Reflection 

June 2010

 Father’s Day Reflection

by Steven J. Mangine

A man throws seed on his land.  Night and day, while he sleeps, while he is awake, the seed is sprouting and growing.  How, he does not know.                                                  --Mark 4: 26 – 29

We parents often talk about our children as if they were a woodworking project or an empty vessel that we are supposed to fill.  Since we belong to a culture that cherishes technological control, it is not surprising that we generalize the same approach to parenting.   But if raising a child means building a life from the ground up, then we fathers are in serious trouble--particularly those of us who can hardly build a birdhouse.

We might borrow this simplest of Jesus’ parables for an alternative image of parenting.  The child arrives as her own kind of seed, and we are given no choice in the matter.  Then the seed unfolds out of its own inner necessity, according to its own nature. 

If a growing child is unfolding from a unique seed, then our job is not engineering, but gardening.  This means fostering the conditions that allow the child to grow into the full expression of his own nature.  A little weeding here, a little watering there--creating a safe space to grow in, as kindly and skillfully as possible. 

This makes fathering, mothering, an active surrender, a trusting participation in an unfolding mystery, a whole-hearted partnering with life by life’s rules.   

~Steven J. Mangine practices psychology in Lexington , Kentucky

May, 2010

Mother’s Day Proclamation

Julia Ward Howe - 1870

NOTE:  Mother's Day was originally started after the Civil War, as a protest to the carnage of that war, by women who had lost their sons. Here is the original Mother's Day Proclamation from 1870.

Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!
 
"We will not have questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own.

It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910), author of the " Battle Hymn of the Republic", was committed to abolishing war and proposed an annual Mother's Day for Peace.

http://www.mothersdaycentral.com/about-mothersday/history/famous-moms/julia-ward-howe.php  

April, 2010
^†Earth’s Easter Story
By ‡Margie Stelzer

 I live on a ridge top in a Christian intentional community in rural Kentucky. Together we have bought land, shared prayer and built resource conserving houses. I moved here to answer a call to become a steward of our eight acres, to live responsibly and lovingly among it. What I have learned is that I am not a mere observer, a custodian in a watch house. As I peel away layers of modern conveniences, I have found that I am a part of a holy, circular cycle. 

In an attempt to live closer to the land, we have built homes that require us to spend time watching the world around us. My living room windows overlook our vegetable garden, a small orchard and a wooded hillside. In the summer the garden is a jungle of vines and bushes jeweled with ruby tomatoes, golden peppers and ivory eggplants. The woods provide a background of green and are thick with life. Yellow finches, Indigo Buntings and Downy Woodpeckers populate the treetops; chipmunk, rabbit and ground hog the forest floor; pill bugs, beetles and a broad host of micro-organisms the soil below. By winter time the land has been transformed. The vegetables have all died, the orchard and woods are bare branches of grays and browns and only animals with the colors of earth or wet bark remain. All are preparing, waiting for the warmth of Spring to bring forth new life.

^†Read Full Article

Original article published in first issue of CONSPIRE!, a quarterly publication from a diverse network of communities and groups.

^‡Margie Stelzer lives with her two children, husband, and three other families at Curtis Pike Community in Richmond , Kentucky .

March, 2010

Yielding to Gratitude
By Gail M. Koehler

As I write, Lexington’s 2010 One World Film festival has just begun—a series of screenings that invite viewers into the lives of peoples geographically removed from Central Kentucky.  The first film of this year’s series was "Departures," a Japanese movie about a struggling cellist.  When his orchestra job dissolves, he returns to his boyhood home left to him by his departed mother. There he stumbles into a job preparing bodies for “coffining,” involving a ceremonial washing and preparation of corpses in the presence of their families.  I’ve since read that the film is loosely based on the book Coffinman: The Journal of a Buddhist Mortician by Shinmon Aoki.  

What struck me, as a mother with a teen and a wannabe teen in our house, was the deft manner that the director Yojiro Takita captured the struggles and knotted conflicts that can so consume families when locked in rage or disappointment with one another.  The film then illuminates what a gift the preparatory ceremony is to those fractious souls when an adept, tendering presence allows them to yield to their gratitude for the person they knew and finally release the beginnings of their grief.

