1 In earlier times, Christian labyrinths became an alternate way of pilgrimage for those who could not afford to journey to Jerusalem to follow the steps of Christ. Today the labyrinth is seen as a spiritual tool to connect us to the depths of our being, to the centre where God dwells. Lent invites each of us to journey within, to take time to listen, to develop our interior life. One small step, taken for forty days, can help us to walk with Christ more closely, to accompany him through his suffering and death to his glorious resurrection on Easter Day. The Eagle The Eagle Lent 2013
Transcript
1
In earlier times, Christian labyrinths became an alternate way of pilgrimage for those who could not afford to journey to Jerusalem to follow the steps of Christ. Today the labyrinth is seen as a spiritual tool to connect us to the depths of our
being, to the centre where God dwells.
Lent invites each of us to journey within, to take time to listen, to develop our interior life. One small step, taken for forty days, can help us to walk with Christ more closely, to accompany him through his suffering and death to his glorious
resurrection on Easter Day.
The EagleThe Eagle Lent 2013
2
Dear Associates, Oblates, and Friends of SSJD, I send you greetings for this new year, but what I really want to say to you is “Help!” I’ll tell you why. I was in a parish in the city of Toronto helping to lead the intercessions for a service of healing
in early January. At the end of the service a man approached me to say that he was a little confused as to why there were Roman Catholic Sisters helping out at the service. “But I am Anglican,” I replied. Our Community was founded in Toronto in 1884 by an Anglican woman. He told me that this was the first time that he’d ever heard that there were Sisters and Brothers in the Anglican Church! This is the reason I want to say to you, “Help!” We need your help to tell the story of the Sisterhood of St. John the Divine so that everyone in the Anglican Church of Canada knows that we are part of the life of the Anglican Church. Who is Saint John the Divine? The word “divine” is a noun and means ‘theologian’; and the definition of theologian is someone who thinks deeply about God. The John to whom we attribute the writing of the Gospel, the Letters, and the Revelation to John, was someone who thought deeply about God and God’s love as shown to us through Jesus Christ; hence, John is called a divine. As Sisters of Saint John the Divine, we are called by God to a life of prayer and service. Many people’s lives are touched and changed by their encounters with Sisters. Archbishop Michael Peers, a former Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, once said that people get to know us best when they come and pray with us. Each day (except Mondays) we have Morning Prayer,
the Holy Eucharist, Evening Prayer and the service of Compline in our chapel at the Convent and at St. John’s House in BC. Our guests are always welcome to join us for any of these services. Many people tell us that our prayer permeates the very walls of the buildings in which we live; guests who come here sense the peace when they walk through the doors.
The Sisters’ activities are not limited to the convent or BC House. We serve the Anglican Church in many ways. Sr. Constance Joanna teaches courses at Wycliffe College: a course on Prayer in the fall term and a course entitled “Monastic & Missional: Benedict’s Ancient Future Spirituality” in the winter term. Sr. Sue spent almost five weeks in September and October visiting Associates on the East Coast and leading retreats and quiet days in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. I sit on the Area Council, the Diocesan Council and the Bishops’ Standing Committee on the Religious Life. Sr. Elizabeth was recently asked to be Chaplain for CoGS (Council of General Synod) and attended her first meetings of CoGS in November, and Sr. Amy was asked to be part of the National Consultation on the Structures of General Synod. In January they discussed “Embodying
God’s Call: Aligning General Synod’s Structures for God’s Mission Today.” The Guest House at the Convent is especially busy over Christmas and New Year’s with our retreats. This year four of the Sisters each reflected on one of the carols of Christmas during the Christmas Retreat which was entitled “Sing Your Way through Christmas”. The guests helped decorate the Convent to prepare for Christmas and helped to fill the chapel with song at each service. The New Year’s Retreat, entitled “Slow Down and Listen” was led by Sr. Sue. We had a full house of guests who looked at the ways they get caught in the noise and busy-ness of our society and how to free themselves from this. You can find all of our upcoming events, quiet days, and retreats listed on the SSJD website (www.ssjd.ca). The Guest House ministry is one way in which
3
