January 20, 2009 will be one of those days that people remember years from now. We will remember where we were, who we were with and what we felt. Already there have been so many compelling stories of people traveling for days , bringing their children, willing to stand in huge crowds in the cold just to be part of Barack Obama’s Inauguration. Something very big is happening today! How about you? Will you be on the Mall? Watching on TV? I’ll be in our Community room watching the inauguration with hundreds of our sisters and staff . I’ll be asking my IHM nuns and friends here and at a distance to share what they’re feeling, wondering, excited about, challenged by, hopeful—or concerned— about, what images and what words from the inaugural address most stirred them. Please share your experience as well.
Highlights
EVENT: IHM Come and See discernment retreat, October 8-10, 2010, at the IHM Motherhouse in Monroe, Michigan
ONLINE: IHM Online Discernment Retreat, anytime, on the IHM Sisters websiteSearch IHM Calling
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Conflicted! So happy to see our first Black President, hearing his encouraging words regarding the state of the US and his plans, but concerned that we have voted in the most liberal when it comes to the unborn. Somehow the rest doesn’t matter if we cannot or will not protect the most innocent.
Wow! what an event! I gathered with colleagues in one of our meeting rooms and we watched it together. One of the most beautiful moments was when Obama stumbled through the oath — I loved it because he showed he is human just like us.
Obama’s speech was good — it was both sober in terms of looking at the tough things ahead of us, but also inspiring. He is a man with a vision, and it’s vision that people need right now and are willing to stand up for.
Loved the John Williams music! Hope I can get it on iTunes. And Aretha rocked it out and in style too with that tricked out hat!
May God bless and protect Barack Obama and his family.
I was watching this wonderful experience with my 3 many-breed dogs, carrying on our usual conversation that occurs whenever I see such a collection of politicos and real humanoids. I was dancing and twirling and swaying here and there and so very happy that no one except the pups was here. I whooped and hollered, and when I said a pater noster, my oldest, the schauzer etc etc, watched solemnly and then shook one of her toys at the others. I shall wander the streets in our little Arizona ex-mining town later today, as the town itself recovers from its euphoria. i sang right along with Rev Lowery, as he spoke those wonderful words of what we used to call The Negro National Anthem…..”Lift Every Voice and Sing”. Oh, that song really says so much!
I began to weep at the oath of office — “…uphold and defend the Constitution…” I have my country back.
I cried! It was so moving, and so fitting. I prayed as I cried that God grants him wisdom and strength and the charism to unite our people and inspire especially our governmental officials to work together and leave self-centered special interests behind. And I begged that he and his family remain safe.
I am incredibly proud of President Obama’s courage and desire to serve at this incredibly challenging time in our history. Rev. Lowrey’s stirring invocation, using the anthem, bridged the time between MLK and now and issued a great challenge, himself.
The whole thing was so moving But, of all places, I started to get a little choked up at the end when we stood to sing The Star Spangled Banner. I felt a pride for my country like I’ve never felt before.
Dear Mary Bea::
After watching the magnificent pagentry, and witnessing the peaceful assembly of 1, 4000,000 folks and hearing our new President’s call to service, I recalled a remark made by an African American student I taught in the 11th grade t at IHM Westchester. It was the sixties ( a few years ago!!!) and wehad just finsihed listening to Martin Luther Kin’s “I Have A Dreeam” address. hearinghear Mw
I love the dream (vision) of our forefathers (and foremothers), the beautiful faces of our people, especially those with tears streaming down their faces, the movement that saw Barack Obama get elected, the hope we have for the future. I agree with Julie (above) in her concern for our President’s pro-choice agenda, but we can work to change the circumstances that cause people to choose to terminate life. We CAN make a difference, and we can even effect a difference in the way Pres. Obama thinks. Gotta believe this.-
After watching the pagentry of the inauguration, the peacefulness of the assembly on the Mall and the eloquence of our new President, I recalled a remark made by an African American student I taught in the sixties at IHM Westchester. It was an 11th grade class of girls and we had just listened to Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” Speech. There was absolute silence in the room and she exclaimed:”I AM OVERMAZED!!” I thought of that remark today after hearing Obama’s speech and I wondered where she was and what she is doing. I hope she is OVERMAZED AND GRATEFUL as I am.
Noreen
The most moving part of the inaugural speech for me was when President Obama challenged us (paraphrasing St. Paul) “to put away childish things” and called ALL of us to greater RESPONSIBILITY for meeting the many challenges that face our country. Also moving was his reminder about how his own father would not have been able to have been served a meal in a D.C. restaurant sixty years ago.
The collapse of Senators Kennedy and Byrd were sober reminders of how fragile all life is. I pray for the Obamas and the Bidens and all of our elected leaders, for their safety but also they may live up to the trust placed in them.
I participated with the nation via TV, and with so many of my campus friends in the same room watching, praying, clapping, singing. I loved the flow of the ceremony, and want to ponder so many of the words that were said. As a musician and expressive artist, I was deeply moved and grateful at how every dimension fit so well with every other … there was a soul-fed rightness to it all.
Now I am back at my office desk, working thru the afternoon, glad to be an American and hopeful for our shared future.
I was so moved by the whole event. President Obama articulated the hopes of so many people all across the globe. I know people in South Africa and throughout Africa were glued to TV and radio to hear this leader articulate their dreams and hopes.
Blessings on this remarkable man, his family and his team. May they lead us onward through the troubled waters of our times.
I too cried… (sillly girl). The new president’s inaugural speech made me want to be a better citizen. I think so many of us are angry at our government – he wants to make it better WITH MY/OUR HELP!
It was an incredible moment, people coming together to watch this inauguration. I don’t remember being this excited about a new president before (my memory only goes back to Reagan, though…). A sense of hope has returned. And, like Molly, I have my country back.
