Sunday, September 4, 2016

O/T Sunday Afternoon: Put In Mind Of Those Covenants Under Which I Was Raised...


Having recently been put back in contact with someone I once knew, who like me, was raised American Catholic, I candidly spent a little time reconsidering these covenants, over this long weekend.

So it was that I sought out stories this morning, about the pope of the Roman Catholics, Francis, canonizing Mother Teresa as a Saint, of that faith. And I remembered that Mother Teresa struggled for most of her adult life with feelings of abandonment, yet she projected only joy -- to the onlooking, and increasingly public, world. That in turn, put me in mind of a prayer I once saw attributed to Mother (now Saint) Teresa, at my parochial school. It is intended to explain why (in part) we are still called to do good, despite the way we may be treated -- in the world.

I have translated it a little liberally -- and imperfectly, I am certain -- from the Latin I learned in my youth (which itself was a translation of Mother Teresa's native Albanian tongue). And yet, even diluted by those two translations, it resonates, and rhythmically so. One need not even believe in "an Infinite," for it to have meaning, I think. So there it is. Click on the image to enlarge it.

And I trust my long-lost friend will see it, and find some solace, there. Onward.

नमस्ते

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