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Towards the Future Full of Hope

There was great life and energy generated as nearly 400 sisters gathered together at University College Galway on 25th July for 4 days of meeting, reflecting, discerning and exploring together new possibilities for our future together.  Our opening ritual reminded us of God’s presence with us as we journey onward in faith and hope.

Inspirational opening address by Sr. Terry Abraham, Congregational Leader
 

Legacy of Hope
 

Celebrate the future within you

Thirty-eight years ago this very same day over 300 women gathered to rekindle a fire, to drink from the fountain of our charism, perhaps many of you were there July 21-25 1972, Drogheda.  It was the beginning of our journey into Union.  That was a historic moment.  Since then this is the biggest gathering of daughters of Nano.  This is a unique, historic moment, a moment when the same Spirit of God is moving among you in a powerful way.  So much wholesome prayer, reflection and conversation have taken place during the past year to prepare for this moment.  The journey of exploration has brought us to this place and will continue beyond this event.

We cannot gather except in the context of the story that has brought us this far.  Our story is God’s unconditional faithful presence at the heart of the cosmic story and our own small place within it.  Our life’s journey is to awaken to this Mystery of God at this time in our story.  The theme for Congregational Gathering is ‘Awakening to the Mystery of God.’  "We are always in God" says Thomas Merton.  We know that "our life’s journey is always exploration into God." Christopher Fry towards a future full of hope.

Memory can be a powerhouse of hope.  What I want to do is simply to remind you of some of those awakening moments of hope, in our shared story.  They are a legacy of HOPE.

"Celebrate the future within you" - one of the messages of Aung San Suu Kyi to the people of Burma.

Imagine … in the beginning when there was no-thing God said "Celebrate the future within you" and life flared forth in a myriad of colours, patterns and forms and life is still flaring forth after 13.73 billion years.  Universe came into being soaked in God - soaked in the spirit of Christ.  God has been writing this love letter to us and God delights in this unfolding.  It is incarnation in a million ways, its Pentecost over and over again.  Spirit of God is bursting forth, is breaking through in millions of ways.  We might say "we are all novices in this monastery of the cosmos."  Jim Conlan

Imagine ... 4 billion years ago our planet was molten rock and God said "Celebrate the future within you."  Look what it is today, what we are today, held by the power of gravity of God’s love.

Imagine … 2000 years ago this amazing God became one of us in Jesus, awakening us to a new consciousness, which he called the kingdom of God.  Jesus invited us to experience the abundance/prodigality of God’s love.  He was fuelled by that love.  Holding us in this Mystery of love Jesus invites us to see more clearly who we are in the mystery of Life because "We belong to a reality greater than ourselves." Diarmuid.  He invites us to know who we are in our humanity with our hopes and fears, beauty and brokenness.  At this time when we experience that vulnerability so much in our church I am reminded of a story … Somi’s story… "Auntie, do you mean to say that Jesus was in that dirty water?" Can we find God and the gift of God in what is seemingly the dirty water?  Have we met Jesus in the mystery of the dirty water of today?

You have a tradition of finding hope and life from the simple gifts of God in creation.  Let us not lose sight of it.  Let us remember and reawaken today the mystery hidden in those incredible, everyday gifts … a fire, a leaf, a reed, a nut, a lantern.  "God is in the bits and pieces of everyday." P. Kavanagh

Patrick lit a fire on the hill of Tara - a symbol of new hope and possibility - he found Trinity in a little shamrock.  God reveals God’s self in innumerable Trinitarian ways in our magnificent universe. Perhaps if Patrick were to be here today he would still use the shamrock to help us expand our image of God, the principles of the Universe, the gift of trinity in the wisdom of Communion, Diversity and Interiority. You have explored this wisdom in each of the reflections you have had.  To-day he might say to us that the whole creation is a broadcasting station of God if only we can tune in and listen.

