Thank God for daughters.

Family — the tie that binds. But now during the pandemic, the tie is sometimes stretched or even broken. Family get togethers have been disrupted. Traveling to see distant family seems improbable. But sometimes there’s a way to work around the obstacles. Such is the case with my daughters.

First, let me say I’m so glad to have daughters. Two of them — beautiful, smart, caring women.

Happiness is mother daughter time. Mollie, mom Kate and Jill

One lives close by; the other far away in sunny California. In both cases, the virus has kept us apart much more than we’d like. But we’re making do and have come up with an interesting and very worthwhile way to connect. Every Monday night we have a conference call for a spiritual conversation. One of us is designated as the facilitator and selector of the subject.

We are Catholics by upbringing, and while we didn’t intend for it to be just a “Catholic” conversation, several of our subjects thus far have revolved around religious of the Catholic faith. Like Sister Helen Prejean. We talked about her memoir, River of Fire, considered to be a ‘prequel’ to her best-selling book, Dead Man Walking and her campaign to educate Americans on the inhumanity of the death penalty. I’ve never met Sister Helen, but I did have occasion to talk to her on the phone when she paid a visit to the Nebraska Legislature as we were debating the death penalty legislation. The vote did succeed in abolishing it in Nebraska, but then a petition drive took the issue to a vote of the people where it was overturned. So the death penalty remains legal in Nebraska.

Another recent conversation focused on Sister Joan Chittister. We are following an online study session she held on her book, Called to be a Prophet. Sister Joan, an American Benedictine nun, is an outspoken advocate of justice, peace and equality. The book points a finger at all of us, challenging us to be spiritually authentic and take the risk to be a prophet. A prophet who says no to the ills of life: no to abuse of women; no to crimes against immigrants; no to scourges against our planet, its air, water and land. In turn, she says, a true prophet says yes to equality for all, to embracing the different, and many more challenges. Meaty stuff, to be sure. We will be discussing this book for several weeks.

I look forward to many more conversations, examining the works of such notables as Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, Mother Teresa, Pope Francis and many more, all the while strengthening our family ties.

A daughter is God’s way of saying ‘thought you could use a lifelong friend.’

I’m so very proud of my daughters. Sure, I’m their mother — I’m unabashedly biased. But I AM proud. They’re thinkers and doers. They’re really good mothers, too.

Sometimes our spiritual conversations are interrupted with family needs from the kids. But that’s all right. We even involve them occasionally like when granddaughter Clara (middle one) was asked to play a hymn, “Seed, Scattered and Sown,” that seemed to fit with our evening talk.

It’s probably not surprising that for the most part we end up agreeing in most of our discussions. Still, we challenge each other and sometimes disagree. The readings we’ve done have made all three of us think about our individual spirituality, particularly as it relates to how we live it each and every day. For example, Jill shared something she wrote the other day, mostly to gather her thoughts after a conversation with a neighbor who suggested she listen to a homily given by a Catholic priest. Entitled “Staring into the Abyss,” it apparently had over 1 million views on his YouTube channel. You’ll get the gist of the homily as you read Jill’s thoughts.

Jill said she watched the speech but I suspect it did not elicit the response her neighbor was hoping for. Quite the opposite. It got her blood boiling and resulted in her taking pen to paper to write what I thought was a truly insightful essay. So much so that I wanted to share excerpts of it. Clearly, I’ve never intended this blog to be political. I just wanted to share my thoughts, ideas and, occasionnally, some worthwhile information, which is why I felt there was great value in sharing Jill’s essay. Whether one agrees with her or not, I believe her comments give much food for thought. At the end of the day, maybe that’s all we can hope for from a commentary. So here goes:

“Father M. said it was our duty as Catholics to vote with the church in choosing the candidate who is not ‘pro-abortion. To be clear, Joe Biden is not ‘pro-abortion’ as Fr. M. says he is. I don’t know of anyone who would classify themselves as such……Pro-choice does not make one pro-abortion. I personally am not pro-abortion — I am very much anti-abortion but pro-choice. I do believe in the sanctity and dignity of human life, but I also know we humans are a diverse people with nuanced lives and as a result this is not an easily cut and dried issue.

She quoted Sister Joan Chittister: “Just because you’re opposed to abortion does not make you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed…we need a much broader conversation on what morality of pro-life is.”

All of this brought up her thoughts on values. “Truth and honesty matter. Character and integrity matter. Justice, equality, compassion and mercy are my non-negotiables”, she said.

She went on: “I cannot in good conscience blindly follow the recommendation of a church leader who will not acknowledge the suffering and death caused by the utterance of our leaders’ blatant lies and mistruths. Fr. M. said that his first allegiance is to the truth of God. What about the ‘truth’ as spoken by people in government, politics and the media? Does it matter if what they say can easily be disproven by facts? And if we dismiss or accept their lies in deference to a greater truth, why would we believe they possess the principles to defend the policies we most want them to defend?

“I beg to differ with Fr. M. ….that we are first and foremost Catholics and secondly Americans. I believe we are first and foremost humans. People. Individuals. Neighbors. God did not create religions, countries and the borders between them. We humans did, and it’s only served to divide us, not bring us closer together.

“Yes, Fr. M., we can respectfully disagree. But can we agree on respect? Not just between you and I, because I’ve never met you and likely never will. But that each of us as children of God are worthy of it. Because if we are following the word of God none of us is really worthy, and it’s certainly not up to you or I to determine who is.”

And finally, her summation: “I will continue to pray to the same God as the rest of my human family, no matter what name we call him or her, that he or she help me/us to forgive, understand, empathize with, respect and be civil with each other, and to have the courage and humility to accept change as we evolve.”

Need I say more other than:

Amen, and thank God for daughters.