Awkward in-between time

Susan Francois shares some reflections on religious life in the early 21st Century.
Thanks Susan for sharing your experience that resonates with my own in this 'awkward in-between time' that is also a time of grace and joy.

Expanding Circles of Encounter

Community happens at so many levels and in so many networks:

Imagine community with sisters from various communities,

--living, working and praying together.

Imagine living sustainably in an urban setting.

Imagine living in dynamic relationship with Earth and the ecosystem.

Imagine networking with others in a neighborhood ecovillage.

Imagine incarnating the Gospel here and now, in our lives today.

Imagine hope.

Imagine peace.

Since spring 2013, I have lived in Dogtown, an historic district in central St. Louis, that is traditionally Irish and home to the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade. I came here for two reasons: first, to work with other younger women religious to establish an inter-congregational community house, and second, to join a group of families in the neighborhood who are establishing the Dogtown Ecovillage. These are two grassroots efforts building sustainability through mutual support in ever widening circles of relationship and encounter.
1. A group of younger women religious in the St. Louis area have been meeting regularly for several years under the names of Giving Voice and Sisters 2.0.* Many of us are finding it increasingly difficult to find community living situations where all the members are engaged in active, full-time ministry. We hope to build supportive local communities where sisters can share in community, in spirituality and in mission. This inter-congregational community is one concrete result of our regular gatherings and conversations.
This is one way of 'seeding our future' by forming networks of relationship with sisters in various congregation. Our experiences of religious life have been inter-congregational from our earliest days in community. Sisters 2.0 is a movement of the new generations of women religious. In this peer-led, self-organized space, we network for visioning and fostering future oriented initiatives for religious life. We naturally turn to our 2.0 sisters to build these new community spaces.
My vision and my view of the future are influenced by where I stand. I stand with my sisters in my CSJ community in many respects, and I stand with my 2.0 sisters in other respects. I value opportunities to move in and out of congregational circles, and to move in and out of peer-sister circles in mutually supportive ways.
The inter-congregational house is sponsored by the Religious Life Project, nonprofit organization founded to support religious life, particularly, younger Sisters in living the communal and spiritual dimensions of vowed life, and work with them toward their sustainability.
2. The Dogtown Ecovillage is a group of families in the neighborhood who have gathered to build community and support environmental sustainability through shared experiences such as pot-luck dinners, community service projects, parties, and educational events. Our goal is to engage in sustainability projects in collaboration with other local and regional initiatives such as Gateway Greening, Operation Brightside and the Mayor's Sustainability Action Agenda. By our active presence in the neighborhood, we are able to raise the consciousness of our neighbors and help them to embrace the same values. Together, we create projects such as: gardening in private and shared settings, permaculture, home energy audits, improved housing efficiency, environmental or social justice activism, tool lending library, shared car, shared wifi, shared child care and shared space for environmental activist organizations.
At our inter-congregational house, we have installed organic gardens and fruit trees, focusing on native plants, edible plans and perennials. Sweet potatos have become one of our signature crops as we discover creative new ways to prepare a sweet potato dish for our various pot-luck suppers. At our holiday gift exchange, we brought packages of seeds we had collected from native wild flowers in our gardens.
As the cold winter days force us indoors the Dogtown Ecovillage has taken on an energy audit project. Initially we planned to negotiate with a local provider to audit the homes of ten ecovillagers, including our intercongregational house. With the approval of the provider, we also offered the program to others in the neighborhood and now have forty homes signed up for energy audits. As the project proceeds, we plan to post stories of the audits in local publications and social media so that we can continue to expand the circles of influence.
I am privileged to have this opportunity to live into our chapter calls for sustainability, for nurturing the future of vowed religious life and for partnering with new eyes.
--

* Why Sisters 2.0? The use of “2.0” after a term indicates the next generation, building on earlier versions and adapting it to new challenges.

Open My Eyes...

