Living on the Edge

Religious Life at the Crossroad is the 21st-century analysis of the present and future of religious life. Written by Amy Hereford, C.S.J., an attorney and canonist, the book traces religious life from its past “marked by courage and creativity in the face of adversity as well as by heroism and zeal.” Hereford attempts to chart a course into the future by understanding the historical and present characteristics of religious life through the context of the time. Her self-appointed task was to use the ideas, social media conversations and visions of her “minority cohort” (younger women religious) to imagine “the future of religious life in the next fifty years.” The author takes a linear approach to her topic as she moves from the earliest forms of religious life, beginning with the desert mothers and fathers and moving through the Second Vatican Council renewal period. Using theological communities, including Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s New Monasticism, Brother Roger and the Taizé Community and Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker movement, she looks for “seeds of newness” and re-imagines the vows, community life and mission in the context of the 21st century.

Read complete book review in America Magazine....

Vulnerability

The chill in the air reminds me that summer is over and we're moving into fall. Leaves will paint the landscape in brilliant reds and yellows and then fall into carpets that crunch underfoot. The cycle of the seasons is fixed, yet dynamic in its daily unfolding. It can be in turn delicate and tender, then bold and harsh. Its rhythm encompasses my life story, though I know that other rhythms and other seasons tell the unfolding of lives on other parts of the planet.
Yesterday, I had a conversation with a sister-friend. It was one of those deep and meaningful conversations that grace our lives. We talked about changing seasons of our lives, and changing seasons of religious life. One word came up and has stayed with me as I moved though the day, and into prayer at the close of day: vulnerability.
What is the particular vulnerability of being a young, or middle-aged religious in today's reality? I see my sisters growing in wisdom, age and grace, into their 80s and 90s, and I reach out to invite and welcome others to join us in this grand adventure. Those in the Sisters 2.0 generations, those born after '55 are amazing women, and it's a good thing, because we face some daunting challenges. Don't get me wrong here: I love this life, I cannot imagine myself as anything else, it's in my DNA, and I think there's a future to this precious gift we call religious life.
I also know that I, and many of my peers are in a vulnerable place. I will bury 20, 40, 60 of my own dearly loved sisters to every new sister I welcome. And this not just in my own congregation, but in most of the congregations I know. I ask myself how much my heart can take as my circle gets smaller and closes ranks and another sister's story comes to its blessed closure. A joyful time to be certain, a gift fully given, a life fully lived. May the choir of Angels greet you! ... may you have eternal rest.
I ask myself if I have steeled my heart to the grief. As we move forward, who will hold our aching hearts? As we gather in ever more intimate circles, we are called to celebrate a year dedicated to consecrated life. So in this season of change, I am sitting with vulnerability. I am asking myself what I use to escape the stark realities of life. And in this place, how do I dare to hope?
--Amy

Imagine Community

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 neighborhood ecovillage.

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

Imagine hope. 

Imagine peace.

(Video made for community assembly on intercommunity house of sisters living in ecovillage.)

Love Is Always the Answer

Jesus’ story can never be captured by reading it alone. Others come to know it in the breaking of the bread and in the sharing of our lives together when we gather in Jesus’ name. Jesus is the foundation, the gospel is the task, and community is the process.
In small, local communities we can share life that is undifferentiated, immediate, and egalitarian. These communities can network to share services while affording each community the freedom and versatility to adapt to its local reality. Resisting the drive toward centralization, they can become circles of gospel living, peace, and justice. They can be mystics and prophets in a world desperately in need of them.

All human life is created for mysticism and prophecy.
All of Christian life aspires to it.
Religious life is deliberately and purposefully oriented to mysticism and prophecy.

1st Place CPA Award

Religious Life at the Crossroads place first in its category in the annual Catholic Publishing Association Awards. The citation is as follows:

One could come up with a long list of negatives about religious life in the 21^st century, but Sr.  Amy has taken the higher road and convincingly portrays the possibilities inherent in communities founded and empowered by the Spirit. Her views of religious life in an emerging church are based on the no-longer viable structures of pre-Vatican II Church. Her candor in exposing the masculine influence that has led to the disintegration and disruption of women’s religious communities is relevant for the restructuring of postmodern religious life. Her future-oriented chapter on ‘New Forms of Religious Life’ should be required reading for everyone in consecrated life or contemplating it and very every bishop—and that includes Pope Francis.

I am so grateful to be part of the conversations about the future of religious life. We are indeed at a crossroads, and we have before us an abundance of opportunities for creativity in responding to God's call to Gospel living.

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

NEW RELEASE: Religious Life at the Crossroads

This book explores the movements in religious life today and the currents that are emerging among the smaller cohorts of younger religious in mainstream communities of religious women. Hereford traces the history of religious life, including the impact of Vatican II and examines some of the theological sources for the reinvention of religious life today. She explores the current situation of religious, re-imagines the meaning of vows, community, and mission, and examines how the emerging forms of religious life will fit into an emerging church.

* * * 

I'm looking forward to expanding the conversation about religious life and the hopeful movements that are emerging among us.

