Mystical Spring

What does spring mean to you?

According to the doom and gloomers, we are set to endure a year of misery in the financial markets, and the world global finance picture as a whole. We have the ’shouters’ of destruction aka Rush Limbaugh, who continue to threaten and intimidate the average American into thinking that we should rebel against Hope when it appears to be in short supply.

What exactly are Americans being asked to do? What should we do?

For the first time in ten years, we are being asked to act and Spring is the season for action, after all, isn’t it?

We are being asked to do without, to take risk, to project Hope for the future, and to believe in the idea that truth and good will triumph over evil.

Why not take this risk? Why not believe in good over evil? What have we more to lose?

As a Christian nation, even one apparently Rush would like to move back to, we pretend to project the idea of optimism in the face of doubt. This is our foundation, our belief in the eternal good and its triumph.

This Spring, let us put our ‘money’ and treasure where our hearts are purported to be–directly in the place of Hope in our future. This after all, is the culture of Life we proclaim every Sunday. It is time to see those like Rush for what they truly hope to achieve–to drag the culture of Life into the culture of Death where their own misery and personal profit can prevail.

Spring–a time to work, laugh and love. Good will prevail. We are called to make it appear.

For a writer, words are everything. In the US we have a saying that helps this along–”say what you mean, and mean what you say.” The curse and struggle for every writer is to say what they mean in the purest way ever possible and have it understood by those who read the words.

I’m sure there is a similar saying of this nature in every culture, but to Americans, it is especially meaningful when it comes to honor and being ‘good’ for one’s word.

The word Peace calls forth no less of a straightforward committment for each of us. However, we have come to think of Peace, with all its challenges as beneath us, a pie in the sky type of quest, where all is perfect and all is correct, a place that is essentially dead and lifeless due to its peace filled sanitation. Peace and Order are seen as equals, a boring place where eventually we rebel. For proof of this idea, take a look at the Garden of Eden!

But the reality of Peace is quite different as we have seen by the course of recent world events. To achieve Peace, there is hard work involved, a placing of our feet on a treacherous path filled with land mines and cluster bombs.

 The urge to bomb; unleash our anger, have a fit of rage, hurl a curse, or let loose with a nasty comment, is soo easy, and is a release of our pent up problems. But once unleashed upon another, is impossible to take back or fix. No matter how we apologize, repent, pay back or repair, pain is out there forever, the bomb dropped without any way to undo the breaking of peace.

Reconciliation is a first step towards Peace. But who will take it?

Who has the courage to take the first step to say, “I have sinned against you?”

“The task of a Christian is to make the thought of PEACE once again seriously possible.”

It is timely for me to read these words of Thomas Merton, especially as the world appears incapable of understanding the very idea of hard work.

 My mother spent her life working. It was either in the house, at a secretarial job, or in the yard. Her work in the yard she especially loved. She hauled bags of dirt, compost, horse manure at times, and shrubs, plants, and every kind of young tree.

What she showed to both of her daughters was one thing–life is full of hard work and then you die.

I do not say this with any degree of cynicism. This is life–we work our life span and then we end that life span. What we accomplish in between is hard work.

Do we enjoy such work or not is the real question?

I think we all understand that happiness, aka PEACE, doesnt’ come at the end of a gun. When force is used, there is always a loser and that loser fills with anger/resentment/jealousy/ or any number of negative emotions that simmer until payback is accomplished. Justice is required and the defeated see justice denied, therefore, needed and sought after a time.

This attitude of the defeated plants the seeds of future wars. How does PEACE have a chance to bloom?

I have always resented the idea that PEACE is for wimps. That seekers of peace seek an easy way out–one filled with roses and floating angels of sillyness. Those who look at PEACE in such a narrow fashion are ignorant. They have never attempted the intensely hard work that PEACE demands. It is extremely difficult to get your emotions under control, to understand exactly what you need, what you hope for, and what you can’t live without in order to ask for PEACE. If you get this far, you need the stomach and courage to extend yourself in risk.

And that’s where all the military generals and military establishment fall back. They are not trained for such initiatives. They are not aware of how to do it. They are taught in words such as tactics that accompany losses and might/power.

The quick release of a bomb gives such limited satisfaction that those seeking PEACE can only stand by in amazement at such obvious ignorance and stupidity. What a waste of resources (financial and human).

How long can such lazy thinking continue?

Who will have enough strength and courage to stand up to the rigors required for PEACE?

Born into wealth, this great saint of the East was born into an area today known as Turkey. in 330 CE. This means he was born less than 20 years after the Council of Nicea where the Nicene Creed was broought into being. Just imagine what an exciting time that must have been! It was a time when people such as Basil were schooled in the art of rhetoric. What exactly is that and why would anyone be convinced that they should waste their lives going to school for such a thing?

In the ancient world it was considered highly desirable that a young man would enter the world understanding how to make himself clear in what he said, how he argued the positions he held, and that written communication was effective–at times, persuasive. It was important to have an educated person in a household who could go before judges and other authorities and be able to argue effectively on behalf of the family. Studying rhetorical skills could be an effective weapon in a family arsenal who may otherwise have lacked funds or public standing. For Basil, this skill would be used to advance a career among higher authorities as well as among the public.

After concluding his education, he eventually removed himself from public life by entering the monastic world. You can read more about why he gave it all up, if you google New Advent Catholic Encyclepedia online.

Looking out my window, there is nothing but ice and snow. The temperature has dropped below zero and this only adds to my misery…longing for light and warmth.

Just as the news leads me to believe this world can become no more, I see nature’s urge as it fights back the dark and seeks the light. Once the light comes forth, we have hope restored in the fact that spring will be marching towards us on a relentless path.

The light will come. We only are called to be faithful to it and as we are faithful to it, we become a witness to and for Hope.

Now is not the time to quit. The Light–look for it–it will come!

Here in Advent, we move forward toward the darkest night of the year. As the days grow shorter, it is tempting to stay in bed. Why bother to get up?

One day is just as gloomy, rainy, ice filled, snow filled as the next.

I have to force my mind to think of sunny, better times. After all, the sun is shining somewhere in our world and where it is shining is most certainly beautiful. In sunny locations, there are usually blooming flowers, blue ocean water, sandy beaches, and lots of green trees. But out my window, I am as far away from that pleasant atmosphere as I am from the moon–or at least, that is what it appears like.

So, I have to think of other things to motivate this writer. I have to remember that even in sunny places there can be war, famine, disease and poverty. Just because there is sun, doesn’t mean there aren’t problems.

And that is my point exactly.

We all have problems. Everyone in the world–no matter whether the sun is shining or snow is falling or ice is sleeting up your windows, we all are on this planet together worrying, working, not working, existing, all of us with our problems together.

How nice it might be to just entertain this thought?

What would happen, what might just happen, if we put ourselves aside and came to the table with all of our problems? Could one person be of help to another?

These are also just thoughts as we celebrate the one document whose birthday is now the big 60–the Declaration of Human Rights.

And as we approach its ideas, still fresh and green, from our positions here in the snow and ice, maybe it is good that we are still traveling toward it in the dark.

Faith and Thought: A hopeful horizon is in our vision

By Sue Stanton

10/17/2008

Updated 10/17/2008 07:21:49 PM CDT

I traveled to Jordan in January with donated funding in hopes of directly helping Iraqi refugee women build a kitchen project.
     
I believed that such a project would slowly enable them to begin piecing their fractured lives back together. The kitchen project was one they had asked me to help them achieve.
     
They were looking for a place where as many as 12 of them could meet, cook and wait out the end of the Iraq war. I wasn’t sure how long that would take, but in the fall of 2007 when we discussed it, it looked like a very long time.
     
