Angela's vision has prospered

Today I revisited a section of a book where Angela Merici, founder of the Ursuline Sisters, spoke about the vision God sent her in the Brudazzo which took many years to come to fruitage. This was an amazing vision of creating a company of women deeply committed to God which continues to unfold since 1535 to this day. Angela states, "God and all creation have fostered this new life." It cause me to ponder what her daughters would acknowledge as a sign of new life. Would you like to share your own ideas of ways that you recognize new life in us and among us?

I will start the litany and ask that you add to it...

In gratitude for the gift of new life --
+ for our Ursulines Associates who companion with us to spread Angela's charism and mission through our words and actions; in prayer and ministry as we strive to foster new life and hope in our hearts and world!

Advice from Dr. Seuss on Moving on

When I first started in ministry as an Ursuline Sister in 1980, I was teaching in an elementary school. My students were fans of Dr. Seuss. One quote of Dr. Seuss that I recall especially during times of transition is, "Don't cry because it's over-- smile because it happened." As I take leave of Saint Francis de Sales Parish to assume full time ministry as Director of Vocation Ministry for the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph, my heart is filled with deep gratitude and joy for the blessing of ministering, praying with, and knowing the great people of Saint Francis de Sales faith community. You are a great parish and your faith has inspired and enriched me. Your warmth and welcome made me fall in love with you very quickly. You have a marvelous parish pastoral staff and pastor, and it has been so fulfilling to work with them and serve over the past three years in the position of Pastoral Associate. I leave knowing I have made some wonderful friends. Please hold me and my community in prayer as I do each of you.

THE TRUTH ABOUT EXTROVERTS

The truth really DOES "make you free." I learned that a long time ago, but am always rediscovering it. For many years our community has reaped the benefits of the Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory, the Enneagram, and other tools that promote self-knowledge. Awareness (in this case of ourselves and how we work, and our little quirks) has been for us a wonderful tool for working and living together, and certainly is a key to spiritual and personal growth

For example, awareness of what it means to be an extrovert has helped me in the workplace, in understanding how I work and how it's different for introverts (I have learned a little bit about how not to drive them crazy). But it has also aided my spiritual growth.

I had one of the most enjoyable, complete prayer experiences of my life earlier this month. As I thought about it afterwards, I realized it was because I had really let out my extrovert! I was praying with all my senses: music, a cup of coffee, the fresh scent of flowers, muscles relaxed from a swim, the vision of candle flame and sunshine, My whole body was into the experience, focusing outward and then bringing it all into my prayer.

In the spiritual formation of my generation, we used exercises and prayer forms that must have been designed by and for introverts. It was only in my 40th year that I learned that my spirituality is not inferior, just different--what freedom! I wonder how many other spiritual seekers are out there, trying to fit a round peg into a square hole?

"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free!"

"TO BE CONTINUED"

As a "J" on the Myers-Briggs personality inventory, I like to have things finished, all tied up in a neat little package. I've stayed up late many nights with a good book, to see how it turned out. That's why I was so surprised to realize that part of my current fascination with the mystery of the Ascension is precisely that it is unfinished. I've decided that, from a literary point of view, sometimes endings are best (or more powerful) if you stop just short of them--if you catch just one beautiful moment and hang onto it.

Take the iconic image at the end of the film Thelma and Louise: the car sailing off the cliff in an upward arc. None of the probable endings for that movie were "satisfactory," so the film artist chose to show the two women suspended in the moment of their greatest freedom, their greatest moment of bonding in friendship.

I chose not to view my mother's body--disfigured in a fatal car accident--so my last image of her was from eight months previously, as she strode vigorously through the Albuquerque bus station, in the afterglow of a satisfying day watching Nixon resign, and eating / shopping in Old Town, just the two of us. Some would no doubt question this way of dealing with grief, but for me it fit.

We can't imagine what happens next after Jesus is taken up to heaven, so for us he is caught in that moment forever. What if he had stayed on earth after the Resurrection, becoming an old man and dying an old man's death? A less satisfactory ending of the story? But again, there is in us that human need to hear "the rest of the story"... and that is why we have Pentecost. Happy feast of the Holy Spirit to you all!

