I had this amazing experience of hanging on the cross this week. A true oxymoronic encounter…the sorrow and joy of it lingers. It feels like a Holy Saturday moment, caught between death and new life. Not much to be done but hang there, really.
On one outstretched arm the amazing space mission of Artemis II circumnavigating the moon! The moving testimonies of the astronauts were spiritual as much as technical, hopeful and insightful. Jeremy Hansen, Canadian astronaut and former fighter pilot, exclaimed,
“Our purpose on the planet as humans is to find joy and (lift) each other up by creating solutions together, instead of destroying. And when you see it from out here, it doesn’t change it. It just absolutely reaffirms that. It’s almost like seeing living proof of it.” ¹
On the other outstretched arm, some friends and I participated in a rally for peace at the Magellan Aerospace complex here in Winnipeg. This corporation manufactures components used for weapons of war, often purchased by the USA to support the Israeli war against Palestinians. Canada has a ban on weapons being sold directly to Israel in this conflict. We held signs calling for peace, some passing cars honked their support, we prayed, we sang, we built community up and down the sidewalk! This small but not insignificant gesture, this community resilience, gave me the courage to be held in the pain.
Neuroscientist Amaud Delorme wrote this week about a hopeful vision: bridging space exploration and planetary peace! He wrote,
“Taken together, these statements suggest that the real achievement of Artemis II may be interior as much as technical. It restored to living experience the sight of Earth from deep space, and with the possibility of a renewed planetary consciousness. This perception challenges the fragmentation of life on Earth.” ²
This continual rise in evolutionary consciousness draws us towards the oneness of all creation that has always been. Self-separateness is an illusion; everything is in relationship. This oneness is not a number, but a state of consciousness. Indigenous wisdom and mystics alike have assured us of this for eons, and our science has caught up with the excitement.
It is this sense of ‘oneness’ that made my experience of the cross a subtle but amazingly real one. Something deeper seemed to occur to me “in the hanging.” I didn’t have to resolve anything; I couldn’t. I just had to show up—carry a sign for peace and marvel at the full moon. It seemed an Easter moment. And then these words of the mystic Meister Eckhart found me:
So, you want to find God?
Then seek to become one in your life.
Pay attention to what divides your heart—
your pride, your vanity, your selfishness.
As you remove these from yourself, you’ll
find your way into the Oneness that is God.
which is always within you. So, put aside
all that distracts you, and you’ll find
true nobility and rest, blessedness
and contentment of heart. There,
you will find the divine ground
within you, there, you’ll become
wholly still, wholly one with the One. ³
¹ Richard Tribou, “Splash Down,” Winnipeg Free Press, April 11, 2026, https://www.winnipegfreepress.com, page A3.
² Amaud Delorme, PhD, “Artemis II and the Noetic Return to Earth,” (blog article) Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) , April 10, 2026, https://noetic.org/blog/artemis-ii/
³ Sweeny, Jon M. and Burrows, Mark S. Meister Eckhart’s Book of Darkness and Light: Meditations on the Path of the Wayless Way. (Charlotteville, VA: Hampton Road Publishing, 2023), 81.
Sandra Stewart is a member of the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions in Winnipeg. Originally from Windsor, ON she has spent most of her religious life in Manitoba but has also served in France, Senegal and Papua New Guinea. She holds a Masters degree in Pastoral Studies from Loyola University in Chicago, majoring in spiritual accompaniment from the Institute for Spiritual Leadership.
Presently she serves as a spiritual director, a facilitator of Centering Prayer workshops, and an advocate for social and environmental justice.
Sandra currently serves on her community’s province leadership team in Canada.
Thanks Sandy… Certainly the wonder of the Artemis journey with its stress on what unites us and the reality of the destructive wars causing division hold us in a place of tension and hopelessness. Your participation in this peace rally is an invitation to do the small things we can do to confront the ways in which our countries are contributing to the horror of war we see daily on our screens. Mary