This morning's prayer called me to open my eyes to what was around me. Looking out the window, I saw the frosty remains of the garden and trees. The overnight frost had taken the last of the green growth and everything was frozen and wilted.
Then in the next phase, the prayer called me to see God in whatever I saw - after all God made it and cares for all of creation. Even the leaves nipped by icy winds are made by God and loved by God. The yearly cycle of seasons brings an end to growth as the winter sends us indoors to huddle together around the hearth till the spring.
It is not hard to see the image of God's love for us in religious life as the twilight of life calls yet another sister home to God. Yes, God is in the coming and in the going of each of us. And in this circle of life is also a hope just as there is a hope in the seasons of the years.

Why Bother?

Most of what I do I could do without necessarily being a religious woman. I work for a Catholic diocese however the vast majority of my colleagues are lay people. They are as committed as I, as prayerful as I and as qualified as I. My job description requires me to have particular skills but none of them centre on being a ‘nun’. So why bother?
I live in an ordinary house with another member of my congregation. We pray, eat and share faith together. When I finished university I lived in a community where we prayed, ate and shared faith together. Although one member of the community was a priest this was BC (before convent) and the majority of us were not members of religious institutes. Over the years I lived in a variety of situations were although not related by blood or congregational ties we formed community of prayer, care and concern. So why bother?

As a vowed member of a religious institute I take vows but unlike Marriage and Holy Orders there is no unique sacrament. So why bother?

For me its because by proclaiming the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience within the Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart. I can live out my baptismal promises in a way that is most life-giving to me and as a consequence others. By making the choice to throw in my lot with this group of women I am challenged and supported to share in the mission of Jesus in ways that are shaped by our charism and tradition. This gives me the freedom to be mobile, to respond to need…to be the best person I can be.

So why bother? Because this is the way I am most happy, most close close to God, most able to be the person I can be.

Read Sian's blog...

Thanks Sian for this reflection on religious life today.
Amy

Privileged Witness

I was praying in the garden when a butterfly came playfully into view. Fluttering back and forth, alighting here and there, then taking off again.
I have been awakened to the value of native plants and have worked steadily over the past few years to increase the bio-diversity of plants, especially natives, and to delight in the varieties of insects and birds that have come to enjoy the space.
Both the city of St. Louis and my own community have been supporting these efforts, and the picture at the right is a photo of a monarch on one of the milkweeds that I planted to this year. The other, less-showy insect is the milkweed beetle, I have had lots of them too, as well as milkweed aphids earlier in the summer.
I got my camera and took up a position near the milkweed plant and waited for the Monarch to settle on a plant within camera shot. She went from one milkweed to the next, but only the Asclepias curissavica is in bloom, so she settled there to have a meal.
Many monarchs have come over the summer to get some nectar. I have seen them around from time to time. This morning I felt particularly blessed to witness this visitor. Her presence witnesses to the fact that the ecosystem is coming back to life.
How many other miracles are blossoming in my life, in my community, in my neighborhood? It is a privilege to stop and notice the blessings as they unfold in this place. I am also in dialogue with sisters who are interested in joining this community. Together we create the ecosystem that will foster our life and the nourishment of Gospel living among us and around us.

Spirit Freely Flowing...

Just an update on the ecovillage, house, community.

Ecovillage: I'm enjoying the ecovillage community and our shared interest and enthusiasm in building community, growing natives and edibles and in practical sustainability. Regular gatherings, both formal and informal, planned and spontaneous, shared meals and shared fruits of the harvest.

House: Our rental house is for sale by the landlord, I'm meeting with the landlord next week to find out more about the status of the space and whether or not I can stay. The soil and biodiversity here is so much better than when I came. I identified 30 species when I arrived, mainly of the weed variety. I've added almost 50 perennials, mainly natives and edibles, and another 30 annuals, veggies, herbs and flowers. I would love to stay, but not sure if that will be possible.

Community: I have had several sisters express interest in joining in an intentional inter-congregational community of sisters. Some great women and great energy. I look forward to further conversations with them and others who may be interested. I also hope that some of them will be ready and able to join me in this project, wherever we may eventually land.

So though there is a lot that is up-in-the-air, I believe that the Spirit is flowing and hope and pray that I can flow with that energy as we live into the future of religious life.

I also have to thank and share the article of Sr. Susan Francois on the shifting conversations.

Peace,
--Amy

Sisters 2.0 Quarterly Phone Call

We gathered for our regular quarterly call to share the Spirit that is stirring among us, and to talk about future oriented initiatives for religious life.

