Plan on a Retreat Day

Sponsored by the Institute for Catholic Spirituality and Spiritual Direction, Diocese of Stockton, Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI: “Sexuality and Spirituality: From Anxiety and Restlessness to Gratitude and Blessing” at Our Lady of Fatima Hall, 505 W. Granger Avenue, Modesto, Calif., on Saturday, Dec. 12, 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. $15 for the day – bring your own lunch

Check for reservation should be made payable to: Two Bears Dancing/ICSSD and mailed to: 1926 Colombard Circle, Lodi, CA 95240

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The Age of Stupid

A Might Challenge
The Institute inaugurated the Earth Pledge/350 Campaign to call attention to global climate change and the threat it poses to all creation. The Institute Campaign is part of the world-wide 350 Campaign. The number 350 refers to 350 parts per million, the level experts say is the upper limit of carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere that Earth can safely sustain. The current level is about 390 parts per million. To learn more about the 350 Campaign, visit: http://www.350.org/. Sisters and associates are asked to pledge to two or more actions per week. Sister Pat Ryan and Sister Ellen Fitzgerald prepared themselves by viewing a film, The Age of Stupid.

From WMW Blog

We walked into the Tanforan Cinema in San Bruno, Calif., on Sept. 21 at two minutes to 8 p.m. for “the new, big-screen climate change epic world premier” being shown in more than 50 countries. We were numbers 11 and 12; six or seven came in after us. Had we been crowded into someone’s living room, it would have been a comfortable setting. But the hundreds of empty seats around us reinforced a feeling of panic, perhaps appropriately because the film we were viewing was meant to evoke a certain panic.

This world premier event of The Age of Stupid began with an interview of the two British women who produced and directed the film. They introduced the small group of Non Governmental Organizations (NGO) leaders who had managed to raise the funding for this event, being beamed live from New York to nearly 2,500 theatres around the world. The private London premier of this film two years ago was a lure for NGO groups like Avaaz, 350.org, and Greenpeace to join forces and create a worldwide live premier that would, it was hoped, gather large crowds around the world. These viewers would then be motivated to work toward influencing the outcome of the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009.

The title of the film suggests that those of us alive now, at the end of the Cenozoic Age, are going to be viewed 50 years from now as the cause of the Age of Stupid—stupid for ignoring the warning signs, for not acting when we still had time to save our beautiful Earth from the effects of uncontrolled global warming. The myths floating around about how all the climate changes we observe daily are not really cause for alarm are debunked by the scientific facts presented through interviews and film clips. For instance, the film demonstrates the futility of dismissing things like accelerated warming of the earth as “unimportant” for future life.

The Age of Stupid does not pit climate control against the other crises vying for attention, but “connects the dots” with world poverty and hunger, environmental degradation, migration, war, and other environmental and social concerns. Indeed, there’s an integral connection between all the factors threatening the sustainability of life on Earth. But to level off our carbon emissions and begin to bring them down as steeply as they’ve risen, to avoid catastrophic and irreversible climate change, we have only until 2015.

So it seems as if it’s time for us, the Mercy community, seriously to assess those actions of ours which contribute to the growing crisis and then to change what we’re doing. But even more challenging than that, it’s time to use our energy, resources, and influence to awaken whomever we can reach, to try to alter the current narcissistic consciousness, to inspire others to see that “humans are part of Earth, which is a communion of subjects and not a collection of objects,” as the late Thomas Berry so wisely noted. Here is a mighty challenge indeed: for us to incorporate our works of Mercy into the Great Work which requires a transformation of human thinking from predatory to dependent and protective of the earth.

Sisters Pat Ryan and Ellen FitzGerald

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Sr. Mary Fearon in Cambridge Who’s Who

We are thrilled that Sister Mary Fearon will be profiled in the Cambridge Who’s Who. Check out the whole story here.

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We really are all one

By Kathleen Erickson, RSM

What is exciting and intriguing for me about our learning about the Universe, is that it seems like such a huge step in our understanding of who we are as human beings.  The week on “Living in Harmony with All Creation” strengthened my commitment to continue probing the depths of what mystics have said through the centuries, and what science is now confirming: We really are all one!!

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To Act in Harmony with All Creation

by Carolyn Snegoski, RSM

Trying to capture the universe story and the past 14 billion years until the present was indeed an interesting and challenging task to attempt in one week.  To grasp how the original power flared forth into stars, galaxies, supernovas to the emergence of the Sun and the Earth would take a lifetime.  Homo sapiens emerged a relatively short time ago in the scheme of things (60,000 years ago).  In that period of time, we have plundered the earth and are now closing the Cenozoic period and entering the Ecozoic period.  While we cannot undue much of the damage we have caused, we can and must respond by transforming our mode of living.   We cannot continue to treat God’s creatures as objects but rather subjects of the Cosmos.  Although mass extinctions have occurred before in history, we are currently experiencing a rate of extinction that has not happened in the past sixty-five million years and scientists believe humans are causing it.  We must live in a way that enables us to live in harmony with all creation—not just humans.  This week provided me with the impetus to become better informed and to act now.

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To Act in Harmony With All Creation

Four Sisters of Mercy and an Associate from the West Midwest Community were among the 81 Sisters and Associates who attended a week-long session designed to engage them in an emerging ecological dimension of the charism of Mercy. The session, which was held from June 21-27, 2009, at St. Joseph’s College of Maine, was a week packed with input, reflection, ritual and experiences.  The five West Midwest participants were:   Sisters Pat Ryan, Catherine Kuper, Carolyn Snegoski and Kathleen Erickson and Associate Catherine Regan. They returned home deeply committed to sharing, dialogue and action about the implications of the profound and on-going call of the Mercy Direction Statement and Critical Concerns.  They will share their reflections in this blog and invite others to join them in the discussion.

 

by Catherine Kuper, RSM

It was a privilege to spend a week with, Miriam Terese McGillis, OP,  as she shared her passion and energy for the “Great Work” of helping people learn about this amazing universe and urging us to change our attitudes and behaviors about caring for creation. I am always impressed by the learnings of recent science about the development of the Universe, especially its massive and unimaginable size, the 13.7 billion years it has taken to evolve, and the impact both positive and negative of the most recent species, humans.  I’m grateful to the 81 others Sisters of Mercy who shared their enthusiasm and commitment as well.

Attending the retreat from the West Midwest

Community were, from left: Sister Pat Ryan, Sister

Carolyn Snegoski, Associate Catherine Regan, Sister

Kathleen Erickson and Sister Catherine Kuper.

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