Remembering Nelson Mandela . . .

http://www.heureka.clara.net/books/rumor88.pdf

Fainting to the tune of Amazing Grace

Imagine this scene from a recent courtroom trial in South Africa: A frail black woman stands slowly to her feet. She is something over 70 years of age. Facing her from across the room are several white security police officers, one of whom, Mr. Van der Broek, has just been tried and found implicated in the murders of both the woman's son and her husband some years before.
It was indeed Mr. Van der Broek, it has now been established, who had come to the woman's home a number of years back, taken her son, shot him at point-blank range and then burned the young man's body on a fire while he and his officers partied nearby.

Several years later, Van der Broek and his cohorts had returned to take away her husband as well. For many months she heard nothing of his whereabouts. Then, almost two years after her husband's disappearance, Van der Broek came back to fetch the woman herself. How vividly she remembers that evening, going to a place beside a river where she was shown her husband, bound and beaten, but still strong in spirit, lying on a pile of wood. The last words she heard from his lips as the officers poured gasoline over his body and set him aflame were, "Father, forgive them."

And now the woman stands in the courtroom and listens to the confessions offered by Mr. Van der Broek. A member of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission turns to her and asks, "So, what do you want? How should justice be done to this man who has so brutally destroyed your family?"

"I want three things," begins the old woman, calmly but confidently. "I want first to be taken to the place where my husband's body was burned so that I can gather up the dust and give his remains a decent burial."

She pauses, then continues. "My husband and son were my only family. I want, secondly, therefore, for Mr. Van der Broek to become my son. I would like for him to come twice a month to the ghetto and spend a day with me so that I can pour out on him whatever love I still have remaining within me."

"And, finally," she says, "I want a third thing. I would like Mr. Van der Broek to know that I offer him my forgiveness because Jesus Christ died to forgive. This was also the wish of my husband. And so, I would kindly ask someone to come to my side and lead me across the courtroom so that I can take Mr. Van der Broek in my arms, embrace him and let him know that he is truly forgiven."

As the court assistants come to lead the elderly woman across the room, Mr. Van der Broek, overwhelmed by what he has just heard, faints. And as he does, those in the courtroom, friends, family, neighbors — all victims of decades of oppression and injustice — begin to sing, softly, but assuredly, "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnGeMBNS9ZA

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25190973

http://news.msn.com/world/south-africans-mourn-celebrate-life-of-nelson-mandela 

• A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.

• I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.

• Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. 

• For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

• There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

• There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.

• Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another.

• If there are dreams about a beautiful South Africa, there are also roads that lead to their goal. Two of these roads could be named Goodness and Forgiveness.

More Remembering . . .

• Lord, make me your witness. In this world of darkness, let my light shine.
• In this world of lies, let me speak the good news of truth.
• In this world of hate and fear, let me radiate your love. 
• In this world of despair, let me spread hope. 
• In this world of systemic injustice and institutionalized evil, let me promote justice and goodness.
• In this world of sadness and sorrow, let me bring joy.
• In this world of cruelty and condemnation, let me show your compassion.
• In this world of vengeance and retaliation, let me offer your mercy and reconciliation. 
• In this world of war, let me serve your gift of peace. 
• In this world of violence, make me a teacher and apostle of your nonviolence. 
• In this world of death, let me proclaim the new life of resurrection. 
• Help me to witness to the resurrection of Jesus by loving my enemies, showing compassion, feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, serving the poor, liberating the oppressed, resisting war, beating plowshares, and disarming my heart and the world.
• In the name of the risen, nonviolent Jesus, Amen

Taken from:
You Will be My Witnesses: 
Saints, Prophets and Martyrs
By John Dear, sj
http://www.fatherjohndear.org/

Remembering . . .

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=sisters+in+el+salvador+youtube&FORM=VIRE3#view=detail&mid=B9F5427477354B07731BB9F5427477354B07731B

http://www.domlife.org/2010Stories/romero_days_srcarla.htm

http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/Martyrs/Churchwomen/index.html

ARCHBISHOP OSCAR ROMERO PRAYER: A STEP ALONG THE WAY

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent
enterprise that is God's work. Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of
saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the Church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an
opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master
builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.

Bishop Ken Untener of Saginaw

*This prayer was composed by Bishop Ken Untener of Saginaw, drafted for a homily by Card. John Dearden in Nov. 1979 for a celebration of departed priests. As a reflection on the anniversary of the martyrdom of Bishop Romero, Bishop Untener included in a reflection book a passage titled "The mystery of the Romero Prayer." The mystery is that the words of the prayer are attributed to Oscar Romero, but they were never spoken by him.

Advent ~ iListen

There is an Online Advent Retreat link now posted on our CSA main website page http://www.csasisters.org/ 

Simply click on the link  “Online Advent Retreat” under News & Events and you will find the Introduction and First Week of Advent reflections.

In Thanksgiving . . .

“We thank our God every time we think of you. In every prayer we utter, we rejoice at the way you have all continually helped promote the Good News of Peace with Justice from the very first day. We are sure of this much, that the God, who has begun this good work in you, will carry it through to completion. Our prayer is that your love may abound more and more, both in understanding and in wealth of experience, so that with a clear conscience and blameless conduct you may learn to value the things that really matter, up to the day of Christ Jesus. It is our wish that you be found rich in the harvest of justice which Jesus Christ has ripened in you, to the glory and praise of God.” (Adapted from Philippians 1:1-11)
We thank you for visiting our CSA website.  We wish you blessings and thank you for your prayers and support.
Gratefully,
Sister Jean

Earth . . . Teach Us to Remember . . .