people are able to be renewed in their own lives while being soaked in a community of prayer. As I write this letter, Sr. Constance is still alive after celebrating her 76th Profession Anniversary in the Sisterhood on December 21, 2012. Her 109th birthday is on the Feast of the Presentation, February 2, 2013. She is an example of a long life of exemplary prayer and service to God, and she is much loved. Just before Christmas we heard a wonderful homily by the Rev. William (Bill) Whitla, just days after the massacre of the children and teachers in the school in Newport, Connecticut. He said that, as Christians, we are living between two prevailing cultures: the one that says buy, buy, buy, and the other which says kill, kill, kill. Jesus came with good news over 2,000 years ago, news which simply repeated what God has asked of us all along: justice for the stranger, the orphan, and the widow. This means that instead of a culture of buy, buy, buy (think of the rich and famous such as movie stars and rock stars, the 1%, and all the advertising hype), we say “enough”. Let’s share with one another. Instead of a culture that glorifies kill, kill, kill (video games, pop-culture vampires, and guns in schools), we say love, show compassion, and live. We have good news to give the world and for the sake of the world. In November we said farewell to Rhonda Cross who has left our Novitiate. We were sorry to see her go; however, the ties of her family meant that her heart was divided between her love for the life of prayer in community and her love of her family. We continue to seek women under the age of 55, of good health in body, mind and spirit, to join the Sisterhood in our life of prayer, love and service: women who can give their all to the work of God and bring the good news of Jesus Christ to a world desperately in need of it. At the start of 2013 Archbishop Colin Johnson spent three days with us during which he was able to have a visit with each of the Sisters as well as meet with all of us together. In his reflecting back to us what he had heard from his individual visits, he noted the deep gratitude that each of us has for our life together as
SSJD. The sense of being called by God was deeply felt by everyone in the Community.
On Saturday, January 5th, we welcomed the Toronto Area Associates and Oblates to our annual Epiphany Tea and admitted three Associates: Patti Brace, Sue Ann Elite, and Molly Finlay. I had to postpone my January visit to the Sisters at St. John’s House in Victoria, BC. They have a happy and very creative household. At the end of the year they said goodbye to Doreen Davidson, an Oblate of the Sisterhood, who had been living and working with the Sisters there for the past six years. Doreen has been a great help and support to community life in Victoria and will be missed. Over Christmas Sr. Anitra was with the household for a two-week visit and had a marvellous time. The Sisters have been adjusting to being a smaller household–that’s where they’ve been quite creative! So again I would implore all of you who are Associates, Oblates, and friends of the Sisterhood of Saint John the Divine to let people know about the Sisterhood. Suggest that they look us up on our wonderful website where they can download all sorts of helpful information about the Sisterhood. We need to make sure that everyone in Canada knows that there are Anglican Religious, men and women who have dedicated their lives to follow the call of God in a Religious Community. Our grateful thanks.
Sr. Elizabeth Ann, SSJD Reverend Mother
Sr. Elizabeth Ann, Reverend Mother and Sr. Sue, Associate Director, admit new Associates Patti Brace, Sue Ann Elite and Molly Finlay.
4
Associate Epiphany Tea 2013
5
Autobiography is one of my favourite forms of reading. Therefore “Barefoot Disciple” had a promising start for me when Stephen Cherry takes a fall down the long, steep and dark staircase of the nineteenth century rectory where he lives. Ah, this is a good beginning. He shakes himself, gets up, and wonders about humility. Is it a virtue which can be learned? He decides to find out. He will tackle some of the words which are often connected with humility: pride, humiliation, modesty and such. He will watch himself in his responses to the new and different, especially when he is away from home. In fact, he will seek to understand and to absorb that particular kind of humility, passionate humility, which we see in Jesus. Perhaps the long fall down the stairs frees Cherry to pursue his subject as he does–focused and empty-handed. He reaches out and quotes an expert and then makes the connection with his quest for humility; he tells a story and then uncovers the truth which fits with the question of humility. He moves easily in different contexts, always in touch with his subject. He is at home in his own interior landscape, and his most telling bulletins come from there. His humility is a work in progress; it is a movement away from tedious expressions of Christian life and worship. Each chapter takes up the subject of humility from a different perspective. Chapter 6 is titled “Giving up Grumbling”. It deals with the author’s choice of a Lenten discipline. He discovers that “in the face of injustice, grumbling is a way to remain part of the problem, rather than the solution”. Chapter 7 is about “Becoming a Stranger”. Being a stranger, being out of your element, offers new learning which could include a break-through into humility. He tells about visiting in the prison chapel group, where he hears a prisoner telling the story of his crime. The man is a new Christian who has just learned that his actions caused suffering to another person. Cherry writes: “I am not sure that I had
previously thought of empathy as something we need to learn. I felt it just happened. Now I think about it, this seems absurd.” What can we do with our ignorance? Humility asks that we cultivate a willingness to be open, even to what will always remain a mystery .
