Dear Family,
As I begin, I haven’t a clue as to where this Twitch is going or where it will end. SO, what else is new?
The process, though, is worth thinking about. I come not knowing what needs to be noticed, or announced, or celebrated, or mourned, but I sit down in front of the keyboard to try and make sense out of a jumble of thoughts.
And there you are! It’s the process of life itself, sorting things out as best you can and trying to deal with them one by one because there are no magic wands that simply let you go “Poof” and it’s all done without any further effort needed.
For centuries wise men and women have taught us that meditation and the like is essential to human well-being and growth. There are methods galore, each of them in some way trying to help us look deeply into ourselves and (re)discover the mystery of what makes each of us tick. I say re-discover because hopefully we take the journey often.
For me, as a believer, on my good days, I find that indeed, I am “a living breathing walking talking temple of the Holy Spirit and God lives in me.” I don’t make that trip on my own. It’s the very Spirit who I “discover” who has been directing the journey, ...God’s GPS system?
One thing I will take from writing this Twitch is looking again at how faithful I’m being about “pondering.”
Annie has just saved you from any more process/growth reflections by giving me the results of last Sunday’s Mission appeal.
Father Christopher Onyenobi of the Archdiocese of Ibadan, Nigeria, came to represent the large Catholic community in Nigeria. As I said last Sunday, his presence gave us a ‘living’ connection to things we only read about in headlines.
The terrorist group Boko Haram is an example. I got a quick insight into the horrors of the group that the Nigerian Catholic community is contending with from the following quote I took from the Al-Jazeera website:
(Boko Haram) roughly translates to "Western education is forbidden", and has waged an armed campaign in northeast Nigeria since 2009. The group wants to establish an Islamic state which will follow a strict interpretation of Islamic law. Some 30,000 people have been killed and more than two million displaced since Boko Haram launched its armed campaign. The fighting has since spilled over to neighbouring Niger, Cameroon and Chad.
The group has repeatedly attacked schools, churches, mosques and markets, but state institutions such as police stations and military facilities have remained its primary targets.
(Recall the school girls kidnapped from Nigeria's Chibok. Five years on, 112 are still missing.)
- Aljazeerra News Aug 24,2019
Father Christopher told us that the Church tries to be a place of refuge. We are Church, too. None of us should ever think that because we can (generously) contribute some money, that we’re finished with all responsibility.
I told you I didn’t know where the letter would go when I began writing. Right now, I have this terrible feeling all over about the horror of living in situations when you don’t know what the next moment might bring. Our money must be followed by a river of prayer that sustains people of faith like ourselves in fear-filled living situations we can’t begin to imagine.
Lord, make us one in heart and mind with suffer¬ing people everywhere. As always,
In Jesus,
