“1945 was an extraordinary year. It was a year when the world faced what must have seemed almost insoluble problems — the devastation of the world wars, particularly the Second World War; the fragile peace that had been brought about; the need for a whole economic regeneration.” (Mary Robinson, TEDWomen’s Talk above)
Seventy years later, 2015 is another extraordinary year, a year with issues that are: “…much too important to be left to politicians and the UN.” These issues must be faced by all of us, by faith communities, business communities, trade unions and young people. Ms. Robinson says this year is young people’s “Lunch counter moment.” (Ibid)
Mary Robinson, president of Ireland from 1990 to 1997, even though she is quite comfortable in her native Ireland, has made herself aware of people who are not so comfortable and who are facing an end to their lives as they know them. She tells us of President Tong of the Republic of Kirbati and Constance Okollet of Eastern Uganda whose lives today are dramatically affected by climate change. Like Brutus to Cassius in the quote below, she calls us to action. Thanks Mary.
Brutus:
There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
We are a community of laymen and laywomen who, with vowed Passionists, seek to share in the charism of St. Paul of the Cross through prayer, ongoing spiritual formation, and proclamation of the message of Christ Crucified.
