November is the month when St. Walburg Monastery , like many church communities, displays a Book of Remembrance for our Dead, especially those who have died within the past year. In some churches the names are read aloud and the bell is tolled. It calls us to reflect on what these individuals have meant to us during their lives on earth and how they are present to us in our Eternal Home.
Today,
Veterans’ Day, we especially honor those who have served our country in all the
armed services throughout the history of our country. Along with other first
responders, law enforcement and peace keeping personnel, they put themselves
between us and danger to uphold the ideals of freedom, equality and justice.
As I walk to
our cemetery mourning for all my sisters and brothers my thoughts are drawn especially
to our Veterans and their sacrifices. I mourn for them and also for the death
and diminishment of the ideals for which they died and endured hardships. I
mourn with them whenever we, the people, allow or act with hatred, injustice
and indifference.
·
I
mourn for the people stuck at our border, especially the children – the
thousands I did not meet last summer when I worked there, because these have
had no chance for asylum in our country even though they are in grave danger
and cannot go home.
·
I
mourn for all who are affected by Covid-19 –patients, their loved ones who are
not able to be with them in their last agony and their heroic care givers.
·
I
mourn for Black men, women and children who have been deprived of their
history, safety, dignity and rights as citizens for centuries.
·
I
mourn for all who are affected by death, dying, persecution, oppression, and
violence of every sort.
·
I
mourn for the diminishment of truth in public speech.
·
I
mourn for the greed that we each hold in our fearful hearts.
· I mourn for us all in our struggling need for God to awaken us
from the deaths in
which we are entombed.
O God, you notice all my
sorrows.
Have you not collected all
my tears in your bottle? --Psalm 56
Sr. Dorothy Schuette, OSB
Love this Sister Dorothy.
ReplyDeleteDear Sister, thank you for this good word reminding us to remember the suffering of others. Let us remember those who loved us. In the past thirty years in England there has been renewal in remembering the earliest saints -- these are the saints from before 1000 about some of whom very little is known. There was a Celtic Christian Church before the Gregorian Saint Augustine Mission c. 600. From this Church in Wales we have Saint Patrick to Ireland. It seems likely that were Christians in Roman Britain by 400 (when the Romans left) and these Celtic groups were driven west by the invading Germans arriving from the East. We have lost information about them, but there are ancient place names in Wales and Cornwall, in the old British language, which record the names of Saints. There were communities there! They visited and evangelized Bretagne in France -- their language was similar. In the past thirty years many icons have been painted. How good it is to remember what our family did for us so long ago, to remember them and be glad for their love. God bless OSB amen Merry Christmas.
ReplyDeleteWell said.
ReplyDeletePat Raverty
Thank you Sr. Dorothy.
ReplyDeleteJamie Leslie