The Small Gestures of Life

Dear Friends,

Have you ever been encouraged by others to “think big?" I have. Thinking big is a worldview, an attitude that can lead to success in the world’s estimation.

Thinking big involves expecting more, better, larger physical, mental, spiritual amounts of everything. The creators of the concept leading to self-storage units strewn across the landscape understood what it means to think big. They knew that people had long ago internalized this concept and were in need of more space for everything they had accumulated.

Today, let’s spend time with what “thinking small” might offer us.

Small pleasures, small blessings, small gifts, small steps, small realizations.

Our everyday spiritual lives are most often one of these “smalls” or a combination of them. Jesus, in the Gospel, paid great attention to the power of the small: a cup of cold water, the lilies of the field, the sparrow, one fig tree that didn’t bear fruit, the poor, the sick, the lame and the children who were too small to be considered important. In the Magnificat, Jesus’ Mother, Mary sang of God who has lifted up the lowly.

There are a few saints in the history of the church who did remarkable things. Most were faithful to their call from God in small ways. Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower, wrote often of the power of the small: “Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word…" and elsewhere “Remember that nothing is small in the eyes of God. Do small things with great love.”

Sometimes, in a gesture of universal recognition, something enters the public awareness as remarkably important. Such was the case in 1954 when Kitty Kallen introduced a song which has endure to today: “Little Things Mean A Lot.” This song had only one message: the power of the small.

                “Give me your arm when we cross the street.
                A line a day when you’re far away.
                Give me your hand when I’ve lost the way
                Give me your shoulder to cry on.
                Whether the day is bright or gray,
                Give me your heart to rely on.
                Little things mean a lot.”

As winter deepens and the darkness still falls early, as Valentine’s Day approaches and we prepare to celebrate the loves of our lives, express God’s presence to all we meet in the small gestures that every day can hold. 

~ Sister Joan Sobala

Marching for Life

Dear Friends, 

God called the journeying Israelite believers to choose life. They were thirsty and their feet hurt. Their children were fussy and hungry. All the travelers felt wilderness heat and nighttime chill. They sang. They prayed. They complained. What was this journey? Can we do this? Keep going, called Moses. God is giving us a life and death choice. Choose life and we will live. 

We see many brave exodus travelers in our world today. Protestors in Minneapolis and Portland. Israelis demanding hostage release. Gazans protesting rationed food supplies. Hospital workers alarmed at the steep increase in health insurance premiums. Immigrants leaving oppressive regimes. Other immigrants and citizens expelled by corrupt government officials. Nigerians rallying against the military’s treatment of civilians. Venezuelans fighting for self-government. On Friday, January 23, the annual March for Life will unfold in Washington, DC. 

Choose life that you and your children may live. All these January marchers, these brave travelers, are marching for us, for the human community. Whatever our own religion or politics, we owe respect and support to those who march for life.  

In hope,
Susan Schantz SSJ

Walking with Jesus Through the Wilderness

Dear Friends,

There is the Baptism of Repentance that John the Baptist offered and there is Christian Baptism. They both appear in the New Testament. They are not the same. 

We celebrate Christian Baptism, that is a lasting immersion into Christ at the Easter Vigil. Today we celebrate the Baptism that John offered to people who came to him at the Jordan River. Among those who came was Jesus. He and John gazed at each other. John didn’t think that his baptizing Jesus was appropriate. Jesus was, after all, God-made-human – without sin. But Jesus had come to take on the sin of the world, and his baptism by John symbolized Jesus’ wholeheartedness to do so.

Then what?

What happened after the baptism of Jesus by John in the Jordan? They parted company.

Jesus went out into the wilderness to pray, to deepen, to wrestle with the powers of evil. Jesus went alone – but he was not alone. The angels ministered to him. Angels, it seems, hovered around Jesus – to keep him company, to encourage him to withstand evil. But who said it was easy?

