Spring 2015 Journey page 1 Congregation of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Scranton, PA Vol. 33, No. 1 Spring 2015 IHM Chapter Direction 2014 - 2018 We, Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, rooted in God and the Gospel, long to serve a world crying out for justice and hungering for meaning. Joyfully, we steep ourselves in prayer and contemplation, embrace a life of , radicaland foster imagination,interdependence creativity, and fresh thinking. Conscious of both our fragility and our strength, we search for new and deeper ways to live our vowed life and invite others to join us in bringing about God’s dream for this beautiful, yet wounded world. page 2 Journey Spring 2015 The Mysteryby ofSister OurEllen Maroney, Interrelatedness IHM We, Sisters, Servants of the dialogue together about our life and be the anchor for our prayer, reflec- Immaculate Heart of Mary, the life of our world. The contem- tion, and conversations as we strive rooted in God and the Gospel, plative context of our prayer and to look beyond ourselves and use long to serve a world crying out for sharing allows for the letting go of our collective “imagination, creativ- justice and hungering for meaning. individual preconceptions or agen- ity, and fresh thinking” to discern Joyfully, we steep ourselves in das in order for the sacred “new” how and where God’s dream is call- prayer and contemplation, to emerge from our collective deep ing us anew in this time. embrace a life of radical listening and sharing. An ancient The articles in this issue fo- our understanding of radical inter- interdependence, and foster story reflects this process: “Once cus on the theme of “radical in- dependence and our Direction State- imagination, creativity, upon a time, the master had a visitor terdependence”, a phrase from ment, we will be led deeper into the and fresh thinking. who came to inquire about Zen. our Direction Statement that has mystery of our interrelatedness and Conscious of both our fragility and But instead of listening, the visitor rich meaning for our understand- our role in helping to bring about our strength, we search for new and kept talking about his own concerns ing of our relationship with God, “God’s dream for this beautiful, yet deeper ways to live our vowed life and giving his own thoughts. After one another and the people of our wounded world.” and invite others to join us in a while, the master served tea. He world. I recently came across a bringing about God’s dream poured tea into his visitor’s cup rather intriguing illustration of this I have a small grain of hope— for this beautiful, until it was full and then he kept on phrase. The giant redwood trees of one small crystal that gleams yet wounded world. pouring. Finally the visitor could California, as most of us know, are clear colors out of transparency. not bear it any longer. ‘Don’t you extremely tall. Some of them stand IHM Chapter Direction Statement see that my cup is full?’ he said. over 300 feet high and are over I need more. 2014-2018 ‘It’s not possible to get any more tea 2500 years old. We might think I break off a fragment in.’ ‘Just so,’ said the master, stop- that such large trees have a massive aving recently returned from to send you. ping at last. ‘And like this cup, you root system extending hundreds a trip to Peru for a wonder- H are filled with your own ideas. How of feet underground. In fact, the ful celebration marking the fiftieth Please take can you expect me to give you Zen redwoods have a very shallow root year of our IHM presence in that this grain of a grain of hope unless you first empty your cup?’” system, but all the roots intertwine country, I found myself reflecting so that mine won’t shrink. Last spring, at our Chapter 2014, under the surface of the earth; they on the many kinds of journeys we we reaffirmed our deep desire to be are locked to each other. So when Please share your fragment make during our lifetime. Some rooted in God and the gospel for storms come, they are not alone, for so that yours will grow. are part of our ordinary routines: the life of our world and committed all the trees support and hold each our commute to work each day, the Only so, by division, ourselves to continuing our con- other up. Each tree is important regular trip to the grocery store, etc. will hope increase, templative stance as we move into to all the other trees in the group. But some, like my Peru trip, or a our future. Our Chapter Direction What a wonderful image of how our like a clump of irises, which will change in job/ministry, or a detour, Statement calls us to pray, reflect interconnections, our relations with cease to flower or even