MARIO THE MINER

You never know who is going to show up at the United Nations. This week we had three visitors of note: the President of Italy (who addressed the General Assembly early in the week), President Obama (who dedicated the new US Mission right across the street--thereby closing all streets anywhere around and bringing out more police, secret service agents, and bomb-sniffing dogs than the whole population of my hometown). And the third? Mario Sepulveda, the leader of the Chilean miners who were rescued after being trapped for 69 days.

I am working with a small group of religious NGOs who are working on the topic of "mining" in preparation for the Commission on Sustainable Development; our chair heard that Mario was in town, called the lady who is acting as his interpreter and appointment secretary...and Mario cancelled three other appointments to meet with us that very day, the last day of his visit.

He described the religious experience he had in the mine, as he was experiencing "deep sadness" after 15 days of darkness, and set out to find where God was in the situation. He promised that if he were saved, he would spend the rest of his life helping God to do other miracles. But easier said than done! He said "I've been a worker for 39 years; what does this path require of me? how do I find it?" The enticements of fame, of being a T.V. star--made it even harder to find that path he promised to God. But he began in Chile with something he knew: helping his parents and friends rebuild after the earthquake. He has started raising money for miners and various disasters (says he is starting with Japan next), and would like to be first on the scene at the next mine disaster, to console the famliies and give them strength.

It was very clear that Mario the Miner is finding his voice, and is becoming an eloquent speaker for worker's rights. He's convinced that a global effort is necessary for worker's rights--that we have to "lose our love for money," get away from debt, and build a new economy...one not based on credit cards. He ended by telling us to greet all our loved ones for him, and to never take them for granted. After meeting Mario, who could do that?

Great Promise Keeper

" Your promise revives me; it comforts me at all times." Psalm 119:50 What would it be like without spring's warmth after a long and cold winter, rest after an exhausting and difficult day, success after an intense and tiring struggle? Promise of the reward to come mark life. Life itself is a promise --even abundant life if we desire and seek it. God is the great promise keeper! You and I can count on what God has promised. God is already aware of every poor choice, every lost opportunity, and every wasted attempt. Yet God takes you and me as we are and restores the promise of all that our lives can be.

Plenty of time

" A thousand years means nothing to you. They are merely a day gone by or a few hours in the night." Psalm 90:4 Time is both a friend and an enemy. I do my best to conquer it, and yet it continually slips by. I sometimes measure my life, my successes, and my productivity in terms of minutes, hours,days, and weeks. I am so grateful that God is not subject to my concept of time. After all, God is Master of the universe. When I place my trust in God I can know with certainty that I have all the time I need to do what God has created me to do and that I have plenty of time to become all that God created me to be. Hopefully some of my brightest hours lies ahead. How do you view time? Do you recognize that time is a gift? How will you use this gift today? God of all time, today, I entrust my time into your hands. Guide me and use me to utilize this precious gift of time to further your plan in me. I place my seconds, minutes, hours and day in your hands.

What is your pathway to God?

Written upon every heart is a pathway to God. Our pathway to God is as unique as each fingerprint. It is amazing, how often we discover God when we least expect to encounter the Mystery! Today, the Church celebrated the first scrutiny with our elect, and we identified all the things that we seek to try and satisfy our thirst. The reality is that there is nothing that gives meaning to our lives, except Jesus Christ. We each are invited to come to the well, which is Jesus Christ to satisfy our thirst. Let us let go of all that distracts us. Let us seek like the woman at the well to satisfy our thirst from the life giving waters who is Christ.

Feast of the Annunciation of the Lord

Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Today's feast is a beautiful reminder that surrender to God's will is an avenue of grace. What courage it takes to say YES to an unknown future. Mary's willingness and humility reminds me that if I fully avail myself to God's grace by surrendering my complete trust I will know God's favor. Grace is God's favor, unmerited. Let my prayer echo Mary's: I am the handmaid of God, may it be done to me according to Your Word.

A dawn of new perspective and hope

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? --Psalm 27:1 Problems always seem most daunting just before the dawn. When I find myself awakening at three in the morning, it is always a sign to me that I have too much on my mind. Right before the morning light climbs above the horizon and slips quietly into a new day, my eyes are open and my thoughts are racing. In this early yet dark hour, shadows of fear and discouragement may threaten and overwhelm me. Yet God is present and so near. The morning light chases away the darkness, restoring my perspective, filling me with hope and offering me the promise of a new day! The light of God's love is much like the morning sunlight. It dispels darkness from my heart and sweeps away shadows of fear and discouragement. God's wonderous light allows me to see myself as God see me--- a part of all creation, honestly striving and hopeful, ready to begin again with the newness of day. God, I thank you for flooding my heart with the light of your love,for illuminating the shadows and bring a morning full of hope to my life.

