News from the Road

by Sr. Simone Campbell

Bridge the divides was Pope Francis’s key theme today. I was so moved by his reflections on our country’s history and the honoring of “great Americans” – Abraham Lincoln, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Day, and Thomas Merton. His reflection of liberty and unity, liberty and justice, social justice and its roots in spirituality and dialogue are challenges for our current polarized political system.

I had chills as he candidly spoke to Congress about how they have a sacred responsibility to bring together our nation and work for the common good. We know that our people are hungry for this because we heard this directly during our recent “Nuns on the Bus” trip.

During the address, I had the honor of sitting with Cindy McCain, who spoke about how her husband, Senator John McCain, is so concerned about immigration reform but is challenged to bridge the divides in his own party.

Pope Francis’s inclusive vision is indeed the American dream he spoke of. He knows what we heard on our bus trip: our people are hungering for the spirit of inclusion in our politics and economy, so “that as many young people as possible can inherit and dwell in a land which has inspired so many people to dream. God Bless America.”

Nuns on the Bus DC Rally by NETWORK Lobby 

by Sister Eileen Reilly, SSND

If there was a theme for our Nuns on the Bus day in Indianapolis on Friday, it could be summarized in the title above.  

EAT WELL: As we approached the city, we stopped for lunch at Pogue Run Grocer, where the café prides itself on serving delicious food that is locally sourced.  The farms that supplied Pogue’s were all highlighted on a map of Indiana on the wall.  And the conversation nourished us too as folks from Indiana Institute for Working Families briefed us on the realities of life in Indiana and their efforts to challenge lawmakers to “bridge the divides” between rich and poor, young and old, healthy and unhealthy.

GROW WELL: Our next stop was “Growing Place Indy,” a community gardening project. There, Laura – and her five-month old daughter – proudly shared their efforts to develop a farm that would answer the needs of the local community, which lives in a “food desert.”  They have many gas stations, fast food places and dollar stores – but nowhere to buy fresh fruit and vegetables.  Laura picked up on our theme of  “bridging the divides,” and noted that she is about bridging the divides between people and their food.  

by Sr. Jan Cebula

“What is your reaction to Pope Francis?”  “When did you first become aware of politics and what was the situation?” The group gathered Wednesday night at the Vanderbilt Divinity School eagerly engaged in these buzz questions as we began our Nashville Town Hall Meeting.

We Nuns on the Bus are on the road to hear the stories of people we meet and take them with us to Washington. These encounters are opening us to new realities, new understandings and new possibilities.

At each town hall meeting Sister Simone asks “What are the divides and challenges here in your area?” While sharing the fruit of their small group conversations with the whole gathering, mention of Nashville being the “It City” kept arising. We wondered what was happening; what they were talking about. “It City” was interspersed with their concerns about lack of public transportation, the collapse of public education, the dearth of mental health services, gentrification with the loss of housing and racism. A lot is being done to attract tourists and young people to the city, they explained. So that it becomes “the place to be.” It’s where it’s happening.

“Is it more about being seen than being? they asked.

Clearly those present are about being: well-being and whole being. They have deep desires and wider visions for their city and all its residents: quality education opportunities for all, affordable housing, adequate and accessible mental health care, provision of health care through Medicaid expansion, recognition of the contributions of immigrants, having an adequate tax base.  More soul than glitz.

When asked about how they can address these challenges, they spoke of the need to stop “otherizing” people. Of moving out of their “silos” and having conversations in parts of the city where they usually don’t go. Of bridging the divides by forming partnerships across existing ethnic, geographical and generational boundaries.

We all have a tendency to want to be “it” and a desire to be “where it’s at.” I wonder what that means for me and for us.  What would “it” look like?

by Sister Judith Best

Tonight after our tenth town meeting, numerous interviews and on-site conversations, I’ll be leaving the bus. I’m sad to leave such a wonderful community. We’ve laughed and cried together, drinking in the life-giving Spirit of the Beatitudes and shared Gospel-moments, strategizing on nonviolent responses to criticism.

Our hearts have been broken as we listened to stories of racism, injustice, and those who are trying to change the system for the common good.

