A New Year of Unity and Grace

Dear and Honored Friends,

Happy New Year’s Day tomorrow! May 2024 be sacred to you, rich in friendships with God and one another.

May we bypass the potential for disaster and embrace the possible and life-giving.

May the Holy thrive in us.

The first day of the new year, in the Catholic liturgical calendar, is the feast of the Solemnity of Mary – Mary, who is the Mother of God and our Mother as well. Mary knows the mind of God. She knows how immense, singular and undying God’s love is for each of us and all people.

Once, at Tepeyac, near Mexico City, Mary – who after that became known as Our Lady of Guadalupe –appeared to Juan Diego. She asked him, “Why are you afraid? Am I not here who am your Mother?”

In his homily on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, December 12, 2015, Pope Francis prayed for all of us who walk the earth; “May we convert” he prayed, “and become a merciful people, and may all Christian communities be oases and sources of mercy, witnesses to a charity that does not permit exclusion.”

A charity that does not permit exclusion. That’s a reach worth making.

In theory, the People of the Book – Christians, Jews, and Muslims – honor each other’s faith as we care for one another and our common home, the earth. In practice, violence, hatred, and distrust lace our attitudes toward one another. We are anything but gracious to each other.

We accept animosity as a way of life.

What if, in this new year, we really did commit ourselves to all-inclusive charity? What if we welcomed to the table of our heart Muslims, Jews, and Christians without exception?

What follows is a prayer to keep, use and share. Promoted by Pax Christi USA/ Fellowship of Reconciliation, it offers us a fresh way to begin this new year as a time of unity and grace.

                    O God, you are the source
                    of life and peace.
                    Praised be your name forever.
                    We know it is you who turn
                    our minds to thoughts of peace
                    Hear our prayer in this time of war.

                    Your power changes hearts.
                    Muslims, Christians, and Jews remember,
                            and profoundly affirm,
                    that they are followers of the one God,
                    children of Abraham, brothers and sisters;
                    enemies who begin to speak to one another;
                    those who were estranged
                    join hands in friendship;
                    nations seek the way of peace together.

                    Strengthen our resolve to give witness
                            to these truths by which we live.

                    Give to us:
                            Understanding that puts an end to strife;
                            Mercy that quenches hatred, and
                            Forgiveness that overcomes vengeance.

                    Empower all people to live in your law of love.

                    Amen.

Blessed and ever-fresh New Year!

~ Sister Joan Sobala

The Caves of Christ

Today you will know that the Lord will come,

and in the morning you will see glory.

                                                                    Entrance Antiphon Christmas Vigil Mass

Dear Friends,

The cave was shaped by the elements
over any number of centuries,
by whirling water
and stones rubbing against one another
by temperature change and
by hand-scrapings and footsteps of every size and shape.

Even before the Innkeeper claimed the cave
to shelter his domestic animals,
others had probably sought shelter there from storms
or just because night was quickly falling
and it was dangerous to sleep outdoors.

Caves were treasures in the wilderness.

A grown man could stand erect in this cave.
And the way it opened to the outdoors seemed
to impede cold air from rushing in
to dissipate the warmth of the cave.

A good place to shelter for people and beasts alike.

This well used cave,
hollowed out of the earth
became a hallowed place
late one evening
when a man and his very pregnant wife
were turned away from the inn.
“No room,”
the Innkeeper repeated several times
to the travelers at the door.
“No room. No room. No room.”

But the weariness on her face
and the desperation in his eyes
caused the innkeeper
to think again.

The stable. It would have to do.
Carved out of the earth, it was warm and dry and snug.

The cave waited breathlessly.
Would they want it to be
the first House of God this night?

Within the heart of the earth,
surrounded by creatures large and small,
the Holy One was born.
Joseph and all the animals there
knew about birthing.

Mary brought forth Jesus.

He cried out.
Was it “Hello? I am here.”

Many years he would cry out again.
“It is finished.”
And then he would be laid in a cave again –
a borrowed tomb.

And then there would be more,
believable to all who opened themselves
to that more.

In the arc of His life,
when He was helpless
to do for Himself,
Jesus was cared for.

To find Him,
we need to go to the cave,
and then,
there will be more.

~Sister Joan Sobala

Experiencing Joy Amidst Difficult Times

Dear Friends,

On this Third Sunday of Advent, even though our world seems violently out of control, believers are called to joy because our God continues to come to us. We are invited to stir up the embers of joy in us – joy that recognizes and celebrates God everywhere and in everything.

Among the realities we hold close today are two babies born in the Holy Land about 2000 years ago. Both survived the rigors of being born, John, son of Elizabeth and Zachariah, and Jesus, son of Mary, son of God, beloved by His foster father Joseph. Two babies were born in the Holy Land about 2000 years ago. Both survived.

Recently, with an unholy war raging, 31 babies were born prematurely in Gaza, on the sea edge of the Holy Land. Not all survived. Those that have and will grow to adulthood will be told how it was that they survived and others did not. They will be told the story of their beginnings, and they will wonder at what God has called them to. They will know the joy of God, even as they know human sorrow.

Our biblical ancestors – these wondrous babies, John and Jesus, their parents and families lived in times like ours – hard times in which to live out right relationships, support families and communities and be faithful to the Lord. Even in hard times, they experienced a joy that no one could take from them. Each in his own way, was united with God. From them we learn the joy that recognizes God everywhere and in everything.

Joy grows in us over a lifetime. The person who has learned joy gazes at and walks in the world and sees God’s imprint everywhere.

True joy is not giddy or silly or trite. It is a strong luminous thread of connectedness that runs through our life, uniting us with God. We don’t think our way into joy. And let’s not make it a project or think we can pre-program it. Don’t be afraid of joy in these difficult times, as though being joyful is not appropriate right now.

Be still. Take an inward glance. The experience of joy is within us, waiting to be recognized. Look around. See it blossom and give thanks. Rejoice with the Palestinian babies that survived their premature birth not long ago. Let glimmers of God’s own mercy and human compassion touch them and their homeland. Rejoice as our own lives unfold.

~ Sister Joan Sobala

Carrying the Light

Dear Friends,

In the early morning when I pray, I like to have a candle lit. Its dancing light is a sign to me of God who dances with joy because of us.

