Inspired by Scholastica

  Inspired by Scholastica Nurdles in the Oceans In recent years, I have become more conscientious about care of our environment. I recycle paper, pop cans, plastic, peelings and clothing. Our community practices composting and has eliminated the use of pesticides. I know this is only a tiny contribution to a cleaner, safer environment, but it’s a beginning. Then I learned about nurdles, tiny plastic pellets used as building blocks for most plastic products. Scientists estimate that 10 trillion of them enter our oceans every year. Even though that number is staggering, the companies responsible are seldom penalized. Often fish, birds, and turtles eat these pellets that they think are food. They then think they are full but get no nutrients and often starve to death. Most people have never heard of nurdles, but they are dangerous polluters of our environment. When companies dump them down the drain, they become contaminated with dirt and dust. From the moment nurdles are crea...

  Days Flow By A clock records the minutes and seconds of each new day. It never misses a beat whether we are aware or not, unless we have a stop watch to record how much time has elapsed.   But most of the time we are unaware of the days rushing down the stream of our lives, acquiring a few rocky, muddy detours along the way.   We’d like to stop the clock or even reverse the years gone by that we have taken for granted -- failed to drink in the freshness of the life-giving well.   We wish we could store up   the flood of minutes we often waste, to keep the reservoir in reserve to use as we grow old and arid.   When we were young and flowing with delicious freshness, we soaked in days like a sponge. Now we can barely wring out a few drops as time zaps our strength.   Yet we need to be grateful for each new day whether it holds flowing rivers or tiny oases, it showers blessings in abundance....

  Inspired by Scholastica   Jesus and Women We generally think primarily of the 12 apostles as Jesus’ regular followers, but there were also women. We know there was, of course, Mary, his mother, and Mary Magdalen, Martha, Mary Salome, the Samaritan woman, the woman cured of a hemorrhage, and the Canaanite woman.   I’m sure there were more women (who were never counted). Who else would prepare the meals for the Twelve? Who else would make sure people were welcomed to hear Jesus’ speak? Who else would help keep the children quiet? Who else would do the dishes? Women were not considered equal or important in this period of history. We know that when Jesus worked the miracle of the loaves and fishes, the crowd was estimated at 5,000, “not counting women and children.” Yet Jesus was always present to women and acknowledged them.   It is evident in many of the stories in the New Testament. One example is the woman with the hemorrhage who merely touched the hem of ...

  Inspired by Scholastica     A Tree’s Lament The fierce winds blew whipping my branches, stripping my leaves. Then I felt a painful crack down my right side ripping open a limb, crippling my strength.   I feared the storm’s wildness raging on-- would it end my life on this peaceful green spot overlooking the graves of women long passed, with old majestic buildings looming behind me?   It holds so many memories of flowing robes and veils, women who devoted their lives to prayer and teaching and serving others.   Maybe my broken wound will heal and not be deadly. Hopefully they will not chop me down completely, let me live a little longer to provide shade and beauty for my monastery home.   Barbara Mayer, OSB              

  Hidden Manuscript about Ukraine War We hear so much news about the violence and loss of lives in Ukraine since 2022 when Russia invaded the country that we can almost become numb.   But when I read about the Ukrainian author Volodymyr Vakulenko, who handwrote a manuscript about the war in Ukraine, I was deeply touched. The well-known author had written poems, children’s books and short stories, but felt the urgency to write about the war.   He was afraid that Russian soldiers might destroy his manuscript, so he buried it in his yard under a cherry tree. He was captured soon afterward, and his body was later found in a mass grave. Another Ukrainian writer learned of the book and dug it up. She knew the importance of the manuscript. The title is I Transform .   The book tells about the carnage of Russia’s invasion. It took courage for Vakulenko to write this book and a miracle to publish it in the midst of the ongoing war.   Vakulenko wanted future generatio...