Our Nuns on the Bus community comes from a wide background of experiences. Someone who had recently been to Rome told a story about Pope Francis that gave us comfort. Evidently the pope was in a crowd of well-wishers and someone handed him an open glass of liquid. The secret service immediately tried to take it out of his hands, but he insisted on drinking it, saying ruefully, “At least it’s not from the Cardinals.” How important it is to have a sense of humor.

His response to criticism reminds me of the pledge of nonviolence of Dr. King’s followers in the civil rights movement. “To meditate on the non-violence of Jesus. To refrain from violence of fist, tongue, and heart.”[i]

Being a “Nun on the Bus” has shown me the importance of standing with those on the edge of our society as Pope Francis exemplifies. Anyone who does that will be criticized. Raising up those who live on the margins of our society, sharing the stories of the “throw away culture,” (Laudato Si’) and our poor Mother, Earth, this has been the heart of our mission these past eight days.

I’m recognizing the relationship between our economic injustice as a nation and the world view of white privilege that protects it. Recently I read the following and want to ask others to help me “examine the links” between racism and exploitation of the natural world.

“’The mentality that drove the slave trade and the decimation of Native cultures is linked to the mentality that drives racism and the exploitation of the natural world. Examining these links can help us form transformative partnerships for positive change.” [ii]

Riding with Nuns on the Bus is unlike any journey I’ve ever taken. It is an education in examining the links that drive racism and the exploitation of the natural world and forming “transformative partnerships for positive change.”

by Sr. Judith Best

Thistle Farms, Nashville, TN

Once upon a time, in the 1990s, Becca Stevens had a dream. She is an Episcopal priest at St. Augustine’s, Nashville. She wanted to reach out to women who were living on the streets, often sexually abused before the age of five, caught in the vicious web of prostitution and drug addiction. Her goal was to give women a safe haven, where they could learn a skill, experience the love of others, and then give back to the community.

The result is Thistle Farms where a Benedictine Rule adapted to recovering women is lived with simplicity and hospitality. They begin each day with prayer. Through a process of building community among themselves, they learn that “Love Heals.”

Becca chose the lowly “thistle” as her logo. This pesky thistle is a weed that grows under bridges, in vacant lots, which nobody wants around. Thistles reminded Becca of homeless women, the women in our society no one wants around. “Our goal is to help one another move from destructive relationships that tear up our bodies, to healing relationships that build them up.” (Find Your Way Home, by the Women of Magdalene with Becca Stevens, 2008).

With their industry and creativity, Thistle Farms residents have created and marketed a variety of products, building on locally produced fragrances for lip balm, soaps, bath salts, healing teas, colorful tote bags, quilts, and so much more. Becca invites groups to share these with neighbors celebrating “Tupperware parties with a conscience.”

Thistle Farms, Nashville by NETWORK Lobby

by Sr. Judith Best

Nashville

What Does It Take to Ride with Nuns on the Bus?

This is a question I’ve been asked so often these days. Let me try to share a few ideas.

It’s as close as I’ll ever get to being greeted as a “rock star.” I’m writing this from the country music capital of the United States, Nashville, I‘d like to answer it out of this country music context.

(Pictures from the Nashville town hall)

Yesterday provided a few hours of unscheduled time so two of us decided to visit the Country Music Museum in Nashville. Since I’m a mostly-Mozart person this was a moment of opening to something new. I noticed that the Nashville Symphony Hall performs on the opposite corner.

As we toured together, Eucharia, our sister from Nigeria, was humming the lyrics to Jim Reeves songs. I realized what a bond music is to all of us.

After my experience at ten Town Halls where we listen to stories of ordinary people, I could feel the resonance with the attraction of country music. Some of the quotations at the Hall of Fame spoke to me.

·         “Country songs are the dreams of the working man.” Merle Haggard

·         “Country music isn’t a guitar, it isn’t a banjo, it isn’t a melody, it isn’t lyrics. It’s a feeling.” Waylon Jennings

·         “You ask what makes our kind of music successful. I’ll tell you. It can be explained in just one word. Sincerity.” Hank Williams

·         “A good country song takes a page out of somebody’s life and puts it to music.” Conway Twitty

·         “Country music is music with a lot of class. It’s just ordinary stories told by ordinary people in an extraordinary way.” Dolly Parton

So how does this relate to being a Nun on the Bus?

