Interfaith Journeys
  • Home
  • Interfaith Journeys
  • Stella Reekie

Zest for Life

16/11/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
I've just spent two days with a number of young people from 18 Catholic Schools in Scotland.  The youngsters (I shouldn't really call them that as they were remarkably mature for 13) were spending a day at the Conforti Institute  to reflect on interfaith issues and plan how they would celebrate Scottish Interfaith Week in their schools.  Their interest, creativity and energy were catching. They came up with great ideas. One was  to have a non-uniform day during that week. Instead they would have a colour day with students wearing colours appropriate to different religions and inviting speakers from these religions. Not only would this be a wonderful visual display of the diversity of religions, it would also encourage discussion between the pupils about different religions. I hope they carry it out and send us some photographs so we can advertise it.  A good idea is worth sharing!  Another group suggested an interfaith team in their school and they said ' we can be it!" I have no doubt they will be 'it' and will do a good job. The ideas went on and on.

Sometimes Catholic schools get a bad press in Scotland - not from educationalists who recognise their academic achievements, nor from people of other religions, many of whom like to send their children to Catholic Schools because of the values they uphold. Rather it comes from the secular lobby who want to see religion taken out of the public sphere.  They claim catholic schools are divisive, about indoctrination, inward looking etc. Well. I think they might change their minds if they could meet some of the students I met this week.  Catholic schools, on the whole, are not monolithic establishments. They are multicultural and multifaith communities, particularly in urban areas.  One of them had 40 + languages.  And all the schools that participated in our programme wanted to celebrate this and extend it by embracing Interfaith Week at the end of November. This was a different kind of Catholic school from the one  I was brought up in.  Then my horizons didn't much extend beyond the Christian community but that's just not possible for students today.  And since interreligious dialogue is now so much part of Church teaching, it's not possible to teach Catholicism or Christianity without mentioning this or other issues of justice and peace. 

I felt very enthused by meeting these wonderful young people and satisfied that they would become champions of interfaith within their schools.  They were a great example of the 'zest for life', an approach to life that the Jesuit paleontologist, Teilhard de Chardin tried to encourage among his friends.  I've been reading about it recently. Teilhard believes It was the zest for life that would take the human family and indeed the whole of creation further on its evolutionary journey. And what is this zest for life?  Ursula King describes it as " a drive that keeps us alive, engaged, committed to be involved in what is going on around us. It relates to an awakening to the fullness of life with all its joys and pains, its growth and diminishments and sufferings" It is to live and love life to the full and to encourage its flourishing in others, in communities, in the environment. It would seem to me that this is what religion should be all about. There's no doubt there's good religion and bad religion and how do we judge between them?  The zest for life must surely come into it - a zest for life that encourages diversity. A diversity that brings colour into our lives  must surely be a  criteria for good religion. It's interesting that totalitarian ideologies do away with colour and encourage drabness in life and dress. - more at home with death and conformity than with life and creativity. Any of these ideologies that associate themselves with religion are for me an example of bad religion and not to be encouraged.

Not so the young people I met this week. They were surely examples of good religion.  

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    I am  a Catholic nun, involved in interfaith relations for many decades.  For me this has been an exciting and sacred journey which I would like to share with others.

    Picture

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013

    RSS Feed

    Categories
    Religious Performances
    ​​

    All

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.