Exciting birthday news: Upcoming trip to Israel/Palestine

“Dear young people...Become craftsmen of a new humanity, where brothers and sisters - members all of the same family - are able at last to live in peace,” Pope John Paul II implored.

The words convict me. For over two years, I’ve lived in Washington DC, the capital city of the most powerful nation in the world, doing ministry in national-level faith-based non-profit organizations. The work has been meaningful, the lessons, plentiful. I’ve grown, and I’ve developed a better understanding of my vocation.

But I’ve also felt removed. Removed from the experiences of kids like Chuy, son of migrant farmworkers for whom I was a camp counselor in Bonita Springs, FL. Removed from the suffering of Gloria and her baby Isabella, an undocumented woman abused by her husband, whom I accompanied at the Houston Catholic Worker. I “work for justice and peace,” but inside the Beltway, where my work often focuses and policy and education several levels removed from real, living people, I become disconnected. I’m less often friends and companions of members of the human family who are at the margins.

Our vocation, JP2 said, is to be craftsmen and women of a new humanity. How do we do that? In my 26th year of life, I’m looking for answers to this question. I believe that God calls me, and all of us, to reject violence and to live out Jesus’ call to be peacemakers. One of the ways I want to explore this call be is through attending a two-week delegation to Israel/Palestine with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) in January 2011.

On this delegation, we will learn from and dialogue with full-time CPT staffmembers, government officials, NGOs, and the active, creative nonviolent movements throughout Israel/Palestine. We will express our support and solidarity with the Palestinian Christians suffering in Gaza and the West Bank. We will document human rights abuses and publicly witness that we seek to end U.S.-supported violence. We will return home with personal stories of the relationships that we have developed and the way in which nonviolence is being practiced in a place where peace may sometimes seem hopeless, like a naïve dream.

As some of you know, I have been discerning participating in nonviolent accompaniment for several years. I’m both nervous and excited to take this next step, and I ask you, my beloved community, for your support through:

Your curiosity/accompaniment – I want to be in dialogue with you about these issues, to hear your perspectives, experiences, and your own personal sense of vocation. I want to be able to share my experiences with you. And I’d be very happy to share with you or your community my experiences after I return. It would be an honor to share this journey with you.

Your prayers – If you are someone who prays, I ask you to pray for the people of Israel/Palestine who have experienced decades violence. Please pray for interfaith cooperation and understanding, for renewed commitment to nonviolence, and for the end to senseless killing and hatred. Pray for an end to the illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land. I also ask that you pray for the delegation – for our safety, for open hearts, meaningful experiences and dialogue, and opportunities to share about our time upon return.

Your finances – By partnering with myself and with CPT, you’ll be sustaining the efforts of men and women who are taking Christ’s message of peace around the world into places where violence is a way of life. Your support makes you a fellow peacemaker in CPT’s work. You’ll also help support me in covering the cost of this trip as I put myself through an MA program in Pastoral Studies. Donations are tax-deductible.

If you’d like to support my trip, I’d love to talk with you more about it. You can visit my fundraising page at http://www.firstgiving.com/cptjennsvetlik or email me.

Never thought i'd be quoting andy rooney, but thought this was worth sharing:

60 Minutes Commentary, May 30, 2010

We use the phrase, “They gave their lives.” They didn’t give their lives, their lives were taken from them. There is more bravery in war than in peace. It seems wrong that we have so often saved this virtue to use for our least noble activity—war. The goal of war is to cause death to other people. Because I was in the Army during WWII, I have more to remember that most of you. I had good friends who were killed…I won’t think of them more tomorrow, Memorial Day, than I will think of them any other day of my life. Remembering doesn’t do the dead any good of course, it’s for ourselves, the living.

I wish we could dedicate Memorial Day, not to the memory of those who have died at war, but to the idea of saving the lives of the young people who are going to die in the future if we don’t find some new way, some new religion maybe, that takes war out of our lives. That would be a Memorial Day worth celebrating.

yah, andy! let's give peace (and non-violent resistance) a chance!

coming across those delightful little kernals..

ever read old journal entries, notes to friends, or blog entries? for me its often an orienting experience: helps me better see where i've come from & where i'm being led. i did some of that tonight, as i try to make some decisions about my future, and came across something i wrote two months ago as an offhand reflection that really struck me tonight:

"...and the simple yet profound thought of the day is that communion with God gives us the ability to be intimate with many; we do not cling tightly to self when a fountain of abundant life flows within us & pours out in waves & cascades. it causes us to be able to love all those around us in a way that is true, deep, connected. it is the reason we can call the saints our friends & advocates and truly believe that they are - because the have the ability, even after death, to love so many, so freely & intimately."

The practice of love

This morning I feel convicted and humbled. This morning I realize, as I have so many times and in so many ways before, but today in some way that is new, that in order to call myself a peacemaker, or even a “emerging student of peacemaking,” as I wrote in a recent article, I need to learn love better. This morning I’ve been privileged to read some reflections by a peacemaker working in Afghanistan, who is preparing to launch an international campaign called “Love is how we ask for peace.” The concept seems beautiful and simple, but I find that in reality, the practice is so very difficult.

In my own personal life, I find it easy to love those who are likeable - those who are interesting, engaging, share similar passions, who will lead me into meaningful conversation. I’m even good at loving a handful of people I find it hard to love, a few who complain, whom I find annoying, or have nothing I can visibly see to ‘give’ me, as long as they don’t ‘ask’ too much of me. But still, on a daily and sometimes hourly basis, I struggle to love well. I cling tightly to the things that I call my own (security, free time) but in reality are all illusions, instead of offering to others a fountain of life and love (I understand, though, that this cannot be done on my own. If I’m not open to receiving life and love from the Source, my sharing of ‘self’ will dry up quickly). I lack a basic ability of solidarity to understand why certain people behave as they do, or even if understanding is impossible, to love them anyways.

A few months ago I attended a training on nonviolent communication. I don’t want to oversimplify, but the basics that I took from it were that all people behave in a way to meet their human needs. If their needs aren’t met, they will often act destructively. Nonviolent communication provides a method for someone to express their feelings and needs in an honest way that will inspire the person who is acting out to also become honest and more compassionate. It is a tool to provide mutual understanding.

Perhaps I should have written “practice nonviolent communication daily” into my 2010 resolutions in order to help me better love those in my life that challenge me. Because until I can love well those people in my life, how will I ever begin to love my “enemies”? How will I find the courage to “get in the way” (as the Christian Peacemaker Teams say), in the streets of Columbia Heights or the streets of Palestine, if I do not know the practice of love and asking for peace?

“Our discontent has reached a critical breaking point,” the reflection offers… how will we use this crucial moment to build a better world, loving one person at a time?

some resolutions for 2010

• read scripture daily / go to mass often
  
  
• complete a triathlon, bike race, or 1/2 marathon
  
  
• write regularly & think intentionally about where i can use writing as an outlet
  
  
• go to the middle east
  
  
• find an outlet to explore growing interest in interfaith dialogue / work
  
  
• start a conversation each day with someone i might not be inclined to
  
  
• blog more? probably not. :)