Here in the north, Advent begins in a month of deep darkness. Only at the very end of Advent, does the daylight begin to increase in tiny fragments. It behooves us to light our candles during Advent, for our personal morning or evening prayer, especially with the unspeakable destructiveness of war and animosity raging in our world.

                Blessed are you
                Who bear the light
                In unbearable times,
                Who testify
                To its endurance
                Amid the unendurable,
                Who bear witness
                To its persistence
                When everything seems
                In shadow
                And grief.                                (Jan Richardson)

John the Baptist, whose vitality we experience in today’s Gospel, was one who carried the light into the wilderness in unbearable times, when people did not know what to make of their lives. They did not recognize God’s presence within them and around them. But John brought them the light that moved them to see, to welcome God.

As his story evolves in the Gospel, John also suffered the ravages of an interior wilderness, but he was faithful to God and to his cousin, Jesus the Word Made Flesh. He died because he would not back away from what he knew to be true.

When we find family life stretched almost beyond recognition, when the integrity of our soul is tried by experiencing or witnessing tragedy, the voice of the Lord speaks to us and through us to others.

Light the candle. See God dancing with joy because of you. Be the light others can see by and be moved.

~Sister Joan Sobala

The Potential of Advent

Dear Friends,

Our eyes continue to be fixed on the Holy Land. Dire times with war and suffering are seemingly inescapable. So far, we have not heard of devastation in Bethlehem, Nazareth, or Ain Karem (home of Elizabeth, Zachary and John the Baptist.)

The patriarchs of the Christian Churches centered in Jerusalem have asked their people to keep Advent and Christmas in spiritual ways only. Set aside the bright lights and festive air. Stay alert to the coming of God around them and in them.

In the Holy Land, where God came once in human history, the Divine leapt into our world, uniting with us so completely, that history itself was transformed. Some groups of people haven’t gotten the message yet or block their ears to it or are asleep. They raise their drawbridges against truth, grace, compassion and peace. We see the same violence in Ukraine, Sudan, Yemen -- other so called hot spots. The lion and the lamb have not reconciled in our times.

But Jesus says to us today, on this first Sunday of Advent, “Stay Awake!” We cannot be in Gaza or Ukraine. But we can be alert to, committed to healing, or at least not adding to the misery in the world. The servants in today’s Gospel were told to be about their work, to watch until the master came. The same message stirs in us. But what should we watch for?

Watch for opportunities to make our part of the world better.
Watch for temptation and put it in its place.
Watch for meaningful outcomes even when tragedy befalls.
Watch for truth as it unfolds and emerges in life.
Watch for ways and places to sprinkle love until it is absorbed into each person’s life.

“Lord, make us turn to You; Let us see Your face and we shall be saved,” we pray in today’s psalm.

Watchfulness is not easy, however fine our intentions. We miss seeing opportunity, temptation and truth for what they are, by our boredom, our limited horizons, our waning motivation and perceptions. We are sometimes so anxious that we cannot be our best selves.

If we recognize this time and place for what it is calling us to, we are in a place of rich spiritual growth. The important step is not to draw back from the potential of Advent even though the next steps are unclear.

As Advent begins today, let’s remember one thing -- God is faithful to us. God is awake to the joy and suffering in the world. God is alert to us. Should we be anything less?

~Sister Joan Sobala

Celebrating Christ as King and Lord

Dear Friends,  

On this last Sunday of a waning Church year, we celebrate Christ as King and Lord. This feast compels us to look for God who comes to us in unexpected ways. God in Jesus bids us to be ready for anything and to look for God among the least, the broken, bruised and burned. 

What Jesus asks of us is remarkably simple: to pay attention to our neighbor. Lazarus or the man born blind. The dead daughter of the synagogue official. We are to let the woman with the seemingly endless hemorrhage touch us. We are to dine with the outcasts of the world. Oh, and watch out for the barren fig tree in our neighbor’s yard! 

One neighbor. More will find us if they know we are sincere. A stranger, perhaps, or a friend or family member – someone who asks something costly of us.   

Across the way, Palestinians and Jews, Ukrainians and those who live in the terrorized parts of Africa ask us for what is costly to us. We’d rather not. We are quick to give away our castoffs, our extra money or the non-perishable food in our cupboards that is near its expiration date. But what we need – can we give that away?   

Today’s Gospel is not so much judgment of those who refuse, who fail to give of what they really need, but a ratification – a confirmation of the depths of people’s actions. What we do matters. The very acts we may have forgotten, the seemingly inconsequential deeds, make us stand out in the world of "much-wants-more." We work out our destiny by accompanying others through their pain. 

Whenever we give up our rights, our time, even our lives, using ourselves up for others, we enter the company of fools whose leader remains hidden and embedded among the unimportant ones of the world. Who is that leader? 

Jesus – the king of fools – the one who was laughed at by the bystanders even as He was clothed by the soldiers in scarlet and had a crown of thorns pressed on His head. He could have avoided the whole thing if He had not been himself. But He had to be faithful to who He was. It is He we celebrate today. Not one on a lofty throne, but a God who became so human that we would hardly recognize Him in His surprising ordinariness.  

Jesus, Servant king of fools at the bottom of the debris from buildings that have been bombed in Ukraine and Gaza. Jesus, Humble king of fools who shares His crust of stale bread and watered wine with the famished. Jesus, Just king of fools who will escort His beloved poor and suffering to life everlasting.  

If we are not these very ones, by virtue or circumstance, we are their companions.  

~ Sister Joan Sobala 

Opening Our Hearts and Minds this Thanksgiving

Dear Friends,

This Thursday, our nation celebrates Thanksgiving.

That day, prior to the main meal, talk with your family, and agree if possible to acknowledge as you gather, that the land which we call home has a rich history of belonging to others long before us: The Navajo, Wampanaug, Houma and Chinook, the Lakota Sioux and the Cherokee, who walked a trail of tears from Georgia to Oklahoma because they were unwanted in the east.

Remember the Ute and Pueblo, the Shinnecock of Long Island and the Seneca Nation of Canandaigua NY, the Keepers of the Western Door. All indigenous nations.

