Pilgrim Ponderings: July
It’s quite a privilege to live in community with such strong, sensitive, faithful women. This month, two of our sisters offer their reflections on hope, one in her own voice and one in the voice of a contemporary writer (who also happens to be a strong, sensitive, faithful woman).
First, our sister’s own reflection:
“Return to your strongholds, you prisoners of hope! (Zechariah 9:12)
In times of discouragement or doubt this is my rallying cry. The prophet Zechariah is speaking to Jewish prisoners of war, but God does not define them as prisoners of their enemies, but as prisoners of hope. When things are hard, or a situation seems hopeless, this line comes to me. The hope that holds me is greater than whatever tries to bring me down, because the one I hope in is stronger than any adversary—even if, and especially when, that adversary is myself.
-Myself”
And now, another sister would like to share a quote from a book that we recently read in Refectory:
“To risk joy requires hope. And hope is the opposite of anxiety. I am habitually anxious. I catastrophize. I plan for the worst. This habit leads me to, as they say in the South, “borrow trouble.” Horrors could happen, so I start mourning them ahead of time – it’s never too early to get a jump start on misery. To hope is to ‘borrow grace.’ It is not naive optimism. Hope admits the truth of our vulnerability. It does not trust God to keep all bad things from happening. But it assumes that redemption, beauty, and goodness will be there for us, whatever lies ahead.”
-Tish Harrison Warren, Prayer in the Night
May these beautiful voices inspire us all to find the words to say, in whatever way, “We are people of hope!”
Simply reverence the Lord Christ in your hearts,
and always have your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for your hope.
1 Peter 3:15
[For some background information about our Jubilee Year of Hope “Pilgrim Ponderings” series, please see https://mississippiabbey.org/pilgrim-ponderings-may/ .]