At the end of his book, I realize that I like Stephen Cherry, I like his style and am sorry to say good-bye. He has let himself become a friend. He has shown me that humility is a real virtue, that it is central among the virtues and absolutely down-to-earth. And more than anything else, it is what God teaches us as we follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ and seek God’s kingdom.
Sr. Beryl, SSJD
“Barefoot Disciple” was the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lenten book for 2011.
Are you a Woman at a Crossroads in Your Life?
Are you considering a career change? Are you looking for “something more” in your life? Do you have a thirst for God? A hunger for prayer? Do you desire to serve God in a new way? Would you like to experience life in community? Then you may be interested in attending a free three-week program (July 13 - August 4, 2013) to discern where God is calling you. At the same time you will have the opportunity to experience the life of love, prayer and service in an Anglican religious community of love. Women who are interested should contact: Kelly Clark, The Sisterhood of St. John the Divine, St. John’s Convent, 233 Cummer Avenue, Toronto, ON M2M 2E8. Phone: 416-226-2201, ext 301. Email [email protected] Website: www.ssjd.ca Applications for Women at a Crossroads, 2013, must be in by April 22, 2013.
Book Review “Barefoot Disciple” Walking the Way of Passionate Humility.
Stephen Cherry. Continuum, 2011. 172 pages.
6
As Sisters, we believe that God has called us to an extraordinary ministry of prayer, outreach, hospitality, compassion and education, all within the context of living a vowed life in Community. Our Narrative Budget for 2013 is in this issue of The Eagle. It highlights different facets of our ministry, and complements the goals we have for 2013.
What are our goals?
• the creation of a strong Community life–a strong centre of prayer and service–from which our hospitality and mission can flourish and reach out
• an ongoing Formation program for the training of new members for the Community
• adequate supportive care for the Sisters in our Infirmary
• an outreach ministry to our Oblates and Associates
• a vibrant Guest House ministry in response to the requests we receive, and also to organized programs like “Food for the Soul”
• spiritual care at St John’s Rehab
• a house of prayer and outreach in Western Canada
• active short-term discernment programs for women at a time of transition in their lives
• the upkeep and maintenance of our buildings and grounds
• adequate staffing to enable us to fulfil our mission
What is our challenge? To meet our budget in recent years, we have had to take more from our Founders Fund than it earns. This is partly the result of increased expenses and an unfavourable investment environment. We are therefore in the dangerous position of drawing down a Fund that represents faithful bequests and donations of many generations.
Our budget for 2013 shows an expected expense of $1,665,000 and revenue of $1,240,000. We estimate investment income from our Founders Fund, without relying on gains on the capital, to be $325,000. We therefore have a gap of $100,000–a challenge if we are to go forward into a sustainable future.
How will we reach our goals?
The gap of $100,000 needs to be funded by an increase in donations from people willing to pledge an annual amount or to increase their annual donation. For example, new or additional pledge donations from:
10 people pledging an annual amount of $10,000 or 20 people pledging an annual amount of $5,000 or 50 people pledging an annual amount of $2,000 or 100 people pledging an annual amount of $1,000 or
we face the unfortunate necessity of drawing on our Founders Fund capital to meet our needs. We need help to close the gap between the donations we receive from our stable donor-base, and the donations we need to meet our goals and carry out our ministries without relying too heavily on our Founders Fund. Might you be one of these people who can meet this challenge? Do you know someone who might be able to do so? Please let us know.
Sr. Doreen, SSJD Director of Fundraising
News from the Fundraising Office
Altar linens may be purchased from Sr. Jocelyn, SSJD, at the Convent. All linens are hand-sewn from Irish linen. Items which may be purchased include Fair Linens, Credence Cloths, Purificators, Lavabo Towels, Baptismal Towels, Fair Veils, Palls on Plexi Glass, Corporals and Sick Communion Sets.
I live next door to the Virgin Mary. She inhabits a grotto outside a Polish-language Roman Catholic church, and I am charmed every time I walk past by her vivid expression of teenage sullenness, as she seems to roll her eyes and mutter, “Yeah, Mother of God, whatever.”
