My plan to write each and day and rest my brain didn’t work out…we live and learn! But after a few days of quiet, restful, and “ordinary” days of family eating, Irish liturgies, and walking the Dublin streets with my mother, I have decided to bunch days a few days together and begin to reflect on the year that has past.
It has been a huge one: fuller than I like in terms of both travel and work-commitments, in truth, so I am sieving to let go of things and discern future steps. But rich, nonetheless. Two important things from the early part of the year
1. Discovering the Albatross (and much more):
I had the unexpected and grace-filled chance to accompany my niece Olivia on a trip to the Antarctic, South Georgia and the Falklands. She is an amazingly gifted and committed young women who’s zoology skills and love of the natural world and have led her to heading up expeditions to amazing places, with a team full of experts who gently and carefully introduce people to the amazing sites and sounds of this part of the world… as well as its importance for the planet’s fragile balance.
I loved it all, but at this stage, two things stay with me now. The first is the sheer beauty and power of nature and the wildlife there seen up close – majestic, powerful and at times as still as silence. My favourite was the albatross, who fly alone for months on end as they gain strength to land and take off again. The second is the commitment of people to who spend their lives dedicated to loving this part of the world and trying to care, and raise awareness, of how important it is. The images revisit me still.
2. Losing Pope Francis (and welcoming Pope Leo)
Pope Francis was the only pope I met and spoke with (a little) but I loved the style he brought to the church. I loved that he was pastoral and allowed that sensibility shape his words; I loved his care for the planet and document on it Laudato Si’ which is actually marking plans of action and worldviews; and I loved that he began dragging the Catholic Church into ways of allowing all baptised people have a voice in how visions are born and decisions are made. He called it becoming “a synodal Church” (for those interested, it is well worth the read: ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS at the CEREMONY COMMEMORATING THE 50th ANNIVERSARY OF THE INSTITUTION OF THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS. Given at the end of a long meeting, it still managed to light the room and change the way things are done, in Rome and across the world).
There are things he did not do. And no person gets it all right and can do everything (Catholics ask too much of their Pope, I would suggest). But for this theologian who has lived for decades in spaces with certain doors shut and discussions silenced (with all the consequences at so many levels), I sense real change and a desire to grow, and respond, and be faithful. So I am hopeful… also with Pope Leo, who in his own way, seems to be continuing that journey. Early days yet, but I am quietly hopeful.
And what strikes me most is the interest they both draw, in this supposedly secular world. Media posts flooded St Peter’s Square for months to report on this key change for the Catholic world. Leaders from across the world came to be part of the end-of-life ritual for Pope Francis. It makes you wonder about how we might better leverage our voices, for the good of our war-torn world.
Enough for now…