The depiction of dignity and compassion I’d seen flickering on the screen provided me a gift as I exited the theater into the chill February evening: a reinvigorated desire to be open to small daily moments of reconciliation; to a yielding to gratitude that can provide a quiet—if only I will heed it—soundtrack to daily life.

Gail Koehler has found her spiritual community with Quakers since 1998.  Among a variety of writing projects, she is also the editor of Peaceways, the Newsletter of the Central Kentucky Council for Peace and Justice.

February, 2010

Forgiveness – a radical direction of the heart            
By Sister Robbie Pentecost

            Recently I glanced at my calendar noticing that February is Forgiveness month, It seems that in so many arenas, forgiveness is at the heart of the solution. 

I recently read about Maya Wind, a young Israeli woman, who along with other Israeli and Palestinian youth is calling for a new direction.  For Wind, “the way to peace in the Middle East , and anywhere else, is not to fight fire with fire but to fight it with water –the water of negotiation, compromise, non-cooperation with abusive power, questioning militarism, and knowing that the other side might have fair-minded grievances.”  Forgiveness recognizes our part in the conflict and frees the chains of anger, despair and resentment. 

Wind, like Martin Luther King in a speech on April 4, 1967 , challenges us to engage forgiveness and reflect Gospel love.  “Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence- when it helps us to see the enemy’s point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves.  For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers (sisters) who are called the opposition.” 

Francis engaged the Sultan, who many saw as the enemy, and was changed.  Just think what could be possible in our world, our nation, our church if we could engage with one another in an attitude of forgiveness – not labeling those who disagree with us as evil, but rather working together toward building up the kingdom of God .  Hmmm?

Sister Robbie Pentecost, OSF, has been a member of the Sisters of St. Francis, Oldenburg ,  IN for 25 years.  Her current ministry is with the Christian Partner program of the Christian Appalachian Project. 

January, 2010

New Beginnings
by Sister Allegrezza

It’s that time of year again, a time of new beginnings and fresh starts. Close on the heels of that hopeful thought often comes the memory of failed attempts, frustration and even guilt. I think, perhaps, we make our New Year’s resolutions the way we live our lives: by biting off more than we can chew. By attempting what we “should” not what we “could”. As a general rule we are goal-oriented not process-oriented. Yet it is the small steps, the little things in any process that support lasting change.

The goal of losing ten pounds sounds great but the process of eating more veggies or exercising for thirty minutes may not sound as good. The goal of peace sounds great, too, but forgiving a past wrong isn’t as appealing, is it? Laying down our right to be right may not be an easy thing but often it is the process that leads to peace in our lives. Peace in our lives could be the small step toward peace in our world. Will you dare to look for the small steps, the things we “could” do to offer peace to others in our daily lives this year?  

 

December, 2009

Just Listen
By Beth Dotson Brown

 Sometimes I feel pressured to do something grand, something phenomenal with my life and my talent. Then I am reminded that the most beautiful gifts we can give the world are often the simplest, including a listening ear.

I recently met a woman whose unhealthy teeth, obesity and minimum-wage job told me she likely had little education and few financial resources. She noticed I was carrying a bag from a writers’ conference, asked if I was a writer then expressed her interest in the craft. We chatted about writing and I invited her to join our local arts organization.

A few months later, we talked again. I invited her to an event where I would be selling books and other artists would be selling their work. She came, and in the midst of the crowd that continually milled past us, told me about the trauma of her childhood abuse, her past drug problem, her decision to forego college even after being accepted, the struggles of single motherhood. Her burdens were enough to pound her so low that she would never be able to get up.

But she looked at me and said, “You’ve inspired me. I’m going to start working toward what I really want in my life.”

Her words stunned me. I had done little more than listen to her. But she had taught me a lesson—that maybe giving our time is the most spectacular gift we can give to one another, especially in midst of the busy-ness of our world. Try it. Just listen.

November, 2009

freeing the fire of compassion
by Patricia Griffin

In its earliest development, the Franciscan Peace Center chose as its tagline “freeing the fire of compassion”. Compassion was part and parcel to Francis’ life of peacemaking and caring for all creation, even in a time of rejection by his own brothers. In his humility he would refer to such rejection as “True Joy”.

Aside from its religious overtones, mercy means compassion or kindness in our treatment of others; especially those who have offended us or who we think deserve punishment.

Compassion burns deep inside each of us.

Compassion arises after a natural disaster—an “Act of God” as defined by insurance companies. The fire of compassion drives many people out of their comfort zones to tend to those whose lives have been disrupted by a catastrophe.

Compassion is passionately painful when we look at strife, injustice and violence of all kinds in our world. It can consume us or move us to take affirmative action.

The time has come to resurrect the Golden Rule and give compassion center stage. Post it in the halls of justice! Preach it from the pulpit! Most of all, parade it around our children.

Let’s bring back passion for compassion!

October, 2009

Have you ever been to Srebrenica?
by Bob Silvanik

In July 1995, a Serbian army near this Bosnian village massacred over 10,000 Muslim men and boys in a 24-hour period. Ten years later, I visited Srebrenica and began to ask myself a very serious and hard question: How did this happen?

It was then I began to realize the true power of institutions in our world … and I soon came to understand that if we hide our souls from the institutions that we live, work, and pray in, then we can become willing to think things, to say things and to do things to “the other,” on behalf of these institutions that we would never do as the spiritual persons we were created to be.

And so, as we all quest for personal and worldly peace, we must first come to terms with the reality that the peace we seek is far too precious to be left to the institutions of our world: government, politics, military, economics and religion. True and lasting peace will emerge only when communities of spiritual leaders step forward and challenge the dominant powers through a call to action. Of this truth, history is our witness and teacher.  

 

August, 2009

Reflection On Dorothy Day
by Mary Alice Pratt

A generation after her death in 1980 at the age of 83, what is Dorothy Day’s significance to us in the early 21^st century?   

            A journalist, she spoke out about the social conditions of her day, of which we find resonance in our own time.  Early in life she became aware of injustices to workers and strongly advocated for their rights. Much of her time and effort was spent in caring for the poor.  She lived among the poorest, fed the hungry, housed the homeless, cared for the immigrants and, above all, treated them with love as her brothers and sisters. During both World Wars she voiced her opposition to war as evil, even as the Church was either silent or supportive, and she bore its criticism.  Above all, she was concerned about the dignity of the human person.

            Dorothy’s life was a permanent “revolution of the heart,” nourished by Scripture, prayer, the Eucharist and the communal “family” in which she lived.  Her life challenges us to examine the social conditions of our day: poverty, immigration policies, health care needs, and injustices toward workers. It challenges us to examine the culture of individualism and materialism in which those needs prevail. And it challenges us to examine what shapes our values and to search for guidance in Scripture and our relationship with God for our individual and community lives. 

July, 2009  

 

Monthly Reflection Guidelines  

Our goal is to provide thoughtful reflections that encourage readers to more fully embrace the values written in Franciscan Peace Center ’s Mission Statement: i.e., dignity, compassion, reconciliation, equality, simplicity, kinship with all creation, and a nonviolent way of life that will bring about a peaceful global community.

 

Suggested guidelines for submitted reflections:

1)      Interfaith/universal – like viewing a world without borders

2)      Reflective of the season or month for which you are writing

3)      Passionately inclusive, beginning with our universal concerns for other living things, leaving out nothing or no one

4)      Firmly rooted in peace and justice for all

5)      Containing no more than 200 words (the shorter the better)

6)      Submitted by the third week of the month prior to publication

 

“The act of praying or meditating is so universal that one wonders

 if the need to reach out beyond ourselves in thought and word

 is simply part f the human condition.”

~L. Annie Foerster in Praying Out Loud: Interfaith Prayers for Public Occasions

(Skinner House Books, Boston , ©2003)

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