It’s all about crossing the street and meeting someone I don’t normally talk to in my ordinary life. So as I stood talking to clerks asking about the appeal of country music, one guy simply said: “Life is sad most of the time. Country music tells it as it is.” When I asked for a song that might be more hopeful, a young woman’s eyes brightened. “Kacey Musgraves’s ‘My House’ gives me hope.”

As I listen to Kacey sing about living in a bus, going cross-country, there is a relationship with our experience as Nuns on the Bus. So I’m writing this on the Bus en route to Senator Lamar Alexander’s office, listening to Kacey sing, “If I can’t bring you to my house, I’ll bring my house to you.”

Let me be really practical in what I think it takes to be a Nun on the Bus.

·         The ability to eat a boxed lunch while bouncing down the road.

·         A certain amount of bladder control to make it to the next rest stop.

·         Willingness to do strategizing just before the event. This is a “stretch” for those of us into long-range planning.

·         Respect and obedience toward our “handlers” who tell us how to exit the bus, set limits on our time to mingle with the crowds, follow orders to stay with the group, willingness to be interviewed, and speak publicly.

·         Willingness to write reflections in a timely manner, lest you forget content as you move from a Senate office visit to on-site private conversations to Town Hall meetings

·         Really believing that the strength of the United Sates is rooted in ordinary people caring enough about their neighbors to come together and work toward the common good.

·         Believing that investing one’s valuable time and energy into upholding the values of the U.S. Constitution is a sacred trust, a mission to be treasured.

·         Faith-filled focus that can welcome differences, opposition, a sense that the invitation to ride the Bus is a “call.” We begin with prayer each morning, sitting in silence, listening to a scripture text and responding with our hearts.

 My “call” to be a Nun on the Bus was preceded by a change in a prayer that is part of the Catholic liturgy. Catholics say a prayer at Mass just before receiving communion, “O Lord I am not worthy for you to enter under my roof; say but the word and my soul shall be healed.”

Instead of saying the above I began to pray: “Oh God, I am ready to do whatever you tell me; please give me Mary’s (as Mary the mother of God) energy to be faithful.”

After several months of saying this prayer, the call to join “Nuns on the Bus” literally came while I was sitting in our botanical garden simply breathing with the blooming lavender. Suddenly my phone rang. It was Ashley from NETWORK, inviting me to be a Nun on the Bus. She knew me because I had joined the Bus in 2013, focusing on immigration. She asked if I’d be willing to write reflections as I had done earlier. The five-minute conversation left me energized, excited, and with a vague sense of wondering if I had the stamina to ride the Bus. After conversations with my community, leadership and family, I said, “Yes.” I continue to pray: “I am ready to do whatever you tell me.”

Can we hear an Amen?! Watch the video below!

by Sr. Judith Best

In Catholic liturgy, today is the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, remembering Mary weeping beneath the cross for her beloved son. The reality of women, especially women of color, weeping for their children is  pulsating in my heart as I write this.

I’m writing this after an evening in Memphis where we visited the Civil Rights Museum (above,) visiting the “Lorraine Motel,” where Dr. Martin Luther King was shot. This was an experience of reliving the courage of ordinary men, women and youth who put their lives on the line to realize their rights. Repeatedly, I was moved to tears, even as I am now. As we circled through the museum we got on a replica of the bus where Rosa Parks and so many others had been told to go to the back of the bus. I didn’t realize that “Negroes” had to board the bus in the front, pay their fare, get off the bus and enter through the back door. Sometimes the bus would wait until they had paid and gotten off, heading for the back door, and the bus would suddenly pull out, leaving the person stranded and with no bus money.

As I listened to live coverage of events that included killing children in a bible study class, the intimidating presence of the Ku Klux Klan, the strong women and men being arrested or beaten, I was overwhelmed with grief.