work and care to meet the  basic  needs of all workers. It is not based upon  comparative, competitive, unlimited accumulation.

God’s ways challenge us. A central belief of the Catholic  Social Tradition confesses that the Earth  is God’s and everything in it. Creation is a gift of God to all people and living creatures, a gift to provide for the  needs of all for survival, growth, and flourishing.

Intercessory Prayer

That we may grow in consciousness, awe, and praise of the  mystery of God in creation and of the  great gift of creation and all of its elements, we pray….

That we may deepen our gratitude for nature’s rich Web of Life within which we live and may grow in openness to wiser and more just ways of caring for it and sharing it, we pray….

That we may take up our prophetic responsibility in this time of crisis to speak God’s Truth  to each other and to call each other into ways of living within creation wisely, sustainably, justly, and reverently we pray….

For a deep sense of urgency in responding to the  cry of the  Earth  and the  cry of the  poor,  we pray….

That the  nations of the  world will find ways together to rebuild  from the  Covid-19 pandemic and economic declines in accord with God’s ways, God’s vision of economic, social and ecological justice, we pray…

Glory and Praise to Our God

Dan Schutte

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YculmbiRhME

Season of Creation Water Reflection

 

Jubilee for Earth: New Rhythms, New Hope

 

This year’s Season of Creation, September 1 - October 4, is a time to consider the integral relationship between rest for Earth and ecological, economic, social, and political ways of living.

 

Reflections are based on the Vatican document: Aqua Fons Vitae - Water Is a Source of life, Orientations on Water, symbol of the cry of the poor and the cry of Earth.

 

The Lord Hears The Cry of the Poor

John Foley, SJ

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwFq1HrNiuU

Out of Many One

 VOTE  2020

Election Reflection

As members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) in the United States we invite you to join us in our 2020 Election Reflection Process, Towards A More Perfect Union.  Each week until Election Day, November 3^rd, we will highlight a reflection and dialogue theme.  This week’s Election Reflection is entitled, Out of Many One.  Please pray, reflect and dialogue along with us.

Towards a More Perfect Union

Out of Many One

Scripture

“Enlarge the space of your tent. Stretch out your tent cloth unsparingly.” (Isaiah 54:2) 

 

Reflection

Building a future of freedom requires love of the common good and cooperation in a spirit of subsidiarity and solidarity...Our efforts must aim at restoring hope, righting wrongs, maintaining commitments, and thus promoting the well-being of individuals and of peoples... Politics is an expression of our compelling need to live as one, in order to build as one the greatest common good: that of a community which sacrifices particular int+erests in order to share, in justice and peace, its goods, its interests, its social life. I do not underestimate the difficulty that this involves, but I encourage you in this effort (Pope Francis, Address to the US Congress, September 24, 2015)

Music

Finlandia (Jean Sibelius)

 

Questions for Reflection and Dialogue

We are challenged to stretch out our tent cloth unsparingly. What might that call look like in today’s world? What parts of my tent need stretching?

 

Individual freedom and sacrifice for the common good are often seen as competing ‘goods.’ What would it take to come to a place where we know in our deepest being that the common good is my good?

Closing Prayer

God of all, in this year of election, in these days of discernment, IGNITE us with fire of your love. ENFLAME our hearts with courage to embrace dialogue that transforms and truth that frees. KINDLE our love with kindness to heal divisions and reconcile relationships. LIGHT our imaginations with insight to envision and create a world where all are one. STIR our actions with justice and peace to engage critical concerns and cherish all of life. FIRE our lives with audacity and hope to risk all for God’s mission. (SSND)

Season of Creation Sunday 2

 

Legitimate righteous anger…

Can provide energy and courage to speak out

And work for change, but this kind of anger seeks conversion

And reconciliation, not vengeance or destruction.

It does not become bitter.

