One of the fundamental mysteries of our faith is the presence of God among us in human form. Jesus was born into the human race and lived among us as a HUMAN PERSON. His interactions and relationships were relentless, faithful expressions of one human to another human person. African-American, mystic-theologian, Howard Thurman, writing about the woman caught in adultery, focuses on humanity with poetic beauty in this text:
“Jesus demonstrated reverence for personality. He met the woman where she was, and treated her as if she were already where she willed to be. In dealing with her, Jesus ‘believed’ her into the fulfillment of her possibilities. He stirred her confidence into activity. He placed a crown over her head which for the rest of her life she would keep trying to grow tall enough to wear.” (Jesus and the Disinherited, © 1976, Beacon Press)
June 19, 1865 began as a holiday in Texas, marking General Granger’s two-and-a-half years delayed announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation. On January I, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln declared, “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebel states are, and henceforward shall be free.” The Emancipation Proclamation, entangled in a Civil War, did not affirm the human dignity of Negroes anywhere in the Union. The “chokehold of racism” strangles the breath of life and dignity from people of color, especially Black people in the USA.
We Sisters, Associates, Mission Volunteers, Staff, and Friends, of Notre Dame de Namur are committed to “demonstrate reverence for personality”, and nurture of each person’s God-given gift of humanity. With this determination and vision, we strive to collaborate with those among whom we live, serve, and/or minister.
Creator God, anoint us anew on Juneteenth, and every day to participate in your plan and will to transform the world into one human community!
Teresita Weind, SNDdeN
Congregational Leader
Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur