On this day, I would like all of us to hope anew and to revive our trust in others, including those who are different than ourselves, or who come from distant lands, bringing unfamiliar customs, ways of life and ideas!
From Pope Francis’s Easter message, April 20, 2025, which was proclaimed on his final full day of life
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Linda’s Just Jot It January offers daily prompts, which I usually ignore to do my own thing, but today I decided to use the provided prompt, jubilee.
Because I’m not feeling well, I attended mass via television this morning and the homily talked about the Jubilee Year of Hope that Pope Francis proclaimed for 2025.
Jubilees in the Catholic Church have their basis in the Hebrew Scriptures, which call for a jubilee every fifty years. Popes have followed that tradition for years ending in 00 and 50, but also sometimes add other special jubilees, as Francis did here.
Jubilees are calls for liberation, freedom, and the forgiveness of debts and Francis explains how these pertain to our present time, especially for those who are marginalized or, too often, overlooked.
Given that hope tends to be a difficult virtue for me, perhaps this year dedicated to hope will help me to be a better “pilgrim of hope,” as Francis terms it.
May all those in need be given hope, freedom, and resources in this Jubilee Year.
It’s important to emphasize that hope is only a beginning; it’s not a substitute for action, only a basis for it.
~~~ Rebecca Solnit
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Hope is not the certainty that things will turn out as we wish, but the conviction that some things are worth doing no matter how they turn out.
Vaclav Havel
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Hope is a form of planning.
Gloria Steinem
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Today is the first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere and one of the first things I read is this tender, reflective piece from Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post about the unfinished art quilt and essay “Winter” – the last in a series that his spouse Avis Collins Robinson was working on at the time of her death. (The link above is a gift so it will open for everyone without paywall.)
The piece begins:
For Avis Collins Robinson, the artist who created these works heralding the seasons, winter meant both an end and a beginning. The bare trees and sere landscape were stark, but they held the promise of spring and renewal — not a mere hope but a promise.
I wanted to share his words and her art with you as the seasons continue to unfold inexorably before us.
We are fortunate that art and words continue to speak to us, even when their creators have passed away.
Love also endures.
(Photo by Timothy Eberly on Unsplash)
I wish I knew what the new year will bring.
Or maybe not.
On the one hand, I’m worn out by feeling that I can’t make long term plans and that I’m always waiting for the other shoe to drop. There have been so many years of uncertainty both on a personal and a community/national/global level that I would welcome a sense of stability.
On the other hand, it would be terrifying and/or depressing to know that things are going to go badly and that there would be no way to ameliorate or avert them.
So, I guess I will remain in my state of unknowing, making plans, then modifying or dropping them when the next unexpected thing occurs.
I guess the “not knowing” leaves room for hope.
Wishing us all the best in 2023. May it be a year of hope, increasing peace, and caring for one another and our planet.
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this year is “new/knew.” Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2022/12/30/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-31-2022/
Until we find the communal meaning and significance of the suffering of all life, we will continue to retreat into our individual, small worlds in our misguided quest for personal safety and sanity.
Richard Rohr
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I have long said that hope is the virtue that I struggle with.
Or maybe it is that I struggle with the intersection of hope and reality.
I do try to keep my hopes realistic, not veering off into fantasy, but lately, it seems, even my realistic hopes get dashed on a regular basis.
On a personal level, my biggest struggle to maintain hope has been with my father’s health condition after a fall four weeks ago. I keep hoping that the medical team will be able to figure out what is causing his increased confusion, disorientation, and fatigue, so that we can make him more comfortable, but we don’t seem to be able to. I am not hoping for a miracle. Paco is 96 and has several underlying health conditions. I know the time we have left with him is limited. I just want to help make things as comfortable and stress-free as possible. I didn’t think this was an unrealistic hope, but perhaps it is.
Even with this personal struggle, there is always an awareness of what is going around us here in the US. I had hoped that, with several effective vaccines widely available, we could tamp down the pandemic, including the newer and more contagious variants. Instead, we are seeing some areas with very low vaccination rates experiencing spikes in COVID cases. Another realistic hope dashed.
Equally or perhaps even more alarming is the increasingly bizarre behavior of the Republican party. I had hoped that, after what even Republican election officials knew was a fair election, and especially after the horror of the January 6th insurrection and attack on the Capitol, the Republicans would fulfill their Constitutional duties and govern, at this point as the minority party. But they are not. In states that have a Republican legislature, especially if there is a Republican governor, too, we are seeing rafts of legislation that try to suppress votes of people who are less likely to choose Republican candidates. This isn’t just another dashed hope. It feels dystopian.
Of course, some hopes are more mundane. I had hoped to get an SoCS post written before I fell asleep and I have managed that.
I hope that Paco will have a decent day tomorrow.
And a decent week.
I hope that isn’t too much to hope for.
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “hope.” Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2021/07/09/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-july-10-2021/
Intellect does not function in opposition to mystery; tolerance is not more pragmatic than love; and cynicism is not more reasonable than hope.
Krista Tippett, from Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living, p. 236
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Joanne Corey 