by Tammy Townsend Denny, TI Executive Director

​As we transition from one year to the next, I would like to share with you a few words I stumbled upon from best-selling author Donna Ashworth. In a recent Facebook post, she shared a poem that began:

Why do we start a new year, with promises to improve?
Who began this tradition of never-ending pressure?
I say, the end of a year, should be filled with congratulation, for all we survived.
And I say a new year should start with promises to be kinder to ourselves, to understand better just how much we bear, as humans on this exhausting treadmill of life.

Ashworth goes on to implore us “to strip away a layer of perfection” and “to reveal the flawed and wondrous humanity we truly are inside.”

She ends the poem by challenging us to embrace the beauty of our imperfections.
In these last hours of 2022, I invite you to consider making a list of all that you have survived this year. This is not a list of your public accomplishments and awards, though those are important. Instead, make a list of those struggles and uphill battles that may not have been as readily seen by others.

When your list is complete, acknowledge the difficulty. Embrace it. Then, make another list of all the actions that helped you survive. Maybe it was praying, calling your Theresian sisters, enlisting family support, walking in nature, journaling, petting your dog, going to therapy, seeing your doctor, or staring out the window into the wonder of the world.

Whatever is on your 2022 list, I would like to congratulate you! You did it! You survived! Read those words again slowly: You survived.

In these last days of 2022, I celebrate you for all that you have survived – all the spoken and unspoken challenges. As we begin 2023, my prayer for you is one of peace and acceptance and love.

by Tammy Townsend Denny, TI Executive Director
​
As we make our final preparations for the Nativity of the Lord, I would like to share with you a video by the artist Jenedy Paige. Jenedy created a strikingly beautiful painting called “Little Lamb.” (I invite you to go to her website to see the image).
While the painting touched my heart, the story behind its creation touched my soul.
I encourage you to watch this video from Jenedy and to open your heart and soul to new ways of encountering the birth of Jesus this Christmas.

by Tammy Townsend Denny, TI Executive Director

​As the third week of Advent comes to a close and the Nativity of the Lord quickly approaches, I would like to offer you a few joyful resources to watch, to listen to, to read, and to reflect on.  

TO WATCH

Joy – A music video from Gospel recording artist VaShawn Mitchell.

Theology of Joy – A video interview with German theologian Jürgen Moltmann.
 
TO LISTEN

Re-Awakening Advent Wonder – A podcast episode from Things Not Seen, featuring an interview with author and artist Scott Erickson.

How can I make Advent more meaningful? – A podcast episode from A Nun’s Life featuring, Sr. Candyce Rekart, IHM

TO READ

Experiencing the Joy of Advent – An article by Sr. Bernadette Reis, FSP.

The Man Who Was a Lamp – Poetry by theologian and storyteller John Shea.

TO REFLECT

Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel) – Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation. If holiday busyness keeps you from diving into the entire 224 page message, consider reading and praying with this excerpt:

“Sometimes we are tempted to find excuses and complain, acting as if we could only be happy if a thousand conditions were met. To some extent this is because our ‘technological society has succeeded in multiplying occasions of pleasure, yet has found it very difficult to engender joy’. I can say that the most beautiful and natural expressions of joy which I have seen in my life were in poor people who had little to hold on to. I also think of the real joy shown by others who, even amid pressing professional obligations, were able to preserve, in detachment and simplicity, a heart full of faith. In their own way, all these instances of joy flow from the infinite love of God, who has revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ. I never tire of repeating those words of Benedict XVI which take us to the very heart of the Gospel: ‘Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction’”.

BONUS: TO LAUGH

Joy to the World – And lastly, I offer you this Muppet music video, because sometimes great joy comes in lighter moments of silly laughter.  

by Tammy Townsend Denny, TI Executive Director

​As we come to the end of this second week of Advent, I would like to invite you to pause and reflect on this excerpt from Pope Francis’ Prayer for Peace:

“Now, Lord, come to our aid! Grant us peace, teach us peace; guide our steps in the way of peace. Open our eyes and our hearts, and give us the courage to say: ‘Never again war!’; ‘With war everything is lost.’ Instill in our hearts the courage to take concrete steps to achieve peace. Lord, God of Abraham, God of the Prophets, God of Love, you created us and you call us to live as brothers and sisters. Give us the strength daily to be instruments of peace; enable us to see everyone who crosses our path as our brother or sister...” (The entire prayer is available here.)

When I read this prayer, my first thought is of the ongoing battles in Ukraine and the violence on so many of our city streets. My immediate urge is to find a place to donate or volunteer to support efforts for peace abroad and at home. But, when I sit with this prayer for a while and allow the words to penetrate my heart and mind, a different urgency emerges. I hear in this prayer a call for inner peace. Before I can help heal the division and hatred in the world, I must first, in the words of Pope Francis, banish from my heart my own division, my own hatred, and my own war.

This internal battle can take shape in different ways for different people. Maybe it is a battle with self-image or self-esteem. Maybe it is a war with addiction – your own or someone else’s. Maybe it is the division between what you dream of doing and what your body will allow you to do. Each of those inner battles can spill over into our daily interactions with others.

This Advent, are you willing to love yourself as much as God loves you, then extend that love to everyone who crosses your path? Are you willing to release your inner struggles and stresses so that you can smile at the grumpy store clerk, hold the door for a stranger, or invite someone to cut in line in front of you?

In the words of our patroness, St. Therese of Lisieux, “A word or a smile is often enough to put fresh life in a despondent soul.”

My prayer for you this Advent is that God grants you an inner light of peace that radiates throughout the world. Peace on earth begins with peace within.

by Tammy Townsend Denny, TI Executive Director

​I recently had one of those moments. Maybe you’re familiar with these types of moments.

Tired. Hungry. Pushing too hard. Juggling too many projects. Dreaming of crawling into bed and sleeping one of those exhausted restorative sleeps. Then The Thing happened -- The Thing that under other circumstances would brush by me with minimal disturbance, but without self-care, The Thing seemed like a crushing mountain of debilitating debris.

The Thing for me was simple stuff really: a miscommunication between my husband and me about driving privileges for one of the children.

But, it was a moment that required me to pause, step away, and sit quietly with myself and God.

In a quiet corner of my house where I go for prayer and meditation, I sat with tears of frustration and anger streaming. “OK, God, calm me down. Tell me how to handle this one.” I fumbled for the nearest book, hoping there would be some sort of calming message to inspire me.

The small book I grabbed was Time for Joy: Daily Affirmations, by Ruth Fishel. My well-worn copy fell open to a sticky note I had tucked between the pages many years ago. It was a note that formerly had lived on my bathroom mirror during a challenging point in my life. The note said:

Dear Tammy,
I got this!
--God

When God answers my prayers on sticky notes, there’s nothing much I can do except wipe my tears and smile.

The note was a reminder that even in emotionally challenging moments, there is hope! God’s got this!

Whatever your challenges this Advent, whatever struggling moments of anger or tears may come, I invite you to pause and connect with the Divine Presence that is always with us, always guiding us, and always our source of hope.

Love and blessings,

Tammy Townsend Denny
Executive Director

P.S. If you are looking for resources about hope, consider listening to this interview with MaryAnn McKibben Dana. MaryAnn is a writer, speaker, and pastor who recently published the book Hope: A User’s Manual. She is a graduate of Rice University in Houston, Texas and holds a Master of Divinity degree from Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia.