Inspired by Scholastica

You may have suffered trauma, abuse, neglect, a thousand bitter tragedies in your life. You may have taken countless wrong turns, sunk into despair, endured rejection, unrequited love. But you have survived, surmounted the jagged mountains of sorrow, learned to stretch, to be resilient to grow beyond the narrow confines of pity and resentment. Your cracks and crevises have been filled with the mortar of healing, your heart softened by tears of compassion. You are no longer damaged goods but richer than those who travel roads paved with gold, who roam honey-laden gardens. Your wounds have become tender mercies, your scars badges of courage emblazoned like stars.

As we grow older, our world sometimes becomes smaller. We don't interact with people as much, we don't stay abreast of current issues, we might be fighting sickness and pain. Our outside contacts tend to be doctors, grocery stores, friends, and maybe libraries. Our energy and alertness diminishes, but we need to make an effort to stay involved. A big challenge is to keep informed about the environment crisis and do what we can to preserve our planet for future generations. It is important to search out the truth about issues and candidates running for public office so that we can vote intelligently. We  need to support issues we believe in by writing or calling our congresspersons and urging them to promote the common good rather than special interests. We  also ought to reach out to persons in need such as the homeless, the immigrants, the marginalized, and the imprisoned. One of my heroes is Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg who continues to serve on the Supreme Court with...

In a recent homily Pope Francis gave on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, he made a crucial point:  "The starting point of the Christian life is not our worthiness; in fact, the Lord was able to accomplish little with those who thought they were good and decent. Whenever we consider ourselves smarter or better than others, that is the beginning of the end. The Lord does not work miracles with those who consider them-selves righteous, but with those who know themselves needy. He is not attracted by our goodness; that is not why he loves us. He loves us just as we are; he is looking for people who are not self-sufficient, but ready to open their hearts to him. People who, like Peter and Paul, are transparent before God." Sometimes we have a tendency to look at those who are poor, or uneducated, or suffer from addictions, as somehow not as good as we are. The pope reminds us that Jesus did not work miracles for those who considered themselves righteous, but for those who begge...

In January 2015, 21 poor migrant workers clad in orange jumpsuits were abducted and beheaded by Daesh in Libya. All were Christian: 20 Coptic Christians from Egypt and one Christian from Ghana. They died with the words "Jesus" or "Lord Jesus Christ" on their lips. Within a week after the crime, they were acclaimed martyrs by the Coptic pope with their names listed in their martyrology with a feast day on February 15. Their remains were taken to Egypt and a church was built in their honor. I wondered how many more  martyrs have given their lives for their faith in our lifetime. It is hard to believe such cruel treatment still persists in our modern times. This sounds more like the 1st century when the Roman kings sent Christians into an arena to be slaughtered by soldiers or torn apart by lions. I am reminded of Sister Dorothy Stang who was murdered in Brazil in 2005 for helping poor farmers keep their land and preserve the Amazon rain forest. When ranchers,...