Follow-up to WATERmeditation, Monday, December 8, 2025 7:30 PM
“When Darkness Falls”
Cheryl Nichols
Last month we heard from Brad Lutz on “Honoring Our Guiding Lights.” He invited us to reflect on those who are “our guiding lights,” concluding that “We are because they were. We become because they live in us.” You can find the audio and the notes at https://www.waterwomensalliance.org/november-2025-honoring-our-guiding-lights-with-brad-s-lutz/ Thanks again to Brad.
WATER’s customary land acknowledgment set the context. We added an extra mention of the people from Somalia who were dissed by the U.S. President, called “garbage.” There are no words to undo such gratuitous cruelty, but our silence can be our rejection of such scandal.
Mary E. Hunt’s Introduction to Cheryl Nichols
Cheryl is a dear friend of mine and of WATER. I have come to the conclusion that she is everyone’s friend because her decades of committed care for Earth and its people and animals is the stuff of legend. She is a teacher by vocation and continues that work through tutoring.
Cheryl has been involved with immigrants for more than a decade. She started in 2011 with her teaching in Haiti which led to her efforts from 2014 and following to accompany immigrants in this country. Long before it was a major public issue, Cheryl was quietly helping what I think of as New Americans.
Cheryl describes tonight’s session as follows: In her essay “Luminous Darkness,” Sr. Joan Chittister reflects, “It is the discovery of light in what seems to be the darkest of places, a coming to find stars behind the clouds, the astonishing revelation of fullness where only emptiness seemed to be… Darkness deserves gratitude… and we learn that all growth does not take place in sunlight.” I know she has been pondering how to enlighten us, as it were, on this topic, and I know that it will be helpful.
Cheryl Nichols’ Reflection
When Darkness Falls
A prayer in seasonal and social darkness that gives us hope
Cheryl Nichols for WATER Meditation 12/8/2025
Let’s think about seasonal darkness at this time in the Northern Hemisphere. In preparing for this prayer, I drew upon the thoughts of two different women writers: Sr. Maria Boulding and Sr. Joan Chittister, both Benedictines. They wrote that in this time of winter darkness we are so much more aware of the stars.
As Sr. Joan says, “It is the discovery of light in what seems to be the darkest of places, a coming to find stars behind the clouds, the astonishing revelation of fullness where only emptiness seemed to be…” For me, Winter equals cold, darkness, but also, stillness, clarity, hunkering down, a kind of hibernation.
Sr. Maria Boulding in her book The Coming of God, compares the ‘paralysis’ of nature in wintertime to the biblical desert, the difference being that winter comes to an end. Yet we know that winter’s darkness can also be a time of ‘Seasonal Affective Disorder’ (SAD) for many people and that suffering through this depressive experience is so difficult. It truly is a desert experience. And this led me to think about societal darkness and the times in which we are living.
It is the second week of Advent, and this week’s theme is that of peace, especially as we read in Isaiah 11:1-10 for this past Sunday’s gospel. But there is anything but peace in our world right now; Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Haiti are all experiencing terrible war and violence. Immigrants in our own U.S. are experiencing a similar type of violence – the violence of fear, of intimidation, of detainment, and deportation.
As I reflect on these current issues, I’m reminded, vividly reminded that we as people who think we are white, have not usually experienced this type of intimidation as people who have been colonized have experienced. Think of our own indigenous cultures. Perhaps it’s our time to know what oppressive governments are like.
A third woman’s reflection that I drew from is Sr. Connie Fitzgerald, O.C.D. In her 1984 essay, “Impasse and the Dark Night,” she wrote on societal and ecclesial impasse, what we call our divisiveness today, “What if, by chance, our time in evolution is a dark night time—a time of crisis and transition that must be understood if it is to part of learning a new vision and harmony for the human species and the planet?” And her response is that only contemplation will enable us to meet this impasse.
My spiritual advisor (long deceased) had a wonderful prayer, borne, I’m sure of contemplative prayer. Her prayer was not to respond in kind. How difficult that is for us today! But bringing contemplative prayer to impasse, to violence, to detainment, and deportation, enables us to find ways of non-violence (in thoughts as well as actions) in our resistance to this darkness.
And now, our prayer in hope. Last week, at our prayer vigil in front of the immigration court in Hyattsville, MD, we ended our prayer asking participants to offer signs of hope that they see or have experienced. Among these were the return of one of our parishioners from detention with a court hearing date; another sign was that of the judges whose decisions oppose detention/deportation/ presence of the national guard in cities. In our own parish, which is heavily Latino, we have volunteer Anglo door guards who watch to make sure the neighborhood is safe as the Spanish Mass finishes. Pantry volunteers now bring food to families whose primary wage earner has been taken to detention.
And I offer my own prayer for hope—for theological hope—that which I cannot see but I know will come: “Rejoice in hope, endure in affliction, persevere in prayer.” (Romans 12). Let us persevere in contemplative prayer.
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Reflections from the group
Reflections from participants were especially poignant and personal.
One read a poem that she wrote during the time of meditation. Several affirmed that Cheryl had spoken for many of us in what she focused on.
Speaking from her heart, one person stated that she was living through both the end of the American experiment and the failure of the Roman Catholic Church as an autocratic monarchy. She read from the recent statement of former president of Ireland, Mary McAleese, who asked who in the 21st century could take church officials seriously. “And yet,” our colleague quoted Daniel Berrigan, “and yet” there will be life on the other side as tried and true sources like the Sermon on the Mount gleam as beacons of hope.
Reflections on light and darkness continued with mention of Ch. 12 of Romans on the increase of sin and the greater increase of God’s grace. One person asked how we will recover from the destruction of recent months.
Another person spoke of the need to “rest in the time of chaos” in order to survive. At a time when women’s equality and basic justice are denied, it is important to find ways to get through the darkness. A good book on this topic is Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey (Little Brown, Spark, 2022). Unless we can rest, move away from social chaos, we will not endure. We have to be able to say we, together, are enough, and that the chaos may not take over our lives.
Conversation continued, concluding on a lighter note. We have to keep our sense of humor, find joy, perhaps write parodies, to deal with the onslaught of injustice.
Announcements
We need leaders for March 9th, April 13th, May 11th, and June 8th sessions. Please let Mary Hunt (mhunt@hers.com) know if you are inclined to lead.
WATER thanks Cheryl Nichols and all of the participants. We will reconvene on Monday, January 12, 2026 at 7:30 PM ET with Virginia Day providing the input for our contemplation.
Warm wishes and Happy Holidays to all.