But I am also fascinated, and quite often genuinely moved, by the people who stand or kneel on the sidewalk in front of the grotto; because someone is there almost every morning, and many nights. They come alone mostly. Sometimes there are two people together, never more than that. They talk to her out loud, they cry, they bow, they cross themselves or make namaste gestures. Sometimes people lie down in the road to pray in traffic, and I notice the courtesy of the drivers, who slow down and negotiate their way past these isolated and probably slightly mad worshippers. Those who come to talk to Mary speak to her in many languages, and I am by no means sure that all of them would call themselves Christians.
And they leave bags of bread, hung on the metal fence. Sometimes flowers, as well; the church provides flowers for the grotto, but passers-by add more. Now and then, pieces of fruit. But most often it is bread, usually sliced white bread, in plastic grocery bags. I do not know what happens to this bread. Some of it, certainly, must be eaten by our neighbourhood squirrels and raccoons. I hope that hungry people take some of it; I hope that the broken-down men and women who panhandle outside KFC, and sometimes sit on the church steps to nurse their bleeding feet, feel that they can share Mary’s bread. But I suspect that much ends up in the compost bins of the church, that this is the stubborn respect which popular devotion demands.
And I think about it, this freelance sacredness, a badly-made plaster statue and the demands of holy places, how this business of homemade impromptu worship relates to the people walking and driving to work in early rain, how it relates to the club down the street, loud music and alcohol, the splatters of blood on the street sometimes in
the morning. But most of all, the bread; why it is that what we do in sacred space is to offer bread? It does not have the prettiness of flowers or fruit, it is neither expensive nor attractive. But it is real, and it is constant, and it is what those who yearn or grieve or rage or love in the presence of this statue have decided must be given.
Bread. It is our selves, I think. Somewhere deep in our symbolic consciousness, when we reach for the simplest and most meaningful things our culture can tell us, we find bread, and we know that the bread is something like a body, our body, our being. That hanging a plastic grocery bag of white bread on a fence is a way of saying yes. Of saying, I will give myself to you. Of saying, with that sullen teenage girl in blue, let it be unto me according to your word. Perhaps, even, the bread is given with the inchoate sense that such bread, such human selves, as we offer, we will
receive back as something unimaginably more.
And people, random people, who could not tell you a thing about eucharistic theology
and may have only a vague idea of who the girl in blue is, have found a way to say this, on one small obscure corner of the city. In the mess and the moments of violence, the exclusion and social division, still they come, still they do this, over and over.
Across the parking lot the St. Felix Centre, which began as a convent and now shares space with a small monastery, offers coffee and toast in the morning, hot lunches and dinners every day, free clothing, one-on-one counselling, classes and support groups for women and for children and for homeless men. Down the street, at Portland Place, hurt and lost people who have never known a safe place are creating a home together. We are all hungry, here in this city. We try to learn, in small awkward ways, to offer our selves, to say yes. To be bread for each other. The pilgrims come, and the girl in blue receives our offerings.
The Rev Maggie HelwigPriest-Associate, SSJD
Bread for Today
8
Reflection
Which world do we choose
to live in?
World of
buy, buy, buy? World of
kill, kill, kill? World of
love, love, love?
World of buy says
love means money,
the bigger the present, the greater
the love.
World of kill says
love means violence,
raping for honour, killing for God. If you’re right, you’re right – force the rest
along!
The world of love says Stop.
Slow Down. Seek God.
Care for neighbour. Know yourself.
Be honest. Be kind. Listen. Love.
Which world
do we choose to
live in?
Sr. Sue Elwyn, SSJD December 23, 2012
Are you between jobs, retired, or wanting to take a year away
from your studies?
Consider becoming an Alongsider of the Sisters of St. John the Divine for a year or two, “Living on the Edge” of the monastic
life to explore living in Community and deepening your relationship with God.
Any woman who is interested in this program should call 416-226-2201
ext 301 or email [email protected] for a brochure on this new program and/or an application form.
Priority will be given to applicants
who can commit to at least 25 hours of work per week in the convent.
The Houses of the Sisterhoodwww.ssjd.caSt. John’s Convent
233 Cummer Avenue, Toronto, ON M2M 2E8 416-226-2201; Fax: 416-226-2131
