For Everything a Season
Dr. Tara Flanagan
Maria College
Chief Mission Officer
Assistant Professor, Religious Studies
“I don’t know a single seed that has grown strong in one season. Keep showing up.” -Sr. Joan Chittister
Our theme for Mercy Week this year centers on Sr. Joan Chittister’s words above when she spoke at Maria College about seeds, seasons, and showing up. Joan Chittister is a Benedictine Sister, a theologian, an ethicist, and a prolific and thought-provoking writer. Her words, written or spoken, kindle the theological imagination and call you to action. When I think of her words, I think of fire, I think of salt. Wearing the mantle of the prophets, she speaks about the need to listen to voices long unheard and the need for our continued engagement in the struggle for a better world.
Her words offer much for us in the Maria community to reflect on when considering the question of vocation. Many come to Maria as second-career students, having already had a previous job, including, or in addition to, raising a family or being a caregiver, and then decided it was time for a change. How does this happen? In ways, the motivation to make change, be it personal or social, is part of the deep mystery of the human spirit and God’s grace in the world. But in other ways, a person might be making a change because someone encouraged them or mentioned possibilities that did not exist in their awareness until someone pointed them out. Someone said to a CNA, working as a nursing assistant in a hospital or nursing home, “Have you thought about being an RN?” You can do this. Someone said to an attentive caregiver or listener, “Have you thought about becoming a therapist of some sort, in physical or mental health?” Encouraging questions like this, that come from noticing another’s abilities and lifting them up, can plant a seed of possibility for those we encounter.
When you encourage other people or make a change in your own life, it may seem as though at first nothing is happening, that there is no growth, in yourself, in others, or in the world around you. But as Sister Joan points out, the changes can be deep within and they can take time. The kernel of every civil rights movement was planted decades before appreciable change was made. Pay attention to what is happening within and around you. Notice those whose calls are going unheard or are willfully ignored and say something. Offer encouragement to those you meet. Keep showing up.