Let Justice flow like a River.

- Morning Glory at its Peak -  

Yah for starting morning running again, 

what a treasured graced morning time with the Lord 

This morning I adventured into the city! My mkyi card (transport card) got a sharp wake up when it beeped letting me onto and off the train. Hard to believe its been over a month from the last time I stepped onto a train, when before this I grew to normality to pile into the train each Thursday to go to the Daughters of Charity to help with the homeless….

I was given a very important HOLY task, of getting some "holy oil" for the priests. I debated if this should be my first point of call or my last, as if my first then I would have to guard them with my dear life; that or I could go around the city anointing everyone as Sister kindly joked. If I collected last there might be a chance no one in the presbytery; therefore first port of call it was. 

Jumping off the train, I went to the Cathedral dashing between the tourist who were taking a million photos of the same bricks. I gain access through the metal bar door into the presbytery, leaving me feeling like I was entering the other side of a "Carmelite convent". I collected the oil then left the same way came in - out straight into the sunshine and over click happy tourist circus. 

After this I went to a talk held by St Vincent de Paul Society, in the city on social justice. The guest speaker was a little late due to fog at the airport, so to fill in a little we were informed of the coming speakers for the remaining of the year. This turned out to be a monthly thing. 

Please also were told in detail of the new project that the society are putting into place - home direct - it is a project where families or individuals will be supported to gain access to accommodation. Im very taken by the sounds of this project. Im going to do research and find out more. Its a three year strategy with support from each conference. 

The guest speaker was Dr John Falzon who is the Chef Executive Officer of SVDP National Council (of AU). Above this though, he is a very gifted speaker, I guess with the study in sociology, theology, politics and poetics has developed a very well rounded academia with a very gentle heart that he openly speaks and tries to get others to think of those on the margins. 

The topic he presented 

'The stone that the builders rejected' 

Who are the people rejected and locked out in an increasingly prosperous, but increasingly unequal world at the beginning of the 21st Century?'

There was so much in this talk, it was so well spoken with a story interwind between facts and actual statistics. I was taken by a couple of his comments, I have to admit I planned to write about them, then on second thought Im not going to as I fear I will do injustice to his words. I am awaiting video link and also a copy of the talk, once obtain I will post. This might be better than "hear saying" 

I will express though - 

The way he spoke was empowering, it has come at a moment when I personally am at a change in season and for my outreach for the next six months is under my inner questioning and searching. I look to society, what I have been exposed to, all the information, the people, the stories, the evidence of so much injustice and it really is not the time to watch and weep. NOW is the time to stand and fight, - lets not forget the Feminist movement taught us a very powerful message - the personal is political. 

Therefore our task is to transform all our personal stories of injustice into a collective struggle for a new society - 

a society where people are not blamed for the economic structure that is in favor of the rich and locks them out or up. 

a society where the message of judgement is given to the poor telling if only they chose to be more productive then one would not be poor. 

a society where humiliating ordinary people is not a social crisis rather a rarity that is addressed immediately. 

There is nothing human about humiliating people because they are forced to survive on the margins, denied the basic right of having a home! A home in all sense of the word - shuttler, safe place, loving support, and a sense of belonging so forth. In a society that seems to having an increase in the gap between rich and poor, where business thrive on certainty yet people who are struggling get use to everlasting uncertainty, resulting in times when a message of change for the better progress is meet with fear rather than excitement. 

There was a lot of talk about politics, most likely as we are on the eve of voting. One thing that hit a cord was the world wide notion of the fairy tale, trickling down effect. Often told to wait with patience for the wealth to flow down, yet all can be heard is the sound and sight of the excluded waiting!! As so well put today, now is not the time to watch and weep… change is not only wanted yet rather wanted to make change, progressive change, change that creates common good and common wealth. A change that has a common purpose instead of the sacrificing all this on the altar of profit and private gain - or as pope francs calls it the market idolizing. 

Its not to be forgotten that humiliation revolution under the guiding stars of struggle and hope. The way we talk about, approach and address as a nation, "poverty" will lead to reorganizing resources and fundamentally treating our people as they come, when they come.  We are united together, all sharing in this struggle, if we simply look in our hearts we will see a reflection of those stuttering within us, its not just them suffering its us too -  after all we need nothing but a tiny nugget of hope in our hearts to break this cycle, this gap. 

The image that holds firm in my mind as I walked away alive with energy and desire to hold onto all the insight and experience - I walked across the courtyard into the church to say a prayer with the words on my mind -  Let Justice flow like a river! - what powerful verse this is…..