So I'm back from retreat with the ladies of MH Vancouver - a very fine four days at Westminster Abbey in Mission BC. Back with the blogging, and the next installment of our MH movie series.
This one is a bit unusual, reflecting on the reality that Madonna House has been around long enough that we have a large cohort of older members, and that this has shaped our apostolate very seriously in the last decade especially. Like so many people and so many families in our aging and increasingly youth-scarce world, we are confronted with the challenges of caring for the elderly, sick, and dying in our family.
Here is the video where we reflect on our experience:
It is especially poignant and beautiful that Kathy Rodman is able to reflect so deeply on her own experience of infirmity. I am very struck watching this video in light of the current agenda of physician assisted suicide--euthanasia by another name, as far as I'm concerned--that in MH we are trying to walk another way with one another in these most serious and difficult realities of life and death.
Anyhow, we don't claim to have the 'big answer' on these questions--as I say, like everyone else we struggle to know how to best serve and love our elders and the dying. We do know that the answer is not an injection of lethal chemicals, but something more human, something more dignified than that. And this little seven minute video at least begins to talk about some of that more human approach to the matter.
....if Kathy Rodman ever wrote a book....I would very much like to read it.
ReplyDeleteLinda too. And Raandi. And Karen...where is Karen?
I remember once talking to Foxy about all this years ago. Isn't it painful and scary to think about, I asked her? No, she said something like all you can do is wait and ask and trust. Here is where we learn faith and suffering is a good teacher. In suffering God becomes real.
I used to say that God is real in joy too, so wht glorify suffering?
Now, that I am older, I understand at least a little bit. It is not about glorifying suffering at all. We are simply drawn to where God is.
Bless you.
Bless you, too. Yes, it would be great if Kathy/Raandi/Linda wrote something - maybe they could collaborate! Karen is very much still alive and kicking - still running the bookshop, even. She is amazing, actually. Thanks for the words from Foxy - very good indeed.
DeleteWonderful video, in growing old and no matter the age, in suffering we leave the petty behind. The pretenses, the imagined self-image of self and the need in weakness brought by the physical suffering brings the spiritual weakness within to the forefront like nothing else is able. When there is no where else to turn, a person is forced to trust to a depth unforeseen in God. The caring for the ill, the dying is a great gift as it opens the hearts and eyes to what is important for a suffering person - love. Love given freely and love received fully, what better way to learn the Truth of why we are here.
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