Seasons of Hope

In Seasons of Hope, the follow-up to her bestselling Day by Day, Sister Stan offers words of wisdom to still the mind and calm the soul. Through verse and inspirational quotations from many enlightened figures, she offers us a chance to refocus our energies and step away from this frantic world – to stop, to look, to reflect – and be open to new possibilities.

Also included here are contributions on a range of subjects, such as the gift of life, compassion and meditation, from influential figures including writer and playwright Michael Harding, poets Theo Dorgan and Eavan Boland, social campaigners Peter McVerry and Ruairí McKiernan, therapist Síle Wall, and ecologist Seán McDonagh – each one offering a thought-provoking and unique perspective on our world.

About the Author

SISTER STANISLAUS KENNEDY joined the Irish Sisters of Charity in 1958 and went on to become one of the most influential social innovators of her time. She was the first religious sister ever to be awarded an honorary Doctorate in Law from Trinity College, Dublin and founded Focus Ireland, the Immigrant Council of Ireland and Young Social Innovators. She established The Sanctuary, a place of peace and meditation set in the heart of Dublin, and has written several bestselling books, including her autobiography The Road Home, and Day by Day. She lives in Dublin.

Also by Sister Stan and published by Transworld Ireland

For more information on Sister Stan and her books,
see her website at www.srstan.ie

TRANSWORLD IRELAND
An imprint of The Random House Group Limited
20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1V 2SA
www.transworldbooks.co.uk

First published in 2014 by Transworld Ireland,
a division of Transworld Publishers

Sister Stanislaus Kennedy has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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For Josie O’Rourke –
her love of all beings, especially animals,
inspires me every day

Introduction

THE LAYOUT OF this book is like poetry, but this was never meant to be poetry; I’m only trying to use my thoughts and words to open our hearts and minds, to realize that all our lives are fleeting moments in which are found the seeds of peace, unity, stillness and love. I offer them as a support and enhancement of the spirituality of those who are seeking stillness in their lives and I leave whatever needs to be revealed to the divine wisdom within.

The seven beautiful essays included here enrich the book with great insights. I am grateful to Michael Harding, Seán McDonagh, Thérèse Murphy, Ruairí McKiernan, Peter McVerry, Korko Moses and Síle Wall for their great generosity in contributing pieces that I know you, the readers, will enjoy and appreciate. I would like to thank Eavan Boland and Theo Dorgan who kindly gave me permission to use their inspirational poems, ‘This Moment’ and ‘The Promised Garden’ respectively. I am grateful to Treasa Coady and Siobhan Parkinson for their encouragement and advice. A special thanks to my editor Brenda Kimber at Transworld for her assistance, support, advice and help in bringing this book to completion. Big thanks also to Johanne Farrelly who typed several drafts of the book, and finally I want to thank all those people who have been part of my life and who are in this book in one way or another.

The Promised Garden

Prayer

This Day

Living Each Moment

There exists only the present instant …

a Now which always and without end is

itself new. There is no yesterday nor any

tomorrow, but only Now, as it was a

thousand years ago and as it will be a

thousand years hence.

MEISTER ECKHART

Gratitude

All is gift

every moment

every breath

every move

this moment

this alive moment

all is gift

Gratitude

a way of being

we become it

it becomes us

The word

became flesh

to teach

gratitude

Hope

Standing on the edge

of new beginnings

of unknown futures

on the threshold of what

has yet to be born.

This new moment

pregnant with promise

open to

unimagined possibilities

without certainty

or security

trusting what

is not yet

The Call

The call

comes from the margins

not the centre

from the desert

not the chapel

An unexplored destination

places unknown

no path

only moments revealed

in the throbbing of pain

and the voices of suffering

The call

urging and impelling us on

Vision

Seeing, with new eyes,

seeing clearly the depth of what is.

Seeing to the horizons

receding

believing in destinations beyond

journeying to the edge

of the edge

allowing the

yet to be

discovered road

to lead us

Attachment

Attached to a genuine good

ensnared

until the link

however delicate

is broken

Free

to live fully

to fall into the arms

of the love that awaits us

To discover the one ultimate good

Spring

seeds stirring

sounding

crackling

sprouting

Grass rising

from the dark stony brown earth

colouring the hills and valleys

with myriad shades of green

Closeted bulbs burst open

their strong protective coats

Shrubs and trees bud forth

to their delicately forming leaves

An abundance of weeds

and garden pests emerge

finding a new foothold

in the warming earth

Resurrection

Birdsong and call echo and re-echo

across the land

marking the beginning of mating and nesting

Melted snow and thawed water

release fish

to move and swim and spawn again

A surge of life explodes over the whole earth

each day something new

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you

reap but by the seeds that you plant.

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

A New Story to Guide Us

Fr. Seán McDonagh, SSC

MORE CHRISTIANS ACROSS the world celebrate the Feast of Christmas than Easter, even though liturgically speaking Easter, which celebrates the Resurrection of Christ, is the high point of the Church’s celebrations each year. Even here there is a bit of an anomaly; more people attend the Good Friday liturgy than the Easter Vigil. The Vigil begins with the lighting of the Paschal Candle, a symbol of the Risen Christ as the ‘Light of the World’. Following the singing of the Exultet (The Song of Gratitude), the Liturgy of the Word begins. The first reading, from Genesis 1: 1–2.4a, takes us back to the very beginning of creation and presents its unfolding from ‘Let there be light’ through the creation of humans – ‘let us make man in our own image and likeness’, to the creation of the Sabbath: ‘on the seventh day God completed the work he had been doing’ (Gen. 2: 1–2).

I am lucky to have studied the Bible in the mid-1960s when the Catholic Church had finally accepted the insights of modern biblical scholarship. We learned about the importance of the above text in liturgical celebrations; the equality of women and men, even in a decidedly patriarchal society, and the importance of coming together each Sabbath to retell the stories about God’s goodness to the people of Israel.

About the Book

About the Author

Also by Sister Stan and published by Transworld Ireland

Introduction

The Promised Garden

Prayer

This Day

Living Each Moment

Gratitude

Hope

The Call

Vision

Attachment

Spring

Resurrection

A New Story to Guide Us

Fr. Seán McDonagh, SSC