Dear friends,
From devastating fires to the rising threat of war, we’ve had a rocky landing into the new decade. For all who have been physically overcome or emotionally overwhelmed by our first days of 2020, this letter is for you. It’s also for those who have shed tears, felt numb, acted with holy anger, made plans, canceled plans, or reached out to a loved one because of what’s happening in our world.
How do you pray in times like these?
Reach for truth? Ground in beauty? Take to the streets? Connect with your wholeness, and the wholeness of the universe? How do you (in the words of the visionary St. Francis of Assisi) make yourself into an “instrument of peace?”
Will you share one small way that you’re praying (or practicing, or whatever you call it) in these first days of the decade?
Contribute to our threads on Facebook or Instagram, or post your own story using the hashtag #InstrumentsOfPeace. In a world on fire, as we search for solid ground, let’s accompany one another in the small actions, habits, words, movements and wonderings that root us.
Yours in prayer,
-The NN team ❤️
PS. Each month, our "What We're Reading" section gathers different articles, reflections, poems and stories that are making the rounds in our circles. This month, our selections had a clear (and unplanned) theme: they are all rooted in land and water. May they serve as a healing balm and inspiring presence as we move into the decade together.
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#WhatWereReading
Top trends, shares, and ideas from across the broader Nuns & Nones network.
Land: The Sacred Land short film looks at the theological and spiritual relationship of three Kentucky congregations of sisters, each of which has stewarded hundreds of acres since the early 1800s.
“Natural places like this call me to an awareness of who I am, and who I am as one part of the larger creation.” -Susan Classen, CoL
"The holy is everywhere. The holy is inescapable. But there’s something about coming here to pray - outside - that’s different. It’s about freedom. It’s about diversity. wonder. color, texture, vibrancy and vitality - all of which are God." -Sr. Claire McGowan, OP
Water: Sisters of St. Joseph in New Orleans are turning their convent grounds into one of the biggest urban wetlands in the United States. As climate change sends more storms to NOLA, this wetland can absorb 10 million gallons of stormwater runoff from its neighborhood.
"What we were doing is praying for an idea that would allow this land to continue ministering" to the neighborhood…I mean, this land had been prayed upon for years, and we already had a commitment to save and restore planet Earth in light of climate change. So it seemed like a good fit." -Sr. Pat Bergen, SSJ
Trees: The Overstory - this gorgeous fiction book by Richard Powers is tearing through our team! We loved Brianne Jacobs’s review, which reminds us that grief is essential in reclaiming right relationship with the earth, and with all that we lose when we act apart from it:
“I have long known the facts of climate change. But reading The Overstory, I felt the loss of trees and forests not as a loss of resources or even the loss of my human home—though I fear and despair over that. I experienced the destruction for the first time as a loss of an integral part of myself, as a creature who participates in the glory of being alive on Earth….The Overstory accomplished its goal: I grieved.”
Habitat: This short, cutting and beautiful prose by Sr. Rhonda Miska, OP reflects on place and belonging. As she incites the many places to which she belongs, she reflects:
This geographical polyamory can bring the sensation of not belonging anywhere, or of abiding everywhere. St Therese prayed to God, “Your face is my only homeland.” Standing here, now, my feet on this earth, I say “amen.”
Universe: As an English and religion teacher who “lasted two days in physics,” Sr. Lorraine Villemarie, SSJ was daunted by cosmology. But when she dug into the rules of the universe, her life changed. Check out her account in Cosmology for a Beginner.
We are being called to a radical interdependence with the beings and processes of the cosmos. If radical interdependence becomes the foundation of all our actions, we will be tapping into the creative energy of the universe to address the challenges of our combined crises, finding new partners with whom to collaborate, and living into a vibrant future for the whole Earth community.