Affiliate Memorial Mass - 2020
NOTE: this second post contains the video link (with music) for the slides of the Affiliates who have passed.
I have walked through many lives,
some of them my own,
and I am not who I was,
though some principle of being
abides, from which I struggle
not to stray…
(The Layers by Stanley Kunitz)
At the peak of the Affiliate Memorial Mass, 78 Zoom linked squares filled up our computer screens. The actual number of people in attendance was close to 100. Without searching out individual rationales, the number alone tells us that this event was important for so many among us. Affiliates from all across the U.S., Peru, Guatemala, Mexico (I hope I didn’t miss any) gathered last Sunday. Although too brief, it was a time for many to see and greet old friends during this time of pandemic.
Richard Rohr said somewhere that, “There are too many old people who aren’t elders.” He was not referring to a chronological measurement but to persons who bring perspective and wisdom to their communities… to people who have moved through the ‘layers’ and emerged with clearly detectable traces of grace and consciousness.
Looking at the Zoom screen (and the mirror), I think it’s fair to surmise that one or two of us can be classified as ‘old people’. Recognizing so many of you, I did not see even one among the 90+ faces who could not be thought of as an elder. This was especially true in looking at the 25 faces of those Affiliates who have died since 2017 - as they moved across the screen. While as vulnerable and mortal as the next person, I think it’s fair to say that being attached to the broader Maryknoll vision and having signed up for the Affiliate pillars of community, spirituality, global vision and action places us into that elder category. The world needs our voices and hearts.
[To view the PowerPoint video of the Affiliates who have passed, go to: https://vimeo.com/473659598. Apply password: Maryknoll2020]
Special thanks to Russ Feldmeier MM and the Chicago formation community for celebrating the Memorial Mass. Special thanks also to Ginny McEvoy for doing so much to bring this to fruition.