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JPIC Discernment Tool (Step 3: Understanding)

1/29/2020

This is the third of a 6 part series on discernment. To view the previous posting scroll down.

St. Francis was calling me to a deeper understanding of my part in the Body of Christ. In 2006, I was professed as a Secular Franciscan.

"Understanding"

The thing that most attracted me to St. Francis was his understanding that all of God’s creation is ONE – we are intimately connected with one and all – we depend on each other in life and so each and every one of us has a part to play in sustaining life.

The story of the wolf who was terrorizing the townsfolk in Gubbio represents this concept of interconnectedness for me. St. Francis listened with compassion to both parties (the townsfolk and the wolf) and understood - he saw the suffering of both the wolf who had been injured and left behind by his pack to die alone, and the terror of the townsfolk who had been viciously attacked by the wolf in his

attempt to find food to survive. Francis found A WAY through insight and forgiveness for all to co-exist in peace. The townsfolk could feed the wolf from their plentiful resources and the wolf, in turn,

Francis found A WAY through insight and forgiveness

would stop killing the livestock and people. God’s bounty was enough. There was food for the wolf and for the townspeople. All could be provided for and live in harmony.

I began to look at my life choices, being very aware that I live in a 21st century consumeristic society. Was I oblivious to the plight of the other in my desire to protect what is ‘rightfully’ mine? Was I one of the townsfolk? Was I oblivious to the plight of the other in my desire to protect what is ‘rightfully’ mine?

...world suffering because of my lack of compassion...

Were Brothers and Sisters in other parts of the world suffering because of my lack of compassion for them in their daily struggles and my need to amass more? Was I contributing to the depletion of their water sources, the reaping of their land or the pollution of their air so commodities could be manufactured for my pleasure and comfort?

Here are some questions you might consider:

How are you present in the world?
Are you a participant in the throw away culture?
Do you use more than you need of energy and food?
Where do the things you consume come from and how does it get to you?
Is someone suffering because of the choices you make?

Ask for the grace to see how your life choices impact creation,
the poor and the vulnerable.

What challenges and joys do you experience as you recall how you care for creation?
How can you, stand better, in solidarity with creation and the poor?

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JPIC Discernment Tool (Step 2: Awareness)

1/21/2020

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In my first blog posting dated January 4th, I introduced you to a JPIC Discernment Tool – a Franciscan JPIC Examen. In the second posting, on January 15th, I presented the first step of the Examen, gratitude, which encourages us to live with and pray out of an ‘attitude of gratitude’. The second step of the Examen moves us outward to an awareness of our world so that we will know where to bring justice, promote peace and care for creation.

"awareness"

My journey into awareness began when I was eighteen years old. That is when I left home and attended the University of Victoria to study biology - specifically ecology.

Knowledge grew into an awareness that God is everywhere – If God is everywhere, then all things spring from God’s love. In effect, we are enveloped in God’s loving embrace.

The interconnectedness of all things and all people - the diversity seen in creation intricately woven together as a web of life – was so awesome to behold.

And at the same time, the fragility of that web was made apparent. Everything that we do has an effect on
something
someone
somewhere.
We do not live in a vacuum.

Photo:T.J. Watt

Moving to a bigger city, I was introduced to homelessness and poverty. I could see how greed, and our human desire to accumulate as much as possible as fast as possible, destroyed God’s creation and left people reeling. Our current economic structures appeared to be designed to encourage us to accumulate more, to own the biggest, the best, and the newest commodity, to be efficient without consideration for how our energy

systems, for example, might detrimentally affect people’s wellbeing or the health of the environment. If you could not keep up with the ‘race to own and accumulate’ because of your limitations (mental and physical health) or your status in life (colour, creed or sex), then you would be left behind perhaps even abandoned on the street. Advertising suggested we could not live well without a particular car, gadget, vacation, etc. I did not hear the message that God’s bounty is enough – that if we live in a system built on caring and cooperation, on equitable distribution of needed resources with the understanding that all people and all systems are interconnected then we would thrive.

Time passed.

Eventually, I married and had two children. Being a parent in a nuclear family in the country of Canada, in the province of British Columbia in the city of New Westminster in a local church community increased my awareness of the interconnectedness of people and all creation – the need to care for one another and for all that we have been given.

God looks at the Earth and sees the great diversity of the world, the goodness of all creation and the different people who live in the world today.

Ask for the grace to look at the world as God does
– to see the world in its infinite goodness,
diversity and interconnectedness.

Do you see the beauty of creation and hear the cries of the earth and the cries of the poor?

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JPIC Discernment Tool (Step 1: Gratitude)

1/15/2020

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In the last blog posting dated January 4th (see below), I introduced you to a JPIC Discernment Tool – a Franciscan JPIC Examen – so that you might be moved from prayer into action – to actively fight for justice, promote peace and care for creation. The first step of the Examen is to encourage living with gratitude and praying from gratitude.

