VIRIDITAS: SOUL GREENING
Gratitude
“For six years you will sow your land and gather its produce, but in the seventh year you will let it lie fallow and forgo all produce from it, so that those of your people who are poor can take food from it and the wild animals eat what they have left.” (Exodus 23:11)
I n this seventh year of “Viriditas: Soul Greening,” I must say the journey has been rich and enriching. I am grateful. To all who have contributed by sharing a piece of their life in witness to the Gospel — thank you. To all of you readers who have smiled, re-connected perhaps with a teacher of long ago, or learned something more about your aunty or uncle, cousin or friend religious or priest — wonderful! For those who have found inspiration, encouragement, a new perspective or spiritual practice — excellent. The column has served well, but now it’s time to say mahalo — thank you to this vineyard looking forward to a new dawn.
This column was born in 2014 in response to Hawaii’s Leadership Association of Religious Congregations (LARC) concern over the dwindling number of religious vocations. Perhaps it was due to a lack of visibility across the island chain as religious who brought the first Catholic schools and hospital, the first hospice and social services become Catholic Charities Hawaii, and other nourishments for the spiritual and sacramental life of the faithful to Hawaii grew fewer in number. Or, perhaps as is natural with time, memories of the fine, value-based education or compassionate healing care received gradually faded away like mist dissipating over the pali.
Now it is my turn to answer the questions I posed to those interviewed, e.g.: “What keeps your soul green? How many years are you professed or ordained? Can you share a story within a story to inspire others? What is your favorite Scripture, song or spiritual practice?”
As a Dominican, I am guided by our motto: “Laudare, Praedicare, Benedicere: To Praise, To Preach, To Bless.” However, as an introvert, my ministerial strength finds its expression through silence. I remember as a fourth-grader at St. Anthony School in Kailua, paying 25 cents for two books at a library sale. The first was on the life of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, the other titled: “The Way of Silence: The Prose and Poetry of Basho,” a 17th-century Japanese poet. The lighting of red and blue candles in the church was my quiet way of lifting up prayers for those in need.
With gratitude to my teachers near and far, from keiki time even until now, I am also guided by the Hawaiian value of being pono. Pono means not only righteousness but integrity. “Aloha kekahi i kekahi: Let us love one another as I have loved you.” (John 13:34)
As this column began with a Franciscan, it will also close with a Franciscan upcoming. I leave you with the following by St. Hildegard of Bingen (translated by Nathaniel M. Campbell) that you may continue to green your soul. Ahui hou! Mahalo!
O Nobilissima Viriditas
O noblest green viridity, you’re rooted in the sun and in the clear bright calm you shine within a wheel no earthly excellence can comprehend:
You are surrounded by the embraces of the service, the ministries divine. As morning’s dawn you blush, as sunny flame you burn.
Sister Malia Dominica Wong is a Dominican Sister of the Most Holy Rosary; 39 years professed. Hailing from Kailua, Oahu, she is the third of six children. She is a professor at Chaminade University of Honolulu and a staff writer for the Hawaii Catholic Herald on religious. She resides at the Dominican Center Hawaii.
