STRENGTH OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT

By Sr. Frances Brady, O.L.M.
Summer 2002

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Every day we see evidence that people respond with generosity and courage in the face of crisis, dramatic violence and tragedy. Need brings out the best in us. This best in turn gives us hope—hope that comes from seeing the strength and generosity of the human spirit, from acknowledging God’s faithful presence with us, urging us to be our very best selves.

It does sometimes seem as if we need a major crisis to start up this cycle of positive response. Must we move from crisis to crisis in order to keep the best of the human spirit alive?

When we look around us with discerning eyes what do we see? Close attention to the daily reality shows us a world in which need, though ever present, often does not receive public attention. Violent situations exist, in which ordinary people struggle, heroically but unnoticed, for survival. Suffering and tragedy are lived in anonymity, so commonplace that they are not acknowledged in newspaper headlines or TV interviews. Circumstances, mundane, daily, heartbreaking, can crush the human spirit with their very ordinariness and seeming permanence. Can these less dramatic situations also lead us to courage, to generosity of spirit, to hope?

We believe so. In these pages you will read about some of the people with whom our Sisters live and work. The stories say more about ordinary situations and day-to-day perseverance than about major events. We take this opportunity to give voice to some of the less known, yet heroic people. They are people well acquainted with violence and suffering, who live in enduring faithfulness to their families and communities.

With or without the newspaper headlines, it is the same human spirit, the same courage and generosity, the same faithfulness of God encouraging us to be our best selves in small things, as in all things.

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