On Saturday, December 5th the Sisters at de Sève Residence hosted a special day of prayer & reflection for the local associates. After receiving a warm welcome of hospitality, our day began with the theme of ‘Behold, Behold, Behold.’
Sister Joan Foliot guided us through the day with two thought-provoking input sessions. The morning session was about us beholding God and the afternoon was on God beholding us. We spent time in reflection and silence followed by an opportunity to share if we so wished. Also our shared mealtime gave us an opportunity to share and listen as we continued to be nourished.
Our day ended as Sr. Joan walked us through identifying the gifts and fruits of the day. Sr. Joan presented each of us with a shekel bearing the words “I Behold God” on one side “God Beholds Me” on the other. It was most evident that everyone present thoroughly enjoyed the day as we all left ‘refreshed and nourished.’
“We have moved from a world where everyone said it was someone else’s problem, to one where everyone knows this can only be solved collectively.” (The Guardian-Ed Miliband)
It was a cold, windy day as hundreds of people gathered in downtown Halifax the afternoon of November 29th to demand action to stop climate change. Our deep desires for planet earth were expressed by people of all ages, marching side-by-side with walkers, strollers, and of course, our feet. Our united intentions were creatively expressed in song, creative signs/banners and powerful words from many speakers. As the rally began I was touched deeply by a pre-school youngster with his parents; he tugged at my jacket and excitedly shared “This is my first march!” We marched together and chanted mantras like: “We are unstoppable; another world is possible.” The organizers were “prophets of the new generation” waking us up and reminding us of what we know so well, that we all have a stake in what’s happening with our planet … and that our leadership is needed however and wherever it can be shown in our everyday lives. Are we in Visitation Province unstoppable and making a new world possible?
As the U.N. Conference on Climate in Paris wraps up, we see the positive effects of our advocacy (the fruit of our Congregation of Notre Dame Corporate Stance) as it joined in with that of almost a million others. Over the past year we have been blessed with a Visitation Province calendar that has invited us to engage with the theme of Peace and to reflect on ways that we can be better peacemakers. These two paths of peace work and climate action are now converging in Paris and beyond with the continued work on global cooperation around climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been universally acknowledged as a credible source of climate related news. The latest report of the IPCC suggests that "global warming would have devastating impacts of a social and political nature as well, including economic decline, state collapse, civil strife, mass migrations, and sooner or later resource wars..." They suggest that we should consider the events in Syria and Mali as previews of what is likely to come later in this century on a far larger scale. They follow these dire predictions, however, with an assertion that "The best way to avoid future climate-related strife is, of course, to reduce the pace of global warming. Every fraction of a degree less warming achieved in Paris and thereafter will mean that much less blood spilled in future climate-driven resource wars. This is why the Paris climate summit should be viewed as a kind of pre-emptive peace conference..."