Sister Joan Chittister Legacy Analysis

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Sister Joan Chittister’s passage on Legacy addresses the different meanings of the term “Legacy” and which type of legacy we wish to leave when we die. A person can leave a legacy in one of two ways depending on the life the person has lived. When we hear the term legacy most people think of the amount of money or property that is left behind. An immaterial legacy is a statement of how a person is remembered after they pass on because of how they lived their life or how their life has enriched the lives of others. The emphasis on the passage is how a person chooses to live their life and how they have made the world a better place. Every person, whether it be intentional or unintentional leaves their footprint on the world. Determining if that footprint is a positive or negative one is up to the …show more content…

Will we be remembered for our value of money? The value of material items? The value of the love that we had for our families? What we place importance on in our living life will most likely be what we are remembered for when we proceed to our eternal life. Sister Chittister states, “our value system marks everything we do.” We lead by example and everything that we loved shows through the way we connected with it. Memories of how we treated our family, friends and neighbors will last longer than any dollar that was left to someone. How we acted when we thought no one was watching. How we treat the stranger on the street that we had nothing to gain from by being charitable to. “Our legacy does not end the day we die” speaks to the way others see us. We must learn to live now, the way we wish people to remember us in the future. Learning to make amends and trying to heal the bad memories, we must start creating new ones now while we have the opportunity. Seize the day and live in the present. We must make sure that we live within our means and balance the things that are important with the things that we need to