February 2010
Twenty Years On
Do you remember February 2nd to the 11th 1990, that ‘long week’ that shook the world, beginning with the unbanning of the African National Congress and other political movements and culminating with Nelson Mandela’s release from Pollsmoor Prison?
I remember a discussion with colleagues in the Religious Studies Department at University of Cape Town the week before February 2nd. Some of us intended to be at the demonstration planned outside Parliament that day. Suddenly, quietly, one of the professors said, “I have a feeling [then President F W] De Klerk is going to surprise us. I think he’ll unban the ANC and release Mandela next week.”
UBuntu Trek
DAVID MACGREGOR of the East London Daily Dispatch writes about one South African woman's search for the spirit of ubuntu.
Its tenacious survival, particularly among the poor, reminds us that we do not live by economic indicators alone and humanity can still transcend the limitations imposed by our material conditions.
Praying with and for Parliament
Lent 2010 will see our legislators receiving daily e-mailed spiritual reflections. This is a joint initiative of the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office (CPLO) and the Jesuit Institute of South Africa. It began as an idea of Fr Peter-John Pearson for the benefit of Catholic members, but will now also be offered to MPs of other Christian denominations and other faiths.
Each day during Lent subscribers will receive an e-mail comprising of an inspirational quotation, a brief reflection and a final prayer. The format is is influenced by the highly successful Irish Jesuit website Sacred Space, which has enabled thousands of people around the world to pause briefly at their work-stations and spend a few moments in reflection and prayer.
The flow of the reflections is flexibly based on the themes from St Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises. The hope is that this Ignatian approach of 'finding God in all things' (as for example in the natural world or the arts) will enable MPs to seek and experience God's presence in their work during and beyond the Lenten season. The quotations are taken from a range of sources from the scriptures through prophetic thinkers like Gandhi to contemporary secular figures such as Nelson Mandela.
A further service will be the fielding of e-mailed prayer-requests. These will be funnelled through Fr James Fitzsimons SJ to a small team of people who have undertaken to pray for the parliamentarians and their intentions.
If you would like to receive these reflections e-mail info@jesuitinstitute.org.za and enter 'sign me up' in the subject box.
Public Figures, Private Lives
There are three Presidential candidates. Candidate A is a non-smoking, non-drinking vegetarian. Candidate B is a heavy smoking, borderline alcoholic with suicidal depressive tendencies. Candidate C is an adulterous chain-smoker (who also likes the odd glass or three). How will you good people vote?
Where was God?
This question is one that is often asked in the face of immense tragedy. Where was God when the earthquake struck Haiti? Where was God in the mudslides in Madeira? Where is God when there are droughts in East Africa or floods in South East Asia? But it is also a question that we ask in the private tragedies of our own lives: in the face of the loss of a child, or the breakdown of a relationship, or the steady, dull pain of the everyday.