REMEMBER, REMEMBER

March 24, the anniversary of the martyrdom of Archbishop Oscar Romero, was established last year by the UN as the "International Day for the Right to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims." This year the Permanent Mission (that's what they call the UN delegate's outfit) of El Salvador celebrated it by sponsoring a remembrance event. Before it started, I was wondering if the officialdom of the nation would feel defensive, but Juan Jose Garcia, the Vice Minister of the Mission, gave a beautiful and moving tribute. Several members of his family had been among the "disappeared" of the oppressive military regime. On behalf of the Salvadoran state, he asked forgiveness of all who had suffered; I'll bet there was not a dry eye in the room. A Salvadoran priest who had known Romero, and whose family had fled the country, also gave testimony. When we were invited to ask questions or make comments, I shared how the blood of all the martyred religious women, and all our members who suffered in Latin America, had given their communites an even greater thirst for peace and justice.

The same day we attended an event that ended a week-long commemoration of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. One of the three historians that made presentations scolded us ("us" in general!) because so few had visited the new national monument down at the southern tip of Manhattan--a recently discovered African Burial Ground, where slaves were buried in the very early Colonial days. Of course that planned our weekend for us. We laid out bus and subway routes and found our way down there on a bitterly cold Saturday morning. It is a beautifully crafted and conceived memorial, with a lovely new visitors' center that has a moving message. Add that to your next visit to New York.

Continuing the theme of remembrance, we walked on down Wall Street to the NY Police Museum, which has, among other exhibits, one that commemorates the police role in the response to 9/11. So many examples in one week of human heroism and endurance--it made me both proud and ashamed. And on the crosstown bus through Central Park, we finally saw some forsythia blooming...a message from our planet that SHE also endures!

Awaken to the gift of peace

God will give strength... God will bless us with peace Psalm 29:11 There are times in my life when I have no option but to seek God's strength and peace. When I am in the presence of God, I am in a place of peace. Peace comes to me from the presence of ONE who made me in love and keeps me in grace. ONE I can count on to be with me in all things. When I am in God's presence, I am with ONE who knows me better than anyone does and who want me to have the best life has to offer. In such a presence I have an inner calm that exceeds human understanding and measurement. The greatest prayer ever uttered is gratitude, so today God I express my gratitude. I am grateful for your promise of steadfast love and the hope it brings into my life. Gazing upon this flower my heart is at peace, my heart is with you, the ONE who is my strength and my peace.

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE

But not much of it is fit to drink. I think I read somewhere that if all the water in the world were represented by 27 gallons, just about 1/2 a teaspoon would be all we had available for our domestic use. So today at the UN--and all over the world, in Africa, Europe, Asia, the Pacific Islands--we celebrated the World Day of Water.



At the UN there's a new sense of urgency that water should be central to any discussion of energy or food, because the three areas are so related: often the same people that lack one, lack the others; two of the major users of water are the agriculture and energy sectors; often policies for energy and water conflict with each other; and it takes a lot of water to produce energy, and a lot of energy to produce potable water. It is expected that the "Watt per Drop" will get even higher very soon, as the global water scarcity problem worsens. Very soon, more than two billion people will live in the drylands of the world, and the rate of desertification is increasing...with all the implications that has for global food production.



There are solutions, one of them being the end of subsidies for fuel and water; full-cost pricing would help us conserve this precious resource, learn to use it sustainably, and protect the water we have. Now, I'm going to the faucet and marvel at the ease of getting that wonderful glass of clean water--and be grateful that I didn't have to go four miles to get it, like many folks in this world do! Happy World Water Day...

THE LUCK O' THE IRISH

I started writing this on my knee in St. Patrick's Cathedral--the Irish sisters in our house got us tickets. Yes, you have to have tickets, and you have to get there an hour before Mass! It certainly was worth it. The church was full of green, with plenty of city and church officials, and the liturgy was full of incense, Latin, bagpipes and mighty organ. We stayed downtown to watch the parade, which goes right by St. Pat's on Fifth Avenue. LOTS of bagpipes, marching policemen, and bands, interspersed with gaggles of important people just walking along. Not many horses, unfortunately! Mary Higgins Clark, the Irish storyteller, was the Grand Marshall, and rode in a "Central Park" carriage. The green bedecked teenagers / college students flowing by on the sidewalk, whooping and hoisting beer bottles, added the noise factor.