 

 

On this Second Sunday of the Season of Creation, the scriptures remind us that the seriousness of the ecological crisis demands an urgent and passionate prophetic act, it must remain non-judgmental and forgiving. God’s Word is a reflection on how much we have been forgiven and still need forgiveness so that we may be patient and forgiving of others.

 

Penitential Prayer

 

Conscious of God’s mercy, patience, kindness and compassion in our lives, let us enter into the  quiet of our spirits … asking  for forgiveness … and for a forgiving spirit with each other.

 

Creator God, You have  entrusted the  human family with the  richly diverse gifts of creation, asking  us to receive them with gratitude, share them generously, and care for them wisely and well, too often we abuse Your gifts and Your trust.

Creator  Spirit of God, have  mercy.

 

 

Christ Holy Spirit of God, You are  at work in us and among us making  us more conscious of the  sacredness of all creation, raising up global movements in these times to care for Earth  and for each other.

Wisdom of God, have  mercy.

 

 

May God, the Creator of all time and space and the vast Web of Life in which we live, have mercy on us, free us from our sins, and guide us into the fullness of divine Life.  Amen.

 

Jesus, You came  to show us God’s loving forgiveness and You have  taught us to forgive  each other as we long to be forgiven.

Word of God, have  mercy.

 

 

The Lord is Kind and Merciful

Ricky Manalo

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es8jLT_rmek

 

How have we experienced God’s patience and forgiveness for the  ways we receive, live in, and treat God’s gifts of Earth,  of creation? As individuals?

As a global community?

 

The Book of Sirach  warns that clinging to anger and vengeance will bring God’s anger and vengeance upon us.  We must forgive others’ injustice if we hope to have God forgive our own.

 

In this passage from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans we are encouraged not to judge one another.  Each one lives or dies for Christ and “each of us shall give an account to God.” Romans 14:12

 

Matthew’s Gospel answers two questions:

            How often must we forgive someone who seeks forgiveness?

            What will happen if we don’t forgive each other?

 

Jesus could not be clearer! We must forgive  not 7 times but 77 times – a metaphor in his time and culture for a number without limit. Every time they  ask forgiveness sincerely, we must give it from our hearts. If we do not forgive  each other when we have  been forgiven so much  by God, we will lose God’s forgiveness.

 

To recognize how precious God’s forgiveness for the misuse of the gifts of creation is, we need to be conscious of how precious and sacred those gifts are.

How has God patiently increased our awareness of the preciousness of the gifts of creation?

What do we most appreciate, enjoy and rely on in nature? How can we come to recognize it more as a gift from God?

How can we contemplate God present in those gifts? How can we grow in discerning God’s Self-gift  in and through them?

 

As we have grown in consciousness of God’s gifts of creation and of our destructive use and abuse of them, we have  experienced God’s patience, mercy, and call to conversion in our lives – what  Pope  Francis has  called an integral ecological conversion.

How have we been forgiven in our individual journeys thus far? In our community life? For what  are  we in still need of forgiveness now?

How can we expand our consciousness of the  ways we continue to live unconscious of or unconcerned about waste, pollution, a “throw away culture,” overuse of resources, inequality and poverty?

 

Acknowledging our sins, failures, slowness to change and asking forgiveness, we need to contemplate and give profound thanks to God for this patience, gentleness in forgiving us, teaching us, drawing us to work for the  New Creation.

                 

How can we express and live out our gratitude for God’s patient forgiveness to us personally? As a community?

How can we work at deepening and nurturing that gratitude of spirit? What type of liturgies, prayers, actions together can nurture this spiritual growth?

How can that gratitude call forth in us patience and forgiveness for those “behind us” in this journey? For those resisting or denying the cry of the  poor  and the cry of the Earth?

 

 

Prayer

Our loving God, be attentive to our prayers and receive with favor these gifts of our energies and service.  May what  each of us has  offered to the  glory of your name advance the  healing and salvation of us all and of the  Earth our home.  We make our prayer through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen

Bread to Share

Marty Haugan

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLzghppCRts