February greetings, friends!
Change is a process of a thousand invisible transitions. If we pay enough attention, we can learn the pattern that spirit is trying to weave, and work with this lifeforce. In our small portion of history, though, the scale and consequence of change has felt particularly overwhelming. With the spiritual, ecological, and political landscapes of our world in upheaval, how can we be good students of change?
In these early weeks of 2020, we’ve loved hearing local organizers across the country who are meeting a rapidly changing world by taking time to vision and dream together for the new year:
In Pittsburgh, PA, the group broke the Nuns & Nones mission statement into bite-sized phrases, using it as a guide to illuminate the qualities they want to embody: ‘We create prophetic communities of care and contemplation that incite courageous action’ was transformed into dozens of sticky notes with goals and hopes that resonated.
In Grand Rapids, MI, a facilitation team of sisters and seekers gathered to discern what questions needed to be asked in the coming months. After exploring 'where and how hope lives today' in the last months of 2019, they are now turning toward the question, 'what the difference is between the political and the prophetic?'… and what that might mean for how they show up this year.
In the New York City group, twenty people took an overnight Retreat on Action & Contemplation at the Mariandale Center. Over the snowy weekend, the group reflected on the importance of rest and stillness, and how to nourish oneself in contemplation so that the fruits of it may be shared with the world. Beginning the year with this pause allowed them to set their individual and collective intentions for what is ahead.
These small examples of collective listening and iteration from local organizers are so important: As Nuns & Nones continues to evolve, each person’s willingness to deeply listen with us is another clue for our own unfolding.
How can we be good students of change?
We hope the #WhatWereReading section below also helps answer that question. May it serve as a companion for times when the vibrations of change feel like unsustainable. May we remind one another: we were made for this.
And, we are doing some listening of our own, working to strengthen the channels of communication among local organizers, our partners, and the broader web that makes up Nuns & Nones, so that we can move toward the future with clarity and focus.
This might also mean…a name change!? We have long-evolved from being two separate “groups” sitting on either side of an ampersand. Indeed, we are creating something new together, and we are searching for a name that reflects it. If you have ideas, we’d love to hear them!
Love,
Nuns & Nones ❤️
#WhatWereReading
Top trends, shares, and ideas from across the broader Nuns & Nones network.
First, a classic: Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D offers a heartfelt reflection to those who feel bewildered by these times:
“I would like to take your hands for a moment and assure you that you are built well for these times. Despite your stints of doubt, your frustrations in arighting all that needs change right now, or even feeling you have lost the map entirely, you are not without resource, you are not alone."
Sr. Julia Walsh, FSPA’s community is changing a 140-years-long tradition of round-the-clock adoration, now transpiring from 6am until 10pm. Here, she reflects on the changes in religious life as being something like earthquakes – plentiful, not always felt, sometimes catastrophic-feeling -- and absolutely essential for life on earth.
No matter how sacred a tradition may be, change is often natural and necessary. Nature shows us this, from the shifting of the seasons to the transformation of the lands. Tradition evolves, I understand. Traditions aren't meant to be stagnant, but living, so they can be life-giving. The landscape of religious life is quaking. With every change in construction and definition, with every evolution of a tradition and with every new expression of a charism, the Spirit reminds us that the radical form of life we are living is not about comfort and security.
Sr. Ilia Delio, OSF’s Birth of a Dancing Star is making the rounds in our team. We love this take on religious life and all it inspires us to imagine into:
Religious life is a perpetual fitness center for the soul or a "training center of love." The pursuit of holiness is learning to integrate the threads of our many loves into the single-hearted love of God. "You truly exist where you love," Bonaventure wrote, "not merely where you live." … "Religious" life is a life tethered to God and should be a life of growth in freedom and thus growth in courageous love, a life bountiful in love and thus the most daring life possible.
And Duane Elgin shares this beautiful snapshot on our evolution as a species. (Hat tip to the Nuns & Nones Madison group, who used some of Duane's writing as their group reading in January!):
As humanity develops our capacity for reflective consciousness, the universe is simultaneously acquiring the ability to look back and reflect upon itself…After billions of years of evolution, a life form has emerged on the Earth that is literally the universe looking back at her creations through the unique perspective and experience of each person: A gardener appreciating a flower or an astronomer peering out at the night sky represents the closing of a loop of awareness that began with the birth of our cosmos nearly 14 billion years ago.
A recent New Yorker article reflects on Richard Rohr and his appeal to seekers
“It’s not just about one’s own individual spiritual journey,” [Executive Director of the Center for Action & Contemplation, Michael Poffenberger] said. “It’s how that’s tied to social transformation.” He is hoping, for example, to harness Rohr’s large following in support of youth climate strikes and the Reverend William Barber’s Poor People’s Campaign. Perhaps, Poffenberger thinks, as adherence to traditional religions dwindles, social action will become a more relevant form of spiritual practice."
Sr. Margaret Gonsalves, SFCC, reflects on “Evolutionary Consecrated Life” as a reaction to the hunger she sees in many for new forms of this lifestyle:
Evolutionary consecrated life is calling us to expand our consciousness — to go beyond and see it evolving from the whole and heading toward the whole — moving beyond the static to the fertile God of cosmic life…Let us rejoice by celebrating the birth pangs of evolutionary consecrated life in the process of the new creation.