• Summer Sisters - plans are underway for a few sisters and a few young lay women to share the values of religious life in intentional community this summer. 
• Vision Space will be a gathering of young and middle aged sisters to share the experience of religious life today. 
• Sisters 2.0 is being launched as a Facebook page for post-Vatican II sisters to network, envision and live into the religious life of the 21st century. If this is your conversation - contact me for details.
• Mapping We have a proposal to reach out and identify the sisters in the post-Vatican II cohorts of religious life so that we can network for mutual support and build relationships.
• We will check out Sisters of Earth to see where their vision and goals may intersect with ours.
• We are still thinking of how to celebrate the Year of Consecrated Life in 2015.

The call was energetic and hopeful as we shared where we come from, and where we are going in this great adventure we call religious life.

Neo-Tribalism

Neo-Tribalism means many things to many people, but essentially it refers to the human tendency to form communities in human-size groups, even when our social structures group us on a mega-level. It is seen as a symptom of post-modernism. Moderns attempted to solve all the world's problems with bigger and better organization, post-moderns commit to local communities and needs.
Neo-tribalism also acknowledges that the best communities are not insular and isolated. Instead, they have a center of gravity within and a sense of identity, and at the same time, they engage others in meaningful ways.
I think that religious life calls me to think in new ways about community. Large groups of elder Sisters embrace the reality that their congregations are in their last years, their amazing stories are coming to an end. Small groups of younger Sisters come together in small local communities where we belong, grow and share as the image says. We find places that nourish relationship and our capacity to encounter God, to encounter one another in community and to encounter others in mission.
In this I find life, energy and hope. It is a blessing to be at this point of dying and rising in the history of religious life.
Peace,
Amy

BBQ & Contemplation

As we move through the Easter Season and toward Pentecost, the younger sisters in the St. Louis Area (Giving Voice - St. Louis) will be gathering for an evening of BBQ and contemplation.

1. iIn the light of Pentecost, what is religious life today and where are we going as younger religious?
2. How can our local GV group support us in this?
3. What would we like to do for the Year of Consecrated Life?

This present moment in religious life is both challenging and energizing. Much that we have known and loved is passing away: the brothers and sisters, the ministries, the service. But much is also being re-imagined with fresh energy. What better way to celebrate Pentecost and this groundswell of the Spirit than through BBQ and Contemplation with others who are eager to be a part of this adventure?

Peace,

Amy

Let Us Rejoice

Once again we walk the sacred path,

Once again we contemplate sacred mystery,

Once again we are blessed in our remembering,

Once again we die and rise.

Yet this time the stories are deeper because our lives are richer for having lived another year, prayed another year, shared another year. What a blessing it is to be here and now, in the unfolding of life, and of religious life, with its hopes and its challenges.

I am blessed to have the opportunity to plant veggies and flowers, trees and shrubs. As I tend the good things of the earth, I sense Earth's Creator tending me, nurturing my spirit, watering my soul, building and nurturing the dream. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Claiming Sisterhood

National Catholic Sisters Week was celebrated a month ago, for the very first time. I wasn't able to attend the main celebration in St. Paul, MN, but there were celebrations, liturgies, rallies and other events across the nation and lots of attention from media and on social media channels.
There is one phrase that stuck with me from all the events and images, posts and tweets, that the event was about Claiming Sisterhood.
That one brief phrase has echoed with me in the weeks since the celebrations. For me, claiming sisterhood says that we are coming to an understanding of religious life as a reality broader than any one congregation. There is a growing sense of who we are as a movement, that is an umbrella over who we are as individual congregations. The reality between congregations is increasing, even while the reality within is decreasing.
The wordle that I included here is one borrowed from the FCJs. Could it not be so much the same for so many of us in our newly-claimed sisterhood.
As I sit with it, I ask myself: what do I resonate with? What would I add?
The thing about a wordle is that it is not a statement, it is not an assertion. The power of a wordle is in the relationship between the words. Intersubjectivity. So I think the power of sisterhood is being found in the relationships among us, as we realize that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
May we be blessed in our emerging sense of sisterhood.
Peace,
Amy