Please, not in my backyard!

     

Fourth stage of developing
laternfly

    Amid the destructive forces of nature a new threat has emerged in the United States—the spotted lanternfly. I first met this bug while making a campground reservation in Pennsylvania last year. The park’s website asked visitors to report any sightings. We canceled our reservation because of Covid and have yet to see one. 

    The October 2020 issue of Smithsonian magazine tells a story that brings shudders to owners of vineyards, hops-growers, orchards and nurseries.  The spotted lanternfly first appeared in mid-Atlantic states, and is making its way west.

Adult stage of Lycorma delicatula

        Voracious in appetite, it penetrates the vascular tissue of a plant/tree, draining its nutrients.  Its favorite is the tree of heaven, but has since diversified.

 Ag-based businesses throughout the U.S. hope for a solution from researchers who study each stage of the lanternfly’s life cycle. Ironically, it’s a beautiful bug with a melodious scientific name. 

The lanternfly story got me thinking of the relationship between good and evil, beauty that hides a sinister face. I would rather have approached it from an attitude of “seeing the good” behind the darkness. Instead it seems to be one more thing to be challenged by, as we struggle with injustice, racism, truth and natural disasters. 

One song that keeps recurring became popular in the early days of the charismatic movement. It gives me hope in every circumstance. Sing along with me:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;

God’s mercies never come to an end.

They are new every morning, new every morning;

great is your faithfulness, O Lord,

great is your faithfulness.

            Sr. Christa Kreinbrink, OSB 

 

Pope Francis: Caring for the World and Everyone in It

      With climate change being one of the primary issues of our time, along with a consistent life ethic, it is the year to celebrate the 5^th anniversary of Laudato Si’, the first papal encyclical focused on the environment.  Through this letter, addressed to “every person living on this planet, Pope Francis made an “urgent appeal…for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet.” (LS 14)

       This prayer, one of the two found at the conclusion of the letter, reflects many of the encyclical’s key themes:  God’s love imbued in every speck of creation, the inter connected-ness of everything, and the necessity to hear and respond to “the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor (LS 49). Perhaps the most profound is the insight that the environmental crisis is a spiritual crisis.

                                                          A PRAYER FOR OUR EARTH

All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe and in the smallest of your creatures. You embrace with your tenderness all that exists. Pour out upon us the power of your love, that we protect life and beauty. Fill us with peace, that we may live as brothers and sisters, harming no one. O God of the poor, help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this earth, so precious in your eyes.                                                                                                    Bring healing to our lives that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction. Touch the hearts of those who look only for gain at the expense of the poor of the earth. Teach us to discover the worth of each thing to be filled with awe and contemplation, to recognize with every creature as we journey towards your infinite light. We thank you for being with us each day.                  Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle for justice, love and peace.                                                                                        – Pope Francis, Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home (246) – photo of Francis sneaking out at night to feed the poor in Rome. 

     From September 1 (the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation) to October 4 (the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi) we celebrate the season of creation, a special time when Christians unite in increased prayer and action for our common home.  It is a privileged time to reflect on our relationship with God as Creator and with all of creation.¹⁾

       On the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, October 4, the Pope will be going to Assisi to share another encyclical, on the 5^th anniversary of Laudato Si’, Brothers and Sisters, All.  This encyclical is on the social, political and economic obligations that flow from a belief that all people are children of God and therefore brothers and sisters to one another. This encyclical will indicate to the world a style for the future and will give the church and people of goodwill the responsibility for building it together.  The pope is clearly inspired by Francis of Assisi who, in following Jesus, recognized in fraternity, lived under the sign of mutual and loving service, the horizon of a fulfilled and happy humanity. This encyclical is expected to echo many of the themes Pope Francis has been discussing in his general audience talks on Catholic Social Teaching in light of the pandemic: human fraternity, the equal dignity of all people, the preferential option for the poor, the universal distribution of goods and the obligation of solidarity.  Care for the environment and the virtue of peacemaking are also expected to be part of the encyclical.  The text is expected to be published in a variety of languages the first week of October.

       Also, at this time, at new book featuring his conversations with Pope Francis, Italian environmental activist, Carlo Petrine, said he hopes the published discussions will contribute to the groundwork laid out by Laudato Si’. The book, titled Terra Futura (Future Earth): Conversations with Pope Francis on Integral Ecology, is meant to highlight the importance of the pope’s encyclical on the environment and its impact on the world five years after its publication in 2015.⁽²⁾ 

    ^{1.  Source:  GUTD, Sept. 2020, p. 8-9, Christina Leano.}

             ^{2.   Catholic News Service, Cindy Wooden & National World, Vatican City}                        

We thank and bless Pope Francis for all his inspiration to us, the people of God, and all the world.

              Sr. Mary Tewes, OSB                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

      

       

A Squirrel Goes to Jail

 

            Yes, that really happened. What’s a squirrel doing in jail, for heaven’s sake?

Was there a crime? Maybe not, he evidently went of his own free will.

            First, a little background:

            I have been a regular correspondent with a man who has been on Death Row now for seventeen years, probably more, for committing murder. I am old enough to be his mother, and until she died, I did write also to his mom, living in a small coal-mining town in the Appalachian mountains. Since then, he has called me his adopted mother. I have visited him several times. In our conversations, I discovered a talented poet and writer. We were able to get the poem published, and he has been in contact with a publisher interested in making known his other writings. In the meantime, one of my last letters (May 2020) from him had such a humorous story in it, that when I shared with some of the Sisters, and my friends, we laughed and giggled without end.