From the reeds of the field Brigid fashioned a cross that spoke of radical creativity, communion and connectedness.  Her cross did not look like the image of the traditional crosses which we use in our churches.  She held out a new way of understanding the cross of Christ, mission of Christ, one that crossed the boundaries to embrace the poor and marginalised, that spread the cloak of hope to millions in this land.  When New symbols were needed Brigid and Patrick had the wisdom to create them.  What are the new symbols of hope which we are called to create today so that it can speak anew to our reality?

I think if Brigid and Patrick were to be here today they would awaken us to a new consciousness, of the Oneness of all Life that invites us to see that we are at the table of Life, as one among many.

Some of you know the story of Sr. Zdenka Cecilia Schelingova of Slovakia "radiant example of faithfulness in times of harsh and ruthless religious persecution."  She put her life on line and attempted to help six priests during the persecution.  She was arrested and after three years of ruthless torture died on 31 July, aged 38, leaving her a legacy of faith and hope.

We know the story of Julian of Norwich and the hazelnut.  It lasts and ever shall, for God loves it.  And so have all things their beginning by the love of God.  A simple hazelnut awakened Julian to the Mystery of Love.  Open your hands and feel that hazel nut in the palm of your hand.  What does it invite you? Does it invite you to that same embrace of the mystery of love?  A legacy close to the heart of Jesus and Nano.

Imagine the moment when the Ursuline sisters were unable to continue the ministry of Nano.  It was that moment when everything seemed to end.  In this crisis and chaos in Nano’s life God must have said to her "Celebrate the future within you."  A new life began from which we were born … she became created in a new way and left us a legacy of hope during one of the darkest eras in Irish history. Within 10 years of this birth Nano died.

Story of the first Presentation community in extreme destitution. They had three choices: to discontinue the mission to the poor, to disband the community, to cast their lot with God.  They chose the third option.  They spent the night crying their heart out to God.  Two days after that Mrs. Mahony arrived with 50 pounds left to the Sisters by her late husband.  If those sisters gave up then we wouldn’t be here today.

Our story today - the story of Union recently released we know the CCC of 1970’s - women who dared to explore new possibilities in response to the signs of the time, the call of Vatican II.  Now a new time… What is the new way we are called to walk during this New Time?

We stand on the legacy of hope of Brigid and Patrick, Julian and Nano, Cecilia and many others.  Hope built on a spirituality of the everyday God, in the reeds, the leaf, a fire, the nut, the flame, now an unfolding humble fern.  They were able to gaze into the unknown and trust new possibilities.  Leaning heart to heart with the one who pulses life we are called to reclaim that mystical and prophetic spirit which is our inheritance.  To live without hope is a betrayal of this legacy.

I am very aware that we do not have a clear-cut map as to how we might evolve as humanity / as Presentation Congregation.  You do not have a clear-cut map and you may not have it by the end of this gathering either.  But we do have a compass – the compass of the Spirit at the core of our life and moving among us.  That is how the Spirit of God led Nano.  You and I know this Spirit led her through uncertainty and failures to an ever deeper understanding of her mission.  "Humbly she declared her readiness to journey on her unmarked road." Raphael Consedine.  Trust the compass within you and follow the co-ordinates no matter how risky or uncertain the destination may appear to be.  We know that this is our everyday experience.

Reflecting on the purpose of this Assembly and your journey thus far I know that this gathering is about building relationships with each other and taking the next step whatever it be.  Margaret Wheatley says "It is possible to prepare for the future without knowing what it will be. The primary way to prepare for the unknown is to attend to the quality of our relationships and how well we know and trust one another."  Relationship with the Divine, with one another, divine made flesh, with earth – home where we experience the divine - eru, body of the goddess.  "Nature is the only body of God that we shall ever see." Frank Lloyd Wright.

Talking about relationship I remember the Story of 260 Irish people who went to Haiti in October 2009 just after Mission Sunday to build 40 houses.  Their target is 1,000 houses.  Each had to raise 4000 euro in the midst of the pains of recession.  They pitched their tent among the poorest, where the earth is most wounded, not just for building houses but building relationships. 

