Who Are We and Where Are We Going?

I was recently asked to respond on video to the questions:

What is the NEW that Women Religious are about today?
What is emerging in the world that Women Religious need to be about?

This gave me the opportunity to reflect on the gift that religious life has been to me, and continues to be to those who are called and to all those with whom and for whom they respond.

How Do You Know?

Since I have been working in vocation ministry, people have asked on occasion: how do you know you are called? How do you know what you're called to? How do you know it is right for you? Really, how can anyone possibly know what God has in store for them?
It is an important question, but there is no easy answer. I would probably answer it differently every time. How do I know? How did I know when I was in my twenties and I entered religious life? How do I know it is still right for me?
I guess that the answer I would give today is that it's about

• God, 
• Community and 
• Mission. 

Or, as we have come to say in our "CSJ world" i.e. our Sister of St. Joseph world, it's about

• Community
• Spirituality
• Justice

So first off, it's about God or Spirituality. Do I have a relationship with God? Is God tugging at my heart for a deeper relationship? Do I find joy and peace when I am with my God in prayer? as well as when I am living out of that God-relationship in community and in mission? God is the center of our lives, and in religious life, we live out of that centrality. We are privileged to have a lifetime of spiritual growth and development. And this is a gift that grounds the rest of our life, and enables us to share spirituality with all those we meet. 

Second, it's about Community. Do I feel called to share my journey of spirituality and mission with other sisters or brothers who are committing to the same life journey? Do I have the skills to live in community? Can I share? trust? respect? love? Can I build community with all those God calls me to live with? Am I ready to do the work of community? - for a lifetime? There's no walking away when the times get touch, or someone gets on my nerves. We learn to love one another in our brokenness, and we love one another into wholeness. This wholeness does not mean that we never get on one another's nerves, it means that we have learned to reverence each other as gifts of God. We love and support each other in our differences, in our trials and in our joys.

Finally it's about Mission or Justice. We come together to see the world with God's eyes. To bring God's love in very concrete ways into our world. We do not bend the bruised reed or crush the smoldering wick. Instead we bring light into the dark places, hope to the despairing, joy to the sorrowful. We do this in concrete ways: by embracing the weak and the poor, by lifting up those that are bowed down, by bringing the healing, creative power of God to each person we meet and each place we inhabit.

I see my lay brothers and sisters doing the same, in their particular vocation. In religious life, we do this in community, shaped by our spirituality and the vows. I thank God for this gift.

Peace,

Amy