Skip to main content

Song stories #1

In April 2016, I was sitting in a hotel lobby in Rome. I had been working with Pax Christi International for several months at that point, organizing the Nonviolence and Just Peace conference. We were expecting 85 theologians and peace practitioners from around the world. My previous weeks had been a whirlwind of visa applications, logistics, negotiations on every small details ...

And now it was Sunday afternoon, less than 24 hours before our meeting was to begin. Folks were arriving from the United States, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America. One of our participants, Jean Jacques from the Democratic Republic of the Congo -- who had already endured significant obstacles to get a visa to enter Europe -- sent me an email to tell me that his flight had been delayed so he had missed his connection and would miss the entire conference unless he was able to buy a new ticket on a different flight to Rome.

So I'm toggling back and forth between Google Translate and email to communicate to Jean Jacques (since I don't know French and he doesn't know English), searching for flights, texting colleagues to beg someone to bring me a credit card so I can buy this ticket, greeting the other participants as they enter the lobby ... and over the hotel's intercom I hear "If you ever want to be in love" by James Bay and I LOVED IT IMMEDIATELY and I have loved it ever since.

It was an extremely stressful moment when I first heard it, but damn, it is one of those songs that swells my heart.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pax Christi USA, 1972–2022: The evolving Catholic peace movement in the United States

Written for the American Catholic Studies Journal, vol. 133, no. 4 (Winter 2022). Pax Christi USA, 1972–2022: The evolving Catholic peace movement in the United States Judy Coode Judy Coode is the incoming communications director for Pax Christi USA. Since 2016, she served as the project coordinator of the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative, a project of Pax Christi International; she previously worked 20 years with the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns. For further comment please contact the author: jlcoode@gmail.com. In early August 2022, more than 300 people gathered at a hotel in Northern Virginia to celebrate 50 years of Pax Christi USA and Catholic peacemaking in the United States. The weekend included workshops on the Doctrine of Discovery, the U.S. military budget, justice for Palestinians, the nuclear weapons treaty, and Thomas Merton, to name only a few. The conference space was decorated with peace cranes, doz...
Post a Comment
Read more

Breaking bread, the crust of companionship

 I was grateful to be asked by the Dorothy Day Guild to write this reflection on how Dorothy Day has affected my work. It was published in the June 2023 issue of the Guild’s newsletter. Breaking bread, the crust of companionship Communications director for Pax Christi USA  Judy Coode  reflects on the persistent presence of Dorothy Day in her life. From her Facebook page after college where she immediately placed a signature quote to her office now in Washington D.C. 20 years later, Dorothy is a staple in her efforts to fight “this filthy, rotten system.” It’s 2007. I’m creating an account on Facebook, the social media platform that recently opened itself to people who are not active university students. (At this point, it has been almost 20 years since I graduated from college.) I fill in the contact information—not everything, but some basics—and add a profile photo. My personal page offers a space to include a favorite quote. I know exactly which one I will use. I do n...
Post a Comment
Read more

The gentle strength of nonviolent witness

Originally published on the Pax Christi International Peace Stories blog, May 8, 2021 On January 6, [2021] many watched in horror as thousands of people stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. in a furious, chaotic, and deeply misguided attempt to nullify the November 2020 election of Joe Biden as president of the United States. The insurrectionists broke windows and furniture, swarmed offices, menaced members of Congress and their staff, stole property and inflicted a sense of terror on those who work in and near the U.S. Capitol. In the aftermath, five people were dead, at least 140 injured, and unknown more were traumatized. The January 6 attack was violent: in attitude, language, action, and result. Rather than stabilizing our democracy it has painfully accelerated social divisions. The United States has a history and culture of nonviolent demonstrations, most of which are peaceful. As the nation’s seat of power, Washington, D.C. is accustomed to protestors, both ...
Post a Comment
Read more