Blessing our oneness

Archdiocese of San Francisco ^ | January 2005

[AskStPhilomena]

We greet you Spirit of the North. Teach us to plant our feet securely on the earth and to see things as they really are, that the coming of your Spirit may find us standing firm in integrity. Teach us, Spirit of the North, in the solitude of winter, to wait in darkness with the sleeping earth, believing that we, like the earth, already hold within ourselves the seeds of new life.

ALL: May the deep peace of mercy be on us forgiving us, beckoning us, encouraging us; and may our readiness to forgive calm the fears.

We greet you, O Spirit of the East.

Awaken in us with each day, new hopes, new dreams of colors, loves and joys never before imagined. Fill our bodies with your breath, invigorate us. Carry us to the farthest mountains and beyond. In-spirit us that we might reach out to you boldly to grasp the miracles that are given birth with each new dawn.

ALL: May the deep peace of compassion be on us holding us close when we are weary, hurt and alone; and may we be the warm hands and warm eyes of compassion when people reach out to us in need.

We greet you Spirit of the South. You bring the winds of summer and breathe on us the warmth of the sun to sooth and heal our bodies and our spirits. Quicken us, draw us by the urgings of your warm breath to break through the soil of our own barrenness and fear. Teach us to hold sacred the memory of the spring rains that we might have the strength to withstand the heat of the day, and not become parched and narrow in our love. Lead us to accept fatigue with resignation, knowing that life is not to be rushed, that there is no flower of the field that grows from seed to blossom in a single day.

All: May the deep peace of gentleness be on us caressing us with sunlight, rain and wind; may tenderness shine through us to warm all who are hurt and lonely.

We greet you Spirit of the West; cool our hot and tired bodies, refresh and bring laughter to our hearts. It is you who usher in the setting sun. Guide our steps at the end of day; keep us safe from evil. Fill us with your peace as you enfold us with your great mystery of night that we might rest securely In your arms until morning call us forth again.

ALL: May the deep blessing of peace be on us stilling our hearts that have fear and doubt and confusion within them; and may peace cover us and all those who are troubled and anxious. May we be peacemakers.

We greet you, Great Spirit of the Earth. It was from you we came as from a Mother; you nourish us still and give us shelter.

Teach us to walk softly on your lands, to use with care your gifts, to love with tenderness all our brothers and sisters who have been born of your goodness. And when the day comes when you call us back to yourself, help us to return to you as a friend, to find ourselves embraced, encircled and enfolded in your arms.

ALL: May the deep peace of community arise from within us, drawing us ever nearer, speaking to us of unity, true community where distinctions of persons is also oneness in being.

[NYer]

all the sisters are very nice (and very old) ladies

The "old" ones are fine; it's the baby boomer generation you have to watch out for. Just to cite an example from the Carondelet Provincial House ...

"Our belief that all of life and creation is sacred motivates our urgent concerns for Earth, our home. We will continue to join with others working for systemic changes that will enable all to live in a right relationship with the Earth."

As a Province, we are members of the Federation of Sisters of St. Joseph. We work for justice within the framework of the United Nations issues for economy, ecology and equity.

Our UN-NGO representative is Carol Zinn SSJ who can be reached at carolzinn@earthlink.net.

ACTION STEPS FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

• In 2001, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution designating September 21 of each year as an International Day of Peace. The intention of the resolution is to have the entire world observe a day of peace and nonviolence. All peoples and organizations are invited to commemorate the day in an appropriate manner. For more information, contact one of the following websites: www.internationaldayofpeace.org; www.idpvigil.com; www.un.org/events/peaceday
  
  
• SAVE THE EARTH! Recycle and use renewable sources of paper and energy. Endorse the Earth Charter. For more information on the Earth Charter: www.earthcharter.org

They're whacky!

[Knitting A Conundrum]

You know it's a sad day when you hear people talking about nuns or sister and the first thought that runs through your mind is "Crazy Lady until proven otherwise"...There are some excellent orders out there, but so many of them have gone wacko...

[fortunecookie]

I think you're right. It is very discouraging. When the first, larger exodus occurred, the priests in charge did not care. They said they expected(!) to lose that many, they expected 30-40% to go along, and the rest to be undecided but to eventually come around. All true. And they publicly insulted a couple of families at ministry meetings who had questions or disagreed.

How the supporters of the NO can boast about the "springtime" of the Church when parishioners are leaving in droves is one of the many things that puzzles me.

And not seem to care when confronted with it. But some parishes do care, like the one where my sister lives. They have an odd patois of the new and old. It seems to work for them, a very welcoming parish, but at what costs?

[siunevada]

Perhaps these folks would 'value your input':

About this Site

This site was developed under the direction of the Internet team of the archdiocesan Communications Department. Please contact one of them for comments or suggestions:

Maurice Healy, director of communications mhealy@catholic-sf.org

Marta Rebagliati-Ribbeck, communications manager mribbeck@catholic-sf.org

Technical Issues

For problems with this site, to change parish listing information or to add e-mail or Web site links to a parish or other listing, please contact the webmaster.

Contacting the Archdiocese

You may contact the various parishes, institutions, ministries or departments of the archdiocese from the parish listings, chancery listing or ministries listing. You may also contact any office of the archdiocese at:

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco One Peter Yorke Way San Francisco, CA 94109 415 614 5500 E-mail: info@sfarchdiocese.org

[rogator]

Do the druids pass the pipe of wacky weed when they are saying the prayer?
I suppose it could be covered under California's medical marihoochi law since these folks are obviously mentally sick.

