Spring Sabbatical in South Carolina during COVID-19
There are some events in one's life that you will never forget. For me, one was hearing of President John F. Kennedy's assassination in Dallas, Texas, when I was a student at Bishop Kenny High School in Jacksonville, Florida. Another was hearing of the bombing of the World Trade Centers when I was driving to Stuart, Florida from Palm Beach Gardens.
This spring I heard of the COVID-19 pandemic in our country while I was on a two-month sabbatical at Springbank Retreat in Kingstree, South Carolina, from late February to late April. The stay-at-home orders actually came while I was with my nephew Patrick and his wife Mina touring Charleston, South Carolina. We were able to do our tours of the historic district on a Saturday in March, but the Sunday tours were cancelled.
One of many lovely houses in Charleston, SC
The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has changed daily life as we know it around the world. At this writing, almost 100,000 U.S. citizens have died of the virus, and many more around the world. One of the things we know about this new disease is that it is highly contagious, so staying at home as much as possible is one way to prevent its spread. Wearing a face mask when out and about, and washing hands and using hand sanitizers have become part of daily life. Many are working from home. This is the worst pandemic we have had in our country since the 1918 Spanish flu. What is different now is how common international travel has become since a century ago, and how much more connected we are all in the world due to the Internet and the world-wide web. I had planned to return to St. Augustine to attend some strategic planning sessions and to write a Congregational newsletter, but the planning sessions were cancelled, so I just remained at Springbank until April 29th. When I returned, I had to do 14 days of quarantine away from the Motherhouse community to ensure I did not have the virus.
One of the Cosmic Walk stones at Springbank.
South Carolina was lovely and Springbank and the staff and the others on sabbatical were wonderful. We were from all over the world. There were eight sisters - five from the U.S., one from Ireland, and two from India - and one Irish priest, who was an African Missionary. There were two other Sisters who planned to come for the last month but with the COVID-19 situation, they did not come.
During my two-month sabbatical at Springbank in South Carolina I learned about the new cosmology, ecological justice, evolutionary faith, the wisdom and spirituality of indigenous peoples of North America, the affect of the industrial revolution on our garden planet, and how one cultural historian, Thomas Berry, thought the great work of the 21st century would be to try to reverse some of the exploitation of the earth from industrialization and consumerism.
Sisters have asked me what my favorite part of the sabbatical was, and it is hard to say. I just felt so blessed to be there and it deepened my love for and awareness of the beauty and wonder of the earth and all life on earth. The grandmother tree at Springbank, an 800-1200-year-old live oak, was so beautiful and was where I made my four-hour native American Spirit Quest one day.
Everything I learned reinforced an awareness of how our SSJ charism of finding God in serving others and of working towards unifying love is practically wired into our DNA. We are all connected whether we realize it or not. While at Springbank I read The Phenomenon of Man and The Divine Milieu by Teilhard de Chardin, and came to appreciate how prophetic he was as a paleontologist/theologian back in the 1950s.
One of the songs played at some of our prayer services, "This Ancient Love," by Carolyn McDade, helped express some of my growing awareness of God's love throughout the ages. It figured prominently in my private retreat during my quarantine days.
Adrian Dominican Sister Trina McCormick (left), who is director of Springbank, anoints Sister Carol Stovall, SSJ during closing ceremonies on April 28. Father Jim Conlon, on the staff of Springbank, stands behind them.