As the Hopi told us:
        

        “Gather yourselves.
        Banish the word struggle from your attitude and vocabulary.
        All that we now do must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
        For we are the ones we have been waiting for.”

Rejecting the animosity in our world, let us instead embrace all in our world and pray this Thanksgiving prayer composed by the First Nation of Canada, the Mi ‘Kmaq:

        “Creator, open our hearts to peace and healing among all people.
        Creator, open our hearts to provide for and protect all children of the earth.

        Creator, open our hearts to respect the earth and all the gifts of the earth.
        Creator, open our hearts to end exclusion, violence, and fear among all.
        Thank you for this day and every day.”

May Thanksgiving refresh your mind, 

heart and all your relationships.

May Our Lord open our eyes

so that we may carry forward the works that enliven and give hope.

~ Sister Joan Sobala

Experiencing the November Forest

Dear Friends,
        Take three strides
        into the November forest.
        Then take three more.
                Stand still.
                Listen. Look around.
                The wind tumbles the wet leaves
                across the rutted, stone-strewn floor of the woods.
                Water-soaked, they settle into valleys
                and pile into fox holes and rabbit holes, gopher holes and the like,
                to protect the life sheltered within.
        Through the winter, the leaves will blanket and nourish the land,
        hold close the roots and self-giving plants
        taking their refuge,
        worn out from producing whatever
        they had been called to by our Creator God.
                Spring will find them
                reinvigorated or
                dead, replaced by a new batch of holy growth.
        But till then,
        in our wondrous north,
        the snow will help –
        warming when possible –
        freezing when necessary –
        hallowing all the land holds dear.
                Beyond the November forest
                stretch yards and gardens,
                crevices in the stone hedges,
                living out the same cycle of rest and revitalization.
        Don’t we do that?
        Don’t we have times of high energy and output,
        then little or none.
                We are a November people, although not sure we relish this time
                when we are like trees without leaves or camped out in forest stillness.
        Today,
        pause to experience November.

                Trust our Ecologist God
                who valued all growing things
                long before we knew how.
                Step off the path
                into the welcoming woods.

~ Sister Joan Sobala

(Photo Courtesy of Mary Lou Wenthe)

Gathering at the Table

Dear Friends,

Two ways of developing the vision and practice of faith among Catholic Christians have been occurring simultaneously this year: the Universal Church’s Synod on Synodality, the first session of which just concluded in Rome last week; and the National Eucharistic Revival, the middle year of a three-year process launched in 2022 by the American Bishops.

I talked about the Synod in my September 17th blog. Today I offer a few thoughts about the Eucharist and why the American Bishops feel such a revival is valuable. In some parts of the country, not as many people celebrate Eucharist weekly as used to. One factor that influenced this new time is, of course, COVID-19. For the better part of two years, Masses were cancelled as part of the way to contain COVID. People got out of the habit of weekly worship. But in fact, the pews had already begun to empty before then. Other activities began to take precedence in people’s lives. The valuing of Eucharist diminished, maybe not in theory but certainly in practice.

It’s an important thing to help believers return to the weekly celebration of Eucharist, as the source and summit of our lives, so here are some thoughts to consider as you and I hopefully resume coming to the Table, because “You, Lord, are the center of our lives.”

These thoughts about Eucharist come not from today’s bishops, but from a letter to the Diocese that Bishop Matthew Clark wrote in 1996. He reminded us that “The Sunday celebration of the Eucharist is crucial to our understanding of our Christian identity…God’s people gather to hear the Word, to offer themselves with the gifts of bread and wine, to remember the mighty acts of God in Jesus Christ and in so doing, to join themselves to Jesus Christ, the perfect offering. We gather at table and then go forth to live what has been said and done.”

Moreover, Bishop Clark said, “We are called to be alive to the reality that we are not just individuals standing before God, but rather a community of people brought together as the Body of Christ.”

Somehow, this eludes us and it will take work to draw us together again to savor and to treasure our common Table and recognize our need to be there.

We begin with ourselves. Are we there weekly or not? If we meditate on these thoughts from Bishop Clark and resolve to come and see, we might recall what a gift it is to be there – to be a home with other believers who are struggling with life’s complex issue even as we are.

Then we invite someone else to come. An invitation might be rejected, but try again or with someone else. Afterwards, together, name the blessings of the moment. (This is not the time to critique the homily, although you might want to do that at another time.) This is the time to taste, savor. Did you watch other people at prayer? Did the fragrance of candles, flowers and incense touch something in you? Did the power of the Holy Spirit stir something in you?

Come again to the Table for as Bishop Clark reminded us: “Sunday Eucharist is the core of our life. Nothing can equal it.”

~ Sister Joan Sobala

Celebrating the Feast of All Saints

Dear Friends,

On Wednesday of this week, the Church celebrates the Feast of all Saints – men and women, girls and boys who have taken God’s love to heart and have lived out its vast possibilities.

These people in every way are like us and maybe a little bit more. They have this outstanding quality: they have responded to the awakening of God. They saw God alive, alert, beckoning them. They saw people in need, and they took an important step. They became responsible for what they saw. That is the essence of holiness.

Saints come in all sorts of packages:

Stephen Biko was a South African Freedom Fighter who died in prison after a severe beating (1977).

Lioba was the cousin of Boniface. They lived in the 8th century. Eventually, she travelled from England to live and catechize in Germany, even after Boniface died.

Stanislaus Kostka was a boy when the walked from Poland to Rome to seek admission to the Jesuits (16th Century). He died shortly after he began his studies.

Sergius was Russian Orthodox (14th Century). It is said of him that “his transparent holiness illuminates an entire age.” (Blessed Among Us)

Elizabeth Fry was a Quaker reformer (19th Century). The mother of eleven, she went to visit Newgate prison one day. What she saw prompted her into prison reform.

Saints are not necessarily Roman Catholic. They are believers in God who have sipped from the cup that Jesus held to His lips on the cross, and they became His uniquely. They thirsted for God and God quenched their thirst.