If the only prayer you ever say in your whole life is “thank you,” that would suffice. ~ Meister Eckhart

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ~ John F. Kennedy

For each new morning with its light, 
For rest and shelter of the night, 
For health and food, 
For love and friends, 
For everything Thy goodness sends.  ~  Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Creator hear us, for we are your children.
Father we thank you for all that you have given us.
We thank you for the lessons that you have taught us and
for the life that you have allowed us to lead.
We thank you Mother Earth for your beauty and sustenance.
We thank the masters of this universe
for their guidance, protection and direction.
Father we thank you for the white light that surrounds us, and for
that same white light which transmutes all negativity
into love and healing.
We thank you father, for the healing of our souls,
the healing of the Earth and for the healing of all mankind.
We call upon the power of the universe, to
allow us happiness, prosperity, healing and love.
We call upon the power of the universe for
good relationship to all things.
We call upon the power of the universe, for sacred direction,
sacred protection, sacred correction and sacred connection.
We call upon the power of the universe for magic and miracles.
We honor you Creator, as we honor all things seen and unseen.
We honor you Creator, as we honor our ancestors, 
as we honor ourselves.
~ Grant Redhawk - Two Feathers - Native American

Thank You, thank You, thank You, generous God!  You have injected life with joy, thus we know laughter. You have dabbed creation with color, thus we enjoy beauty. You have whistled a divine tune into the rhythm of life, thus we hear music. You have filled our minds with questions, thus we appreciate mystery. You have entered our hearts with compassion, thus we experience faith. Thank You, God, Thank You. Thank You! ~ C. Welton Gaddy   

Thanksgiving Prayer  
In the spirit of humility we give thanks for all that is. 
We thank the great spiritual beings who have shared their wisdom. 
We thank our ancestors who brought us to where we are now. 
We are grateful for the opportunity to walk this planet, 
to breathe the air, 
to taste the food, 
to experience sensations of a human body/mind, 
to share in this wonder that is life. 
We are grateful for the natural world that supports us, 
for the community of humankind that enables us to do many wondrous things. 
We are grateful that we are conscious, 
that as intelligent beings we can reflect upon the many gifts we have been given. ~ Tom Barrett 

Native American Prayers

Oh Great Spirit, 
Whose voice I hear in the wind, 
Whose breath gives life to the world, 
Hear me! 
I come to you as one of your many children. 
I am small and weak. 
I need your strength and wisdom. 
May I walk in beauty. 
Make my eyes behold the red and purple sunset. 
Make my hands respect the things that you have made, 
And my ears sharp to hear your voice. 
Make me wise so that I may know the things 
That you have taught your children-- 
The lessons that you have hidden in every leaf and rock. 
Make me strong, not to be superior to my brothers, but to be 
able to fight my greatest enemy: myself. 
Make me ever ready to come to you with straight eyes, so that 
When life fades as the faded sunset 
My spirit will come to you without shame.  ~ John Yellow Lark


Earth Teach Me to Remember
Earth teach me stillness 
as the grasses are stilled with light. 
Earth teach me suffering 
as old stones suffer with memory. 
Earth teach me humility 
as blossoms are humble with beginning. 
Earth Teach me caring 
as the mother who secures her young. 
Earth teach me courage 
as the tree which stands alone. 
Earth teach me limitation 
as the ant which crawls on the ground. 
Earth teach me freedom 
as the eagle which soars in the sky. 
Earth teach me resignation 
as the leaves which die in the fall. 
Earth teach me regeneration 
as the seed which rises in the spring. 
Earth teach me to forget myself 
as melted snow forgets its life. 
Earth teach me to remember kindness 
as dry fields weep in the rain. 
Ute, North American

http://www.interluderetreat.com/prayers.htm

http://www.worldprayers.org/archive/index/celebrations_index.html

http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/blogs/maps.php?id=17144

http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/practices/features.php?id=16274

http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/

http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/112813.html

Meeting Your Edge!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mountain_peaks,_Lahul.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:John_Hill

There is a story about a group of people climbing to the top of a mountain. It turns out it's pretty steep, and as soon as they get up to a certain height, a couple of people look down and see how far it is, and they completely freeze; they had come up against their edge and they couldn't go beyond it. The fear was so great that they couldn't move. Other people tripped on ahead, laughing and talking, but as the climb got steeper and more scary, more people began to get scared and freeze. All the way up this mountain there were places where people met their edge and just froze and couldn't go any farther. The people who made it to the top looked out and were very happy to have made it to the top.

The moral of the story is that it really doesn't make any difference where you meet your edge; just meeting it is the point. Life is a whole journey of meeting your edge again and again. That's where you're challenged; that's where, if you're a person who wants to live, you start to ask yourself questions like, "Now, why am I so scared? What is it that I don't want to see? Why can't I go any further than this?" The people who got to the top were not the heroes of the day. It's just that they weren't afraid of heights; they are going to meet their edge somewhere else. The ones who froze at the bottom were not the losers. They simply stopped first and so their lesson came earlier than the others. However, sooner or later everybody meets his or her edge.

Pema Chodron
From 'The Wisdom of No Escape'