“Fractured and Torn” by Sister Kathleen Storms, SSND ©2020
Images often speak to me of deeper realities that are touching my soul. I use SoulCollage© to solidify my thoughts and feelings. SoulCollage is a practice I learned to unpack feelings and intuit what is going on in my spiritual life. It is a process of creating a collage from magazine and newspaper photos. Once the image is created I reflect on the image by restating over and over “I am the one who…”
“Fractured and Torn” is the image that emerged for me on Holy Saturday, 2020…
I am the one who… has been struggling with what has happened these past months
I am the one who… is feeling the grief of the mounting destruction of our world, our way of life being on hold, the leveling of haves and have-nots—no one is exempt from climate change and the virus, what is normal, getting in touch with the greater plight for those who live on the margins.
I am the one who… sees what destroys—fire, drought, melting ice, climate change, war, homelessness and displacement of peoples, racism, gender inequality, covid-19, isolation, domestic violence, denial and death.
I am the one who… feels the collective darkness and heaviness of so much of life being fractured and torn. Our interconnectedness has been shattered and yet enlightened through our social distancing.
I am the one who… wonders what all this pain is doing to our sense of who we are. Will we ever feel normal again? Will our new normal be a better world? Will we find alternative ways of solving our differences, will we regain or discover for the first time a sense of our connectedness? Or will we become more isolated and uncaring—everyone for one’s self?
And most of all, I am the one who… wonders if this is what Jesus felt with all the life changing events for him, his mother and his disciples…Where did he find the courage to go through his passion and death…how was he able to be compassionate and hopeful for the sake of others who believed or struggled to believe… How deep did he have to dig to remember his relationship with his God?
Holy Mystery, I know you are part of all the grief and fractured feelings that touch us. Like you did for the women who came to the garden to face their grief, fill us with a vision of your son, Christ, resurrected and living. Let the alleluias return to our songs. Allow the losses we are experiencing to transform us to be women of hope for one another.
~Sister Kathleen Storms, SSND