Comments on: ‘We will live the life we are living’

By: Dave Neuhausel, NA 22

Dave Neuhausel, NA 22 — Fri, 18 Mar 2022 00:01:21 +0000

Thank you, Mary. I loved reading your reflection. I found the emphasis on the simple and the particular to be particularly encouraging. My ambitions, envy, and desire for significance often leave me feeling discouraged. It’s a beautiful reminder for me.

By: sallywelch

sallywelch — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 08:29:04 +0000

Mary I appreciate the way you have made sense of the ‘failure’ of Father Stanislaw; we are indeed ‘shaped’ by failure and it can be a vital part of our growth and learning. I like the reminder that we need to step aside from the pressure to provide a ‘quick fix’ and should think about offering a counter cultural appraoch.

By: Lorna Hamilton

Lorna Hamilton — Mon, 07 Mar 2022 20:34:53 +0000

What an inspiring story of Father Stanislaw! Thank you for your challenging words too. I need constantly reminded where I am, is where I need to be.
‘We will live the life that we are living.’ Here is who I am. Here is where I am called to be a reconciler; in this life that I am living’. I love this!
I think I need to carry these words with me on my pilgrimage as a reminder, that when my head drops from lacking confidence, or thinking I’m not knowledgeable enough, I’m able to say ‘Here is who I am’!

By: Andrea Hug, NA-22

Andrea Hug, NA-22 — Mon, 07 Mar 2022 00:09:57 +0000

Mary, Your beautiful witness of a man who so deeply understood reconciliation–that we all need healing–touches me. Courage to stand up in the crowd to call to account is Father Stanislaw’s witness that we can bring into our own journey everyday. It calls me to account. Thank you for sharing.

By: Jer Swigart

Jer Swigart — Sun, 06 Mar 2022 17:09:33 +0000

Mary. What a beautiful post. Thank you for gifting us with this moment in your formation. Thanks, too, for revealing the subversive, gritty, relational realities of peacemaking as embodied by Father Stanislaw. I resonate so deeply with your first core learning about peacemaking occuring within the moments and places in which we find ourselves. I’m struck by how often the work of peacemaking and reconciliation are mis-categorized as solely the stuff of sensational diplomacy that occurs “over there” by professional humanitarians and politicians. In my view (and experience) the work is far more proximate…everyday…even mundane. The invitation, dare I suggest the urgent need, is for Everyday Peacemakers who know how to do the work of peacemaking wherever our feet are planted. I do wonder what our world will look like when we choose to make peace within our own wingspans.

By: Mary Gregory, UK-22

Mary Gregory, UK-22 — Sun, 06 Mar 2022 07:44:56 +0000

In reply to Franceska Dante, UK-22. Thank you for sharing Lidice’s story, Franceska - so moving. And the burnt rose is such a powerful image.

By: Franceska Dante, UK-22

Franceska Dante, UK-22 — Sun, 06 Mar 2022 01:24:31 +0000

This speaks to me in many ways, not least because of my slavophilia, which led me to drive the length of the Czech part of the iron curtain in 2020, with a brief detour into Germany to visit Flossenburg concentration camp. I began my journey in Prague at Bubny railway station, which was used for the transports during the Shoah. Yes, the planting of a seed is often enough to change the hearts of many – and especially so when that seed is one of accepting and embracing those who are apparently different from ourselves or of reframing the narrative through another perspective.

When the small town of Lidice (modern-day Czech Republic) was razed to the ground by the SS, towns all across the globe renamed themselves Lidice as part of the ‘Lidice shall live’ campaign. The site of the former Lidice is now a large memorial museum yet what touched me was not the perpetually-burning flame or the statue of the town’s children, not even the harrowing multimedia presentation; it was the literal planting of seeds – in the form of a rose garden, from which the undulating landscape of the former town alongside a small lake can be seen. In this idyllic natural setting, unspeakable crimes against its population took place and that juxtaposition was too much for me to bear. The symbol of Lidice, a burnt rose, encapsulates this aggression against a quiet and rural town perfectly for me. Sometimes, it is not the grand gestures that demonstrate compassion but the quiet, gentle memoria; I barely noticed the landscape of Lidice until I had passed through the museum and statuary, which I was so obsessed with photographing that I quite missed its significance. Once I saw the landscape of that quiet little town, I wept.

Just as the silent planting and germination of those seeds of reconciliation opened a conversation that might otherwise have remained buried but did not change the world beyond one village, we must not judge our success as people of faith by the outward growth of our churches alone. Inward growth, change and reconciliation as individuals is equally important in order that we be ready to invite others in, just as you were invited into that village and spread the news of Fr. Stanislaw’s work to each of us.