Optimizing the Story

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awakening, Brian Johnson, George Floyd, hope, new birth, optimism, Peace, reparation, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today there seems to be a whisper of promise in the world. The sun has returned after the torrential rain and thunder of yesterday and the birds are conversing in quiet tones outside. Fog is lifting – inside and out. There is a sense of possibility, a hope for return to civility on the heels of charges brought against the four policemen involved in the death of George Floyd. We are, perhaps, at the beginning of a new moment of what will be a long awakening. Our task now is to recognize and acknowledge the situation in which we stand.

I am often taken by the messages of Brian Johnson on his daily website offering: optimize.me and today I found his words and those he quoted from President John F. Kennedy particularly appropriate. The occasion was the graduation ceremony at the University of California at Berkeley in 1962. I offer it in gratitude for Brian Johnson, for the hope that is in me and perhaps for the stirring again in many of us, allowing a desire for reparation and a new birth.

Kennedy speaks: “‘Knowledge is the great sun of the firmament,’ said Senator Daniel Webster. ‘Life and power are scattered with all its beams.”‘ “In its light we must think and act not only for the moment but for our time. I am reminded of the story of the great French Marshal Lyautey, who once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardener objected that the tree was slow-growing and would not reach maturity for a hundred years. The Marshal replied, ‘In that case there is no time to lose; plant it this afternoon.‘”

Kennedy wrapped up his speech by saying: “Today a world of knowledge – a world of cooperation – just and lasting peace – may be years away. But we have no time to lose. Let us plant our trees this afternoon.”

Mother Cabrini

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give thanks, Mother Cabrini, optimism, perseverance, saint, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thessalonians, trust in God, willingness

If we need a model of perseverance so that we’ll never give up on life, we would do well to consider St. Frances Xavier Cabrini. I learned about the woman called “Mother” Cabrini (a great designation for the first U.S. citizen to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church) in elementary school. She lived until 1917 – when my parents were already three years old – so seemed more real to us than most of the holy people we learned about who had died and been declared “official” saints centuries ago. If anyone ever had reason to sit back and say, “Enough! I give up,” she did! Here are a few of the facts.

She was refused entrance to the religious community that had educated her to be a teacher. She began work at a House of Providence doing charitable work; the bishop closed it three years later. She wanted to be a missionary to China but the Pope (Leo XIII) told her to go to the United States instead to work with Italian immigrants and she went. She had a fear of drowning but crossed the Atlantic Ocean more than 30 times before she died in one of her own hospitals in Chicago, Illinois. Perseverance? Oh, yes…and a willingness to hear the voice of God in those she trusted to guide her.

It is not enough to list her challenges; I advise reading even a short biography. My point today, however, is to note her willingness and the optimism that must have accompanied her throughout her life. Today’s verse before the gospel in the lectionary readings seems a perfect example of how she must have moved through her days. In Paul’s first Letter to the Thessalonians we read, “In all circumstances, give thanks!”

Praised be, Mother Cabrini!

Thoughtful Advice

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climate change, optimism, planet, survive, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Every Thursday, the Sisters in our Province receive weekly updates of events, issues of concern and news about province members and our Associates. Each time there is an introductory quote that makes us think. I thought yesterday’s offering was helpful in allowing some hope even in the midst of our concerns about the future of our planet. I share it not so that you and I can sit back and breathe relief, but in order to regroup our hope and willingness to participate in solutions.

The same way to look at the future on a warming planet — and the best way to survive it — is…to see what’s coming not as an inevitability, but as a work in progress: moldable reality affected by the choices we make today and tomorrow, and next year. Engaged optimism of this kind has been a critical ingredient of historical progress…The New Deal, forged amid the despair of the Great Depression, was not only an urgent response to the woes of the urban jobless and the displaced Dust Bowl farmers but also an act of optimism boldly spending resources not just to alleviate immediate pain but for the sake of the radically different future that FDR and others envisioned for American society. (Bina Venkataraman, “Why We Still Need Climate Optimism” The Washington Post, Sept. 16, 2019)

Life’s Moments

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Ancient Songs Sung Anew, hold me up, listen, Lynn Bauman, optimism, poet, prize of life, psalm 16, speak, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

There are many beautiful lines in Psalm 16 and many songs written from its contents. It speaks of a poet who finds confidence in relationship with God, regardless of outer circumstances. Here are a few lines from the translation by Lynn Bauman:

I am here to listen to your counsel, Lord, your inner teachings of the heart. Day after day, night after night, you speak through everything. You are the prize of life, the goal, the hidden good. You take my hand in yours and hold me up, and fill my heart to overflowing. This body-mind, this spirit, all are yours and each part finds a place to rest in you…From birth to death you are the path I walk upon, and you’re the guide who leads me through and far beyond, into your Presence, Lord, right next to you, which fills me full, my highest joy, my purest good.

Bauman’s commentary on the psalm offers an interesting challenge. In part, he says, “In this psalm the poet is living life to the full and has a deep sense of optimism. It is God’s presence, filling the cup of life, that makes reality like it is for the psalmist…What moments of your life have been like this for you?  If, in this moment you are not experiencing this same kind of deep, satisfying delight, then express the reality of your heart to God as honestly and as beautifully as you possibly can. Does telling God this make a difference?” (Ancient Songs Sung Anew, p.36)

Let us think on these things…