Using Our Time, Talent, and Treasure Faithfully

Dear Friends,

What would you judge to be the most religiously significant items you carry around with you? One retreat director suggested that the answer is our checkbook and our datebook.

Think about it.

These two things – our datebook and our checkbook (whether on the mobile phone or on paper) reveal what we think is valuable – how we spend our time, talent and treasure.

Today’s readings, on this second last Sunday of the liturgical year, are about spending and hoarding what has been entrusted to us.

Take the woman described in the reading from Proverbs. She wasn’t given 5000, 2000 or even 1000 talents to work with. But what she had she used exceptionally well. She was described as industrious, generous and good, full of compassion for the people in the many strands of her life. She was not self-centered but certainly convinced of her own worth.

She is one of those whom Paul in today’s second reading calls “children of the light, children of the day.” She is a challenge to us to take whatever talent we have and use it.

That same message echoes in the Gospel. The third servant, colorfully referred to as “a worthless lazy lout” did nothing with thee talents he received, and in the end, he found no blessing in it.

Jesus’ message?

If you’ve got it, use it.
Use it or lose it.
Work whatever talent or gift you have.

As we anticipate Thanksgiving with our personal litany of thanks, as we consider the bottom lines in our checkbooks and calendars, what patterns do we see have emerged? Do our actions and spending reflect anything of Jesus’ vision? Are generosity, risk on behalf of the common good, and compassion evident in them?

~ Sister Joan Sobala

What Comes Next?

Dear Friends,

Last weekend Catholics celebrated All Saints Day and All Souls Day, special remembrances of the dead who have gone before us. I found myself rereading The Passion of Perpetua, an early third century document built around Saint Perpetua’s prison diary. 

This North African noblewoman had just given birth when arrested and imprisoned with the new baby and Felicity, her pregnant servant and friend. Before their executions, both women endured the pleas of loved ones to renounce Christianity and return home. Both entrusted their children to family members. 

Perpetua writes that during prayer she remembered her young brother who had died at age seven. His cancer had distorted one side of his face and mouth. She wept, remembering well his suffering and their family’s loss. That night she dreamed that he came to her and asked if his face could be healed. She awoke weeping to see him still suffering and alone. 

Some nights later Perpetua again dreamed of her little brother. He was in a beautiful garden, his face healed and bright with joy. He greeted her and then turned to join other children in their playing and laughing. This apparition consoled Perpetua and her companions. It strengthened their faith that they and the ones they loved would know healing and new life. Death would not be the end. All life’s wounds would be healed.

With hope,
Susan Schantz SSJ

Celebrating All Saints Day

Dear Friends, 

On this first Sunday of November, the Saints of God capture our liturgical minds and hearts. We celebrate them all. But who are they, these holy ones of God? Matthew Robb Brown, American essayist, and poet, is also a deacon in the Eastern Orthodox Church and a convert from the Baptist Church. He has studied and learned much about the saints in his faith journey. Here is a piece he wrote. I offer it to help us celebrate All Saints Day in an expansive way. 

It is the glory Saints hide in
of the Church         blossoms,
that it cannot ride birds, top clouds;
name follow passages
all the saints. under the 
                                                        earth. 

It is the glory
of the Church         They sweep the floors
that it cannot of the universe.
remember                                       They take out the garbage 
all the saints.                         of the cosmos.  

It is the glory
of Christ The seeds they scatter
that we cannot soften and green the
count hillsides.
all the saints. 

Saints are found                            The faithful  
behind all the rocks                 cling to the roots  
of the                                         of the saints,  
mountain.                                 growing up  
                                                        from the ground. 

When the darkening world threatens to overwhelm us and we find ourselves without joy, let’s look to the saints, who in their ordinariness became extraordinary messengers of God’s presence and love. 

Happy feast!

~ Sister Joan Sobala

Autumn Change and Growth

Dear Friends,

A recent trip to Saratoga Springs was a dive into bright foliage, all orange and gold and red. The falling leaves and bare branches provoked reflection. What lasts? What fades and dies? Where do we humans fit in the cycles of creation? What can I learn from a tree?

As a young Language Arts teacher, I assigned students to choose a tree to observe for the school year. I told them to watch closely. Each week they and I then wrote a few words about what we saw. Some weeks we wrote about the tree. Any changes? Any growth? Some weeks we wrote about ourselves. Any changes? Any growth?

Autumn 2026 invites me to attend to the growing, changing world around me. Nature is a dear companion as we humans grow and change. I love to read this 1928 Robert Frost poem that may speak to you, too, about change and growth.

Tree at My Window

Tree at my window, window tree,
My sash is lowered when night comes on;
But let there never be curtain drawn
Between you and me.

Vague dream head lifted out of the ground,
And thing next most diffuse to cloud,
Not all your light tongues talking aloud
Could be profound.

But tree, I have seen you taken and tossed,
And if you have seen me when I slept,
You have seen me when I was taken and swept
And all but lost.

That day she put our heads together,
Fate had her imagination about her,
Your head so much concerned with outer,
Mine with inner, weather.

