The first day of the DSC leaders meeting began with a prayer service remembering all who have gone before us. We are standing on the shoulders! Sister Catherine Walsh, OP was the preacher at the service. This is her preaching.

And here we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. Welcome them. Be with them, all of them. There are the giants from our past, those who made decisions that changed the course of our history. There those who resisted that history and seemed a burden. There are those who built and ran the educational institutions that Americanized generations of immigrants. Those as immigrants themselves who taught the essence of faith. There are those who nursed at bedsides and those who made the hospital solvent. Those as social workers assisting the broken and those who might have assisted some be broken. There are those who cried out for justice and those who never noticed injustice. There are those ….there are those .And they are ours and we are theirs. And here we stand on their shoulders bound to them and each other in a journey of uncertainty ,wondering how they found the route through their era of uncertainty.

And perhaps some of the answer is in the feast we celebrate today, the Feast of the Rosary. This is the feast that celebrates mysteries. This is the feast that connects us with life events only cherished because of faith. So, we have mystery intersecting with uncertainty. Is this not context of our lives as leaders? Actually, the lives of all.

We are in a sacred dance with the tensions of our uncertain future and the mystery of our call at this time to lead with new eyes. Eyes we are not sure we have. This is our call to be in tension with uncertainty and mystery. Mystery which Hildegarde describes as being hugged in God’ s all-embracing arms. Our multitude present here knows that hug. They wish to share it with us.

Being attentive to mystery may be just allowing God to be the writer in our lives, allowing God to be the navigator of the tensions of uncertainty. Maybe looking at our journey through the eyes of mystery will allow us to reframe “living with uncertainty” to “navigating mystery” as Martin Shaw suggests. He further challenges us to make space for the miraculous, make space for grace—these energies show up constantly in our lives. This making space may place us in the space of vulnerability where accepting uncertainty can bring us along the path to which we are called. Uncertainty is not solved it is acknowledged.

And the cloud of our witnesses can assist us fall into mystery by joining them again to our journey. Perhaps we could each spend a day a month with them, alone, quiet, in a place where we are comfortable. Perhaps on that day we just sit with however God wishes to heal us, challenge us, embrace us. All in their presence. Perhaps the tensions of navigating the uncertainties of our lives will be lessened and some uncertainties will be overwhelmed by grace. Perhaps, but at least we will have made the space for mystery.

And when we allow the multitude to act through us and with us, we will know God acting through us. We will know that we are enough on the road of uncertainty. We will know that mystery guides us, and we are on the path to which we are called. We will know decisions made in grace and from grace. In the tension of uncertainty and mystery we will with hands lifted and knees strengthened know the path is made straight and we are not out of joint, rather we are are standing straight on the shoulders of the great multitude.