Given the evolutionary spirit and events everywhere, religious life for the digital era needs reenvisioning, switching gears from doing works of charity to working for systemic change.
Life in a religious community for 60 years has been a life grounded and centered in graced love. The thousands of us in the heyday have become older and fewer. Now is the time to pass the torch.
I'm ministering in a school where my community has served for about 100 years. When I started, there were a dozen members of my community. In August, when another school year started, I was suddenly "the only one" left.
Horizons - On the day "The Embrace" was unveiled, honoring Martin Luther King and his wife, Coretta, the thing that was most palpable was a sense of Black joy. Joy isn't something you can fabricate. It rises out of freedom, liberation, fullness.
Contemplate This - As we consent to see ourselves as we are, the light of Divine Loving illuminates aspects of ourselves that we were unaware of; that we do not like; that we never thought we were capable of.
Despite promises of equality, the world measures your worth depending on what market value you hold. The wealth and influence you and your family hold makes the difference.
Despite witnessing terrible acts like the recent attack in Brazil, we continue to believe in democracy, in peace in the world, working and praying fervently that the gap between rich and poor will be narrowed.
Horizons - Even amid the rampant individualism that threatens to divide us, we all are called to some form of community. In today's world, it might just be the boldest decision to claim the importance of community.
Christmas is a time to get together. We may not see our relatives for a long time, but at Christmas our houses are filled with voices. Everyone comes home. But in Ukraine, this Christmas was not typical at all.
The people, while having faith in Jesus as the Prince of Peace, wonder when the peace Jesus' presence implies will ever come to Congo. For 26 or more Christmases, peace has not come.
My faith helped me embrace the goodness that Marie brought into my life amid the too-numerous hospital stays and doctor visits. Loving and caring for her was one of my greatest gifts from our God.
2023 is a good time to look ahead with hope (for hope does not disappoint us), to renew our resolutions to be different, and do some creative thinking with the free intelligence given by God to glorify his name.
Horizons - I usually have a clear plan in my mind of how a journey is going to go. But I can't say that any journey of significance that I have taken has gone how I had planned or envisioned it.
This Advent was a unique experience for me. The phrase "I got the opportunity but did not make good use of it" is one I have heard often; but recently it spoke to me in a new way because it resonated with my experience.
The sisters of my community and I set the stage in early December to imitate the shepherds and wise men. We set out to bring joy to children of low-income families in the communities we serve in Alabama.
I went with a delegation of religious congregations to COP27, the 27th Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. We had a challenging, educational and also disappointing experience.
As we re-create the nativity through our cribs and celebrations, may we not forget that it is essential to become seekers and not be satisfied with decorations and celebrations.
Horizons - Science and faith always have something new to teach us. God delights in us as we make such discoveries. Wonder waits around every corner. At the start of a new year, I ask: What are you wondering about?