I was doing “indoor recess” duty and the junior high students were all crammed into their Social Studies classroom listening to the radio. We were unable to get good TV reception because it was connected to CNN on the computer. It was interesting to see our kids sitting around a radio, listening. like back in the “old days”. I told the students that I remember watching the astronauts circling the globe back in the 1960′s because it was a major historical event. Today was more than just a historical event. It is the beginning of a major shift of consciousness of the integrity of our humanity. People of all race, creed and color are talking about having a real voice and that their opinion matters. The government he spoke of really sounds like it will be for the people, by the people and of the people.
I have been listening to President Obama’s speech repeatedly and each time I hear more remarkable words of hope, humility, unity, and patriotism. I wanted to raise my hand and say out loud “here I am, Mr. President. I am ready!”
After viewing, I could only sit for awhile and ponder what a wonderful day this has been, especially after MLK day reviewed the horrendous days of the Civil Rights movement for me. His/Herstory was being made, and I was able to witness it firsthand. The first dance of the presidential couple to the tune “At Last” was so appropriate to see and hear. May God continue to open new horizons for all of us.
I believe that Obama is reaching out in friendship to other nations, even those formerly categorized as “the enemy.” He shows a willingness to have “an open hand” toward “a clenched fist.”
I experienced hope and joy, and feel he covered a lot of ground and didn’t need to say anything else, for I know by his apparent sense of values he will keep covering necessary ground.
I believe that Obama appealed to every citizen of this country of ours, referring to the groundwork of our founders and their (our) documents. I was so pleased that he demonstrated reliance on God, for some of my friends who are of a more conservative view (Republicans, mainly) said he was not a Christian. I was glad, though, that he included citizens of every faith and unbelievers. Inclusivity was his trademark.
I did not attend the inauguration but was there in spirit. We were in school for the day and the students watched the ceremony and did classroom activities.
I feel that God has prepared this man for this moment in history. He seems very confident that we Americans can pull together and
rebuild a better nation where all people will live in peace and unity.
He wants the best for all peoples. Color doesn’t matter.
I watched it all with tutor volunteers and ESL or Basic Adult Learners at the Dominican Literacy Center. All of us were excited and grateful for a leader who calls us all to greater responsibility for all of us rather than the selfish consumerism that greedily piles up OUR stuff and denies access to basics for so many. Hopefully we can change our way into a new economic model that pays attention to what is going on outside our/my borders both within and beyond the national boundaries we have forzen ourseolves into.
Good day, the inauguration. Perhaps someone pointed this out:
our new President did NOT stumble over the words of the
oath of office; our Chief Justice Roberts blew it. He got the
words wrong; three times including saying the last sentence
wrong substituting “you” for “me.”
What pleased me is that Obama smiled bemusedly as he
realized Roberts was fumbling and, to be polite, didn’t stop him.
No wonder Roberts had to return the next day to do it right.
Thanks for letting me sound off on this.
I am seeing blog thisblog a little late, but Inauguration day and moment are no less vivid for me. I live in Southwest Detroit and drove to our college, Marygrove, where the Michigan Coalition for Human Rights sponsored a simple projection from a TV to a projector screen. The room was filled with a couple hundred folks from the Detroit (largely African-American) community and several IHMs. All of us held our breath, cheered, jabbered, wept, and clung to each other as tho’ we had known each other all our lives. The joy in the room was palpable, and was deepened as Obama challenged us to be ONE and as we experienced ourselves to be so and watched tjhose on the mall feeling that, too. All boundaries were down, and we wept for joy together, really. I ate lunch in the cafeteria with 2 of my sisters and tens of grinning folks and went home utterly spent and grateful.
I grew up in Virginia, where as a little girl I felt so bad on the city bus that I went to the back with the Black people. I saw all our city schools close against integration except the Catholic ones when I was in 8th grade, and we stood in the street from bomb scares all freshman year while police searched our lockers. I have marched all these adult years for civil rights. This IS a line crossed, the dawning of a dream – Martin’s dream, God’s dream for us all. Let us pray to be faithful to it. And support one another in that. our dear co-founder, Mother Theresa Maxis Duchemin, so persecuted for being bi-racial, must be dancing in heaven!
This is a bit late I know. I gathered with a group of friends here in South Africa Tuesday evening since 12 noon Washington time is 7 pm our time. Everyone was very moved by the ritual and the sense of history being made. There was great relief (!!) that the Bush years are finally over. Since for eight years I have been castigated by various people for being an American (the accent gives me away immediately) and thus assumed to support Bush, it is very nice to be congratulated for the immense step Obama’s election marks in American history. Two friends who are in their 20s had many questions about how the US political system works.
Here is South Africa elections will be held in April and the probable president (elected via the African National Congress) is Jacob Zuma, acquitted of rape, with hundreds of corruption charges over his head which he has been fighting for years. Many South Africans noted the immense difference between Zuma and Obama. Nelson Mandela r\spoke of how the Obama moment is so similar to what we felt here when he became president in 1994.
Dear Julia,
I hope you might return to this blog someday because I want to comment on your comment. I think I understand your dilemna. On one hand President Obama seems to engender so much hope. Bu on the other hand, how do you reconcile this hope with his apparent lack of concern for the unborn. I think a lot of us felt conflicted around that issue. I’ve read a number of reports over the last months that say the most powerful preventive for abortion is giving women the social resources they need. Poor women have the highest percentage of abortions because they often lack health care, job, education and other necessary supports. This is a question for which there are no easy answers. Here are a few links you may find interesting: http://www.catholicsinalliance.org; http://www.capcomm.org/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilders/reese.pdf; http://www.catholics-united.org. Good luck, and thank you for your sensitive comment.