I count my grandfather, Casimer, among the saints. As a young Polish conscript, he deserted from the Russian army, fled across the Atlantic and found himself a boarder in my grandmother Tillie’s rooming house in Lackawanna, NY. She was by that time a widow with a small son. Casimer and Tillie married and moved out to a farm in Eden, NY where my mother was born. Grandpa Casimer lived until I was a novice. He died on our Congregational founding day, October 15. St. Casimer has watched over me all these years.

How about you? Who are the saints of your family, your neighborhood? Who lived /lives with eyes open to the needs of the people?

Are you a saint in process? Don’t hesitate to want to be one. Some new yearning for God may already be in you.

Enjoy this holy day as you explore it in new ways.

            Know that the God who calls you
            Will stir up courage within you,
            Will accompany you in your waking,
            Will sustain you in your seeing. (Jan Richardson)

~ Sister Joan Sobala

Seeking Clarity of God’s Vision and Direction

Dear Friends, 

From time immemorial, people have asked questions for clarity, insight, understanding. Others have asked questions to entrap and destroy their target. 

Here’s the emperor’s coin, Jesus. Are you pro-God or pro-Caesar? 

Here’s a woman caught in idolatry, Jesus. Do you support the law or do you favor leniency for criminals? 

Here’s a man who is unclean, Jesus. Do you uphold what the law says about the unclean or not?  

The questions the Pharisees posed were traps to discredit Jesus to his hearers.” The Pharisees plotted how they might trap him…and Jesus knew the malice in their hearts.” 

If we could quiz Jesus in the here and now about the issues of our day, our own questions would also be endless. 

Jesus, are you pro-choice or pro-life? 

Liberal or conservative? 

Which is more important: jobs or the environment? 

Jesus, tell us where you stand on gun control, nuclear weapons, AI, capital punishment, LGBTQ, banned books in schools. 

What helpful questions can we ask about the way forward between Hamas and the Israeli? Is mutual brutality, violence that is over the top, the only solution? 

As believers, we don’t seek to trap or embarrass Jesus. We seek clarity, light, a better understanding of God’s vision and direction for our world. But as believers, we need to work through these questions in a God-context, using the Gospel vision to illuminate our way as we try to make sense of thorny issues.  

Society is quite eager to provide answers to our questions: supermarket tabloids, talk show hosts, co-workers, influencers in every field imaginable, kids in school bathrooms, warmongers. 

A framework for approaching our contemporary questions can help us in our questioning, no matter our age or place in life: 

First of all, as we discern how to think, what to decide to do or not do, we need to be confident that God is with us, in us, surrounds us. We are a people who are graced by God’s presence and love. In the first reading from Isaiah today, God says to us: “It is I who arm you, though you know me not.” The grace of God is present to us in each situation of our life, not as an imposition, a demand, but a tender companionship that shows us the way. God is for everyone holding life together in Gaza. 

Secondly, Jesus never sends His followers out alone. Attempting to deal with today’s complex issues by ourselves makes no more sense than trying to be our own physician. It is in the believing community that we can seek wisdom and talk to others in Gospel terms. In community, we can, with more confidence, discover how to approach our questions with Christ’s vision and not just our own. The nourishment we receive at the Eucharistic table, in the Eucharistic community, enlightens not just our minds, but our hearts, our whole being. 

Finally, let’s be alert for the concrete situations in which the Gospel takes flesh in people and see how they approach or resolve the pressing issues of our day. See how the Gospel vision takes the form of food for the hungry or bricks and concrete or lessons in hope, compassion and mercy. 

This is how Jesus might respond to the questions we might pose today: 

“I can’t prepare you for every choice you’ll need to make or every situation you will encounter, but my grace will be with you. Others who are likewise graced will help you to understand more clearly. Don’t be afraid to learn from one another. Seek life and you will find it. Ask questions and be ready for new and revealing responses.” 

~ Sister Joan Sobala

Doing Something Life-Giving for the Community

Dear Friends,

Let’s begin today by remembering two generous, energetic, insightful women who died 25 years apart in Rochester, NY. 

Hattie Harris, “the mayor of Strathallan Place,” has been honored for her tireless efforts to improve life for all. Michael Wenzel, writing in her obituary, told how “she influenced elections, legislation, and community projects. She also worked hard for those who were not politically well connected.” Hattie Harris once remarked: “Be ashamed to die until you have done something life-giving for the community.” Hattie died in 1998 at the age of 101. 

The remarkable Rosa Wims died just last month, in September 2023. After 28 years as a licensed practical nurse, Rosa began a new phase of her life. She started the Faith Community Wellness Center on Genessee Street, but hers became a name well-known in the larger for her pre-Thanksgiving dinners for the needy. More and more people came to eat, and more and more people came to help. Eventually, she passed off the organization of this feast to Foodlink, while she became the honorary host. Rosa was 100 years old when she died. Much loved and respected by the community. 

A Jewish woman and a Black woman – both continued their service to the community long after they could well have retired and taken their leisure. They are models for us today. They are our Sisters. 

I could find no insight into their motivations – religious or not, but if you and I are believers in the Risen Christ, then we look to Him to create in us the capacity to heal, to touch in love, to welcome the outcast, to render justice and mercy. We might not do the same things as Hattie Harris and Rosa Wims, but as we live on through the years we have been given, let’s develop in ourselves a willingness, an openness to serve deep into our so-called golden years.

We bring Christ’s values to meeting the contemporary questions and needs of our time. Each age of Christianity has had to do that. Our ancestors in faith and we depend on the Holy Spirit working with us to interpret the signs of the times, to live faithfully through times that would draw us down into despair or mean-spiritedness.

In our efforts to know and express in our day the best that Jesus has to offer, we tend to bump into each other in creative or disruptive ways. But we go on, finding resources and companions to do what is needed, using Christ’s very self as the measure of what we strive to become, overcome, improve and create a community of people who love one another. 

~ Sister Joan Sobala

*Pictures courtesy of the Democrat and Chronicle

Are Our Vineyards Fruitful?

Dear Friends,

One straightforward way of reading today’s Gospel is as an indictment of the chief priests and scribes of Jesus’ time. We can identify them with the tenant farmers who rejected the messengers and killed the king’s son.

