Day 959: Monday, October 31, 2022

And say simply

Very simply

With hope—

Good morning.

On the Pulse of Morning

A Rock, A River, A Tree

Hosts to species long since departed,

Marked the mastodon,

The dinosaur, who left dried tokens

Of their sojourn here

On our planet floor,

Any broad alarm of their hastening doom

Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages.

But today, the Rock cries out to us, clearly, forcefully,

Come, you may stand upon my

Back and face your distant destiny,

But seek no haven in my shadow.

I will give you no hiding place down here.

You, created only a little lower than

The angels, have crouched too long in

The bruising darkness

Have lain too long

Face down in ignorance.

Your mouths spilling words

Armed for slaughter.

The Rock cries out to us today, you may stand upon me,

But do not hide your face.

Across the wall of the world,

A River sings a beautiful song. It says,

Come, rest here by my side.

Each of you, a bordered country,

Delicate and strangely made proud,

Yet thrusting perpetually under siege.

Your armed struggles for profit

Have left collars of waste upon

My shore, currents of debris upon my breast.

Yet today I call you to my riverside,

If you will study war no more. Come,

Clad in peace, and I will sing the songs

The Creator gave to me when I and the

Tree and the rock were one.

Before cynicism was a bloody sear across your

Brow and when you yet knew you still

Knew nothing.

The River sang and sings on.

There is a true yearning to respond to

The singing River and the wise Rock.

So say the Asian, the Hispanic, the Jew

The African, the Native American, the Sioux,

The Catholic, the Muslim, the French, the Greek

The Irish, the Rabbi, the Priest, the Sheik,

The Gay, the Straight, the Preacher,

The privileged, the homeless, the Teacher.

They hear. They all hear

The speaking of the Tree.

They hear the first and last of every Tree

Speak to humankind today. Come to me, here beside the River.

Plant yourself beside the River.

Each of you, descendant of some passed

On traveller, has been paid for.

You, who gave me my first name, you,

Pawnee, Apache, Seneca, you

Cherokee Nation, who rested with me, then

Forced on bloody feet,

Left me to the employment of

Other seekers—desperate for gain,

Starving for gold.

You, the Turk, the Arab, the Swede, the German, the Eskimo, the Scot,

You the Ashanti, the Yoruba, the Kru, bought,

Sold, stolen, arriving on the nightmare

Praying for a dream.

Here, root yourselves beside me.

I am that Tree planted by the River,

Which will not be moved.

I, the Rock, I the River, I the Tree

I am yours—your passages have been paid.

Lift up your faces, you have a piercing need

For this bright morning dawning for you.

History, despite its wrenching pain

Cannot be unlived, but if faced

With courage, need not be lived again.

Lift up your eyes upon

This day breaking for you.

Give birth again

To the dream.

Women, children, men,

Take it into the palms of your hands,

Mold it into the shape of your most

Private need. Sculpt it into

The image of your most public self.

Lift up your hearts

Each new hour holds new chances

For a new beginning.

Do not be wedded forever

To fear, yoked eternally

To brutishness.

The horizon leans forward,

Offering you space to place new steps of change.

Here, on the pulse of this fine day

You may have the courage

To look up and out and upon me, the

Rock, the River, the Tree, your country.

No less to Midas than the mendicant.

No less to you now than the mastodon then.

Here, on the pulse of this new day

You may have the grace to look up and out

And into your sister’s eyes, and into

Your brother’s face, your country

And say simply

Very simply

With hope—

Good morning.

By Maya Angelou - 1928-2014

Announcement from our friends at FutureChurch

2022 Fall Event Fertile Ground: Building a Synodal Church.

(for more information and to sign up)

https://futurechurch.org/fall-event/

This year’s exciting event, Fertile Ground: Building a Synodal Church, will take place during two different virtual gatherings – on Thursday, November 3rd at 7pm ET and Thursday, November 10th, at ET 8:30pm (via Zoom).

Awards Presentation: Thursday, November 3 at 7pm ET

Sr. Maureen Sullivan, O.P., Ph.D. LOUIS J. TRIVISON AWARD RECIPIENT

Sr. Maureen Sullivan, OP is a Dominican Sister of Hope from New York and Professor Emerita of Theology at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire. She received her Master of Arts in Theology from Manhattan College in the Bronx and her Ph.D. in Theology from Fordham University, also in the Bronx. The Second Vatican Council, along with its impact on our Church, is at the center of her theological research. Sr. Maureen Sullivan recently lead a four-part series, for FutureChurch, exploring Vatican II documents as the foundation for the 2023 Synod. Videos to each of the presentations and PDFs of Sr. Maureen’s presentations can be found at https://futurechurch.org/fertile-ground. She has written two books on Vatican II: 101 Questions and Answers on Vatican II (2002) and The Road to Vatican II: Key Changes in Theology (2007).

Yunuen Trujillo CHRISTINE SCHENK AWARD FOR YOUNG ADULTS

Yunuen Trujillo is a Catholic lay minister, a faith-based Community Organizer, and an Immigration Attorney. As a lay minister, she has served in Young Adult Ministry for more than 15 years and she is one of the leading figures for inclusive Catholic LGBT Ministry in the United States. Yunuen is a regular speaker at the yearly Los Angeles Religious Education Congress, a Congress that draws about 30,000+ attendants from all over the world, where she teaches about inclusive LGBT Ministry. As a community organizer, she has worked with L.A. Voice PICO, a faith-based, multi-faith, multi-racial organization that works to create a society that reflects the Dignity of all persons; working on issues such as immigrant rights, education, and criminal justice reform. Yunuen is also the founder of the Instagram @lgbtcatholics, an online platform of resources for Catholic LGBT Ministry, and she is the Religious Formation Coordinator (Sp) for the Catholic Ministry with Lesbian and Gay Persons of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. She is the author of the new book, LGBT Catholics: A Guide for Inclusive Ministry (Paulist Press, 2022).

Keynote Presentation: Thursday, November 10 at 8:30pm ET

Rafael Luciani, S.T.D. KEYNOTE PRESENTER

Professor Rafael Luciani, S.T.D., a world renown expert on synodality in the Catholic Church, will offer his insights regarding the current efforts of Pope Francis to create a new phase in the reception of Vatican II — a church that “walks together” in discerning the future. Professor Luciani argues that what is at stake, is nothing less that the Church’s fidelity to her calling as a follower of Jesus and her response to the new signs of the times. He contends that synodality is a re-ordering of relationships within the church. In this new ecclesial “we”, all the faithful, from the pope to the laity, are equals in a communion with the same responsibility regarding the identity, vocation, and mission of the Church. Professor Rafael Luciani is lay theologian from Venezuela who has been appointed as Expert of the Theological Commission of the General Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops. He holds degrees of Doctor in Theology and Licenciate in Dogmatic Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome; Baccalaureatum in Philosophy and Baccalaureatum in Theology from the Pontifical Salesian University of Rome; and Licenciate in Education (with mention in Philosophy) earned from the Jesuit`s Catholic University Andrés Bello in Caracas. He is an Associate Professor of the Practice at Boston College and is currently engaged in postdoctoral research activities at the Julius-Maximilians Universität in Würzburg, Germany. He is the author of Synodality: A New Way of Proceeding in the Church.