Jesus was confronted by Satan who thought he could overcome Jesus. But he didn’t and he couldn’t. Jesus was strengthened by his baptism and by his time of prayer on the desert. Jesus was not overcome, but Satan promised to return for another round. He came in the garden of Gethsemane, as Jesus’ passion began and once again, did not overcome Jesus.

What of us? What can we take away from this feast this year of endless, debilitating natural storms and fatal violence against other people?

For one thing, we can take in the realization that Jesus came to take away the power of sin in people’s lives. It will take our cooperation to achieve that. For another thing, we might embrace the wilderness in which we find ourselves – accept being alone “out there” but not alone. We are called to find and walk with others who likewise want to look Satan in the eye and reject him – Satan, who comes to us in so many attractive ways. Together, we need to say no to Satan.

All of this.

Together with Jesus, who never leaves us to work out the difficulties of our lives alone.

It would be easy to skip over this part of Jesus’ experience as not pertaining to us………But it does. In the sweep of life, we are one with Jesus, from the Jordan to the garden of the Resurrection.

~ Sister Joan Sobala

Watching for Stars

Dear Friends,

Year after year, we Christians unpack and retell the Christmas stories. They are full of darkness and full of stars. This year I am attracted to the Magi’s journey tale. This year, 2025, the shadows and threats in the story remind me of our own world’s shadows and threats. The travelers’ discovery of grace in an unexpected place? That, too, is part of my personal journey. The gospel travelers needed to plot a new route and that resonates with me as 2026 progresses.

The Magi spent time in darkness, studying stars. As the northern hemisphere moves through the dark season, I am drawn to the hours of dusk and dawn. Those are the times I can pause and pray, let go of the day or greet the new day. I can review the day and remember God’s presence. I can welcome a new day and pray to be wise and faithful. I can plot new routes and accompany others on the road. I can hope, morning and evening, that the stars seen in darkness will guide all of us travelers.

In hope,

Susan Schantz SSJ

One World, Under God

Dear Friends,

After the Magi left, Joseph had another dream, this time that Jesus’ life was in danger. Joseph did not hesitate to leave Bethlehem as soon as possible and took little with them: the donkey, whatever the Child Jesus needed, a few necessities. They made the descent from Bethlehem – what had seemed to be a safe place – joining with other travelers along the ancient coastal road from Raffa to Egypt. No one traveled alone. That was helpful in many ways. Since they had no clear destination, talking with other travelers, other refugees, Joseph and Mary heard some helpful things. These travelers shared similar human emotions, the taste of travel weariness, the smell and the stains on their bodies and clothes. Along the way, they knew hunger and thirst and the fears of the unknown.

The liturgists who chose the readings for the Christmas season have, for some reason, not included this account of Mary, Joseph and the child Jesus fleeing into Egypt. But at this time in our world, in our country, it is particularly significant to linger over their story. It has a profound connection to the refugees today who are fleeing violence and possible death. Joseph, Mary and Jesus were brown people, like the many brown people set loose in our own unwelcoming world. In paying attention to this scene – then and now – we see similar characteristics: Refugees learned to… 

…recognize a threat/flee/make do/and when possible, come home. 

Joseph, Mary and Jesus are the patron family of all refugees. They are our reminder, in faith, that we are all one family in one world, hospitable or not.  

On this Sunday, tucked in between Christmas and New Year, before the plight of contemporary refugees disappears from our TVs and social media, before we get back to our ordinary, non-holiday lives, let’s remember that we are one world, under God. In our churches, mosques, synagogues and temples, remember that we are all one world, under God. In the marketplace, the workplace, in government offices, remember that we are one world, under God. 

Will you do that? Will I do that?

If we make and keep any resolution at all in the coming year, let it be this one: to remember and to remind others that we are one world, under God.

No one is beneath us.
        No one is too poor, too dirty, too wrong in their thinking.
        No one is apart from us: the refugee, the terrorist, the pacifist, the doubter. 

We are one world, under God.

On this feast of our most holy refugees – Jesus, Mary and Joseph – will we commit ourselves to remembering this truth and be its messenger: We are one world, under God.

