Pilgrim Ponderings: September
In this month’s edition of our “Pilgrims of Hope” series, two of our sisters point to the gritty inner struggle that Hope requires.
First, one sister’s personal reflection:
“Is there anyone you love: parents, a child, spouse? Do you love nature, beauty, darkness filled with stars, the earth? Then you cannot but have hope for them: for their good, for their health, for their joy. This is assuming that the nature of love is self-less, as God’s love toward us is – free, forgiving, unconditional, not dependent on any personal expectations. No matter what difficulties, struggles, or outer events may happen, that simplicity of heart and single focus of love cannot give up hope. So “Keep going,” Hope says, “Don’t let the outside stop you. Go with the inside!”
And next, another sister’s found quotation, from a book we read in-community:
“Brother Doubt, I greet you. You wake me up early out of sleep. Lord knows we have spent good and also stressful times together. And yet I thank you, because without you I would be satisfied all too soon. You rightly demand that I ask and seek. You demand that I be thorough. Without you I would not have become what I am and do today.
Martin Schleske, The Sound of Life’s Unspeakable Beauty
“But do not be upset, Brother Doubt, if I have little time for you right now. Because I have, as you know, other brothers and sisters, and I must listen to them as well; there is much to do. What they demand ought not be inhibited. I will do their bidding. Later I will listen to your arguments again and, if need be, go another round with you at the crossroads. But you should know one thing: in my calling I will give Hope greater rights than you. Then you will ask and I will give an answer; our lives speak through our actions.”
Photos courtesy of a recent retreatant
[For some background information about our Jubilee Year “Pilgrims of Hope” series, please see https://mississippiabbey.org/pilgrim-ponderings-may/ .]