Welcoming the Season of Hope

Throughout Good Shepherd communities and organizations, Advent is marked by reflection in a spirit of hope, expectation and joy.

Good Shepherd International Justice Peace Office recommends the attached material as a wonderful resource and opportunity to integrate Advent prayer and reflection with the articles of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.  

Each day a scripture reading is proposed - then an article of the Universal Declaration and a comment.   

Thank you to the Claretian Missionaries for sharing this rich resource.

Click here - Advent 2021 - En.pdf

Recovering Better for a Sustainable and Equitable World

This is the powerful theme of 2021 International Day of Peace.  It acknowledges that our world is full of conflict, strife, anger, hurt and pain. We know this in our own lives and communities to varying degrees. Communities in war-torn parts of the world are living with the threat of violence every day, never sure when they will be safe and able to regain some sense of normality. Added to this, we are living through a global pandemic that means we need extra energy to keep ourselves and our communities safe from illness.

The theme points towards a more hopeful future.

Let us remember the words of Pope Paul VI:  “If you want peace, work for justice.”

Please use the Prayer / Reflection in communities, with partners in mission and with those who wish to join us in praying for a sustainable and equitable world.

Click - Prayer/Reflection for 2021 International Day of Peace

Prepared by Sr Caroline Price, Province of Australia/Aotearoa New Zealand. 

Brigid Lawlor has served the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd in many leadership roles, including as Congregational Leader from 2003 - 2015.  She is a member of the Province of Mid-North America.

Pope Francis has appointed Sr Brigid to a role at the Vatican office for religious.  The appointment named her a Consultor for the Congregation for Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (CICLSAL).

As a Consultor to the Pope, Sr Brigid said she will provide advice to Pope Francis on the basis of need.  In light of her background, she anticipates being asked to advise him on Justice issues, particularly poverty, human trafficking, immigration, and possibly racism.  She believes he might also call on her to advise him in matters regarding women religious.

Acknowledgment of article in 'Items of Interest' May-June 2021, Newsletter of Province of Mid-North America.  Full article (link below) by Jeanette McDermott, PMNA Communications Coordinator.

Click here:  Pope Francis appoints Sister Brigid Lawlor to consulting role at the Vatican,

“You carry Mother Earth within you. She is not outside of you. Mother Earth is not just your environment. In that insight of inter-being, it is possible to have real communication with the Earth, which is the highest form of prayer.” -Thich nat Hanh

Good Shepherd communities, agencies and organizations join more than 1 billion people participating in activities around the world on 22 April to draw attention to the urgency of the climate crisis and environmental degradation and the need for immediate action.  

Inspirational prayer-reflection prepared by the Province of Sri Lanka-Pakistan.

Click here - Prayer for Earth Day 2021

Create a sacred space where we feel the presence of the whole creation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGm6YzBrxiI&ab_channel=PRIMALEARTHSOUNDS

https://youtu.be/caIo1UGSDgw

Throughout the Congregation, and particularly in the Asia Pacific region, Good Shepherd Partners in Mission (sisters and lay) are united in prayer and solidarity with the people of Myanmar during this time of struggle.

You may wish to participate in this reality based Holy Week reflection, created by a Myanmar person who now lives in another country.  (Endorsed by the province leader of East Asia.)

Click here - A Way of the Cross in solidarity with the people of Myanmar.

Concluding Prayer:   Jesus, our Companion,

Thank you for being gentle, loving compassionate and self-giving.

You are so nonviolent that you inspire us and draw us to live in truth, love and forgiveness. May this journey of solidarity with our sisters and brothers in Myanmar give us courage to choose your way of nonviolence and to create peace and justice on this Earth.

Make us your instrument of peace, that we might, even in a small way, turn war, oppression, violence into freedom, compassion and love. Bless our brothers and sisters in Myanmar with your love and care. Bless their passion, courage and great desire for freedom and peace. Touch hearts of the oppressors with your compassion that they too experience the power of the Eternal Love and Peace.

As we are called to follow you, Jesus, help us to be peacemakers, to live in your peace, love and compassion and to bring your Kin-dom on this Earth always forever and ever.

“What is this thing that has happened to us? It’s a virus, yes. In and of itself it holds no moral brief. But it is definitely more than a virus. Some believe it’s God’s way of bringing us to our senses. Others that it’s a Chinese conspiracy to take over the world.

Whatever it is, coronavirus has made the mighty kneel and brought the world to a halt like nothing else could. Our minds are still racing back and forth, longing for a return to “normality”, trying to stitch our future to our past and refusing to acknowledge the rupture. But the rupture exists. And in the midst of this terrible despair, it offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves. Nothing could be worse than a return to normality.

Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.

We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.”                                                                                                                  

Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy is a highly regarded Indian author, and a political activist involved in human rights and environmental issues.

As the United Nations celebrates its 75th anniversary, it acknowledges: "the UN is marking its 75th anniversary at a time of great disruption for the world, compounded by an unprecedented global health crisis with severe economic and social impacts."

Sister Winifred Doherty's Blog - https://gsijpoffice.com/

To mark the 75th anniversary, Chris Herlinger, Global Sisters Report international correspondent, asked members of sister congregations about the milestone anniversary, inviting them to reflect on the United Nation's accomplishments and failures and the difficulties and challenges it faces now and in the future.

Sr. Winifred Doherty's contribution is included in this article.

Click here -  United Nations at 75: Sisters and their reps discuss its feats, failures

Chris Herlinger - Global Sisters Report:  A Project of National Catholic Reporter

Sep 21, 2020