The Conversations Continue

The conversations about the emerging future of religious life are expanding and deepening. For more information on the conversations, see the giving-voice.org website. Religious women in their 20s-30s gathered in Phoenix for retreat in January. Women religious across the country are exploring the characteristics of intentional communities in today's world. Locally, a group of religious women from various communities are gathering once a month for supper, prayer and conversation. Keep these movements in your prayers.

Online Symposium on Consecrated Life

First Session - January 8, 2012, 2pm ET A Prophetic Moment: Transforming the Shadow and Bringing Religious Life into the 21st Century

Religious
life is a call from God to be a distinct voice in the wilderness.
Within this wilderness is shadow material that begs to be uncovered and
transformed. Is this the prophetic work that Religious are called to in
the 21st century? In light of the vows and the trends of the Church,
these shadow elements and their transformational possibilities will be
explored.

Presenter: Linda Buck, CSJ
is a Sister of St. Joseph of Orange. She is a Licensed Marriage &
Family Therapist and holds a Master’s degree from Pepperdine University
in Clinical Psychology. She is an Adjunct Professor at Pepperdine
University and a Certified Spiritual Director. Linda provides workshops
and retreats focusing on the integration of spirituality and psychology.

Register: www.ahereford.org/symposium

Some opportunities for women religious to explore their future together....

2012 Online Symposium on Consecrated Life

Join us in 2012 for an ongoing, online conversation on emergent Religious Life which will be Regional and Local, Online and Face-to-Face, Interdisciplinary. The symposium is organized and presented by women religious under the age of 60. Giving Voice in partnership with Amy Hereford, CSJ (Attorney and Canonist who works on legal issues in Religious Life today), is offering four online events in 2012, each convened on a Sunday afternoon and lasting about 90 minutes. Presenters, responders, and participants can participate from their computers, either individually, or in group settings. Small groups can gather in community rooms to participate, others can gather in larger group settings. These groups can then continue the conversation locally and share their insights in an online forum. For more information or to register click here.

Emerging Religious Life, Community Life that Energizes for Mission: From Conversation to Action

Do you sense the urgency to commit yourself to the future of religious life as it is emerging today? Do you find yourself longing for community living that energizes you for mission? At the Giving Voice gathering this summer, a group of us sisters in our 40s and 50s felt a new energy stirring among us, and expressed a desire to continue the contemplative process and conversation, moving into action.   Responding to this desire we invite you to participate in a process beginning this Advent and running through Pentecost. We will use the 12 Marks of the New Monasticism to frame our prayer and conversation. Every two or three weeks, we will take up one of the twelve marks, taking it to our contemplative practice and listening deeply to our God and to the stirring in our hearts. Then we will gather in circles, face-to-face, on skype or in other creative ways to share what has been happening for us around that mark.   Click here for more information.  Email us to join the conversation.

Musings on Community

"Living in community" is key for me.
Many sisters today talk about "living in community" as gathering regularly for sharing prayer and sharing meals yet living singly. I don't quarrel with that choice for them, but it's not for me.
For me, living in community means gathering regularly for sharing prayer and sharing meals AND living in the same house with other sisters.
Community is "something people do now." It's like we're rediscovering what we've always known. But in this case choosing it deliberately. Maybe in the whole development of religious life and planetary life, some had to choose to live singly so that we could make this rediscovery.
The thing I would add is this. If there is to be a future to this thing we call religious life as Sisters of St. Joseph, then I think it's important that some of us choose to live in community (in the same house) with sisters. I think it is these communities of sisters that hold the key to sustainability for the life, the key to attracting, and sustaining new members. And sustaining our lives as well.
Living in 'intentional community that may or may not have other sisters' can also be good. But my concern is the relationship between identity, boundaries and sustainability. In the intentional community movement, people acknowledge that there's a tension between boundaries and sustainability. It's great to include everyone, to open the doors, to open the community. But that isn't sustainable in the long run. The intimacy and identity of the group are dissipated.
Sustainability of the Sisters of St. Joseph isn't everything, but personally I feel called to live this life, and to do what I can to ensure its sustainability for the next generations.

What a delight!

Yesterday we had our first Housing Fair in the St. Louis province. This was an event to invite sisters who will be changing their residence, or are beginning to think about that. We invited them to share prayer, conversation and a picnic.
It was a delightful gathering. We shared about the blessing that community and home has been to us over the years. How nice it has been to have sisters to share our life, with its blessings and challenges, to share prayer and work and laughter and fun. It has been important for us. We also reflected on the hardships of our brothers and sisters who don't have a home or family or community. How blest we are, and how we pray and work that all may have the basic necessities and the blessing of family, friends and community.
As I ask myself where community is leading me, I also admire the courage of the women who are facing changes in their lives and supporting one another along the way. I heard many say I would like this to be my last move. That is the reality of many of my sisters. They are coming to their last moves. Very much alive and vibrant, but conscious of where they are in life.
I too face a future and they encourage me to go forward with that same honesty and courage. And along the way, we support one another and enjoy the journey, even as our ways lead us on divergent paths at times. The one God who lives and loves in each of us, also draws into the union that is deeper than uniformity of path. God is so much bigger than that.
Blessings for the week!
Amy