On the eve of St. Patrick's day, Tom Hanks ate supper under our community room window, and shot a scene for a new movie (with Sandra Bullock) right around the corner from our house. Watch for our little neighborhood jewelry shop in the movie (I forgot the exact name but it's something like Very Noisy and Extremely Close). They had posted signs several days in advance that cars left on the street would be towed, and came in with large trucks for the food and filming/ sound equipment. We had heard they would be filming at 11:00 p.m. and went out at 10:15, but learned that we had missed Tom Hanks by 15 minutes. So we had our pictures taken with Jesse, a sound director--the people in the picture are Jesse, Iris (a Korean student who lives with us), me, S. Liliane, and S. Jan. Turns out the sisters are not new to movie making; their back yard is going to be featured for 2 1/2 minutes of a movie coming out in January of 2012, called Premium Rush.

Such excitement...now back to work. Happy Feast of Saints Patrick and Joseph to all!

PEACE TWO

In the previous blog I was telling you about the UNESCO Forum celebrating Peace. One of the highlights for me was actually getting to see the U.N. General Secretary, Ban Ki Moon--he has a kind and peaceful face that matches his priorities! The panelists and participants were important women and men from at least 15 different countries, including a Saudi prince, former prime ministers and ambassadors, artists and filmmakers...

My favorite was Kjell Magne Bondevik of Norway, a former Prime Minister who is also a Lutheran priest. I think I was already biased in his favor, because I have been so impressed with Norway and its stand on many peace and justice issues. The Scandanavian countries have such well-developed social programs; they are models for us all in their commitment to the Millenium Development Goals and foreign aid; and they have made prostitution a crime (get this: they arrest the "johns" and not the women being prostituted!) That approach to ending sex slavery is being called "the Nordic Model."

Mr. Bondevik said that he was convinced that if more women were in positions of power, there would be more peace in the world. Surprisingly, one of the women panelists strongly disagreed with him, saying that there are tough stateswomen who do not choose peaceful solutions. Then a man from an NGO jumped up to disagree with her...at least half the audience was applauding loudly at each statement. Luckily we had a good moderator who was able to keep the proceedings peaceful!

The UNESCO celebration was actually the second peace-related event of the day for me. That morning I attended a meeting on a more gritty, practical subject: "Transitional Justice in Conflict Affected Settings." Transitional Justice was a new term for me--it involves restoring the dignity of individuals after massive human rights abuses committed during armed conflict, repressive rule, or in circumstances of scarce resources. The UN is increasingly urging a victim-centered and gender sensitive approach to reparations, and the group discussed ways to bring just resolutions out of unjust actions. One of the lawyers present works at the Austrian mission, and he described the 50-60 year effort in Austria to bring restorative justice to victims of the Holocaust.

It was a wonderful meditation for Lent, considering that one part of reconciliation is restitution. One of the participants said that sometimes an apology is all that is possible, and all that is needed We can all do that! Peace begins at home...

PEACE!

On my schedule, 3/11/11 was dedicated to peace. I guess if you had asked me what the United Nations was all about a year ago, I would have said "Peacemaking." The sculptures on the grounds of the UN certainly bear that out: a gun with its barrel tied in a knot, a brawny man beating a sword into a ploughshare, and a world splitting open to reveal another world buried inside. And of course the other areas we have been exploring (the eradication of poverty, the empowerment of women, healing the Earth) are absolutely essential for peace.

But this Friday the UN put its other business on "hold" to celebrate the end of the International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures (even the signs on the bathrooms are in French at the UN...you see a lot of French words here!) and the end of the Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World. The celebratory program (we say "programme" here) was titled "Building Peace: Reconciliation Through the Power of Education, the Sciences, Culture, and Communication" and was sponsored by UNESCO (UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization). It was considerably livlier and more interactive than most UN events.

The programme began with a short film directed by Forest Whitaker (who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland). The film was a powerful documentary featuring interviews with former child soldiers in Africa, and contrasted the rehabilitation of a well-adjusted young boy with the continued embitterment of a young girl who was not able to fit back into normal life, after both children had been trained as killers. The difference seemed to be that the boy had been educated, accepted back into his society, and given HOPE--while the young girl had not. The film was a strong message for the need for reconciliation in the world, and Mr. Whitaker made the point that "If you can't find peace inside yourself, then you can't find peace with others."

