Archive for January 2009
I don’t know why we aren’t more outraged!
In today’s New York Times, the article, “What Red Ink? Wall Street Paid Hefty Bonuses,” discusses how Wall Street workers and bankers took home huge bonuses if the face of huge losses. It seems odd to me. I always thought that bonuses were based on performance – positive performance that is.
Before I entered the convent, I was in banking. But I guess commercial lending was a different kind of banking than what we are seeing on Wall Street these days, since my bonuses were always based on performance. They had to do with the amount of revenue we were generating for the bank. No revenue – no bonus, and eventually no job. My brother Tom has always worked in sales. His bonuses, too, are based on performance – based on the amount of sales. No sales – no bonus, and eventually no job.
Today’s Gospel reading tells us ‘For there is nothing hidden except to be made visible; nothing is secret except to come to light. Anyone who has ears to hear ought to hear.’He also told them, ‘Take care what you hear. The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you, and still more will be given to you. To the one who has, more will be given; from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.’” (Mark 4:22-25)
Everyday there are more layoffs. Everyday more families come to St. Dominic’s parish, here in San Francisco, and in churches throughout the country looking for assistance. Everyday there are more family tragedies due to people’s inability to cope with the financial disaster that faces them.
I don’t know why we aren’t more outraged! I don’t know why we don’t demand the kind of transparency from our financial institutions that the Gospel speaks of. I don’t know how we can let our elected officials in California or in our country bicker over bipartisan issues, instead of doing their jobs, and work on behalf of the people who elected them.
Seafood Risotto is not Life-Changing
I believe it was said by Karl Barth that one should “read the Bible with one hand and the newspaper in the other.” Dominicans have expanded his quote by saying, “Preach with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.” I’m sure that it occurred neither Barth nor the early Dominican Theologians, that journalistic food for reflection would be found in something as light-hearted as “Public Eavesdropping.”
This morning there was another gem!
These are the words of a “man sharing with a waiter his reaction to his seafood risotto.” He said, “It’s not life-changing.”
Now who would ever think that a particular entree would be life-changing (unless of course the person eating it was on the brink of starvation, or the food was tainted, resulting in food poisoning)? Do people go to restaurants hoping that their lives will be changed by the event? Have we so truly bought into the lies sold to us on TV that we hope to have our lives changed by food, a new car, a new wardrobe, a trip to the Bahamas, the latest Wii, or by losing twenty pounds?
If we truly want our lives to change, we need to look around and see the needs around us. We need to find ways to change the lives of the poor and the forgotten. When we give ourselves in service to others, our lives change in ways that are beyond imagining!
So, if you want to have your life changed, just ask God. And remember, be careful what you ask for, you might get it!
Committing to More than a Tattoo
I had to laugh this morning when I looked at the paper. Every morning I look for this little box inside the Datebook section, entitled: “Public Eavesdropping.” Readers send amusing remarks to Leah Garchik, who makes them part of her daily column.
Today it reads: One woman was heard saying to another,
“I can’t commit to anything except tattoos.”
We live in a society where the “C” word is frightening to many. We live in a culture where there are so many choices . . . and sometimes making a choice shuts out other ones, and that’s . . .that’s . . . that’s . . . a commitment. It feels safer to keep one’s options open.
Strangely enough, I live in a culture – the convent – where we have uttered the “C” word, and have made vows that will hold us, and that we will hold, for the rest of our lives. That final commitment – perpetual or solemn vows – keeps us from making other choices. But it also frees us to give ourselves in ways we couldn’t otherwise. It also means I have sisters that I share this commitment with. I’m not going it alone!
The gift of this life is that one can try it for a time and see if it fits. Sometimes it’s not clear how God is calling us. And our answers are often found in our living of our lives. So before sisters, brothers, and priests say the “C” word, we get to try the life on for size – for five to nine years.
Most of the nuns I know are okay with the concept of 
commitment of their lives. But they are a bit squeamish about the commitment of a tattoo! (except for the really brave ones, of course!)
This is Vocation Awareness Week
Hopefully you heard this announced in your parish, but maybe you didn’t. This is Vocation Awareness Week. Every year the Church celebrates this week as Ordinary Time begins with the Baptism of Jesus.
