Faith & Life Inspirational Message

     The phrase, which became the title of this inspirational piece, came to me during a recent conversation.  The person with whom I was conversing periodically was talking about wishing for this or for that.  As I listened to her, I realized that wishing for certain things was a way she expressed hope.  For example, I am sure at one point she must have said something like, “I wish I can have some kids.”  Translated that would have meant that she planned to have kids…and did have them.      In many ways I can relate to that.  I suspect I am not unusual in saying that I have spent a lifetime wanting certain things.  When I was a kid, I wanted to play sports and, of course, wanted to be good.  I did get to play sports, but I was average at best.  I would have to confess I wanted to date certain girls and sometimes got what I wanted.  Other times I got a flat “No!”  That was disappointing, but it didn’t kill m...

                I never miss a new piece by Benedictine Sister, Joan Chittister, when it appears.   One of the recent ones she penned concerned peacemaking.   For anyone who knows Chittister, this is not surprising.   She has spent most of her life working for peace and other social causes.   She has been part of the Erie Benedictine monastery that is a beacon of these kinds of concerns, I remember a few years ago when I was invited to speak at the monastery.   Part of me felt inadequate, since I was unsure I had anything to share with these active nuns and their friends.   However, I did it and figured by going there, I would learn far more than I would give to them.               Chittister’s latest writing begins with a note of irony about peacemaking.   She writes, “ It's very difficult to talk about peace in the United States without startin...

       Jim Forest recently died.   Our world is poorer for this loss.   Obviously, all human beings die and the world loses a little something each time.   And of course, countless babies are born around the globe and who knows the roles in life each of them will play.   I don’t claim there is a baby somewhere who will replace Jim Forest and do his work.   No one will do it quite like he did.   We all have our own calling and, surely, many will be called to work for peace, as Jim did.   I think the future and welfare of our planet hinges on all the peacemakers in our world ultimately being successful.               I met Jim Forest a couple times.   I did not know him personally, but I “knew” him in the way so many of us “know” people whose lives and work we admire and support.   Only a few months ago, Jim Forest appeared on a program the Merton society has been...

            I began reading an article about an interview with a nun.  I probably would not bother reading an article like this, but it is a source I frequently turn to for information.  With this trust of the source, I plunged into the article.  The opening sentence was very good.  The author, Dan Stockman, asked a question.  “ How do you turn $20 and a borrowed camera into a women's center, a 1,000-student school, an orphanage, a convent and a Montessori school?”  I had no answer, but I was curious.  The person being interviewed, Sister Rose Marie Tulacz, answered with two words, “You don’t.”  I wanted to know more about the nun from the Sisters of Notre Dame.             She continued, “This is my life: God multiplies everything…When we empty ourselves, he fills us."   I smiled at this typical perspective of faith.   Clearly, she is a woman of ...

 I was settling into the evening. Dinner was out of the way and I was ready to begin the reading for the classes the next day. Then the phone rang. There is a great deal to like about modern phones. For one thing, if you have entered names of people, it shows who is calling. I glanced at the ringing phone and saw the name of my friend. Instead of simply saying, “Hello,” and waiting for the sound of the other voice, I knew whose voice I would hear. It was my friend calling. I was delighted. Not all phone calls delight me. But when my friend calls, I am delighted. It was good to hear from him. It was good to hear the latest news. He is one of the regular readers of this inspirational journal and always has comments that I find very welcome. I like it when he queries me about a particular piece. Sometimes, I think he knows more about what I have written than I do! Just last night, he picked on a single paragraph in a recent offering I had made. I could not immediately remember the pie...

 Loneliness is probably an issue more now than it has been for a long time.  The times in which we live---pandemic, unemployment and so much else---makes it easier to feel isolated.  And with that, perhaps we feel like no one cares about us anymore.  We all know loneliness is not as easy to fix as a headache.  For that we can take an aspirin and predictably we feel better.  Aspirins do nothing for loneliness. I began thinking about all this when I read a recent article in one of my alum magazines.  Jacob Sweet, the author of “The Loneliness Pandemic: The psychology and social costs of isolation in everyday life,” made some very good points, which I would like to share.  And I go beyond Sweet by suggesting there is a spiritual dimension to loneliness and, perhaps, some aspects of spirituality in solving our feelings of loneliness. An early point Sweet makes is to note, “Loneliness is a subjective experience---part of what makes it so hard to identi...

 I ran across an interesting piece by John A. Ostenburg, which is really a journal entry of his.  Ostenburg retired recently as mayor of Park Forest, IL, which is a suburb outside of Chicago.  He and I have in common an appreciation of Thomas Merton, 20th century monk and spirituality teacher of so many.  The piece by Ostenburg is some pages from a journal he kept on a visit to Gethsemani in 1992.  Although he had been reading Merton for quite some time, it was his first trip to Merton’s Kentucky monastery.  Merton had long been dead, having been tragically killed when he was in Bangkok, Thailand in 1968. Ostenburg is not a monk; he is married and very much a man of the world compared to the monks at Gethsemani.  But he wanted to make a retreat at that hallowed place that Merton called home for twenty-seven years.  We can see that in Ostenburg’s first entry on July 14, 1992.  He exclaims, “After 30 years of desiring to do so, I finally find m...