On the Road Home

Teacher in Documentary

By Sr. Antonia Cooper, OSF

About four years ago I met Christina Lundberg, a young woman from New Jersey who said she was planning to do a Documentary and was interested in interviewing me for it. She was intrigued with myself as being a Franciscan Sister and also one who practices and teaches a movement based on oriental philosophy called T’ai Chi Chih (TCC). In the film I describe how TCC has helped me to slow down and quiet down – prerequisites for a life of prayer and connection with God, dwelling within. She addresses the question for her self: “Who is God,” and the film unfolds answers in which she is able to apply to her own interior search. December, 1998 the completed Documentary was viewed in New York City. I was very impressed with Christina from the moment we met, impressed with her talent for film making, and also for her desire to search for God within herself. This search began when she went to Tibet several years ago as part of an American Film crew to film his holiness, the Dalai Lama. She was immediately struck by his teachings and this encounter started her search for the feminine face of God, and the journey-pilgrimage that changed her life. In her description of the film she writes: “Twelve holy and wise women from diverse religious traditions lead her to discover a unifying thread of wisdom and compassion. It is an adventure story of the spirit that takes place in the inner and outer landscape of Tibet, Nepal, India and the United States. Embracing Tibetan Buddhism as her heart path, she seeks to integrate this ancient wisdom with her Christian upbringing and the ways of the Native Americans.”

God is the goal of a spiritual life – no matter how we name God for ourselves. Yet it is God who initiates the invitation into that Journey and is its goal, walking every step of the way with the individual toward its completion.