As Jesus was called at his baptism, so are we called at ours. If we were infants at the time, we surely don’t remember it. Probably there was only ordinary family drama – no preacher clothed in animal skins and no dove hovering overhead. Nonetheless, the Holy Spirit was with us then in fullness – and stays with us now.
Because we recall this call of Jesus at this time of his life, it is appropriate for us to reflect upon our call. Just what is God calling us to?
An author and minister, Frederick Buechner, may have said it best. “Our calling is where our deepest gladness and the world’s deepest hunger meet.”
Going to Jail
This evening I am preparing a prayer service for the women’s pod at the Marin County Jail. I will be joined by another one of our sisters there, Sister Billie. I have included the readings for Sunday in the prayer; tomorrow we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus. We will share our reflections with one another. We don’t have answers, but we listen. I think you could call listening preaching at times like this.
Baptism signifies a new beginning. Whenever we think of January and a New Year, we think of new beginnings. My experience of listening to the stories of the women in jail is that on the inside they are not so different from me. But for some different circumstances or different choices that were made by my parents or by me, they are there, and I am not. And that, like me, they long for new beginnings.
My hope is that our hour with them will give them some hope that there is the possibility of new beginnings. We will bring these women back with us in our hearts, and our sisters at home will pray for them too.
An Awesome Workshop
A group of over 20 nuns ( well, sisters actually) and priests – vocation directors – gathered in San Rafael yesterday to
Sister Julie's presentation
attend a workshop entitled, “Two Practical Strategies for Engaging Young People Online about Vocations.” Our presenter was Sister Julie Vieira, IHM, who is well known among nun bloggers through her blog anunslife.org. She gave all of us a better understanding about how young adults and youth are using the internet. Sister Julie also helped most of us to gain a better understanding of blogging and Facebook. Some who didn’t already have a Facebook page, signed up then and there!
I think that one of the best things that Sister Julie offered us was her enthusiasm and encouragement, not only about ways to reach young adults through good use of technology, but through her genuine love of religious life. She is grounded in theology and love of the Lord.
I am glad to call her my sister and friend!
Walking into a New Year
As long as I have been in St. Dominic’s parish in San Francisco, about 13 years now, we have received Epiphany packets so that we can bless and chalk our doors. We write the letters C, M, B, suggesting the names of Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar – the names of the Magi, as well as the first letters of the words “Cristus Mansionem Bendicat” – “May Christ bless this dwelling.” I like to think that it is not only a blessing of our homes, but also a blessing upon our comings and our goings, since that is what a doorway symbolizes. It also is a symbol of hospitality, as it is the place at which we welcome our guests. And as we stand in the doorway of 2009, it is where we welcome this new year.
I am reminded of the Jewish practice of attaching a mezuzah to the doorpost. In doing this, the Jews remember God’s protection of their ancestors at the time of the great Exodus from the land of Egypt, as well as God’s protection and faithfulness on their long and difficult journey. Doorways hold much meaning.
Now our Epiphany blessing is a short liturgy in which we mark these doorways, as we ask God’s blessing upon those who live in the home within or visit throughout the coming year. So of course we would do this as we begin each New Year. I think it is especially fitting that we bless our homes in this way on the Feast of the Epiphany, or for that matter, anytime in January. For, do you know where we get the name, January? Well, we get it from the name of a Roman god, Janus.
Now Janus was the god of beginnings and endings – the god of gates, doors and doorways. Fitting, don’t you think? Who could have planned this little bit of serendipity? There is a bust of him in the Vatican Museum, and he has two faces, one is looking forward, and the other is looking backwards. So while he is gazing into the new – the future, at the same time he is looking back into the past.
And isn’t that exactly what we do at the beginning of a New Year? We look forward and backward . . . . with a mixture of emotions. We can look at the year behind us and remember the things that brought us joy as well as sadness. And we look forward into the unknown . . . with guesses and projections . . . . with hopes as well as fears. For we do not know what lies ahead.
I walk through this doorway into the New Year with the hope that my sisters and I will remain true to our vocation as Dominicans who preach through their lives as well as their words – and that our lives reflect the words we speak. Moreover, I hope to be faithful to this blog this year! May we have a peace-filled 2009.
