Image by Satheesh Sankaran from Pixabay
As we continue to hope and work toward justice and peace for Ukraine, I’m sharing a recording of John Rutter’s “A Ukrainian Prayer” recorded in April ’22 by the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton.
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This photo from almost eight years ago is three generations of mothers in my family, Nana and me with daughter E holding baby ABC, my first grandchild and Nana’s first great-gandchild.
This Mother’s Day is without Nana, who passed away in May 2019, and with E and ABC living in London, where Mother’s Day was celebrated a couple of months ago.
Here, B baked squash maple muffins for breakfast and is planning a special dinner, chicken and artichokes over artichoke ravioli with a yet-to-be-revealed-to me dessert. Daughter T is here with us, which is a blessing.
Still, if feels strange to not be with any of the other mothers in my family, except in spirit.
I am wearing a shirt that was my mother’s, a gift from our friend Angie, who passed away twenty years ago.
Mother’s Day began as a call for peace. (That post contains Julia Ward Howe’s original proclamation, still well worth reading in our current war-torn world.) Today, I wish peace to all, especially to all who have mothered others, whether still living or deceased.
Love and compassion bring peace.
(Image by manfred Kindlinger from Pixabay)
Before the conclave to choose his successor begins, I want to take a moment to write about Pope Francis, who died on Easter Monday after twelve years as pope.
From the moment that he was announced after his election with the name Francis, I knew he would be a different kind of pope than his immediate predecessors, especially when he asked the people to bless him before he blessed them. Like St. Francis of Assisi, Pope Francis dedicated himself to peace, to serving all people, especially the most vulnerable, and to caring for creation. I appreciate how he led the church in those directions while also offering his message to the whole world.
Within the church, he opened the door to greater listening and dialogue, especially through the synodal process that included the laity as well as clergy. This was especially meaningful to me as John Paul II and Benedict XVI tended to shut down discussion and silence voices that offered a different viewpoint. Francis also engaged with people of other faiths and philosophies around the world, travelling broadly and meeting with people in many different circumstances. He would even acknowledge that when he would ask people to bless him or pray for him by asking people who did not have a prayer tradition to offer their well wishes on his behalf.
I appreciated Francis’s humility in choosing to live simply in Casa Santa Marta rather than the opulent papal apartment. He dressed simply and liked to be out among the people. Even his funeral showed his humility. He simplified the papal rite so that it was recognizable to anyone that has planned a Catholic funeral. Only the final commendation and funeral procession through Rome stood out as being papal in scope. One of the most moving moments was when his body arrived for burial at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, where he was greeted by the poor of Rome and children carried baskets of flowers to place before the altar. The inscription for his grave reads simply Franciscus.
As an environmentalist, my favorite writing of Pope Francis’s is his first encyclical, Laudato Si’, which called for everyone in the world to care for our common home, the earth, and for other people, especially the most vulnerable. It was important in securing the Paris Accord and remains, along with its companion, Laudate Deum, a continuing challenge to how we address the climate crisis and social inequities.
As a feminist and progressive Catholic, I appreciate that Francis invited discussion of women’s role in the Church and appointed women to positions of authority they had never before occupied. However, it was disappointing that he could not see the full vocation of women in church and society. Still, we are further along the path toward the radical inclusion that Jesus modeled for us than we were and for that I am grateful.
Like many Catholics, I will be watching for the white smoke to rise from the Sistine Chapel where the cardinals will meet to select the next pope. The name he chooses may give us a window into the direction in which he will lead the church. For example, a John XXIV would continue in the direction of Vatican II and Francis’s synodality while a Benedict XVII would likely call for a “smaller, purer Church” that would exclude people like me.
The word catholic means universal. Pope Francis spoke to that sense of universality which I hope the next pope will continue.
In a small group a few days ago, we were invited to pray that the next pope be a woman who would take the name Clare and continue in the mode of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Clare. The Holy Spirit would have to blow through the conclave with hurricane force for that prayer to be fulfilled, but, maybe, some day?
Only God knows.
Slava Ukraini!
This message of support for Ukraine’s sovereignty from me, one among millions of like-minded Americans, is brought to you by Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays. Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/02/19/one-liner-wednesday-if-i-didnt-laugh-id-cry/
With so many celebrations going on in this season, with Solstice, Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year’s, and I’m sure even more holidays and observances, there are many well-wishes being exchanged.
We need them.
All of them.
This year, with so much going on around the world, so much death and destruction, so many willing to scapegoat or disparage anyone who isn’t like them, we need to concentrate on wishing each other well.
Not just words splashed onto a greeting card.
Actually, wishing each other well and meaning it.
Then, we need to act like it.
Choose Love.
Choose Peace.
Choose sharing.
Choose service.
I wish all of you well as we finish 2024 and move into 2025.
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “wish.” Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/12/20/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-21-2024/
Praying for peace.
Working for peace and reconciliation.
Trying to be a peacemaker in a world with way too much violence and destruction and devaluing of life.