My dream was that with direct assistance, especially since none was available through any U.S., Jordanian or Iraqi government or relief agency, we might help these refugee women stay afloat alongside their children until all of us, as people of faith on both sides of the ocean, could envision a new day and a more hopeful horizon.
     
And now, 10 months later, I can see that horizon. It is a time of celebration for us all. Through difficult and unforeseen circumstances, the staff working at the Weibdah Family Center decided to keep their kitchen project very simple, made painful adjustments when the prices of food and fuel on the Jordanian markets went through the roof, and did what was necessary to insure that our requested goal be met - that refugee women living in Jabal Al Weibdah receive needed assistance and necessary care due to dislocation and poverty as a result of the Iraq War.
     
The center’s staff chose to keep cooking to a bare minimum, purchased dried foodstuffs for packaging and paid salaries for women who ran the project. But they also served the women’s needs in every other imaginable way as well.
     
They began English language classes for the women and children since several families were facing immigration issues where English was the national language. Counseling for women and children suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder was paid for, and basic computer skills were taught to women as training for jobs. Direct aid of food and clothing also was given for those women and children in need of it, and extraordinary expenses were covered such as paying for two women who had childbirth bills at a hospital but no money to pay with. Finally, the staff helped to facilitate the relocation of several families whose visas had come through.
     
As Father Nabil Haddad, director of the Weibdah Family Center told me, “With the donated funds, we were able to profoundly change over 20 women’s lives, helping them rebuild from tragic circumstances. We have strived to provide a place where they can seek out assistance, while giving the utmost respect to the dignity that they deserve. Although financial barriers, such as the high global cost of food and fuel, required us to shift from our original plans, we have been nonetheless successful in affecting the situations of this group. For this, we would like to express our gratitude to the Iowans of America.”
     
Today, Iraq is encouraging its refugees to come home. The government is now releasing funding such as money for air and bus transport to accommodate the many people they hope will return. The Iraqi government is also releasing money for the upkeep of refugees who are not willing to return but who have resettled into countries such as Jordan and Syria, where they hope to remain.
     
The United Nations estimates a remaining 500,000 Iraqis still are in Jordan and the costs of food, fuel and housing continue to skyrocket. Most heartening is the Iraqi government’s mandate to remove squatters from the houses where they are living. This means that many women who may have fled a home in Iraq have a good chance that they can resettle in it and this will assist in the reclaiming of old neighborhoods.
     
As it stands, it appears the surge worked quite well after all - not a surge of guns and soldiers, but one of good will from people across the state of Iowa. And now as they say, it is up to the Iraqis to write the rest of the story.
     
For more information, contact Sue Stanton at merton420@hotmail.com

©Mid-Iowa Newspapers 2008

This summer one of my columns was dedicated to the conflict in Zimbabwe where thousands of people live day to day without any horizon of hope. Now that a somewhat fragile government has been agreed upon, supplies for people having markedly diminshed and sources are telling me that it won’t be long before all food supplies are gone. There is no food to be bought in shops and no food for the Hospital at Chidamoyo where patients are given food along with care.

But there is a way for you and I to help this dire situation!

Check out www.sadza.com. It is a way to get food directly to patients. 10 kg of beans feed all hospital in patients for 2 meals! What is needed are; beans, sugar, salt and cooking oil. Imagine…those are iems we take for granted and yet in Zim, life is changed with so little. Our $10.00 can do so much to change lives.

 When you order food, pls say that it should be sent to: Chidamoyo Christian Hospital via Swift depot in Karoi. If you need a phone number use; 2KATHY@bushmail.net.

That is what Jesus tells us. When all else fails, these are the only three words I can fall back on. They are what Jesus said to his disciples–male and female. It is what he pronounced from the cross–be not afraid, they know not what they do. It is what he said to the ones he loved as he entered the room and said, Peace be with you, my friends! Peace.”

