3 minute read
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE
FINDING PEACE
BY SR STANISLAUS
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There is hardly an individual on the face of the earth who hasn't been affected by the COVID-19 crisis, and that is surely unprecedented in our lifetime at least. The tiny, silent, obnoxious killer that is the coronavirus crept into all our lives and will colour our existence for the foreseeable future. Suddenly, Disney was out of magic and New York was asleep. Hugs had suddenly become weapons, and not visiting grandparents became an act of love.
The virus struck the world with the ferocity of a tsunami. Apart from the global trail of illness, economic devastation and death, it sparked a tidal wave of fear. It struck at something deep inside us and shattered many of our cherished certainties. We thought we were in control, but nature reminded us of our fragility, vulnerability and mortality not with a gentle whisper but with a primaeval scream. It had echoes of a medieval plague, but our 21st-century world struggled to find an adequate response to it.
The writer Ernest Hemmingway claimed that the world breaks everyone, and afterwards, many are stronger in the broken places. One of Ireland's leading campaigners against homelessness, Sr Stanislaus Kennedy, has come through this crisis stronger in the broken places.
The evidence for this is in her new book Finding Peace. She decided that a good crisis should not go to waste. So she reached out to a number of prominent Irish people, including President Michael D. Higgins, Miriam O'Callaghan, Johnny Sexton and Joe Duffy. This beautifully designed and illustrated book seeks to provide answers to the question: 'Where and how do you find peace in your life?'
It's so easy to find yourself trapped inside a never-ending cycle of negativity these days. Stress and anxiety seem to have become the familiar trademarks on a journey that so many people feel they have no control over. It is very worrying, more so because it's almost impossible to find a way to step back from it and reclaim a sense of who you used to be before it all became such an uphill struggle.
The book beams shafts of light into the darkness that so many people grapple with on a daily basis and provides prisms of hope into the despair people regularly feel watching the news.
As the coronavirus illustrated so vividly, today's world can be both disconcerting and disconnecting. However, Sr Stan seeks to offer connections, community and common sense. It is a rich vein to be mined of insight, imagination and inspiration. This book can be a sanctuary of rest, renewal, and reassurance when we have an aching heart. Long before the terms 'mindfulness' and 'well-being' were coined, the Christian tradition offered pathways to peace of mind and serenity. Sr Stan offers literally a new chapter in that respect.
But just as the Celts were happy to borrow wisdom from everywhere, this volume is happy to do the same. Sr Stan has sought out stories, wisdom, poetry and prayers which resonate with the modern sensibility.
Like a Celtic magpie, she borrows wisdom from a wide variety of sources. When the world is too much with us, and our way forward is obscured by confusion, these inspirational thoughts will be a ray of light to beam peace into stressful lives and focus us forward with renewed hope and serenity in our hearts.
Sr Stan knows intuitively that laughter is the best medicine. I hope the collection will bring a few smiles as well as lift our spirits.
