Not ACHOO!

In this flu and cold season it’s good to speak about contagious in a positive manner. Recently, in my opinion, there has been a very readable book on the bookshelves by Jonah Berger entitled, Contagious: Why Things Catch On. It’s written in the style that readers of Blink, Outliers and Tipping Point by the bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell will find familiar.

Contagious combines the findings of academic research with real case stories. As Berger says in his book, he sets out to explain why certain tales are told, why certain emails get forwarded or the reason behind which YouTube videos go viral.

Simon and Schuster Readers Guide pinpoints the storyline, “John Berger shares the secret science behind social transmissions.” Berger introduces the reader to the six masterful ways to spread the word and insure infectious content. Berger shares these research-based fundaments under the acronym STEPPS.

Visit www.jonahberger.com and click on Videos for a 50 second trailer to spike your interest further.

Nancy Wales, CSJ

Engaging Evolutionary Consciousness

What I find wonderful and hopeful, despite our current ‘natural’ and human-made disasters, is the basic reality that we live in an evolving cosmos. This is a scientific fact. The whole universe, some 13.7 billion years of it, is constantly moving and changing. The human species is also evolving, recently by means of technology more than by biology. Our cultures and our consciousness, individually and collectively, are continually developing. Both the fields of sociology and developmental psychology provide evidence that this is so.

God is constantly beckoning us forward! Ilia Delio, OSF, in her book The Emergent Christ states the following: “The God of evolution is the God of adventure, a God who loves to do new things and is always new.”

Letting go of tried, trusted concepts and then opening to new ideas, novel ways of thinking is a challenge for most of us. A group, in the London neighbourhood, which included Sisters, Associates and friends, has done just that!

Throughout a six session study group based on the Evolutionaries, by Carter Phipps, we have explored the emerging evolutionary worldview and engaged with the concept of “evolutionary consciousness”. We have been asked to break the “spell of solidity” (that everything will remain the same), to recognize that all of the universe is “moving”, “becoming” and that, as a human species, we are not only a part of this process, but also integral to it. And, as humans, at this point in the Great Story of “God’s evolving design”, we have a responsibility to make conscious choices that can positively affect the cosmic unfolding.

Wow! What a possibility and what a responsibility! Amen . . . Hebrew for “May it be so”

A Saint for our Times

Why yet another book on Hildegard of Bingen, especially by Matthew Fox who has written, lectured, and conducted workshops about her for over 25 years?

Perhaps timing is part of the story. Hildegard is a ‘come lately’ to the saints and doctors of the Catholic church being canonized in October 2012. Wryly Fox wonders if the Church knew what it was in for when admitting this strong, challenging mystic to the proclaimed saints/doctors of the church. 

This book honours a remarkably gifted woman: writer, poet, painter, musician, outspoken critic of the errors of the Church, spiritual leader and holy mystic. Further, as Fox presents Hildegard to us, he develops his belief that just as she shook the world of the 12^th century, she can stir up that of the 21^st.

Fox links Hildegard to Mary Oliver in terms of a Cosmic Christ; to Howard Thurman in believing in a God of life and Light; and to Einstein in her belief in the ‘marriage of science and spirituality. The context of Hildegard, that of the Rhineland mystics, speaks to the mysticism of our age while comparisons with Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes link her with Wisdom, Creativity and the Holy Spirit…not to mention the Divine Feminine. Throughout, Fox presents her posing questions and stating positions that resonate with us now.

Hildegard of Bingen comes to life in this book especially if you are meeting her for the first time.  As Fox says in his subtitle, we can “unleash her power for the 21^st century”.