Third Sunday of Lent
Call To Action's 2023 Lenten Calendar is a collaboration between the Anti-Racism Team (ART) and Indigenous Solidarity Collective. This calendar provides more than 40 days of prayer and study to guide our discernment of racial justice and lead us into solidarity with Indigenous communities. For each Sunday and holy day during Lent, we'll publish a reflection from an ART or Indigenous Solidarity Collective member. Following the reflection, we’ll feature a call to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada as well as discussion questions for your own meditation.
Third Sunday of Lent: March 12, 2023
“O you priests. You have neglected your duties…. let us drive these adulterers and thieves from the Church, for they fester with every iniquity.”
Hildegard Von Bingen, a 12th-century mystic, was a cloistered nun and outspoken critic of political and ecclesiastical corruption. She seemed to court controversy. The established Church of her day was male-dominated. Her visions revealed the “Feminine Divine." She acknowledged God as Father but could only bear to look upon divinity in her visions if God appeared to her in feminine form. Her revelations of the Feminine Divine celebrate God being present in all things. The Church in the 12th Century was full of corruption and sexual misconduct. She decided to confront these issues in an attempt to reform the Church. Even though St. Paul had forbidden women to preach, she went on four preaching tours warning her male superiors that if they did not mend their ways, they would fall from grace and be toppled from their seats of power. Hildegard declared: “O you priests. You have neglected your duties…. let us drive these adulterers and thieves from the Church, for they fester with every iniquity."
Throughout the centuries, the Church has continued with sexual abuses and misogynistic practices. Rarely are women called to the table to find ways to improve their positions in the Church. We are still relegated to menial assignments and dismissed as being insignificant. A mere four years ago, I wrote the above paragraph for a liturgical drama to be given during the Lenten stations of the cross. The parish priest proceeded to inform me that he censured my script and took out the words “misogyny” and “adulterers” even when I told him that those words were from a direct quote from Hildegard von Bingen. We still have so much work to do!
—Reflection by Indigenous Solidarity Collective and Anti-Racism Team member Cathy Foxhoven
Prayer for St. Hildegard’s Intercession
Father, Source of Life,
you have bestowed on St Hildegard of Bingen
many excellent graces.
Help us to follow her example
of meditating on your ineffable Majesty
and to follow you
so that we, amidst the darkness of this world,
recognize the Light of your clarity
to cling to you without fail.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Discussion Questions
How can we follow the examples of Hildegard von Bingen in calling the Church to question its continuing corruption?
How can we put pressure on Pope Francis to make a formal apology for the institution’s history of slavery?
How can we get religious institutions to release their records of abuses of slavery and sexual abuse and support those seeking reparations?
Suggestions for Almsgiving
As part of your Lenten practice, please consider donating to one or more of the following organizations:
About the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
Between 2007 and 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada recorded the testimonies of more than 6,000 First Nations people across Canada either directly or indirectly affected by the residential school system. In June 2015, the commission released a final report with 94 calls to action directed at the Canadian government. The final 52 calls to action focus on reconciliatory policy implementation for the dismantling of systemic racism against Indigenous Peoples in Canada.
Call to Action 63
Education for Reconciliation
63. We call upon the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada to maintain an annual commitment to Aboriginal education issues, including:
i. Developing and implementing Kindergarten to Grade Twelve curriculum and learning resources on Aboriginal peoples in Canadian history, and the history and legacy of residential schools.
ii. Sharing information and best practices on teaching curriculum related to residential schools and Aboriginal history.
iii. Building student capacity for intercultural understanding, empathy, and mutual respect.
iv. Identifying teacher-training needs relating to the above.