IN-BETWEEN TIMES

Sometimes it's strange to be in an in-between place. I heard them described as "Holy Saturday" moments--a place between the end of one part of life and the beginning of another. But perhaps an even better description would be as the "Day After the Ascension" time; the previous focus of your life is not visible any more, and the Holy Spirit has not enlightened you yet! I think a lot about how the disciples must have felt the day after Jesus ascended...lost? confused? empty?

As I search for my next ministry, it feels rather like that. On the one hand, I'm restless and eager to get on with the next thing in my life, and on the other hand I'm enjoying the extra time to read, pray and think in this theoretically unstructured time.

I say "theoretically" because there seems to be a law of nature that says "work expands to fill the time available!" According to my calendar from the past week, it looks like I am doing a full-time environmental ministry. Testing the water at Panther Creek, checking the beehives, participating in "Agriculture Day" at Saint Mary's Elementary School in Whitesville (teaching about water, water testing, and beekeeping to K-7 grades), meeting with the Parks Department in preparation for Rally for the River on June 25, writing a talk, and going to Bee School this coming weekend--not bad for an old unemployed lady, huh? And of course it was my cook week at home. The other three sisters are happy to have a fourth in the cooking rotation. I will let you know how it feels to be bored if it ever happens to me.

THE END IS THE BEGINNING

In his book on Transitions, William Bridges said you have to let yourself live through an ending before you can make a beginning. So when I returned from my U.N. internship in New York I set out to live through that ending mindfully, and begin to find my way into the next chapter of my life.

As I drove through the lovely Kentucky countryside, welcoming the green fields and forests back into my soul, it occured to me that each of us has infinite room inside for MANY landscapes. You have to let them in--but once there, they are yours to keep, to take out and turn over, to look at and enjoy for the rest of your life.

I thanked God for the many landscapes in my soul: the colorful canyonlands of the Southwest, the temperate rainforest and redwoods of the Northwest, the diverse Mixed Mesophytic (sorry, couldn't resist!) forests of Kentucky, and the skyscraper canyons of lower Manhattan. All have changed and enriched my life--infinite gifts from the infinite God.

HOME AGAIN

And home looks great! from my room I can see grass and trees instead of bricks... but I feel like I (like Dorothy!) came home by whirlwind, and my room LOOKS like it. From LaGuardia Airport, I looked back with nostalgia at the Manhattan skyline, and shed copious tears at leaving my dear Franciscan community (who are in the picture, with Jan and me and a couple of the Franciscan friars from the parish). But I'm glad to get back to my dear Ursuline community, and the "wide open spaces" of Kentucky. And just in time! according to subway literature, the end of the world is scheduled for May 21, and for that I would rather be here than in New York City.

There is too much in my head and heart to share in a last blog at this point, but I did want to give you the last report on the Sustainable Development Commission. The final draft of the outcome document is still being worked on, but we know a lot of language that the NGOs wanted in there was taken out. For example, getting the "free, prior, and informed consent" of indigenous people affected by mining on their ancestral lands. Too much money at stake for certain countries that I shall not name here!

But as the UN moves forward to the next Earth Summit (Rio+20) in June 2012, work has already begun in the NGOs, to be sure that the nations are faithful to the UN charter and previous agreements. Some UN speakers and expert witnesses told us the world is at the environmental tipping point. Every country on the planet is being affected, but the economic juggernaut is driving us on toward a disastrous future: poverty, food and water crises, war, climate change. Countries lack the political will to take control of the situation. Our governments are not organized to deal with this, with corporations and special interest groups in charge, and unsustainable patterns of consumption and production entrenched. Rio+20 may be our best hope to shift to a new paradigm.

Rio will be focusing on the development of a "Green Economy," based on the three pillars of economic, environmental, and social concerns. You will be hearing more about this from UNANIMA, and asked for your input in specific areas. We as individuals have to keep OUR government on the path to sustainablity!

I will be keeping track of UN activities--you can too, if you have access to a computer. You can actually watch some UN meetings and press briefings by Googling UN Journal. When you see a little red camera symbol, click on it to watch live or archived video feed.

In the meantime, this is Michele, your temporary "UN Correspondent," signing off from Lydia Drive, Owensboro Kentucky. Thank you for being my companions on this breathtaking journey...it was fun having you along, and I will forever appreciate having this opportunity.