2. MEDITATION
https://youtu.be/X8lhX44CPqU?si=Jslw6mIsqa_zj_sS
https://cac.org/daily-meditations/remembering-our-hope/
Remembering Our Hope
Richard Rohr reflects on the prophetic task of integrating our individual and collective memories, which creates the conditions for hope within us:
Memory is very often the key to understanding. Memory integrates, reconciles, and puts the individual members into perspective as a part of the whole. For us to recognize what God is doing and therefore who God is, we must pray like Paul “that your love may more and more abound, both in understanding and wealth of experience” (Philippians 1:9).
Our remembrance that God has remembered us will be the highway into the future, the straight path of the Lord promised by John the Baptizer [see Luke 3:3–6]. Where there is no memory, there will be no pain, but neither will there be hope. Memory is the basis of both the pain and the rejoicing. We need to re-member both of them; it seems that we cannot have one without the other. Do not be too quick to “heal all of those memories,” unless that means also feeling them deeply and taking them all into our salvation history. God seems to be calling us to suffer the whole of reality, to remember the good along with the bad. Perhaps that is the course of the journey toward new sight and new hope. Memory creates a readiness for salvation, an emptiness to receive love, and a fullness to enjoy it.
Only in an experience and a remembering of the good do we have the power to stand against this death [caused by evil]. As Baruch tells Jerusalem, we must “rejoice that you are remembered by God” [5:5]. In that remembrance we have new sight, and the evil can be absorbed and blotted out.
It takes a prophet of sorts, one who sees clearly, one who has traveled the highway before, one who remembers everything, to guide us beyond our blocked, selective, and partial remembering: “Jerusalem, take off your robe of mourning and misery; put on the splendor of glory from God forever” [Baruch 5:1]. Choose your friends carefully and listen to those who speak truth to you and help you remember all things.
Ask God for companions (sometimes Jesus alone!) who will walk the highway of remembering with you, filling in the valleys and leveling the mountains and hills, making the winding ways straight and the rough ways smooth. Then humankind shall see the salvation of God.
The repentance that the Baptist calls us to is one of remembering, and of remembering together, and then bearing the consequences of that remembrance. It is no easy matter, for the burden of re-membering is great. But we must try for the sake of truth.
So “Up Jerusalem! Stand upon the heights; look to the east and see” your whole life. See what God has given freely. [Our] hope lies hidden in the past. “And rejoice that you are remembered by God.”
Reference: Richard Rohr, Near Occasions of Grace (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1993), 3–5.
ADDITIONAL ESSAY ON HOPE
Recognise what made you lose hope in the first place. Sometimes you lose hope in humanity, but hope can also be lost within yourself.
You may think that things won’t get better or that you will be stuck in a never-ending cycle of sadness forever. In these moments I remind myself how quickly life can change and that in every downfall there is a lesson waiting to be learnt.
You Can’t Find Hope If You Don’t Search For It
When you lose hope, you may be reluctant to do anything. Living life can feel like a chore and you may not be able to see a way forward.
The answers are always there, you just have to look for them. Sometimes it might require you to use a magnifying glass.
If you don’t know where to look, the first thing that I would suggest is to take a step back from the world around you and search for the wisdom that has already been placed inside of you.
Your search for hope may be a continuous battle. There will be times when you feel like you have succeeded in your search and moments when you feel like you’re back at square one.
I wish finding hope was as easy as turning to a friend or asking google. But I have learnt that hope is an inward journey.
It is the battle between faith and doubt.
Trust yourself, stop listening to your mind and listen to your heart.
5. MEDITATION
https://youtu.be/zW3-9bUhbRw?si=eIb2I9vfR4TpWus8
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