[fortunecookie]

Many of the 50's & 60's nuns who weren't career women were also affected by the era. Everything became 'easier'. (Isn't there something about the road to hell?...) Locally we have a convent that has been here for 125+ yrs. Some of the nuns I had as a teacher as a kid, who entered the convent in the 40's and even earlier fell to the 'modernizations'. A third have retained the old habit and prayer life. A third or so have the shorter modern habit and a less strenuous prayer life. And, you guessed it, the last third or so have gone totally secular. And these were not young or new nuns, but 'classically' trained. And they are the ones in charge. The convent is 'dying'. Just one or 2 new nuns in 40 years!, and both are over 40. The fruits, indeed. It was initially shocking to see these conservative nuns as kids, now radically embracing the new age years later.

I can only imagine what Pope Leo was going through when he comprised the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel. It seems to all be coming true, and just when you think it can't get any worse, well so far it has.

[Pio]

Oh Come Holy Inquisition ...

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Best we can do is stand up and say, That's not right, pray, and know that God will be the final judge, and the Church is his bride, and he will look after her...and his view is much longer than ours.

My parish priest who is conservative (and wears the cassock and lovely vintage vestments and is a great example of the younger folks coming up) greeted me when I went to mass with, "You weren't the only one who noticed." about the website...I know he will be doing some contacting himself.

[NYer]

From Domenico Bettinelli's Blog:

Update: An archdiocesan flunky responded to someone who wrote to complain:

The text you cite was part of an apology ceremony planned largely by local victims of clergy sexual abuse in which the Archdiocese of San Francisco was a participant. An apology to clergy abuse victims for the pain and suffering caused to them by ministers of the Church was delivered by the Archbishop. The planners felt that because many of the abuse victims are alienated from the Catholic Church, the text was appropriate. The ceremony was not a liturgy and was not held in a church. I think the website describes the apology ceremony for clergy sexual abuse victims, held in June 2003. As I told another person, the text will be removed from the Archdiocesan website. 

I suggest you examine the entire Archdiocesan website at www.sfarchdiocese.org

Finally, I hope that there are more important things in this life to which you could give your attention and energy perhaps following the Holy Father's message to welcome the immigrant; or volunteering at a soup kitchen; or some other good Christian acts of charity.How arch! You can almost hear the condescension dripping from their voice. What does one thing have to do with another? The message is How dare you spend time worrying about paganism in the Church when there are immigrants to welcome and poor to feed and other social justice projects to be involved in?

To which one of his bloggers penned the following ..

1- It's a perfectly good prayer. (Deny the allegation.)
2- The archbishop said it. (Invoke authority.)
3- There were special circumstances. (Reason to bend the rules.)
4- It wasn't in a church. (The rules don't apply here anyway.)
5- We're taking it off the site. (Get rid of the evidence-- of the non-crime
that we didn't commit.)
6- You're a nasty person to notice. (Shoot the messenger.)Hmm, that response does seem strangely familiar. Is there some training that every diocesan flunky must go through that outlines how to respond to every misconduct, large or small?

[ArrogantBustard]

Outrageous, pagan, and (unfortunately) not particularly new ... the radical feminist nuns have been doing this crap since the early 1970s ... and they didn't just invent it then. Donna Steichen thoroughly documented this sort of idolatry going on at "retreats" quite a number of years ago. I wholeheartedly recommend her book.

[ArrogantBustard]

Marta Rebagliati-Ribbeck

Hyphenated name alert!

[Mark in the Old South]

Re: "But he's in full communion with Rome"

Yeah but SSPX, myself and a whole lot of others are schismatics. It is to laugh.

[Romulus]

It was a prayer, all right. You might take this line: "But who are these spirits? I have never heard of them, so why are you inviting me to pray to them? You pray to them as though they have power -- why?"

[Mark in the Old South]

Re: "An archdiocesan flunky responded to someone who wrote to complain: The text you cite was part of an apology ceremony planned largely by local victims of clergy sexual abuse in which the Archdiocese of San Francisco was a participant. An apology to clergy abuse victims for the pain and suffering caused to them by ministers of the Church was delivered by the Archbishop"

What the Confiteor wasn't good enough?

How about mea culpa?

They could do it in English I wouldn't mind. A little sack cloth and ashes wouldn't be a bad idea either. These jokers are like stray dogs, always lifting their leg to piss on something. Gotta mark their territory, never any humility.

[siunevada]

Hyphenated name alert!

So when two hyphenated name children gow up and get married do they end up with four hyphenated last names? I'm waiting to see one of those.

[ArrogantBustard]

Give me a ping if you ever see one ...

[rogator]

Ask any Latin-American with 4,8, or 16(?) surnames.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Spirit Daily's website says the Archdiocese says they are going to pull the prayer, but he gives no details...

[Knitting A Conundrum]

WE know they've been doing it...but when we see it in a public forum, we need to scream in effective ways...because it's clear to those who know even a little bit it's wrong. Even one of my friends who thinks wicca is just a wonderful empowering thing (even though she's a CINO with a saintly mother), agreed that such things ought not be on archdiocesan webpages....

If Michael Brown at Spirit Daily is right, and the discovery is making them pull the text, it's a small victory for our Lord's people.

Step by step.

[Dumb_Ox]

Well, the text recorded at the start of this post does not match the prayer on the source link. Perhaps it's been pulled.