Indigenous Peoples Day

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Chief Seattle, discrimination, humanity, immigrants, indigenous people, spirituality, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

In the United States, today has been traditionally celebrated (since 1892) as Columbus Day. This title was adopted as such at a time when Italian immigrants were vilified and faced religious and ethnic discrimination, notably in the year after a mass lynching of 11 Italian Americans by a mob in New Orleans. Over the years there has been a rising of challenge, not for the representation of the people who came to the United States searching for safety and acceptance in their new home but about the man, Christopher Columbus, who led the expedition to this “New World” but who, ironically, had never set foot in this country; Columbus anchored in the Bahamas! (npr.org)

In a growing trend, over 100 cities, towns and counties in 10 states across the country including this year the D.C. Council of the nation’s capital, are celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day. In 1992, speaking about the growing shift, Loni Hancock, then mayor of Berkeley, California (the first U.S. City to switch), said the following:

“I think that to fully understand and take responsibility for who we are as a people in this land made it very important to be clear about who was here and reflect on what happened in our history after that, in terms of the displacement and oftentimes genocide of those people. How that might have reflected a general discounting of the history and the humanity of non-white people of many kinds in this country and to take responsibility for our history.” (npr.org)

May this trend continue to take hold across our land as we open ourselves to the deep spirituality of our Native brothers and sisters in the manner of Chief Seattle who said:

“All things share the same breath – the beast, the tree, the man…the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports…” and “Man does not weave this web of life. He is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”

Never Give Up

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fear, immigrants, Mother Cabrini, perseverance, St. Francis Xavier Cabrini, stamina, teacher, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, vision

Note: This post was created for November 13, 2018.

Today is the feast of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, a woman born in Italy who became the first United States citizen to be canonized in the Catholic Church. Her life sounds to me today like that of “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” whose motto was “I ain’t down yet!” Here are a few of the reasons that I found at www.franciscanmedia.org why such a designation seems to fit her for sainthood.

1. When she was refused entrance to the religious community that had educated her to be a teacher, she began charitable work at an orphanage in Cadogno, Italy and subsequently made religious vows there.

2. When the bishop closed the orphanage, she became prioress of The Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, joined by seven young women who became her community.

3. When her childhood dream of being a missionary to China was put aside at the urging of Pope Leo XIII, she obediently went to the United States to care for the Italian immigrants in New York City, having been promised an orphanage in which to serve.

4. Upon her arrival, she found the house was not available and the archbishop advising her to return to Italy. Undeterred, she spent the next 35 years founding 67 institutions dedicated to caring for the poor, the abandoned, the uneducated and the sick as well as establishing schools and adult education classes for Italian immigrants.

5. Since childhood, she was frightened of water and feared drowning, yet she traveled by ship from New York to Italy over 30 times in her life to do God’s work.

Thanks be to God for the vision, the stamina and the perseverance of this woman we honor today as Mother Cabrini.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Fourth

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community, creativity, Fourth of July, generosity, identity, immigrants, opportunity, Peace, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, United States, world

Yesterday I was frustrated because there was an internet glitch that kept me from posting this daily blog. This morning when I checked to see if anyone had visited our site yesterday, I found that people did view 15 previous posts and that in addition to the United States the visitors came from Panama, Australia, Nigeria and Germany. It is a miracle to me that in the span of my lifetime our world has progressed from “party-line” telephones, where we had to share phone connection with neighbors, to the worldwide web of instant global reach. This progression (as well as many others) is not the achievement of one nation but rather a sometimes competitive and sometimes cooperative venture among countries.

Today the United States celebrates our national holiday of independence. I am grateful to live in this land of great opportunity, creativity and generosity. Knowing that we are at the same time fiercely independent and sometimes mired in the greed that can be a by-product of success, I remember that we have been, throughout our history, built on the efforts of our immigrant ancestors and that our responsibility is as large as our achievement. I have been changed in writing this blog almost every day. I can no longer just be conscious of my personal life or my identity as an American descended from Irish Roman Catholic immigrants. In pondering my message for the day, I need to be aware of others as far away as the Philippines or South Africa or Finland or…

As we give thanks for the blessings of peace and prosperity in this land today, my prayer will be for a future of world community where all are able to celebrate having what they need and to share life with neighbors across the globe.