Follow-Up to WATERtalk Introduction
Wednesday, October 9, 2024 at 1 PM ET
with Nancy Sylvester, IHM
Journey-Faith in an Entangled World (2024)
Congratulations to Nancy Sylvester on the publication of
Journey-Faith in an Entangled World ($18.95, Amazon). This WATERtalk was a lovely opportunity for old friends and new to hear Nancy describe the project and all that has gone into her decades of work in spirituality.
The video can be accessed at: https://youtu.be/ocJ8mw9lAzM
Introduction by Mary E. Hunt
Nancy and I have known one another since I came to Washington in 1983. She was working then at NETWORK, the Catholic social justice lobby, where she later became the director. She went on to serve in elected leadership positions both in her own religious congregation, the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) of Monroe, MI, and in the Presidency of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR). Her presidential address at LCWR was a foundation of the work that she has done since, namely, bringing contemplative practice and communal conversation to the service of social change.
In 2002, Nancy founded the Institute for Communal Contemplation and Dialogue (www.iccdinstitute.org) through which she offers a range of programs.
You may have been lucky enough, as I was, to be part of the early Engaging Impasse workshops that she conducted. Those helped dozens of women, as well a few good men, to deal with the frustrations, challenges, and opportunities presented by several conversative papacies and the Reagan-Bush years. Little did we know how enduring those problems would turn out to be. But we did learn some techniques and resources for dealing with them. The most valuable in my view, was to share our contemplative practice, do it together, and then engage in the quality conversation that usually results. We do this one Monday night a month here at WATER thanks to Nancy.
Nancy is a well-known speaker, writer and process facilitator. She has co-authored two books: Trouble and Beauty, Women Encounter Catholic Social Justice Teaching and Crucible for Change which has to do with the early Engaging Impasse work.
It is a delight for us at WATER to welcome, Nancy, and to celebrate with you the launch of this new book, Journey-Faith in an Entangled World. As I said in my blurb for the book, “Imagine a world in which contemplation, deep immersion into the whole of Being, were a regular practice. Nancy Sylvester offers simple techniques and inviting themes for personal and communal reflection. Dialogue that emerges from holding lightly the woes and wonders of the world is a real help and a great hope for cultivating oneness. Just imagine and try it with this guide book.”
Nancy will explain the structure of the book which is written using the metaphor of an art exhibit. We will want to roam through the galleries, as it were, and enjoy the show.
Nancy’s Input
Nancy described her own background as a Vatican II Catholic, an IHM Sister, and someone who was impressed by the work of Teilhard de Chardin and others who explore the far reaches of creations.
As “impasse” deepened, both in Catholic circles and in global politics, she realized the need for diving more deeply into spirituality. Nancy’s efforts to socialize practices have been meaningful for many people. The book is a way of broadening the audience for this kind of contemplation and action.
“Entanglement” comes from the world of quantum physics in which all is connected. Einstein observed, problems cannot be solved within the limits of the consciousness that created them. Rather, taking “a long loving look at the real” as mystics have urged, is a sensible way forward.
Nancy’s book is organized using the metaphor of an art exhibit. Here is an outline:
THE ART EXHIBIT
Gallery One: The Artist’s Journey-Faith
Gallery Two: The Medium Needed for Contemplative Creativity
Gallery Three: Seeing the “Real” of Our Times
Gallery Four: Public Life and Democracy
Gallery Five: Christian Feasts
Gallery Six: Nature’s Inspiration
Gallery Seven: Transforming Power of Communal Contemplation
Readers are welcome to add their own reflections. Their words are the paint, the pages of the book are the canvas. There are several places where a doodle, a drawing, or even a painting can be added by the reader as the fruit of their reflection.
Nancy ended her overview with an invitation to participants to practice contemplation. She recommended a process of emptying to create spaciousness as one sits quietly. Techniques of Centering Prayer are useful. All of this can lead to self and world transformation.
She offered a section of the book, from Gallery 3, “Seeing the Real in Our Times,” as a starting point for reflection. The section is entitled “We Have to be Carefully Taught to Hate.” It is a riff on the “South Pacific” song “You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught” which makes clear that racism and fear are constructed experiences.
Participants had time to reflect on that wisdom. Discussion followed.
Q+A/Discussion
Many people offered expressions of deep gratitude to Nancy for her work. Among the valuable reflections that move these ideas forward are the following:
- What can be taught can be unlearned.
- Moving beyond the binaries, whether she/he, or humans/other sentient beings is hard. To unlearn dualistic thinking and appreciate all of creation, even that which is frightening, is the task.
- Seeing things in new ways is crucial.
- Sitting with the tensions of differing ways of seeing things is hard.
- Destruction is as powerful as construction/creation.
- Evolution takes time; this is hard to balance with the urgency of now.
- The process of dialogue has truth and trust as premises. What to do when the person/group with whom one is in dialogue are lying, presenting untrue information and otherwise dissembling? This is a challenge.
- Moral theologian Daniel C. Maguire coined the term “the renewable moral energy of religion” which applies very directly to our time. Many are finding new ways to think within a religious frame; others are moving beyond their usual frame of reference, or adding another one to their worldview.
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Thanks to Nancy for this wonderful resource. Thanks to all for joining the artist for this celebration of her new work. May it be a useful tool for personal and social change.
