pilgrimage

“Our good will and honest efforts”: Perseverance as Response to Overwhelming Challenges

bcicirel Islam, Mission Monday , , ,

The global Muslim community recently completed the annual Hajj pilgrimage to the sacred city of Mecca.[1] While still allowing far fewer pilgrims than in pre-pandemic times, this was the first time the Hajj was again a truly international gathering since 2019. According to the Qur’an, God commanded the prophet Abraham to be the first to “proclaim the pilgrimage to all people.”[2]

Traditional Qur’anic commentaries say that Abraham asked, “O Lord, how can I convey [this message] to the people when my voice will not reach them?” God said: “Call, and it will be for Me to ensure it reaches the people.” Abraham did the best he could, going to the top of a mountain and calling out to people to make a pilgrimage to the house he had just dedicated at Mecca. It was said that God ensured that this call not only carried throughout the earth but also reached the human family that had yet to be born. Upon reading this verse and these commentaries, Muslims cannot help but marvel that four thousand years later, millions of people respond to this call every year with the chant of “Here we are, God, at your service!”

Whether they seem to come from beyond our control or arise from our own ideals and vision of the future, the challenges we face can seem overwhelming. These challenges may be situations we face as individuals or families, societal problems such as gun violence and extreme polarization, or global problems like climate change, war, and extreme inequality. One can easily imagine Vincent de Paul becoming overwhelmed by seventeenth-century France’s recurrent plagues, religious conflict, and widespread material and spiritual poverty.[3] Facing those same realities, along with the extreme limitations placed on women’s roles, Louise de Marillac could have felt the same.

Certainly, we may have observed in others and in ourselves, some of the common coping strategies for being overwhelmed. These can include selfishness, cynicism, escapism, or wishing for destruction, whether of an idealistic or nihilistic nature. Yet our Vincentian legacy encourages us not to give in to these temptations. As Vincent did, as Louise did, we are invited to make our intentions sincere, to hope for a better future, and to use our “good will and honest efforts” toward securing that future.[4] He taught that our actions are all we can control and that we should leave the rest to forces beyond ourselves. As was the case with Abraham and the call to the Hajj, the work Vincent and Louise started continues today in ways they could never have imagined.

As we face the general challenges mentioned above, or the specific challenges of higher education, or the city of Chicago that we love, let us re-commit ourselves to a beautiful vision of the role DePaul University can play in the present and the future. No doubt challenges foreseen and unforeseen will still find us on our journey. That is the nature of journeys. Yet we may also find ourselves blessed with wonderful companions and miraculous and unexpected openings and transformations along the way.

Reflection: What are some ways in which you feel overwhelmed, personally or professionally? What is your vision of the ways in which DePaul can address the challenges of our time? What does it mean to you to bring your “good will and honest efforts” to your role at DePaul?

Reflection by: Abdul-Malik Ryan, Assistant Director, Religious Diversity & Pastoral Care

[1] This year’s Hajj took place from July 7 to July 12 and was marked by a large degree of logistical confusion. See Dustin Jones, “This Eid al-Adha, the New Rules for Hajj Have Left Many Frustrated,” NPR, July 9, 2022, Religion, https://www.npr.org/2022/07/09/1110580296/saudi-arabia-travel-rules-hajj-frustrated-pilgrimage.

[2] Qur’an Surah Hajj Verse 27.

[3] For additional insights on Vincent’s time and the Vincentian approach to the overwhelming challenge of poverty reduction then and now, see Edward R. Udovic, C.M., “‘Our good will and honest efforts.’ Vincentian Perspectives on Poverty Reduction Efforts,” Vincentian Heritage 28:2 (2010), at: https://‌via.‌library.‌depaul.edu‌/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1321&context=vhj.

[4] The full quote reads, “Since God is satisfied with our good will and honest efforts, let us also be satisfied with the outcome He gives to them, and our actions will never be without good results.” Letter 962, “To Etienne Blatiron, Superior, in Genoa,” June 21, 1647, CCD, 3:206. Available online at: https://‌via.‌library.‌depaul.edu‌/vincentian_ebooks/28/.

Pilgrimage through the Pandemic

bcicirel Holidays, Islam, Mission Monday, Mission Resources , , , , ,

“Go, therefore, Mademoiselle, go in the name of Our Lord. I pray that His Divine Goodness may accompany you, be your consolation along the way, your shade against the heat of the sun, your shelter in rain and cold, your soft bed in your weariness, your strength in your toil, and, finally, that He may bring you back in perfect health and filled with good works.”1

Over the past week, Muslims around the world observed Eid al Adha. This greatest holiday on the Muslim calendar comes at the end of the season of the Hajj Pilgrimage to Mecca, and it commemorates the sacrifices made by Prophet Abraham and his family (peace be upon them) for the sake of the One God. Of course, this year both the Hajj and Eid celebrations were nothing like they usually are. Hajj, usually attended by millions from around the world, was limited to a symbolic select few already present in Saudi Arabia. The normal mass prayers and other celebrations held by Muslims throughout the Chicagoland area could not be held. This continues to be a time of hardship and trial, and we know that many people in our own country and throughout the world are enduring great hardships.

When it became clear that Hajj could not take place as usual, one question that arose was what does this mean for Muslims as it is so important to our practice of the faith? Indeed, it is well known as one of the “pillars” of Islam. Not being able to observe Hajj and commemorate the sacrifices of Abraham and Hagar and Ishmael is a great sadness. However, it caused me to reflect that the vast majority of Muslims, today and throughout history, have not been able to make Hajj. Global travel is a privilege limited to a select few. I have never been to Mecca and intended to go this year for the first time myself. Yet, Hajj is part of the spiritual imagination of every Muslim. We tell stories about it, we learn about it, we donate funds to help others go, we honor those who have attended and celebrate their return, we ask them what they learned, and we dream about it. We seek to learn lessons from it, whether we can physically go or not. Much as we also seek to learn lessons which come from shared sacrifice and assisting the vulnerable, those lessons found in our own day to day experiences and challenges, as well as those found in the people around us.

Vincent de Paul spent a great deal of his life organizing and sending missionaries on journeys intended to be in the service of God and the poor. In his brief essay, “Vincent the Traveler,” Jack Melito, C.M., observes that Vincent’s zeal drove him to want to go wherever was necessary to advance his mission. Yet, while he did often travel in his early life, Vincent spent his later years mainly confined to Paris. However, while “his body stayed at home…his zeal roamed.”2 Vincent vicariously traveled these missions through those he sent on them, and through the letters and communications shared with them.

Whatever our circumstances, in what ways can we view the hardships and challenges we face at this time as opportunities to learn and transform? In what ways can we try to balance our willingness to make sacrifices with our hope to return “in perfect health and filled with good works”? How might we better see this difficult time as one challenging part of life’s long journey or pilgrimage?

1) Letter 39, To Saint Louise, 6 May 1629, CCD, 1:64-65.

2) Jack Melito, C.M., Saint Vincent de Paul: Windows on His Vision (Chicago: Vincentian Studies Institute, 1999), 17. Free to download: https://via.library.depaul.edu/vincentian_ebooks/8/

 

Reflection by:

Abdul-Malik Ryan, Assistant Director Religious Diversity & Pastoral Care, Muslim Chaplain, Mission & Ministry