February 2025 Issue of Reflections & Connections
February 13, 2025
The February 2025 issue of Reflections & Connections is now available online for your viewing.
This letter appears in the February Issue of Reflections and Connections
Dear Friends,
Pope Francis declared 2025 as a Jubilee Year of Hope, beginning his letter doing so with Romans 5:5: “Hope does not disappoint.” In a climate of dangerous and disappointing division, polarization continues, wars refuse to end, marginalization of and violence against various groups grows, creation cries out for healing, inequity soars and the common good is dwarfed by out-sized individualism. But, in Hebrews 6:18-20, it says, “We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor…” What is that anchor? That anchor is God’s love. Where are the signs of that tender but powerful upholding love?
We only need to look around to see: Children in Gaza or Israel who somehow find the joy to play games in bombed out streets. A neighbor in Ukraine wiping a tear from a widow whose home has no heat. A community of folks in Sudan who gather to rebuild a house and cook a meal. Members of a family here in the U.S. who Zoom together to support each other in the shock of losing election 2024. Parents who circle round their LGBTQIA+ children to defend them. Educators, librarians, and members of communities who attend school board meetings to defend the right to read widely. CNAs who tenderly turn the elderly in their beds. Green shoots, finding their way through the ashes and rubble of destruction. You, our readers and donors, making the work of CSA possible, the work of the Gospel, in many small ways so that “Hope does not disappoint.”
Thank you.
Sisters Sharon Pollnow, Peg Spindler, Madeline Gianforte, and Lael Niblick
CSA’s General Council, 2022-2026