The story is a variation on an equally depressing passage in Isaiah, where God’s careful preparation of the vineyard comes to naught.

If we read these passages concentrating exclusively on the outcome, we would only experience failure. Dreams shattered, great loves destroyed, inedible wild grapes with long runners that wrap around every living thing they touch and choke the life out of the plants where they cling.

Reading the texts this way gives us nothing helpful to turn over in our minds and weave into our life patterns this week. Let’s concentrate instead on the vineyard owner. In both passages, the vineyard owner did his very best, gave fully to produce the best possible vineyard.

In Isaiah, the vineyard owner used the finest materials to build up his vineyard, but it did not yield good fruit. In Jesus’ parable, the vineyard produced a true and abundant harvest, which only brought out the greed in the tenants. With a call for justice and an end to hostility, the owner sent increasingly important messengers to talk with the tenants and finally, the most important, His own son.

You and I can remember when we have given something the full measure of our devotion and it failed. We can point to failed relationships, the song that ended without applause, our work rejected, our adult children devoid of the values we treasure. When our best efforts fail, we are sorely tempted to stop sending messengers and never the one closest to us.

And yet, we are most like God when we do just that - give our best over and over again.

During times when failure threatens to crush us, we would do well to remember Paul’s words in today’s second reading: “Let God’s own peace through Christ His Son stand guard over our hearts and minds.”

Let me tell you one woman’s story as a profound witness to today’s lessons. I’ll call this woman Nora. Nora had been a member of my Congregation. We lived together for seven companionable years before she left the Congregation. Shortly afterwards, Nora married. Within a year, two tragedies struck. Her beloved older brother committed suicide and she was found to have uterine cancer. Fortunately, surgery removed the cancer completely. Then, one day, Nora’s husband came home and told her that he didn’t love her anymore. Could she be gone by Friday? Next, her father died. Not long after that, I got a phone call from Nora, whom I hadn’t seen since she left our community. She was at Strong Hospital. “I want you to come over and help me die.”

Nora had acute leukemia.

I would sometimes come into her hospital room and find the efforts at living left her too weak to talk. At other times she would be teaching a group of interns and seasoned doctors about what happens in the human heart, mind and body as illness ravages it.

Over these last months, Nora worked through a lot. One day, shortly before she died, Nora told me she had come to feel better about herself than she had at any time in her life. She planned her funeral liturgy to reflect all she had come to understand about herself before God. Nora died at 42.

Was hers a wasted life? A failed life? Was her vineyard fruitful or was it choked by invasive vines? Had she heeded the messengers God sent or not?

At the end of her funeral, a cantor sang a song from “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” which ends with this verse:

            In the evening of my life, I shall look to the sunset,
            At a moment in my life when the night is due.
            And the questions I shall ask only you can answer.
            Was I brave and strong and true?
            Did I fill the world with love my whole life through?

Like Nora, we cannot lose hope in the face of suffering, or when our vineyard is attacked. Through the darkest of times, personally or in world crises, we can confidently pray today’s Psalm:

            Lord of Hosts, take care of your vine!
            Protect what your right hand has planted!
            Let your face shine on us and we shall be safe!

~ Sister Joan Sobala

Celebrating the Mother of God

Dear Friends,

Each year in October, our Church celebrates Mary, the Mother of God and our Mother.

Since earliest Christian times, it has been the little people who have honored, loved and depended on the support of Mary. That makes sense. Little people, that is the poor, the ordinary, those who have no decision-making power or authority, depend on their mothers for sustenance, safety, learning, the daily needs of life. Mothers have been known to surround their children in a mantle of security. They are often the one who lead their children to God.

Mary has been claimed as mother by people worldwide over the centuries. She is a model of trust, courage, patience, risk. Widowed mothers and unwed mothers have turned to her. So have the oppressed, the marginalized, the afflicted. The veneration of Mary has been a mainstay, an inspiration across the globe.

During the Council of Ephesus, in 431, the bishops gathered to consider whether Mary was to be more appropriately called Christotokos (Christ-Bearer) or Theotokos (God-Brearer). They were leaning toward Christotokos. Meanwhile, on the streets of Ephesus, when the people heard this, they roared out “No! Theotokos!” The people had spoken. Thus, it has been for all these centuries. Mary is acknowledged by believers as the Mother of God.

In distant and obscure parts of the world, sites of strong Marian devotion have developed. Sometimes, these were sites of apparitions, where typically, Mary appeared to the little people. We certainly know of Guadalupe (1531), Lourdes (1858) and Fatima (1917). Among the less well-known sites of Marian devotion are Montserrat, Spain (880), Walsingham, England (1061), Bistrica, Croatia (1545), LaVang, Vietnam (1778), Akita, Japan (1973) and Kibeho, Rwanda (1980). Pope Francis recently went to visit the tiny Catholic population of Mongolia, which dates back to 1992. Venerated there, in the Cathedral of SS Peter and Paul in Ulaambaator, is a statue of Our Lady of Heaven, found in a dump not many years ago. Little people, not the wealthy or powerful, go to search for life-giving things in dumps. Mary is with her Son’s People in Mongolia.

This month, include reverence for Mary in your daily prayer. Say a Rosary. To find a list of all mysteries of the Rosary, go to https://www.marquette.edu/faith/prayers-mysteries.php. Or say one decade. If neither of those work on any given day, say a Hail Mary.

The Hail Mary was not composed all at once. It came together over many centuries. It was the work of the little people. Beginning with the greeting to Mary from the archangel Gabriel, the prayer goes on to include Elizabeth’s words to Mary. The faithful of the medieval period added bits and pieces until the Council of Trent, in the 16th century, accepted the prayer as we know it.

Hail Mary. Holy Mother of God. A surprise to her parents. A surprise to Joseph. Her remembered words are few but she points to us to Jesus as she pointed the wine stewards at the Marriage Feast in Cana to Him. “Do whatever he tells you.” (John 2) The stewards knew what to do. So do we, if only we are willing. The wine our lives will produce will be abundant and exceptionally fine, if we do what He tells us. Little people know how to make good wine.