......... I think that's a good place to end--more on this later!

NOT BORED WITH THE BOARD

Since I'm over a week behind in my blogging, I might as well go on back and tell you about the UNANIMA Board Meeting on Thursday and Friday of last week. It was great to see Suzanne (on right) and to meet the rest of the board--they are an energetic and interesting group from all over the world. Twice a year they fly in from their countries of origin to participate in the UNANIMA board meeting, and to network with each other. Catherine said this year on their evaluations they voted the most interesting part of the meeting was hearing from us interns. Well, Jan and I gave the program an A+ also, as we reported on our experience to date (you already have a pretty good idea of what I said, if you've been following along in the blog!)

I summarized it by saying it was not a "once in a lifetime" experience--more like a "once in 300 lifetimes" experience. The combination of being "inside" the United Nations, of being in NYC not as a tourist but as a "local," and of living and working with such a diversity of cultures has been awesome, as the kids would say. My global awareness has been raised so much; every day I read something in the paper about some action of the U.N.--news items that might not have registered with me before now. The UN used to be some nebulous entity that had nothing to do with me (the first time I heard of it as a child was when I saw big billboards in northern New Mexico saying "GET U.S. OUT OF THE U.N.!" compliments of the John Birch Society).

I look forward to sharing more with my community and with local groups I work with in Kentucky...there ARE ways that ordinary people can have a voice in the U.N., through the "Civil Societies," but more on that later. I'll try to blog a more substantive blog this weekend!

THE SITE

Sorry I haven't "blogged" for awhile--three things were going on at the same time: the end of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, a week of preliminary work on the upcoming Commission on Sustainable Development, and the UNANIMA board meeting. Jan and I are not on the board, of course, but we prepared and gave reports on our perspective of the internship program to date. Sister Suzanne was here for the board meeting, and stayed with me. One of the things we found time to do for "fun" was to visit Ground Zero of the World Trade Center. It certainly was not "fun" but more like a peace pilgrimage...

Most of the site itself is still under construction, but the experience that particularly moved me was a visit to Saint Paul's Chapel (the brown spire visible in the picture). The church itself is worth seeing, as the oldest building of political interest in continuous use in NYC. Built in 1766, this Episcopalian church was where George Washington worshiped when NYC was the seat of American government. Standing right across the street from the World Trade Center, its grounds were covered with debris from the 9/11 tragedy, but it stood unharmed and served as a refuge for volunteer rescuers and aid workers in the search for survivors. It--more than the tourist information center opened for the purpose--has become the focal point for those coming to pay tribute at the site.

The simple exhibits are on a human scale and very accessible; you can reach out and touch many of them. They include tributes (including a big banner from Oklahoma City), an exhibit of colorful badges of all the police and fire fighting units who came to help from all over the nation and the world; another of long, colorful strings of Origami peace cranes from the people of Japan--including surviviors of Hiroshima. There are altars of remembrance, with pictures and religious items from the families and loved ones of the victims. I'm still processing this experience, but it helped me understand what draws people to this site, for motives that have nothing to do with morbid curiosity. It is a moving tribute to our shared humanity...

How do you view interruptions?

Our lives are much more self-directed when our goals are clear. Goals represent a desired future. Goals need to be not only clear, but cherished, so they will not be abandoned when inevitable obstacles are encountered.

Plans, however are different. Plans are a description of results we want soon. Plans need to be flexible. Too many things can happen, too many things beyond our control.

Henri Nouwen once wrote about how his ministry kept being messed up by interruptions. It seems he was very attached to his ministerial plans. Then he realized his ministry was the interruptions.

How do you deal with interruptions? I am discovering that interruptions can be avenues to grace-filled epiphany moments. Clarity of insights, new life, surprising truth, new perspectives can be gained in these interruptions. Interruptions might possibly hold manifestations of God's touch. I am learning to focus on God's plan and where God might be found in these disturbing, inconvenient interruptions.

Today I ask for the gift of interruptions! May God's timing, not my own,capture my attention long enough to gaze on the real epiphanies of life. May my goals and plans never become obstacles to God breaking through. I dare you. I double dare you to be open to the amazement that unfolds through interruptions!