"gratitude"
How could I not have had ‘an attitude of gratitude’ being born and raised in (what I think) is one of the most beautiful places on Earth – the small City of Fernie BC. Fernie nestles tightly in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia close to the borders with Alberta and Montana.

As a child, I knew all the names of all the peaks. I knew that beavers lived at the end of 4th Avenue where it ran into the Elk River. I knew that when you went out to pick huckleberries at the end of the summer chances, chances of meeting a bear were pretty high.

I knew that Dad and I could turn rocks over on the banks of the Elk River to find little insects Dad called ‘scratchers’ that we collected, which Dad then used to catch the trout in the river. I knew that the snow melt filled our reservoirs in the spring. That my mom had to plant her large vegetable garden on the...

...May long weekend (not before in case of frost and no later or there would not be enough time for the food to grow), that mushrooms were harvested in the fall, that only apples grew in our climate and we had to make a trek to my Aunt’s home in Creston for fruits like peaches and cherries.

I grew up a cradle Catholic and received my sacraments at Holy Family Church. On my first day in catechism, we were handed the Baltimore Catechism. At six years of age, all I needed was the answer to the first question: “Where is God?” The answer: God is everywhere. I closed the book. That is all that I needed to know. God is everywhere. Life is simple. Thank you God.

Recognize that all that you are, the person you are now and the person you are becoming, the possessions you have and the earth you inhabit are gifts from a loving Creator.

Give thanks to God for creation and for being wonderfully made.

Where did you feel God’s presence in creation today?

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JPIC Discernment Tool (Intro)

1/4/2020

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As Secular Franciscans, we live a Rule of Life that moves us from Gospel to Life, Life to Gospel, Contemplation to Action, Action to Contemplation. Contemplation takes many forms (Mass, Liturgy of the Hours, Devotional Prayer, Centering Prayer). Our Action takes form in JPIC. So I ask myself, “How can I live my Rule to the fullest and make JPIC an integral part of my every day?” An important question for all of us.

Instead of giving you facts and checklists and instruction on what you should or should not do, I am going to introduce you to a method or a process for daily discernment – a way to hear how you are personally being called by God as a Secular Franciscan to bring justice into the world, to promote peace always, and to ensure integrity of God’s creation everywhere.

What is our response to be? How are we called into this beautiful life that God has gifted us? This is where my fellow Secular Franciscans often flounder and become overwhelmed. There are innumerable instances of injustice in the world, many violent uprisings in nations and among peoples, and unimaginable devastation to God’s beautiful creation. I am often asked by my Brothers and Sisters, “What can I do?” “Where do I begin?” “What does God want of me?”

First, remember to ‘breathe’! You, and you alone, are not responsible for settling every injustice, war or destructive act in the world. You are a part of the Body of Christ, one of many parts, bringing God’s light into the world. Trust that your times of contemplation will inform your times of action. During those times of prayer, what do you notice? You can then respond to God’s invitation to be the hands and feet of Christ among us.

There is A WAY.

As Franciscans, we can look to our Father Francis to guide us on THE WAY. When I think of St. Francis, I think of simplicity or singularity of purpose – he saw God in all things and all people, and he loved God in all things and in all people. Simplicity does not mean an easy, comfortable life but it promises an uncluttered life – a life devoted to finding and praising God’s goodness in all things.

Simple living is an ongoing process. That process, which itself can be considered a form of prayer, involves: dialogue with the Lord, examination, re-evaluation, and encounter with all of God’s creation (both human and non-human) over and over again. Today I introduce to you a simple JPIC discernment tool that will give you the guidance you seek to answer your call to action.

I have taken material from a Jesuit Ecological Daily Examen and modified it into a Franciscan JPIC Daily Examen. It is a tool for prayer, reflection and action that you can use to deepen your call to right injustice, create peace and care for creation. Hear the Cry of the Poor! Hear the Cry of the Earth! The Examen is a prayer that was first taught by Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. A fellow Franciscan once quipped, “Jesuits are just Franciscans with a PhD!” We are all one family. So here we go…

There are six movements in this Examen:

Gratitude;
Awareness;
Understanding;
Conversion;
Reconciliation; and
Prayer.

Normally the Examen is prayed daily (usually at the end of the day) or even twice daily (mid-day & end-of-day) and so leads to that ongoing daily conversion that we as Franciscans speak of… but for for the purposes of this teaching, I am doing something a little different. Over the next six weeks, I will give witness to a ‘life’ Examen (one movement per week) rather than a daily Examen, in the hopes of demonstrating how this can work as our Secular Franciscan JPIC discernment tool. Then over the second 6-week set, I will walk you through your own personal daily JPIC Examen.

Stay tuned…. Margaret

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JPIC Discernment Tool (Step 3: Understanding)

JPIC Discernment Tool (Step 2: Awareness)

JPIC Discernment Tool (Step 1: Gratitude)

JPIC Discernment Tool (Intro)

Margaret Ross, ofs - Blogger

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