PAULINE'S POEM ON THE HUDSON RIVER

A RIVER THAT FLOWS BOTH WAYS

Ever since I can remember
I have been called.."The river that flows both ways".
This has proved to be quite confusing.
Which way do I turn--North or South?

No, I do not chart the course that I will follow.
That is completely out of my control.
Sun, moon, wind, storms and technology
determine the course I will follow.

Over the course of the years I have
learnt to "go with the flow".
I do not resist what comes my way.
It isn't within my nature to do so.

It is within my nature, however,
to keep my cool no matter what happens.
Only once did I come near to losing it.
You would too if PCB's had come your way!

Overall I lead a full life.
I laugh with those who laugh,
cry with those who cry,
mourn with those who mourn.

My talent, however, is to
offer gentle comfort to those
whose life becomes my own in death.
These I lock in my embrace forever.

Pauline Fornier

LOVING AND PROTECTING CREATION (a workshop on the Environment)

I have a workshop on the Environment that I gave once last month. It deals with the formation of the universe and our earth with all the newest and best scientific information we have on that as well as some most astounding visuals from the Hubbel Space Telescope...But I don't just stop there. I try to show how people who say that they are Christians and followers of Christ are called to protect and love and care for.... THIS WORLD. Because I most firmly believe that , God is not going to throw away or trash this world, but to "transform it to the image of Christ his Son.." So I believe God demands and expects that we CARE FOR, LOVE AND PROTECT ALL THAT HAS BEEN GIVEN US. When I call my workshop Loving and Caring for Creation, I, of course, "give away" the fact that ....I most certainly believe in a Creator. BUT...and this is a very big 'BUT' I believe that God allowed millions and millions of years to pass as our evolving world was being created. I not only "believe" in evolution, but I hope and pray and try to work hard that...we human beings cotinue to evolve. Because from what science and studies on the environment have "tried to" teach us and from what the WORD OF GOD, especially the attitudes and actions of Christ have also "tried to" teach us...we have one heck of a lot of evolving to do. It took us how many years to understand that slavery was wrong? How many more years will it take us to realize that wars and injustice and greed are also wrong.

One of the biggest intuitions that has led me during my years in Latin America and the South Bronx to this Hudson River home to want to be concerned about the environment was that I have seen so many "exclusions" that pain God and us: of different colors and races, of different countries and political systems, of persons of different sexual orientations, of workers, of the poor and need.....THAT I have come to see that "the planet and its life systems have also been excluded from our love and concern. And so I hope that my workshop does something to remedy that:

LOVING AND PROTECTING CREATION

(a workshop on the Universe, Earth and Environment)

WHERE: Mt. St. Alphonsus

WHEN: Dec 12

FROM: 10 am till 4 pm

Cost: $35 (includes good lunch)

AFTERNOON WALK TO SHAUPENEAK RIDGE

Years ago we had our own name for the mountain ridge that is actually called "Shaupeneak Ridge". We used to call the two ridges, "Sleeping Boy" and "Sleeping Girl". In those days we seminarians had very little contact with the local people. And so, even though we knew that the Lake up there was called Lake Louise we invented Sleeping Boy and Sleeping Girl. Up on Shaupeneak Ridge there was an abundance of laurel which we used to gather and weave into garlands and wreathes for our Christmas decorations down here at what was our Mt. St. Alphonsus Seminary. From many years back, right from our beginnings here in 1907 the Gullians, and Armenian family had a beautiful home with a breathtaking view of the Hudson River Valley. "Mom" Gullian, as we called her raised sheep on her property and I think the family made and repaired rugs. Her daughter, Beatrice ("Bea") whose picture is below, can fill me on on this....
At any rate you can see the beautiful view that I had from the ridge of the belltowers of the Mount from the ridge.

Bea Moor on Shaupeneak Ridge

THE MOUNT SEEN FROM SHAUPENEAK RIDGE