Most of us are familiar with the story of Anne Frank, the Jewish teenager who lived in hope despite the desperate and terrible circumstance she and her family suffered during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam in the 1940’s. How was she able to maintain that sense of and belief in hope?
It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.
-Anne Frank
During the turbulent and violent times we are currently living in, it can often feel like the whole world has gone mad! We are so bombarded day-after-day with multiple atrocities, suffering, idiocy, and immoral decision-making by leaders that we can feel overwhelmed by darkness. But there is always light, if we open our eyes and hearts to see it, if we open our eyes, minds, and hearts to BE it! The seeds of goodness, hope, and love are in all of us. We must each make a commitment to water those seeds, not the seeds of hatred, anger, greed, and power.
God continues to sow abundant seeds of goodness in our human family. We realize that our lives are interwoven with and sustained by ordinary people valiantly shaping decisive events of our shared history.
They understand that no one is saved alone!
-Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti: On Fraternity and Social Friendship
Below is the blessing for hope that was the inspiration for this past year’s Themed Retreat at St. Anthony’s, Sing to Me of Hope, Beloved. Take a few minutes each day, if possible, to pray this and to sit silently for a few minutes to water the seeds of hope, compassion, and love within you. The world needs every one of you!
– Rita Simon
A Blessing for Hope
Bless me with vision
to see the possibilities
for this hurting and broken world.
Help me to remember
that hope is not a thing
but an action.
I cannot know that what I do
is of any consequence,
but I must do something.
I must walk in trust
that I plant seeds for others,
that my kindness ripples out into the world,
that justice is necessary,
that my joy matters,
that love is at the foundation of everything.
On those days when hope
feels so far away,
surround me with kindred souls
who can help sustain hope
when I must let go.
And on days
when my hope has been amplified,
buoyed by art, dreams, conversation,
let me carry it for others.
Sing to me of hope, Beloved,
and let me be a note in that melody.
– by Christine Valters Paintner, Abbey of the Arts
(used with permission from the author)
Thank you Rita, hope is what we deeply need and to bring it to others.
Anne Frank’s story has always caused us to be astonished by her hopefulness.
Another story of less renown is the story of Etty Hillesum: An Interrupted Life the Diaries, 1941-1943 and Letters from Westerbork .
I was first introduced to this by Fr Richard Rohr’s CAC sharings. In short it is summarized: Etty Hillesum remained a celebrant of life whose lucid intelligence, sympathy, and almost impossible gallantry were themselves a form of inner resistance. The adult counterpart to Anne Frank, Hillesum testifies to the possibility of awareness and compassion in the face of the most devastating challenge to one’s humanity. She died at Auschwitz in 1943 at the age of twenty-nine.
Rita thank you for all you do in creating retreats at St Anthony.
I look forward with anticipation to your next retreat this autumn.
Thank you Rita for this reminder that we need to nurture hope so to be able to share with others our hope in our hurting world .I’m grateful to have been able to attend the theme retreat this past month and take away ways to strengthen hope within.
Thank you Rita
I respect/admire Ms Paintner’s works.
Thank you so much for reminding us to be hope, and to carry it, Pope Francis‘s favorite virtue. I have a fond memory of him with a large group of young people down by the waterway in Milan. He told them that every day was a gift to them, and they were a gift to the world. And before he left, he had the whole group chanting “rise up and walk”!