Appreciating autumn leaves,

 
Susan Schantz SSJ

A Fall Bouquet for the Soul

Dear Friends,

The fall season is deepening in our northern part of the world. The oak leaves, beech tree leaves, the many kinds of foliage are changing, drying up, falling off to expose the surprisingly beautiful skeletal structure of the trees and bushes that have been hidden all summer. The leaves themselves offer a meditation on change.

In this season of new things coming into sight, we might find new ideas or new renditions of old ideas seeking entrance into our minds and hearts. What follows here is a set of eight unconnected thoughts that have brought me up short this summer – ideas about God, faith, our own potential, to mull over, relish and maybe make my own. I offer them to you as a fall bouquet to use in your inner room where you go to be with God and to grow. You may not find all of them helpful. Choose one or two to concentrate on. Have a conversation with others about the meaning of a thought that eludes you.

The banquet table of the Lord is open to you if it is open to everyone. (John Shea)

Grace is when God gives us something we do not deserve. Mercy is when God does not give us what we deserve.

Paradise is surrounded by a wall, guarded by reason. Until you overcome reason, you cannot enter paradise.

Celebrate what’s right with the world, when faced with life and death. Be ready. Surprise awaits you.

The best and most wonderful thing that can happen to you in this life is that you should be silent and let God work and speak. (Dag Hammarskjold)

Never go anywhere without the angels

Who watch God’s face and listen to be sought.

Greater than you, yet they have joy to serve you.

Never go blundering through the jungle,

Without a clear-eyed one to part the branches,

shout snake or swamp hole, cry a rock beware.

The angels of the Lord encamp around you

In any place you pitch your tents for prayer. (Jessica Powers)

We can’t desire something unless we have tasted it. (Father James Martin)

Develop an emotional resilience to live with hanging issues. (Sister Jean Bellini, SSJ)

Blessings for October!

~ Sister Joan Sobala

Catholic and catholic

Dear Friends,

References to Catholicism have made their way into 2026 social media, print journalism, and conversations. Political advertising and speeches often note the ethics and religious beliefs of candidates. Some US citizens are analyzing whether there is or should be a clear Catholic voting bloc. The immigration crisis sparks discussion of morality and responsibility of citizens and their leaders. Some Catholic bishops initiate conversations about Catholic social teaching. And, oh yes, a former Rochester bishop is named a Catholic Blessed and the ceremony and veneration of relics prompt reminiscence and questions and reflection.

What does the word catholic mean? Its Greek roots point to a concern for the whole, a universal perspective. When second century bishop Ignatius of Antioch used the adjective catholic to describe the early church, he was celebrating its missionary communities of many locations, languages, and traditions. 

During the years of the protestant reformation, catholic began to denote the Christian churches loyal to Rome. The word’s use to refer to one Christian denomination weakened its rich message of mission and universality. 

This fall I am preoccupied with being Catholic and with the meaning of this affiliation. Returning to the earliest meaning of the word catholic helps me gain some perspective on the many issues and events I mention above. I attempt to think and pray as a member of a church that encompasses many eras and many cultures. I want to vote and behave as a citizen with a global and inclusive perspective. 

Catholic and catholic, 

Susan Schantz SSJ

Following St. Francis' Enduring Call to Love Creation

Dear Friends,

This year marks the 800th anniversary of the death of St. Francis of Assisi. Francis resembled Jesus as completely as any person could. Francis, in an age that did not think in these terms, gave us a totally new way of looking at and loving creation. In this love of his, Francis showed us that we are kin to all creation and creation to us. We are not simply to use creation, or master it or dominate it. Instead, we are to look upon all creation as our beloved friends, family and neighbors.

In his “Canticle of the Creatures,” Francis taught us to embrace in our prayer brother sun, wind, air and fire. He honors moon, water, earth, and the stars as our sisters.

Swimming out into Canandaigua Lake a few weeks ago, sister water snake crossed my path, her head held high. A few moments later, baby water snake hurried along to catch up. We shared the lake. Sisters all.

In this month leading up to Francis’ feast, let’s read scripture in a new way. In answer to the question, “Who is my neighbor?” let us turn to all creation, which today, seems to be suffering all over the world from floods, famine, drought, and frequent storms of great magnitude. Let us honor creation with our careful use of its gifts and let it blossom in whatever way it can.

Theologian Elizabeth Johnson, in her book “Come, Have Breakfast,” encourages us to develop this way of thinking and living. “Give God credit for loving the earth. Loving God with all your heart and soul, mind and strength, be converted to your own self as part of creation. Love your neighbor as yourself. Ponder how you can make the world a more compassionate place for all living beings." (P.158)

The American author, poet, activist and farmer, Wendell Berry had a love affair with nature, much as Francis of Assisi did, though from a more humanist perspective. In his poem, “The Peace of Wild Things,” Berry, who died in August of this year at the age of 92, offers us a soothing place to grow stronger in our sense of oneness with creation. He says:

            When despair for the world grows in me
            and I wake in the night at the least sound
            in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
            I go and lie down where the wood drake
            rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
            I come into the peace of wild things
            who do not tax their lives with forethought
            of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
            And I feel above me the day-blind stars
            waiting with their light. For a time
            I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

~ Sister Joan Sobala