Be not afraid. I am with you. I am near you always. The resurrection as the picture of Hope for All, it is in the name of Jesus that we are able to persevere.

And as we persevere, we shall overcome. Such is the example and life lived of Jesus. 

“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.

 But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.

And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it.

Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.

 I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”

Just as I cheered on the first steps my children tak in life, so I cheer on the Church as it evolves over time and throughout history.

There have been giant steps taken toward advancement in thought. There have been major setbacks as well, but through it all, and as a non participant, I am thrilled when that first good step is taken.

As members in the world body of Christ, we need to take off our glasses, spread wide our arms and cheer on as well. After all, what happens to one, happens to all, if we truly believe what Paul writes, and with that all comes advancements and setbacks.

I’d like to cheer on the advancements, discuss the setbacks, and decide what truly is both progress and regression. There will be both.

This is the truth of any human construct. For us to believe otherwise is folly of the kind that allows us to stick our heads in the ground, complain about what is not, and keep complaining while our mouths fill us with dirt. Inaction is just as unhealthy as wrong action. But we must have both sooner or later.

This week I have been involved with peace activities centered on 9/11. This has allowed for me once gain, to think on the issues that construct peace. How difficult the work is and how necessary it is to continue despite the lack of it in the world.

As I have said before, peace is not for wimps. It is akin to parenting–where you struggle toward a goal int he dark hoping that your child will eventually get with the program. Just like parenting, it is a lifelong journey and the Church is here to help us.

Let us pray this week that the Church always sees its way toward helping us learn, live, and keep peace in the forefront of our lives.

 Most people would say to me, “Are you insane? It isn’t safe there” and yet I respond to such comments with ‘you can get killed walking across the street, can’t you?”

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How can one not want to visit the place that birthed all three of the Abrahamic faiths? How can anyone, either religious or not, think that there is not a more important spot on earth than the one where so many of the worlds’ religious struggles have taken place?

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There is so much history yet to be discovered on this most sacred of soils. So many stories yet to be told.And the best thing about taking a pilgrimage to the Holy Land is that you also become part of the story. Yes, you become a part of the history of a region where thousands upon thousands of other pilgrims just like you have arrived here from over the centuries.

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Pilgrims like Winston Churchill, Mark Twain, Pope John Paul II, and countless movie stars, pop singers, and heads of state just to name a few from recent history.

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But besides those, you will trace the footsteps of pilgrims who have come to the Holy Land throughout different time. During the Renaissance, poets such as Lord Byron visited the region and the Middle Ages saw a huge influx of people as well. The Crusades may have been going on in one part of the Holy Land, but pilgrims seeking the land of Jesus came through at other ends of the region not active in the war. Along the way they endured hardship and pain, but with their eyes fixed on the prize of seeing and worshipping in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, they continued on until they arrived at their destinations.

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Where else in the world can you make such a claim?

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Come to the Holy Land. Join your ancient ancestors in the walk of your life. Come see where it all began, where Jesus walked, preached and spoke his words of peace to all.  Come to the Holy Land. There your sisters and brothers in faith wait just for you! 

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By: Sue Stanton

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To join a Pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2009 please contact me at merton420@hotmail.com

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This book is my favorite to date and suits ages 4-10. Just out from Paulist Press in time for Lent 2008, it is part of a Catholic best selling and award winning series for kids. I am excited to hear your feedback on it.

You know, the Stations are pretty intense. They speak of the torture and death of Jesus on the Cross but they also give to us a pathway for looking at the difficulties and challenges held within the every day struggle of our own lives. Pick up a copy and let me know if you agree.

This book is dedicated to the Christians of the Holy Land–those steadfast keepers of the flame–who maintain a living presence there and who I would especially invite you to go and show your solidarity with. They are an extra special jewel of the Church and pilgrimage to the Holy Land is a tour every Christian should make. Our rich spiritual heritage lies waiting in the rocks, stones, sand and dust. What a great privilege it is to meet these people.