            So I asked him if I could share it with our readers. He gave me full permission. I have it here just as I received it, with his original expressions:

    

Now yesterday there was some excitement on death row. This cell house is 3 floors and death row only takes up the bottom floor. Yesterday while they were having a general population let in, a squirrel ran in and came on death row. I was out working, getting some newspapers passed out and Gabby was dust mopping the rec. area. So the guard had us trying to catch the squirrel. The squirrel was a little over half grown. So we got net bags and was trying to corner him and catch him with the bags without hurting him. Which is easier said than done. Smile. Which Gabby and I were raised in the country so we knew what it would be like going in. The squirrel runs into Gabby’s cell and gets in the bottom of his locker. So Gabby holds a net back over the opening while I reached in from the side to try and catch it. And yes, he could have bit me but I’ve been bit by countless animals and dogs well over 100 pounds. Of course the squirrel is jumping all over the bottom of the locker trying to keep me from getting hold of it. Gabby pulls back the top of the net bag to watch me try to grab it and the squirrel jumped out of the little opening, ran over his head and hung on to his back. Smile. I was trying to get up in time to grab him off his back. When I raised up, he jumped off Gabby’s back and ran back over to the walk I live on and ran into my cell. I was laughing so hard that I was having a difficult time trying to keep up. My cell door is closed. The squirrel jumps up on my bed, then lays on my pillow with all 4legs laying straight out, like he was getting him a good rest. We got to the front of my cell and he just laid there looking at us and flipping his bushy tail around as if to say you can’t catch me. Smile. It took a few moments for our lazy guard to get down to my cell and ask the control tower to open my door.

            When my door opened and I started in, he jumped off my pillow, ran under the toilet and out the bars. He gets half way down the walk, stops and looks back at me. As I walked toward him, he ran into the rec. area. Again he stopped and looked back at me. When I got close to him he ran out the bar gate on death row just as the main front door opened. He ran out the door and less than 10 minutes later he was sitting on the wall behind this cell house eating an apple core. I never thought I’d be squirrel hunting on death row but this really happened yesterday. Smile.

So what?  An innocent squirrel finds himself with inmates on Death row in a state penitentiary. He brings excitement, and a bit of joy and fun to men who seldom have occasion for either. And the story brought joy to me too. I pass it on to you. Sometimes God sends one of His creatures with a message for us of His love and care, and His sense of humor.

What has God sent you today?

Sr. Mary Carol Hellmann, OSB

Then and Now

      When I entered our community three months after high school graduation in 1946, I talked to my 8th grade teacher, Sr. Rita Kettman, who offered to arrange a meeting with the superior and to accompany me. I felt sure that God was calling me to religious life; however, I had no clue what it would be like. The only thing I assumed was that I would be saying pretty many prayers. I had never before been in the monastery building or what the accommodations would be like, nor did it matter. I just wanted to be a nun. I loved and admired all the nuns who had taught me and I wanted to be like them. This was a far cry from how the process is handled today.

          When sharing with the six other postulants how we had decided to become a nun, some said they had always wanted to be a nun. They liked to play teaching school while draping their heads with a veil (frequently a diaper.) I liked to do things that I saw nuns doing, e.g,, I had made a habit of making a visit to church after school. Some of my teachers were also there. They frequently extended their arms in the form of across seemingly saying some prayers. So when I prayed at home sometime, I imitated what the nuns did. I would go to my parent’s bedroom, extend my arms and say some prayers. One evening my mother happened to walk in and saw me. I was startled when I heard her call to my brother, “Jerry, Come help me with your sister. She’s having a fit!"

          I was very surprised to discover that all of our prayers were said in Latin. They were quite lengthy, and my four years of high-school Latin were of little help. It was enough for me to know that we were praising God and to assume that God was pleased. At some point we were given a diurnal with each page in two columns, one side in Latin and the other with the English translation. Heaven sent! All our prayers today are in English. What a pleasure to praise God in our native tongue and to remember some of God's words to say throughout the day.

          I was delighted to find that we could have visitors one Sunday a month. It was the custom that we would not go home again except for one chosen day prior to our receiving the habit. Seldom was a lay person seen in the monastery. Blessing of blessings! We now have the opportunity to welcome lay visitors and to show what our charism of hospitality looks like in practice. It is commonplace to receive a note from visitors complementing on our hospitality.

          While focusing on the a few of the contrasts between then and now, I need to add that there are many aspects at the core of religious life that have never changed and that fill us with joy. A few examples would be our community prayers, our love for one another, our common vision, and on and on. I will save that for another blog.

               
Sr. Victoria Eisenman, OSB

Time Out

Suffering from news exhaustion, this writer scanned  her notes from years ago  to find a topic for today’s blog.  Here goes.

Many years ago, I heard on the radio 

the recorded sound of Earth spinning through space – 

It was totally absorbing; evoking feelings of fragility, wonder, fear

Spinning through space – day and night - 

so ordinary, we take this for granted. 

Yet, the sound, in a way, becomes 

an experience of this phenomenon – 

not so ordinary

                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Sometimes, no more accidental

than the sound of journeying through the universe                                        we glimpse or intuit our Source and Sustainer  -

At times, we experience mystery

which resounds, and surrounds us, 

swirling us inward and outward and onward

quietly………… into  the pulsing heart of God.                                                                                                                                  

Dear Reader, may you find refreshment, energy and peace.       

                                                                                                            

                               Sr. Sharon Portwood, OSB