~ Sister Joan Sobala

The Generosity of God’s Love

Dear Friends,

Every three years, this rather puzzling Gospel of the workers in the vineyard is read on the 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time. Some workers put in longer hours than others. All got paid equally. The good guys lose again! Right? Unfair!?

Our interpretation depends on what we know about the reasons this parable was included in the Gospel of Matthew and its possible value in our lives.

The audience for this parable is, in the first place, the Pharisees pressing Jesus with their narrow attitudes. They complained that he treated sinners too well. Jesus welcomed them, dined with them, helped them. The generosity of God’s love infuriated the Pharisees.

Forty years later, Matthew’s community was dealing with the influx of Gentiles into their community. Matthew’s community is composed mainly of Jewish people who had embraced Christ in faith and could not fathom how these Gentiles – foreigners, pagans, unbelievers, outsiders – could be on equal footing with themselves – God’s chosen people. Thus, Matthew is using this story of God’s graciousness to address the smallness of the community’s thinking.

This parable is not about labor relations or hourly wages, though it might seem so. It is rather about God’s generosity, which, in our own lives, we emulate by being generous as well.

All generosity is unfair. It is God’s choice when, where and how to be generous. That’s so hard to accept, yet don’t we do the same?

How about parents who treat their children as individuals? At times, one child may have a singular need. When attention is given to the one, other children in the family may grumble and probably do, but the parents make their choice according to their own vision.

A modern-day version of this story can be found in the actions of Pope Francis, whose constant theme song is God’s merciful love and care. Some years ago, Pope Francis presided at the marriage of 20 couples. Later, it became known that some of the couples had been living together and one of the couples had a child. You can imagine the response. Some rejoiced, others – the modern-day Pharisees – were furious. Pope Francis and these couples had not followed the rules.

Today’s first reading from Isaiah gives us an important clue for understanding Jesus’ thinking. It was a passage Jesus knew well and had depended on in His words and actions: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are my ways your ways. As high as the heavens are above the earth. So high are my ways above your ways, my thoughts above your thoughts.”

So, when we take the opportunity to include others in our communities and neighborhoods, we are on fertile ground to do so. The word “exclusion” is not part of God’s vocabulary.

~ Sister Joan Sobala

The Value of the Synod on Synodality

Dear Friends,

On a day-to-day basis, we think locally. Our everyday lives are intertwined with state and national events as well. Occasionally, we are absorbed by international events, like the Olympics or disasters, but if I suggest you pay attention to the Synod on Synodality, your face may grow blank as you utter that well-worn phrase, “What’s that?”

Or maybe you do have some vague recollection of hearing that term before, but it does sound dense.

Dense, maybe, but valuable for us, as Catholic Christians to unpack.

In church language, a synod is a bishops’ meeting preceded by a consultative process with the larger church. Since the Council of Jerusalem as described in the Acts of the Apostles, the Catholic Church had had periodic synods to create the future of the church by being faithful to the person and message of Jesus Christ in the truly essential past, while at the same time, incorporating the most valuable questions and insights of the contemporary world. The task is to keep the Church fresh, faithful to God, without being sealed in every aspect of the past.

Since 1965, the Vatican Synod Office has produced a number of such meetings, dealing with important topics in church life. Hence, the Synod on the Family, Youth, The Amazon, to mention a few. Currently, the Vatican Synod Office is co-chaired by French Sister Nathalie Becquart and Maltese Cardinal Mario Grech. They have been responsible for coordinating the preparatory work for the Synod. Both will be voting members of the Synod.

The fact that Sister Nathalie Becquart is included among the voting members of the Synod points to the desire of Pope Francis has to “enlarge the tent” of the Church. The worldwide consultative process in 2021 and 2022 is a part of that effort to hear the whole church. There will be 70 non-bishops who will participate and vote in this Synod. Unheard of in previous synods. The voices and concerns of laity, deacons, priests, men and women religious as well as bishops will be essential to this synod and to the lives of believers throughout the world. In what ways is the Holy Spirt challenging us as the listening, journeying People of God? After all, we walk the same road together in faith. Should we not hear one another more profoundly?

According to Pope Francis, the goal of this Synod is not to produce documents, but to open the church to new horizons as it works to fulfill its mission of unity and solidarity of all people with Christ.

As a member of the community of believers, I invite you to pray with, watch, look, listen and talk about the Synod, October 4 to October 29, 2023. A second session will be held in October 2024.

You’ll be able to watch proceedings on the Vatican News website, at Cruxnow.com and in the National Catholic Reporter. There are, of course, naysayers, who hold that this synodal process is a failed path. Jose Antonio Ureta of Chile and Julio Loredo De Izcue of Peru, supported by retired US Cardinal Raymond Burke in “The Synodal Process is a Pandora’s Box,” deny the value and continuity of the process for the good of the church.

To this moment, the jury is out, so to speak. But we can do our best to cooperate with Pope Francis and the wealth of participants in the Synod on Synodality and of course, the Holy Spirit to produce a vibrant, inclusive Church of the future.

~ Sister Joan Sobala

The Meaning of Hope

Dear Friends,

Today marks the beginning of the 11^th year I have been writing this blog…through holidays and holidays, through the pandemic and winter storms, through changes in my own thinking and yours. Often, when the times were ordinary and I wondered what topic I might write about, I listened hard to the conversations of people, the local, national and international news, and the Holy Spirit. When I was most dependent on these other sources, I found the words flowed most freely.

I have hoped that at least a few people reading these thoughts found resonance in them. And I plan to go on as long as my mind is fertile, and I get some feedback that these thoughts are worthwhile. Thank you for being among my occasional or regular readers.

Given this new decade of writing and the unsettled character of the times, let’s begin this new decade by mulling over some thoughts on hope, that least easily grasped quality needed to live a faithful life. 

In the most casual, colloquial terms, hope means that there is more to life than meets the eye. Hope is just beyond the horizon. We hope for things we cannot see. Helen Keller was/is a living testament to hope. The Holy Spirit sent her Annie and the impossible blossomed. Hope in the form of Annie, gave Helen Keller a remarkable life. 

