The Power of Our Stories

Dear Friends,

Much of winter is still ahead of us. On cold, snowy nights, shut off the telly, put away social media devices and tell stories: each other’s, well-loved stories, stories with surprise endings, stories that helped shape us. Enjoy and treasure your stories of life, faith, adventure.

We live a life-long story, and yet, if asked, we would not be sure that our own stories are interesting at all. It’s only in the telling of our stories, we begin to see their value and worth.

We also have a wealth of family stories. My four-foot eight Polish peasant grandfather, conscripted into the Russian army, deserted, and somehow made his way to Lackawanna, New York. How did that happen? I had no idea, before hearing this story as a child, that my little Grandpa had such courage!

We tell stories that have impacted others in the world, stories about what happened at school or work. Travelling, seated next to strangers, we often exchange stories. Sometimes, we reveal to strangers whom we will never see again parts of ourselves we don’t easily share with people closer to us: incidents, near-misses, daydreams. “I remember once…I had an experience something like that…”

Beyond those of our own lives, we like to hear other stories, see stories unfold on TV or in books, or at the movies. Stories make meaning the way that analysis or synthesis can’t. Where did the world come from? Why are there people? Why don’t snakes have legs? Why do the living die? As we read the lives of others in biographies, we clarify our own convictions, and have new tools to examine our own lives. Here’s a thought: Go where you can hear the stories of migrants and refugees and be awed. To be human is to have a story to tell.

The much admired writer, Elie Weisel, once remarked “God created people because he loves stories.” We know that Jesus was a remarkable storyteller. He used the stuff of ordinary life, introduced strangers into the story who became unexpectedly central to the meaning of the story and, as we know when we study them, these parables say more than they seemed to intend, to this very day.

God is not captured for once and for all in our human stories, but God is surely revealed in our stories, if our eyes and hearts are open.

The philosopher Kierkegaard went even further to say “the only real answers to religious questions are in the telling of a story.” So dare to explore religious questions in this seemingly simple way. Tell and enjoy the power of stories in your life.

~ Sister Joan Sobala

The Feast of the Presentation

                                                                                                                        (CNS/Lola Gomez)
Dear Friends, 

This Sunday, the feast of the presentation, we read from Luke 2. The child Jesus had been circumcised soon after birth. Forty days later his parents present him at the temple. An old man named Simeon notices the child and his parents. Luke 2 tells the story.

25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27 Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, 28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

29 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
you may now dismiss[a] your servant in peace.
30 For my eyes have seen your salvation,
31 which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and the glory of your people Israel.”

Luke wants us to know that Joseph and Mary are faithful Jewish parents, initiating their child into their faith by bringing him to the temple. Their arrival at the Temple is noticed by a believer named Simeon. Deeply prayerful, he has been longing to see the consolation of Israel. He asks to hold the baby. He takes him in his arms and praises God.

I am moved by this old man, the one who prays despite disappointments, social and religious upheaval, and political oppression. I, too, am old, and can imagine that baby in my arms, his warmth and small but solid weight. God comes to us in every child.

The above picture of Pope Francis speaks of an old person’s hope as well. This man knows God. This man has challenges to his hope. This man knows that God can encounter us in a child. Francis’s homily on the 2024 feast of the presentation includes these words, an echo of Simeon’s song.

He is presented to us as the perennial surprise of God;

concentrated in this child born for all

is the past, made of memory and of promise,

and the future, full of hope.

May our own hope be refreshed,

Susan Schantz SSJ

Secrets of the Heart

Dear Friends,

Let’s talk about secrets of the heart. What do we carry within us that we hold closely and don’t reveal to anyone?

Our secrets are of all kinds.

We hold close the times when God has blessed us with a singular insight or vision that has made us grow more secure in God’s love, times people have said good things about us. We can close our eyes and see the beautiful places we’ve been to which no one has seen or treasured the way we do. We treasure the words of family members who have gone before us. We pray for some people in the secret of our hearts. We protect others in our heart of hearts. Our secrets make us blossom from the inside.

But not always, for we also remember times when we’ve been mean, when we have said spiteful things or wounded others in some way. We remember when others have said awful things to us about us. We replay the tapes endlessly. We keep reliving those moments, even if we shared with the injured either forgiveness or reconciliation or both.