~ Sister Joan Sobala

Guest Rooms

Dear Friends,

Do you ever watch HG/TV? House hunters often look for a house with a guest room. Here they can welcome out-of-town family members or friends for holiday, vacation, or emergency visits. While most of us cannot afford an actual extra room for guests, we share this desire to make room for each other, to make space for shared meals, holiday rituals, and conversations.

Each December, we Christians retell a story about making room for special guests. Like children in a Christmas pageant, we survey the characters and, perhaps, have a first choice for our own dramatic role. Excited shepherd? Loving father? Brave mother? Generous and wise magi? Angel heard on high?

This year of attacks on immigrants, I choose the role of the inn keeper. Like the inn keeper, I publicly profess to be hospitable and welcoming. Like the inn keeper, I am not always gracious to those who approach me. Like the inn keeper, I have a door that opens and shuts. I am influenced by class, racial, and religious biases. I live in a time of political division and violence. I make mistakes. I hurt people. I ignore the knock on my door.

Can you relate to my choosing this character in the Christmas pageant? If you can, I hope you also share my belief that we inn keepers are daily offered mercy and second chances. Weary travelers who need room will show up each day. God creates a guest room when we open the door. Ways to respond will unfold. Pray with me that we welcome those traveling families.

In hope, 

Susan Schantz SSJ

A Season of Movement

Dear Friends,

The Advent and Christmas seasons are times of anticipation and fulfillment.

They are also seasons of people moving from one place to another, traveling by foot or in groups or in their minds and in their hearts. In this swirling world of ours, we have only to think of the times before and after Jesus was born to see fruitful movement everywhere.

Zechariah went up to Jerusalem, leaving his wife behind in the village of Ain Karim, where they lived. Zechariah was a high priest. It was his turn to enter the Holy of Holies to burn incense. There he came face to face with the angel Gabriel, sent by God, who told him he was soon to be a father, but Zechariah did not believe. He left the temple mute, rendered speechless by his unbelief, a long way from his former self-confidence. Back in their home, Zechariah somehow communicated the news to Elizabeth. They came together. Zechariah's seed passed into her womb. Together they waited.

Later in Nazareth, Gabriel came again, this time to Mary. The movement of her heart was so profound that as she said “Yes!,” the Word of God leapt into life, as a human in her. In the face of his own anguish over a love seemingly lost, Joseph moved between two ways of thinking: either to accept the pregnant Mary or to follow the law. In the end, he was moved to pay attention to the dream that came to him convincingly. Do not be afraid, Joseph. They married.

Still later, when Elizabeth and Mary met, John leapt for joy in his mother’s womb at being in the presence of his God/cousin. No one, nothing was still. Everything moved divinely inspired. 

From Ain Karim to back to Nazareth and then to Bethlehem, Joseph, Mary and the babe in her womb travelled along dangerous routes. When Jesus was born, the angels travelled to the shepherds and they in turn travelled to see the newborn Jesus. Still later, the star that had been going before the Magi brought them at long last to His presence. The hatred of Herod caused the Magi to flee home. Joseph, Mary and the infant fled too, travelling down to Raffa, and from there along the coast road to Egypt. Nothing was still for long.

Eventually, the holy family went home to Nazareth for a brief respite. 

How about you? Where in this season of overwhelming distraction do you find yourselves in these sacred biblical travels of body, mind and heart?

In your life, have you felt yourself being moved, drawn to make moves and accept situations that you had not previously considered? How do you respond when your world is turned upside down? Have you discovered grace in what appeared to be chaos?

As you have gotten older, do you believe that new, unexpected things can happen in your life? What do you still hope for, dream about, believe in? Have you experienced a dream?

Where have you found the strength to be sure that nothing is impossible with God?

Where do you and I feel God’s movement in each of us, calling us individually and together, encouraging us to recognize Jesus, newborn in our world today and everyday? 

~ Sister Joan Sobala