Embodied hope. We have undoubtedly experienced it but not always recognized it. Hope tends to be masked over by surprise or someone else’s genius in achieving the next step. But hope is unique. It means to live in readiness for the goodness that is to come. A number of years ago, I came across the title of a conference about hope. It was entitled, “Being Respectfully Persistent for Love of God.” Persistence. Our part matters. As we hope for change in society, our Church, our neighborhood, our attitudes, we must do the work. The profound truth about Baptism is that it launches us into tasks that are bigger than our lifetime. Hope says: we may not see the result, but we are part of the movement. 

When the women in Jesus’ public ministry encountered Jesus, hope stirred in them. Sometimes that hope was initially dashed. Jesus seemed to reject the plea of the Syrophoenician woman who came to Jesus expecting a cure for her daughter. But she wouldn’t take no for an answer. Cleverly, she worked around Jesus’ cultural limitations. He did what her daughter needed. Hope turned into a new reality for all concerned. 

A decade of hope lies before us. Shall we welcome it as a gift of our generous God?

~ Sister Joan Sobala

There's Room for Everyone

Dear Friends,

It’s the last official holiday weekend of an all too short summer. I hope you enjoy its special qualities. Earlier this summer, Pope Francis attended World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal along with 400,000 youth. One-point-five million people were at the last Mass of the week to hear Pope Francis tell all who came to pray in solidarity with one another:

"There is room for everyone in the Church, and when there is not, we must make room – including room for those who make mistakes, who fall or struggle. The Lord does not point a finger but opens wide his arms. Jesus shows us this on the cross.

"He does not close the door but invites us to enter; He does not keep us at a distance but welcomes us. Let these be days when we fully realize in our hearts that we are loved just as we are. Don’t be afraid of failing.

"Everyone needs to know that God is near and all God needs is a small response on our part in order to fill our lives with wonder."

There is room for everyone in the Church. Believe it.

Not long ago, I visited a couple to take them communion. Their housekeeper was there. When it came time to pray, I asked the housekeeper if she would like to join us. She, who was Catholic from her childhood but not part of the family I was visiting, was at first surprised, but then she happily agreed. Why would we leave her out?

What will that moment mean for her? I don’t know. Maybe she doesn’t even know. But God knows her, loves her, wants her to be close. There is room in the Church for everyone.

As September and the fall season unfold, let’s remind ourselves and each other that we are all loved by God. Wanted. Held close. Let’s beckon and invite others to come or come back. In the spirit of Jesus and Francis, we need to enlarge the table and enlarge the tent.

~ Sister Joan Sobala

Keeping Our Eyes Fixed on Jesus

Dear Friends,

As August ends, this summer series concludes. To send us off refreshed into September and beyond, I invite you to “keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.” (Hebrews 12.2) I hope to do so as well.

To help do this, I have found several authors particularly encouraging. They ask us to look at the Gospel as a whole. We are used to being limited to the Sunday Gospel portions, which give us insight into Jesus piecemeal, one incident, one parable at a time. What does the whole Gospel tell us about Jesus?

Scripture scholar Gerhard Lohfink says that “Jesus possessed an unheard of freedom. He is not a model of one who is tormented, grim, dissatisfied, or who has fallen short of his goal. He is no fanatic, utterly convinced that he must force others to adopt his own position…He remains to the end a free person…full of generosity and humanity.”

Michelle Francl-Donnay, adjunct professor at the Vatican Observatory, writes in a new way about the Transfiguration event: “Hovering behind Peter’s wild desire to hold on to the moment, I see Jesus in a garden gently telling Mary Magdalene not to cling to him. Listen to my Son, says a voice from the cloud, and I see spit and mud and a deaf man who can suddenly see and be heard. Ephphata! Be opened! Rise, says Jesus, and Peter comes to him across the water, a paralyzed man rolls up his mat, and a young girl gets up from her death bed.

“And always, do not be afraid. Resounding over and over. On a storm-wracked sea. To a worried father. His disciples gathered for one last meal. To the multitudes. To all of us.”

The last author I want to quote whose insight into Jesus is particularly remarkable since her field is mystery novels – the British writer Dorothy L. Sayers.

“Perhaps it’s no wonder that women were the first at the Cradle and last at the Cross.

“There had never been a man like this man…A prophet and teacher who never nagged at them, never flattered or coaxed or patronized; who never made arch jokes about them…who rebuked without querulousness and praised without condescension, who took their questions and arguments seriously; who never mapped out their sphere for them, never urged them to be feminine or jeered at them for being female; who had no axe to grind and no uneasy male dignity to defend; who took them as he found them, and was completely unselfconscious.

“There is no act, no sermon, no parable in the whole Gospel that borrows its pungency from female perversity.

“Nobody could possibly guess from the words and deeds of Jesus that there was anything ‘funny’ about women’s nature.”

And finally, from my own wonderings, think with me for a moment about the woman in Luke (18. 10-18) who had been bent over for 18 years. Jesus lovingly refers to her as Daughter of Abraham, and he cures her. This is what I wonder: Did Jesus see her for the first time when he was a youth, who stayed behind to experience the teachings in the temple? Was he so touched that he remembered?

So many delicious new ways of taking Jesus with us into the fall season! May the eyes of your heart be enlightened! (Ephesians 1.18)

~Sister Joan Sobala

The Possibilities and Glory of Summertime

Dear Friends,

Time. Timeless. Timebound. Timely. I don’t have time. I wish I had time. I have all the time in the world.

When I was a child, time stood still in the summer. There was soooo much of it. It seemed endless. Now, the days speed by.

How about you? Where are you on the time spectrum?

Do you perceive that the timeless God of summer bounty is with you? Do Jesus’ stories about the pearl of great price, the treasure in the field, heard a few weeks ago, make you grateful for all the treasures summer has held so far?

Or have you been timebound by expectations, workload, overwhelming commitments?

The summer season still has weeks to go. Some people extend their summer practices until Indigenous People’s Day, a.k.a. Columbus Day.

What do you still realistically wish for this summer? What can you do to achieve it?

Will you reach out by letter or phone call to someone from your past?

Will you take a walk in a public garden to enjoy the sight and fragrance of the flower beds?

Will you spend an hour with a shut-in?

Will you play with a child?

Will you walk on a beach?