In our heart are secret wishes for what we might want to be “when we grow up” – secret wishes for our future yet to be revealed. Secret prayers, secret beliefs about God, secret hopes for our own place in the world.

In this jubilee year, when we are called by our church to be pilgrims of hope together, we are encouraged to travel to holy sites and to the holy reorganization of our lives. (See Fresh Wind Blog for December 29, 2024.)

One of those holy sites is our own hearts. It’s time to rethink which of the secrets we harbor are worth keeping and which are not. Sweep out our memories. Which ones give us life and which ones suck the air from our lungs? Do we beat ourselves up by reliving the negative aspects of our lives or do we look at ourselves as the beloved of God? Hand everything over to God once and for all, in this jubilee year.

Let’s pray for ourselves and one another as we go through this sorting out process this year:

Tender God, we know no secret is hidden from you, (Ez.28.3)

Teach me wisdom in my secret heart (Ps. 51.6)

~ Sister Joan Sobala

Many Gifts, Given for All

Dear Friends,

Many gifts, one Spirit. This is the theme of the reading from Paul for Sunday, January 19. In his second letter to the church at Corinth, he writes:

There are many kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit.
There are different forms of service but the same Lord.              2 Corinthians 12

The apostle is encouraging that early Christian community to recognize and affirm the gifts given to individuals for the sake of all. They need the reminder because, for this faith community, that’s difficult to do.

It is difficult for some 2025 communities as well. All the baptized are called to mission. Baptism calls us to live in Christ Jesus, to love God and the neighbor, using the gifts we are given. The Church is called to recognize and nourish believers’ gifts, and to foster whole-hearted living of the baptismal call.

A colleague of mine is a gifted preacher. She is prayerful, attuned to human experience and educated in scripture studies and theology. She offers insight into the Sunday readings in a way that helps the congregation go deeper. She encourages worshipers to holiness and service. She leads in response to the baptismal call.

Currently, she is unable to preach at Catholic Mass because this ministry is limited to ordained priests and deacons. Her calling to preach is not recognized by her own faith community. A woman of faith, she has found ways to fulfill her call. She has taught Scripture, trained new preachers at a Christian seminary, and preached at various Christian churches. Along with other lay Catholic women and men she publishes homilies on the Sunday readings. In her nineties, she continues to share this gift of preaching. She has found ways to fulfill her vocation outside the Eucharistic celebration.

This woman’s story is not unlike that of many lay Catholic women and men called to preach. Each one has received a gift given for the good of the community. Each must find a way to live the call. The Catholic community continues to gratefully receive the preaching gifts of the ordained. These men’s homilies do build us up for faith and service. How much more blessed and gifted would our community be if the ministry of preaching could be shared by the gifted non-ordained?

~ Susan Schantz, SSJ

Taking the Plunge

Dear Friends, 

During many Christmas visits over the last few weeks, I heard heartwarming stories of newborns being welcomed into their families. Take Elena Marie. Not only was she welcomed, but the family arranged her baptism when the whole family was together because they all wanted to witness and celebrate Elena Marie’s new place in the church and world. 

One proud grandparent relayed to me the anticipation the family had as they waited to hear her response to the touch of water being poured over her. If Elena Marie showed no fear, the family would say “Ah! Isn’t she strong and wonderful!” And if she cried out, they would say “What powerful lungs she has already!”

In a sense, Elena Marie’s cries are a truer response to baptism than smiles. At its core, baptism is a frightening event, not just for babies, but for adults for who baptism was originally intended.

The descent into the water is a symbol of dying. The person being baptized is dying to the past in order to become, to enter into something new. 

At his own baptism, different from Elena Maries’s, Jesus went down into the murky waters of the Jordan and submitted to a cleansing by John. Luke, and only Luke, tells us that Jesus was baptized in the midst of and after others. He is one of the crowd, part of our humanity. He takes his place with all who stand, wade, and plunge into the waters of ordinary life. Jesus is not apart from us.

You and I suffer in varying degrees because the currents of our minds pull us in one direction and our desires pull us in another. Sometimes we feel deluged by the waters of our mortality, by the threatening chaos of sin and death. But we are not alone. Jesus enters the cleansing waters, greets us in the floods of our lives and emerges with us on the other side.