Poor give us hope that is their gift to us, their incredible capacity to give hope in the midst of huge suffering.  UISG conference the Congolese sisters lifted the spirit of the 800 women simply by being who they are … spiritual lung? … hope is contagious.  If you have it, it will catch like wild fire.  Hope is here living within us and among us.  The whole atmosphere is charged with hope, hope for a new future.

"We are in the midst of the greatest shift in human consciousness ever to take place since we first emerged within earth community."  Relationship is at the heart of this Consciousness.  A collective Christ consciousness … Christ within.  You are in the threshold of this new awakening and … the virtue for this time is Hope.  Hope emerges from the heart of God.  Imagination is the Gift of the Spirit.  More than ever we need this gift of the Spirit.  If Nano ever gave us a gift, it was the gift of Imagination - to imagine the unthinkable, to imagine the impossible.  Future is not something that will happen, it is already within.  Future is within you NOW like the seed in the womb of the earth.  The acorn I think lives with hope because it probably imagines a wonderful oak tree…  Evolve or die: everything that ever was, is or will be was in that first flaring forth.  The Spirit of God is urging us from within to evolve.  "The future is created by the stories we tell about who we are and where ... we came from…..Brian Swimme & Thomas Berry, The Universe Story

I know you will be sharing stories these days.  What stories are we telling each other?  Stories of hope and enthusiasm, passion and possibility and perhaps fear and doubt, and hopelessness and impossibility?  Stories we share will draw us into midwifing the presentation of the future and enable us to breathe with mother God, mother earth.  This breathing with God will birth the new.  It is in the mysterious darkness and stillness of the night that the Word of God leaped into our reality… It is the dark matter and dark energy of the Universe that helps to create and sustain life.

The best way to bring forth the future is to live the present with enthusiasm … with God.  We have the present because someone else lived their present with enthusiasm.

My friend Rumi says "With passion pray, with passion work, with passion make love, with passion eat and drink and dance and play, why look like a dead fish in this ocean of God?"  Rumi  "Be ablaze with enthusiasm" Hildegard of Benign

Ablaze brings to my mind my favourite sight: the African sky, we cannot see the sky for the stars.  In a clear night sky, for every star we see, there are 50 million more behind it.  Future to be born is the 50 million stars we cannot see.  If we can live with such hope then we will walk together full of hope.

As we gather a fundamental question to ask is “Why are we here?”  What is the spark that is longing to shine forth within you?  Are we here because we want to be at the service of Life?  How will this gathering further God’s mission, how will it benefit the poor and marginalised?  Face of God shines through them.  Are we here because of them and on their behalf?  How will this gathering here create a mystical energy that will vibrate across the whole earth, our only home, for wholeness and healing?  Our future as humanity depends on the future of the planet.  

Sisters, this is our moment to awaken to the Mystery of God, pulsing at the heart of life, without which we perish.  Let this assembly be a collective experience of faithfulness to that Mystery at the heart of our life.  We are here simply because we want to be faithful, to be single minded as a community of Presentation women, to respond to the new signs of the times, to drink from the fountain of life, to live authentic, credible, effective, relevant life.  For that Today we need spirituality more than religion, mysticism more than monasticism, imagination more than knowledge, prophets more than professionals, to give birth to the new.

You are the Prophets of Hope … prophets of hope are transformed by love in profound silence.  God delights when we are creators of an unfolding future.  To be on the cutting edge today means to be joyful, to be faithful, to live hopeful lives, especially when there is no hosanna sung to us.  "Do not be afraid" is a message repeated numerous times in the gospels.  Let us walk together fearlessly because GOD IS WITH US, this time is HOLY NOW and our challenges are BLESSINGS.  "Love recognises no barriers.  It jumps hurdles, leap fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope." Maya Angelou

We wish you mystery of Love that permeated and fuelled Nano’s life and mission.
We wish you her spark of imagination that dared to see new possibilities.
We wish you her holy courage to live life even in uncertainty and failure, to allow the new to emerge.
Yes, like her we must live by the love of what we may never see.
 

"Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark." Tagore.