Inspired by Scholastica

In a recent  communication from a community of  Benedictine sisters residing near the capital of Ukraine, they told of living in great fear amid the recent attacks by Russia in their country. They are staying in the basement of their monastery, listening to bombings and explosions overhead. They keep praying the Divine Office through it all, and one monastery has taken in a few refugees who have nowhere to go. Some neighbors and oblates have provided provisions for them, but they do not know what the future will hold.  Our community is keeping them in prayer, but I wonder what they will do if they are forced to flee from their convent. It seems like something similar might have happened during the Nazi regime in World War II. But this is the 21st century, and Europe has been at peace since 1945. There was no aggression on the part of Ukraine, no reason for this horrific attack.  With nuclear weapons and modern cyberware, the dangers ahead are ominous. Although the U.S. and Europe are i

Do you often wonder why certain people enter your life and leave an imprint? I remember my high school English teacher, who encouraged my writing. I wrote stories out of the blue and had no idea that they had any value.   She recognized an undeveloped talent that I was not aware of at the time. I eventually became a journalist, thanks to her encouragement. I also had a religious sister in college, who was very kind and compassionate. When I needed help, she was there to answer my questions. She never made me feel stupid or that my inquiries were not worth her time. I wanted to be a teacher, just like her. These women were “life shapers” for me, something I only realized in retrospect.   People who have a positive influence on one’s life help us to become who we are meant to be.   Of course, those who have a negative influence could pull us away from our true destination. Life shapers are important as one is growing up and may not know what direction to go.   These people can be r

  Not to look back with regret, nursing the slights, pondering   what ifs, wallowing in the failures, nor to look forward with dread, projecting the worst to happen. Just to be present to the now with all its undefined borders, its humdrum activities, its ordinary scraps of conversation that make up most of our lives. It is enough to be aware of the tidbits that fill our days, an insight, a song, a quote, a kindness, a smile,  a sinking sun – precious things we take for granted yet worth the trouble to notice, to delight in, to be grateful for.

I have fallen from my pinnacle, my attempt to be spotless, pure, unsullied, I can no longer look at others with pity, thinking I am not like the rest of those poor creatures who have to bow their heads, beg for forgiveness. Now I am one with them, with all the sinners of the world, bent low,   crawling, afraid to look up at the Beloved. Yet God reaches out, lifts my bowed head raises me up with love and compassion. “You are my beloved,” he says, "fear not your blot is not permanent, but erased. I have made you new again like fresh flesh bathed in the waters of redemption.   Now you are truly human, real, radiant   as the rising sun, resplendent with new life."

The recent backlash about school districts banning books about the Holocaust and race issues is very disheartening. For example, the prize-winning non-fiction book Maus by American cartoonist Art Spiegelman about the Holocaust was banned from the school curriculum in Tennessee last month. Instead, it should be required reading since it tells the true-life story of Spiegelman’s father who lived through the Holocaust. Students need to know that this event actually happened and that six million Jews really died in concentration camps or were exterminated in gas chambers during World War II. This is a shameful part of German history and also world history since leaders allowed it to happen. The U.S. and other countries could have intervened.  People in power had to know it was going on. Germans may not want to talk about it, but it must be acknowledged so that it will not happen again. Truth-based books about slavery in the U.S. should also be on school reading lists. Young people need