At his baptism by John, Jesus leaves his former hidden way of life and emerges a new creation. As does Elena Marie. As you and I did when we were baptized. Jesus urges us to discover what is true about ourselves and face our truth with all its beauty, paradox and difficulty.

Luke also adds that Jesus, after his baptism, prayed. Through prayer, he opened his life to all the possibilities the Holy Spirit offered. Jesus held himself ready, then gave himself freely and completely when the time was right. If Elena Marie’s baptism as well as yours and mine are to be fruitful, we must take the plunge, and pray to be ready for the next moment.

With Jesus before us, beside us, behind us and within us, why should we be afraid to take the plunge?

~ Sister Joan Sobala

The Magi, Returning Home

Flyaway Books, 2018

And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way. Matthew 2:12


Dear Friends,

It is the feast of the epiphany. I’ve been reflecting on the Magi story and I have two questions:

• What happens to the Magi after Bethlehem?
• What happens to us after Bethlehem?

The Magi saw a star and they followed it. Their visit to Herod alerted him to Jesus’ birth. Herod’s violent response began with their visit. The Magi found the child and family they had travelled to see. They worshipped and gave gifts. A dream warned them to return home by another way, avoiding Herod and protecting their new hope.

We believers are also advent searchers for signs. We are drawn by the Christmas star, and we follow. Through each epiphany season of our lives, we retrace this journey to find the God of hope.

Like the Magi, we encounter evil, in individual persons, but also in destructive systems and ideologies. Even when our hope is threatened, God draws us forward to meet the glory shining on the face of Christ. We too can see clearly and follow a different road home. We are strengthened in faith and courage to face changes and challenges ahead.

There are so many threats to our hope this new year. The Magi’s story speaks to us:

• Do not travel alone.
• Be ready to travel far and long.
• Be awake and alert to the presence of evil.
• Be awake and alert for signs of hope.
• Find this new way home and foster and protect the gift of hope.

Hopeful New Year’s greetings,
Susan Schantz SSJ

Jubilee Year 2025

Dear Friends, 

Just a few days ago, on Christmas Eve, December 24^th, Pope Francis opened the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica, marking the beginning of the Jubilee Year 2025. The door will close again and be sealed on Epiphany, January 6, 2026, for the next 25 years – until the next Jubilee Year, 2050.  

The theme of this Jubilee Year is “Pilgrims of Hope,” an apt focus for our times.  

At the head of this blog is the logos for Jubilee 2025. A background of green (green being the color of hope) holds a circle (of unity) featuring people of all colors awash in a sea, holding onto each other, holding on to a cross that bends toward them. Rich symbolism.   

We are those people, living in a time when climate change and ongoing wars in many parts of the world threaten human existence and thwart peace among the people. This year (the only one we have) is a time to lift high the cross, to cling to the cross, even as we cling to one another.  

In our very being, human beings are pilgrims, here on this earth for only a short time, moving through life, moving from place to place, seeking a blessed life. In the Jubilee Year, pilgrims are asked to pause and to ask: What have we seen and heard? What have we added to the value of life? What Holy Door will we pass through? What will we leave behind at our end of life? 

Whom do we choose and welcome this year to be our models of hope? 

Whom do we choose and invite to be our companions on this pilgrimage? 

Some people will make a point of traveling to a holy place to symbolize their own pilgrim status. Rome is prepared to receive 35 million pilgrims this year. Some will go to the newly re-opened Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Some will find a holy place nearby where they can sit and contemplate life’s deep meaning. Will you go somewhere, even if it is only a few steps away? 

Still other people will travel in their minds, hearts and bodies to seek forgiveness of God and others for the ways they have inflicted hardship. Some will go a step further and seek reconciliation with God or others from whom they have been alienated. In whatever way you can, make forgiveness and reconciliation a part of this year. 

In this year of Jubilee, give generously of yourself to others who need your particular gifts. 

One last thing: take a page from the Hebrew tradition. Their celebration of the Jubilee Year was seen as a time of rest from the ordinary day to day labor of their lives. It’s not likely we can take a whole year off, but we can have Jubilee hours, or days when the computer and phone are off, and we rest in the Lord. 

Happy New Year!

~ Sister Joan Sobala