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The Blogging Nun
February, 2007
February 24, 2007
Spiritual Spa
Yesterday was Spiritual Spa Day. The last Friday of every month, people are welcome to come to our Carondelet Center and spend a day in quiet reflection. The morning begins with meditation. One of our sisters leads those gathered for the day to refresh their soul in the silent prayer.
The rest of the morning continues in silence as well. There are many resources available to feed the hungry minds and souls: an indoor and outdoor labyrinth, spiritual books, lectures on tape, music. A meditation room, chapel, library, and beautiful parlors provide comfort for each spiritual seeker. Right before lunch there is another meditation sitting.
In the afternoon, a talk is given by one of our sisters about her life and where she has found God along the way. Among the sisters and lay members who present are our Icon writer, potter, missionaries in Peru, Chile, those who serve among the poorest of the poor right here in our own area, healthcare workers and educators, college presidents and presidents of other institutions, those who serve people with special needs, musicians, artists, kitchen workers and on and on. Each one has an inspiring story and often helps the listeners to see God in their own lives.
Give yourself a gift, come to the Spiritual Spa and refresh your spirit. The only cost is lunch--$5.00. For more information follow this link, http://www.wisdomwayscenter.org/content.asp?id=585
Enjoy!
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February 14, 2007
Valentine
It’s Valentine’s Day! Stand up. Stretch out your arms. Take in a deep breath. Smile! Let the muscles in your face relax. Feel your eyes sparkle. Imagine light and love radiating from your hands and face and heart and send it out into the universe. People you don’t even know and may never meet need to feel loved. Send it to them. Love changes everything.
I propose a new tradition starting today. Set an extra place at dinner tonight to remember people who need kindness and a loving presence just to stay alive. The Sisters of St. Joseph have a tradition of calling people in need “our Josephs.” Let’s call our Valentine’s Day table, our “Joseph’s Table.” Share stories with each other about times when love changed everything.
Keep it going. Reach out to someone everyday even if it’s just a friendly greeting to someone with whom you rarely speak. Write your stories and send them here so others can read them as well. Let’s rewrite our future to be a future of love and peace, where everyone counts. No exceptions.
All life on earth depends on us being a loving presence in the world. By the way, that is the very spirituality to which Sisters of St. Joseph vow—to be a loving presence in the world. Or, as one of my mentors once said to me, “We Sisters of St. Joseph speak the gospel but use words only when necessary.”
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Possumus.
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February 10, 2007
Multitasking Throughout the Ages
People ask me, “A nun and a CEO, how does that work?” Believe me, I am not the first one. I ride on the shoulders of hundreds of Women Religious CEOs who have gone before me. They were — and still are! — the vision, founders, owners and operators of healthcare, education and social service systems world-wide.
A Sister of St. Joseph at the United Nations said that UN officials realize that there is only one other organization in the world like Women Religious and that is trans-national corporations! Both are around the world and have instantaneous communication networks. However, the similarities stop there. We differ in that Women Religious have been all over the world for a very long time. We are with the poorest of the poor. When the going gets tough, we don’t out-source. When we come to the table it is not to ask for our own needs, but for the needs of others.
Perhaps a better question to ask is: Where do we find inspiration to blend our work as nuns with our work as CEOs? For me — along with research, journals, white papers and conversations with folks at the top — poetry, books about mystics and a daily practice of meditation keeps me focused on our CSJ counter-cultural way of leading.
Today, I began my day with, Rumi, a 13th Century mystic and poet who writes about enlightenment. Enjoy!
Dance, as though no one is watching,
Love, as though you’ve never been hurt before,
Sing, as though no one can hear you,
Work, as though you don’t need the money,
Live, as though heaven is on earth.
-Rumi-
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February 8, 2007
Sister Rosita Goes to Africa
Sister Rosita left for Kenya! She’ll be helping people obtain and sustain clean water—for starters. By the time she is finished, villagers will be growing enough produce to feed their families. Nearby land will be reforested as well. Don’t be surprised when you see a bestseller called, Sister Rosita Goes to Africa! It’s time the world meets Rosita. Her power is hope and it is world changing.
“How will you begin?” I asked Rosita one day.
“First I meet the people, then I gather a committee!” I laughed when she mentioned committee! When Rosita asks for help it’s impossible to say no! Sister Rosita’s eyes smile and illuminate her clear conviction—the time is here to provide life-giving water. I sense the presence of the Holy when she speaks.
Sisters of St. Joseph will assist Rosita from our St. Paul and Hawaiian Provinces. It’s our job to link her to people who want to help build sustainable water infrastructures and purification systems for communities in need. Do you want to help? I guarantee a fabulous ride!
Before Rosita left, she researched the depth and breadth of the need. Here is just the tip of information she found:
Women and female children spend more than 200 million hours each day collecting water. They walk an average of 6 kilometers per day. As a result, they cannot be in school, spend more quality time with their children, garden, or engage in entrepreneurial endeavors to improve their family incomes and nutrition.