My part in building peace is small, but, if enough of us are dedicated to peace, we can move closer to it.
Please join in the effort.
*****
Linda’a prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “piece/peace.” Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/09/20/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-21-2024/
(Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash)
Today is observed as Memorial Day in the United States, set aside to honor all those who died in the armed services.
One of our neighbors has turned their front yard into a memorial for the day with small flags in rows and a sign listing the last names of those killed in recent US military actions, starting with Iraq and Afghanistan.
Remembering them and all who have died in service of the United States today and hoping for peace and comfort for the families who grieve their loss.
Also, praying for peace so that no more deaths will be added to those already suffered over the centuries.
A call to keep on from Frederick Douglass.
Each and every one of us must keep demanding, must keep fighting, must keep thundering, must keep plowing, must keep on keeping this struggling, must speak out and speak up until justice is served because where there is no justice there is no peace.
Frederick Douglass
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I’ve been struggling with whether or not to write a post for Christmas Day.
Maybe, it’s because I’ve been struggling with just about everything related to Christmas this year.
For so many years, the Christmas season brought most of our extended family together, often over a period of days and in various constellations, but this year, it will be just me, spouse B, and daughter T at home together. Daughter E and her family are celebrating an ocean away at home in London. B’s and my siblings are all busily dealing with their families and/or medical issues.
This lack of planned travel and guests turned out to have a silver lining when T was offered a slot for a needed shoulder surgery last week due to a cancellation in the surgeon’s schedule. So, our already subdued Christmas plan got even quieter as we have factored in the early stages of recovery.
While I’ve done some of the Christmas preparations, like singing in Lessons & Carols with the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton, writing Christmas cards and letters, and some gift-shopping and wrapping, the bulk of the decorating, cooking, and baking has been handled by B, with an assist from T prior to her surgery.
I’m sure that my feeling more somber than festive is not helped by the state of the world. The continuing horrors of war in Ukraine, the Middle East, Sudan, and elsewhere. The ever-increasing evidence of climate change impacts. The increasingly vile political rhetoric and threats against judges, Jewish people, Muslims, immigrants, pubic officials, etc. here in the US. The local battle against CO2 fracking with global implications here in the Southern Tier of New York. Increases in cases of flu and COVID in the Northern Hemisphere as winter sets in.
This somber time we face is also reflected in my religious observances. For many years, I was actively involved in music and liturgy planning for Advent and the Christmas season, but I haven’t been for a number of years now. While I still attend and participate in services, some of the anticipation and joy is muted for me.
It’s also true that there are many difficult issues raised by the nativity narrative that seem particularly salient to me this year. The real dangers that Mary faced as a young woman facing pregnancy before marriage. Her being forced to travel and give birth away from the comforts of home and neighbor-women who could come to her aid. The threats to her baby’s life. The slaughter of children ordered in an attempt to kill him. Fleeing to protect her child and their becoming refugees.
Angels and magi aside, there was a lot of pain, fear, and loss.
With all of this in my head, I went to 10 PM mass at my church for Christmas Eve. There was a photo of the baby Jesus amid rubble as displayed at a Palestinian-Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus on the West Bank, where Christmas observances usually draw crowds from around the world but are not being publicly held this year because of the war. The homily dealt directly with the struggle that I have been having this year and called on us to have hope. As part of the homily, we sang the first verse of “O Little Town of Bethlehem” near the beginning and the fourth, final verse at the end. We sang:
O holy Child of Bethlehem,
Phillips Brooks
descend to us, we pray;
cast out our sin and enter in;
be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels,
the great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us,
our Lord Emmanuel!
The message is to have hope because God, who is Divine and Eternal Love, is with all people of good will, as the angels announce.
I admit that hope is not one of my better virtues, but I will continue to add my actions, small though they are, in the efforts to make the world safer, more loving, more kind.
After all these centuries, still searching for the peace the angels proclaimed…
I don’t have words that adequately express my horror and sorrow at the death, injury, trauma, and destruction in Israel and the Gaza Strip.
We know that more will be added.
The fate of hostages that Hamas has taken is a primary concern for people around the world.
I understand that Israel is trying to warn civilians to leave northern Gaza before they invade but it’s impossible to re-locate so many people in such a densely populated area when there is a total embargo on bringing in aid, there is no electricity, there aren’t safe shelters, and the borders are sealed so they can’t leave Gaza. There are two million people in Gaza, about half of whom are children and teens. Only a tiny number are terrorists and militants. The vast majority are trapped and suffering.
We don’t know how this immediate situation will resolve but we do know that it is another chapter in a decades-long struggle. We don’t know when or if there will be a resolution that brings about lasting peace.
I am also struggling with reports of attacks against Jews and Muslims around the world. I know in the United States many synagogues and temples are being offered extra security as they prepare for Sabbath services.
All the major religious traditions teach peace. Secular philosophers teach peace. How can some still not hear that message and live it?
Joanne Corey 