Emerging Religious Life: Roots and Newness

BLOG on EMERGING RELIGIOUS LIFE: A lot of people talk about what religious life is growing into, and how it is transitioning into something very new and different.  When you look back it has been doing that for 50 years or so.... Read more....

---

Jennifer Gordon, at the LCWR Assembly, August 9, 2012

I’ve spent some time this summer sorting through old papers and recently came across the notes I had taken during a Region XIII Intercommunity Formation Gathering that I attended as a second-year candidate in 2003.  Our own Sister Janet Mock was our presenter for the weekend, and she spoke about religious life in general, and about our vows in particular, from the ecclesial, cultural, charismatic and communitarian contexts.  And she asked us, “Why live this life if we’re not living it at that liminal edge?” Read the full text...

---

Video from the CSSJ Federation Novitiate

They "wanna be nuns"

---

LCWR Presidential Address

We stand in the power of the dying and rising of Jesus. I hold forever in my heart an expression of that from the days of the dictatorship in Chile: “Pueden aplastar algunas flores, pero no pueden detener la primavera.” “They can crush a few flowers but they can’t hold back the springtime.” Read more in English...  Español...

Occupy Religious Life - Action

Several sisters gathered in Chicago, IL July 29-Aug 2 to engage in conversations about the emerging future of religious life. During that time we Occupied the Sisters of St. Joseph Federation Novitiate House.
On Monday, July 30, we held a web conference to expand the conversation, offering the opportunity for a broader exchange. The seven participants came from both coasts and across the country.
We opened with a check-in. A poem set the tone for some shared contemplative space. We used the words shared earlier on this blog: I do not seek to follow in your footsteps, I seek what you sought. (Basho) This was followed by a 'Did you know?' section in which we shared links and resources on emerging religious life and news on religious life. See the links in the sidebar.
We then shared our hopes and dreams for religious life. Our spirits soared as we gave voice to the spirit and named our dreams. Some were very concrete, some were more distant and abstract. We put the notes in a wordle which is at the top of this post.
I think it is significant that the largest words were SMALL, COMMUNITIES, WORLD, LIFE, TOGETHER.
Acknowledging that religious life will be smaller in the future, we named our desire for life together in communities. Communities are a privileged place to live the gospel and share prayer and life. In communities we support one another in our commitments to an ever deepening contemplative practice, to radical christian life and to service. In addition, our life together is at the service of the wider community whom we serve by prayer, witness and ministry. In community, we seek to live the values we want to bring to the world.
--Susan Wilcox (for the Occupiers)

Reality Check and more....

Reality Check (America Magazine)

The announcement last April of the results of the doctrinal assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has provoked strong reactions inside and outside the Catholic Church in the United States. In the process, some commentators have made assertions about the demographics of religious life in the United States that are not based in fact. Regrettably, such misinformed statements create dichotomies that not only mask the complexity of religious reality, but are patently false. In an article ... Read more....

Reponse:

Musings of a Discerning Woman: Religious Life ... A Numbers Game?: There's been a lot bandied about of late about religious life and the women who follow Jesus through the vowed life.  In the midst of it all... Read more...

Seed Bed of Evolving Church (NCR)

With the profound abilities and advances of technology and the numerous problems facing the world -- from nuclear accidents to global climate change -- the human race stands at a moment of "evolution or extinction," a keynote speaker told some 900 U.S. Catholic sisters gathered here in conference Wednesday morning.
And one of the best hopes for the continuation of humanity, said Barbara Marx Hubbard, are the women religious themselves. "You are the best seed bed I know for evolving the church and the world in the 21st century.... Read more...

Pathological Altruism (NCR)

This is the state of the psyche when one says, "I have to help someone. It's my identity." This extreme desire to help is often at a profound cost to the helper. Oftentimes, this dynamic looks like a codependent relationship where helpers have a bloated sense of the ego and lack the awareness of their own humanity. In a significant way, the helpers' inability to allow someone to suffer continues to hurt themselves.
Have we depended too much on the work of Catholic Charities and Catholic Relief Service to please our own guilty consciences around inequality, privilege and power? Read more...

A picture worth a thousand words....

Messages of Support for LCWR Participants

Send your messages of prayers and support to the participants if the LCWR National Assembly, August 7-11, 2012 in St. Louis, MO. Messages will be streamed on the exhibit floor. Click here....

---

Martha Zechmeister, CJ to the Conference for Religious of Ireland

Christian mysticism always is a mysticism of the way: following Jesus – risking ourselves for the sake of those who are in danger of getting trapped between the cog-wheels – losing ourselves in the mystery of God. “Wanderer, there is no path, the path creates itself in the walking,” is one of the most beautiful verses of the Spanish poet Antonio Machado. Our path is, however, not one of solitary walking, but rather a being on the road together with a people. It is a walking together with my fellow men and women and together with my wounded brothers and sisters who become companions and guides on the way to the mystery of God. Read more....

Nun's diary of uncharted waters an inspiration for women today

After three months at sea, four Carmelite sisters stepped onto shore in Maryland 222 years ago this month, prepared to establish the first order of nuns in the 13 colonies. Clare Joseph Dickinson was one of those first foremothers of faith. A woman of the word, she left us a detailed diary of her journey. Read more....

Vow Preparaton

These are the waning hours of the out-of-state portion of my formal preparation for final vows.  I leave Concordia, Kansas early tomorrow for the trek home.  I have been here in Concordia since the 11th of July, first for an eight-day, silent, directed retreat and then ...