our annual Lenten journey, and imagine how we might engage each other and our world bind us unless you distribute take us to a new place. These kinds with others to be prophetic witness- to one another so that what affects the clustered roots, unlikely source– of journeys are often full of sur- es to God’s love and compassion in one also affects us all. At the same clumsy and earth-covered– prises, unexpected turns, and new a world “crying out for justice and time, this image also calls us to a of grace. understandings of self and others, hungering for meaning.” This con- deeper understanding of radical though they can also be challenging, templative journey challenges us to interdependence in terms of our re- “For the New Year, 1981” frustrating, and even frightening. embrace uncertainty, surprise, and sponsibility to and for one another. by Denise Levertov Every four years, we IHMs em- risk as we “empty our cups” in or- Our interconnectivity implies that bark on a collective journey to dis- der to consider together the complex we are responsible to others (not in cern what God intends for us. In the realities of our own lives, the life the sense of hierarchical power, but Sister Ellen serves as president of months prior to our formal Chapter of our congregation, and that of the from the stance of reciprocity); we the Congregation of the Sisters, gathering, we engage in personal world today. For the next four years are not autonomous. Servants of the Immaculate Heart of and communal prayer, contempla- at least our Direction Statement will As we continue to break open Mary, Scranton, PA. tion, reflection, and meaningful Editor: Sister Fran Fasolka, IHM Copy editor: Sister Chris Koellhoffer, IHM Proofreader: Sister Mary Ann Adams, IHM Advisory Board: Sister Jean Louise Bachetti, IHM Sister Nancy Hawkins, IHM Sister Suzanne Delaney, IHM Chris Koellhoffer, IHM Sister Ann Barbara DeSiano, IHM Dr. Erin Sadlack Congregation of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Scranton, Pennsylvania Journey is published by the IHM Congregation for its members, friends, donors, sponsored institutions and supporters of the IHM Sisters and their ministries. Opinions expressed by authors Our mission as Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary of Scranton, published in Journey do not necessarily reflect those of the IHM Congregation. Written portions Pennsylvania, is to follow Jesus as a community of disciples, aware that we are contained herein may not be reproduced without the permission of the IHM Congregation. sent to be a clear and understandable prophetic witness to the presence of God in Correspondence should be addressed to the Journey editor at: IHM Center, 2300 Adams Avenue, Scranton, PA 18509. E-mail: [email protected] the world. - from the IHM Mission Statement Journey is online at: www.sistersofihm.org/what-we-do/publications-library/ihm-journey-online-publication.html Spring 2015 Journey page 3 Breathing into Deeper Partnership by Sister Chris Koellhoffer, IHM n the heart of forests in Japan of their own breath- in both the pain and weeks afterwards, often trudging lies a wonderful example of ing in and out, and the courage of her up to twenty miles. Rosa’s initial Ithe profound interconnec- using that rhythm to neighbors impelled act, Raymond’s encouragement, the tion between the human world and deepen the aware- her to stay on as community’s determination to stand the natural world. I confess I first ness of all that they war raged and vio- together through the hardships of heard about this while watching an are breathing into lence edged closer the boycott and the consequent legal episode of “Treehouse Masters” their lives and all to her. She wrote action modeled the collective power on Animal Planet. Pete Nelson, a they are breathing to a friend, “Sev- of radical interdependence. visionary designer and builder of out in blessing to eral times I have In 1976, when mothers in Ar- whimsical, functional, and artistic our world. decided to leave El gentina whose children had been treehouses, spends his life, as he So the theme Salvador. I almost “disappeared”—raped, tortured, puts it, “in the arms of trees” as a of radical interde- could except for the kidnapped, murdered—searched tree whisperer of sorts. When he pendence invites children, the poor, for their loved ones, they started prepares for a design, he asks the reflection on the bruised victims of to notice the same faces, the same trees on the designated property to ways we have been this insanity. Who voices, protesting at government talk to him and to lead him to the bathing in the wit- The theme of radical would care for offices, police stations, prisons.