Waterborne diseases resulting in diarrhea causes roughly 2.5 million deaths a year in developing countries. About 21% of the mortalities are children under five years old. (Kosek, 2003) Diarrhea also causes an annual loss of around 62 million disability adjusted life years which is a standard measure of productive loss of work, disrupted school attendance and medical costs.
By providing safe drinking water, diarrhea episodes can be reduced by as much as 39%. The United Nations’ Millenium Development Goal of promoting safe water and sanitation would cost approximately an additional US $11.3 billion each year. The World Health Organization estimated that for every dollar invested, the returns would be between $3 and $4.
The need seems overwhelming, but Sister Rosita is now on the ground. And although I await her first communication, I already feel her force of hope in the winds—maybe that is her first communication?! I’ll be back to you on this project as soon as I hear more from Rosita. Oh, be sure to let me know how you want to help. It is going to take all of us!
Possumus!
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February 5, 2007
ACT for the Earth
Here is one last sampling of our Sisters’ response to an Act of Chapter. Our responses will be added to all the responses from our Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet around the world. I can’t wait until July to hear what they have to report to us as well!
ACT: Communion with Creation: I am relationship with earth
Our Prayer:
I am in terrible pain.
I long to live vibrantly-fully.
I have tremendous power to renew.
I birthed you and all life.
I was born of the stars-you are stardust!
I did not create you to be consumers.
Live in harmony with my song.
I ask you to create with me
I teach you cycles of life and death.
Our Response
1. We Restored the prairie, the land on which sits our retirement home, Bethany
2. We discontinued the use of plastic bottles in our Provincial buildings on the Randolph complex.
3. We provided education on the use of fuel-efficient and hybrid cars and purchased one from which to learn even more.
4. We provided education around preservation of green space in designing future Randolph complex
5. We helped sponsor the Earth Charter Summit at the College of St. Catherine in CSC 2002
6. We viewed Al Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth” – on global warming and discussed policies needed to preserve the environment.
7. Provided education and work toward policies governing ownership of water world-wide
8. Provided education regarding the effects of Globalization/Economics on the environment
9. Assisted in the Global Search for Justice courses at the College of St. Catherine on Environmental Justice
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February 2, 2007
ACT
On January 15, I wrote about our Sisters’ meetings (called Chapter meetings) when we discuss and decide on areas of need in our world where we can exert concentrated energy to help achieve systemic change.
Six years are up since our 2001 Chapter! It is time again for Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet from around the world to gather to share what we learned and what we accomplished. Then we discuss and decide on what we will do for the next 6 years.
Our St. Paul Province is gathering all that we have done on the 2001 Acts of Chapter. Each Act of Chapter begins with a prayer representing people and conversations that happened along the way as we worked toward systemic change on each Act. I share our work one of the Acts here.
ACT: Communion with the “Dear Neighbor”: Collective Power for Mission (JUSTICE)
Our prayer:
I need you to speak.
You know the truth: All people, all life is sacred.
Speak it. Be it.
Create communities that support life. Now is the time. Bring me to life.
I need you to recognize me next door.
It’s not too late.
Everyone deserves clean water, a safe home, lives of meaning !
Everyone’s story deserves to be heard; it’s a part of the web.
Open your eyes and recognize. Use your feet & hands to act on our behalf.
Speak the gospel; if necessary, use words.
Our Response:
1. Our direct services prepare and empower people to work for social change. We do this through direct service and advocacy re.
· Education: teach immigrants and refugees as well as students at Cretin-Derham Hall High School and The College of St. Catherine
· Elder care and Independent living: serve poor, frail, homebound elderly
· Health care: offer health care for people who are uninsured
· Shelter: provide a home and support for women who have been tortured or seek asylum
· Outreach and Leadership development: connect and support young adults around global issues and local responses
· Spirituality: offer spiritual enrichment, classes, direction, and workshops
2. We use our resources to fund for empowerment.
3. Our Province’s Finance department studied then proposed policies which were then adopted by the Province for hiring practices that ensure living wage salaries and dependent benefits policy. The department also:
· monitors province investments to ensure they meet our social justice criteria
· Invests in the Make a Difference committee
4.The Province encouraged participation in systemic change via
· the Legislative Action (Advocacy) Program (LAP),
· ongoing presence at rallies, vigils, protests and active participation in social change groups
· Education via province assemblies (e.g. Carol Zinn, SSJ learning the Social Analysis Process (and Collective Power for Mission Congregational Conference) TOGETHER,
· Revelations, Justice Commission, and CSC Center of Excellence for Women, Public Policy and Economic Justice on Sexual Trafficking
· Sexual Trafficking Conferences to raise awareness in MN: 2003, 2004, 2005
· CSC work on the Sankofa project (resiliency of African American young girls) – national conference
· College of St. Catherine justice learning and outreach trips (through Campus Ministry)
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