The composer of the Anthem When Long Before Time invites us to sing with God as the summer continues to entice us with its possibilities and glory. The song begins before creation, when there was only silence. Then...

The silence was broken when God sang the Song…

The Singer was pleased as the earth sang the Song…

Then down through the ages, the Song disappeared…

But

The Singer comes to us to sing it again…

Let us all sing with one heart and one voice

The Song of the Singer in whom we rejoice.

To you, God, the Singer, our voices we raise,

To you, Son Incarnate, we give all our praise,

To you, Holy Spirit, our life and our breath,

Be glory forever, through life and through death.

As summer continues to be our daily fare, let’s sing our praise and thanks to God, our premier summer-friend, who sings of the wonders of the world and sings in our hearts as well.

~Sister Joan Sobala

The Assumption of Mary

Dear Friends,

This blog interrupts our season of summer thoughts. It’s fitting to do so, because this Wednesday, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Assumption of Mary. Her life was so attuned to God that her whole being was taken up into heaven. The Church has held this belief from ancient times until today.

In one poetic piece by Paul Stader SJ (d. 1942),

                Thomas saw white roses
                Within the tomb where she had lain.

The British biblical scholar, Reginald Fuller (d.2011), applauds Mary’s Assumption as part of the poetry of the Christian tradition. Here are his thoughts for us to relish:

                Life lived under the impulse of God is eternal.

                Mary’s life was lived under the impulse of God:

                                            God’s light,
                                            God’s breath,
                                            God’s shadow,
                                            God’s energy.

                Mary is without end.

                If we do the same, that is, if we live under the impulse of God,

                                            God’s light,
                                            God’s breath,
                                            God’s shadow,
                                            God’s energy,

                We have a kinship with Mary and a destiny.

                This feast bids us take heart.
                Our lives are not destined for termination.

This week, let us together anticipate the richness of forever.

~ Sister Joan Sobala

Hospitality and Visiting

Dear Friends,

John Gramkee was back at the pool at the Bayview YMCA this week. He recently turned 90. John had had knee replacement last year, but the reason we hadn’t seen him sooner this year is that he took 26 of his family members to Spain for a month and they just got home last week. John wanted his grands and great-grands to live together for at least a short time, acquiring a taste for the potential friendships that could arise among them. He hoped so.

During the course of summer, we visit relatives and friends. We welcome visitors to our home or we go to see others. Family visits reveal common history, especially when stories are told and retold.

Sometimes we really don’t want particular visitors to come our way. How do we deal with that?

When travelling, we visit in other ways for other reasons.

If we are courageous, we visit with strangers travelling along our vacation route.    

We visit museums and historic sites not just to see but to be changed, influenced, moved by what we see and hear.

We linger in open fields, in botanical gardens to soak in the Spirit.

Standing before the statue of St. Peter in the Basilica at Rome, we notice that his forward foot has been worn smooth and bright by visitors rubbing it.  

Getting into the elevator at the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, we catch a whiff of smoke.

Visiting cemeteries evokes awareness of the circumstances which brought people to bury their dead here.

Abraham's hospitality was a way of life. Strangers travelling by could not pitch their tent in Abraham's compound. But strangers were always welcome to stay within. That's the backstory of Isaac's birth. Abraham's hospitality laid the groundwork for the hospitality that all Jewish people, Jesus, included treasure.

In the infancy narratives in Matthew and Luke, we hear of the angel Gabriel visiting Mary, Mary visiting Elizabeth, the shepherds and Magi visiting Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Jesus presumed on the hospitality of Peter's mother-in-law and Zacchaeus, when in their towns. Jesus rested well at the home of Lazarus, Martha and Mary. At his birth, Jesus had to depend on the hospitality of the innkeeper and at his death, he was laid in a stranger's tomb.

Hospitality and visiting go hand in hand.

Today is the feast of the Transfiguration. There on Mt. Tabor, Peter attempted to imitate the hospitality of Abraham, wanting to build tents for Jesus, Elijah, and Moses. (Matt.17.1-8) Do we want Jesus to stay with us?

Are we hospitable to the Lord when He visits us with a thought, a desire, a question?

~ Sister Joan Sobala

The Food and Fellowship of Summer Gatherings

Dear Friends,

Meals are often different in the summer. More vegetables and fruits, less stews and soups. Put away the frozen and prepared food, and head to a farm market if you can. Summer fruits and vegetables are so much fresher if we can shop farm to table.

With a little extra effort, summer meals can be eaten outside, in a more leisurely manner. Whether we eat alone or with others, the point is to relax more, enjoy the taste of sweet and savory, inhale the fragrance of sun-ripened vegetables, garlic, rosemary and basil straight from the garden.

Not all meals are banquets, but they don’t need to be. My friend Viktor was hitchhiking down the Italian peninsula, when he was picked up by a smelly, sweaty farmer in an old pick-up truck, heading to Rome. With adequate signs and a few words, they agreed that Viktor would ride the distance with him. Lunch time came and went. Finally, the driver pulled over under a tree. They got out to stretch. The driver brought out of the truck some bread, cheese, and a bottle of wine. They sat on the ground and shared. Viktor had nothing to offer. Sometimes it’s like that. But it didn’t matter to the driver. Later that night, thinking over his experience of the day, Viktor realized that he and the driver had shared Eucharist.

In many of our mealtimes, Christ comes to us. He was a great one for sharing meals anytime he could – in houses or while traveling. Festive meals like the wedding feast at Cana and the Last Supper. Revelatory meals where something new was experienced or learned, like the times he ate with Matthew’s friends or Zacchaeus. How about the multitude that was fed because the young boy trusted Jesus enough to share his loaves and fishes with Jesus and all?

When Jesus and others shared a meal for the well-being of their bodies, they also fed their minds and hearts. We do that too with tender conversation over a meal or learning something from the strangers at the next table.

And then there are the summer parties with lots of food and light banter. Tempted to overeat, we hold back, trying with great effort to be moderate. The true joy in summer gatherings comes from being together and not only from the food.

The Irish St. Brigit teaches us about inclusive table fellowship in heaven. She loved the idea of a heavenly table with an abundance of food and drink. Let’s plan to join her!

~ Sister Joan Sobala