... the Bee, the Butterfly and the Breeze

In the name of the Bee -
And of the Butterfly -
And of the Breeze - Amen!
--Dickinson

Sitting in the garden, in the quiet of the morning, the short poem of Emily Dickinson came to mind. How lovely and gentle the dynamism of the morning! The energetic, creative bee. The whimsical butterfly, symbol of resurrection. The breeze that blows where it will. We hear the sound it makes, but do not know where it comes from, nor where it goes. All of this brings to my wakening mind and heart the image of the Trinity: energetic and creative, whimsical and re-creative, and the inviting, surprising spirit that brings gifts and energy as a new day dawns.

Here I work in the soil and labor to heal the space and here God works in the soil of my life and labors to heal my own space, plant seeds and bring new life. And Emily's prayer seems to speak of that cycle of life and blessing.

Peace,
Amy

Identity

I listened to On Being recently. A transgender individual was discussing her experience of identity and expression of that identity.
Feeling an inner truth about herself and her identity, she was nevertheless required by her physical maleness to live another identity. When she transitioned, she was more comfortable with her identity. Yet those around her, accustomed to the previous identity felt less comfortable, and various people 'preferred' one identity or the other.
It was a touching story of a person's journey into self discovery and inner truth.
The account brought me to reflect on the notion of identity and the various expressions of that identity in my own life and my own circles. Identity is a tricky thing since each of us is many things at the same time. Some of our identities and expressions are superficial, and can be taken up and left off at will. E.g. I'm a Cardinals fan, but that's not a core identity.

What is my core identity and how do I express that identity to those among whom I live and work, and in the circles in which I move?

In God-space I am most wholly who I am, created by God, who is Love. Created by Love for Love. God is Love. God is a verb not a noun. God creates by Loving. God Loves by creating. God creates in the divine image, so I am an image of God-Love.

I express this identity in many ways, as a person, neighbor, christian, friend, sister and Sister.

Peace,
Amy

Riverside Meditation

This morning I woke up looking over the Ohio River. It is a lovely, peaceful view. When I first woke, the water was glassy still as the current moved slowly down stream. Then little by little, the wind and waves picked up. Still a gentle scene, but the water is more active, the glassy stillness is gone.
It reminds me of my own waking into a place of contemplation in the early morning hours. There is nothing to disturb my quiet resting in the God of Love. Gradually as the day begins, people and events blow over that glassy stillness as I engage the people of God and the things of God.
As the day flows on, I try to let some of that quiet stillness in the God of Love flow through the day, and flow through me into the people and events I encounter.
Peace,
Amy

Trinity, Communities and ATD

The western liturgical tradition celebrates Trinity Sunday this weekend. In a well known image, The Holy Trinity by St. Andrei Rublev, uses the theme of the "Hospitality of Abraham." The three angels symbolize the Trinity, which is rarely depicted directly in Orthodox art.
The Trinity is central to the early development of Christian belief in God as Creator, Redeemer, Unifier. In the early Christian centuries, the community of faith struggled to understand how God was one, yet manifold. The formula of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit came to be understood as central to the Christian faith, being discussed at church councils that gathered mystics and prophets, who were lay and ordained theologians.

Elizabeth of the Trinity, a modern mystic prays this way:

O my God, Trinity whom I adore, help me forget myself entirely so to establish myself in you, unmovable and peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing be able to trouble my peace or make me leave you, O my unchanging God, but may each minute bring me more deeply into your mystery! Grant my soul peace. Make it your heaven, your beloved dwelling and the place of your rest. May I never abandon you there, but may I be there, whole and entire, completely vigilant in my faith, entirely adoring, and wholly given over to your creative action.

The Trinity finds a modern expression in the three prongs of the ATD movement: working to bring forth an

• environmentally sustainable, 
• spiritually fulfilling,
• socially just 

human presence on this planet.

ATD describes and promotes a movement that is made up of hundreds of thousands of individuals and groups that are each working in their own neighborhoods, in their own circles. Each of these individuals and groups subscribe to this trinity of values, while focusing its attention on one or the other of them in a more particular way.

• There are communities that gather to live and promote environmental sustainability, both for themselves, and for the broader human community as well as for the broader community of creation. 
• There are communities that gather around spiritual values, for example those that gather to live the gospel deliberately and radically.
• There are communities that work for justice in so many different ways in society.

It seems this triad of communities is an in-breaking of the Trinity of Love into our world. May this Trinity Sunday be an impetus to re-commit to living these Trinitarian values and weaving them into the fabric of our lives and communities.

Peace,
Amy

All this life and heaven too: A wide-open YES

Silvana offers this reflection:

All this life and heaven too: A wide-open YES: A few weeks ago, on the 25th March, I wrote about the Annunciation on its "proper" day (here).  It was a wintry, frosty day, and I...

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Thanks Silvana for a reminder about a 'proper' yes. A yes to vocation is a yes that has the potential of growing your whole life, growing to the 'size' of God. It is always a challenge and a gift the living God, creator of the sun and moon and stars, and the deepest ground of our being. A wide-open, no-holding-back, joyful YES to the God of Love.

--Amy

Reflections on On the Pope's Resignation

What does it mean to let go of power?
To know when to step down?
To know when the time is right?
To do the unimaginable?

It's not giving up, but letting go.
It's not defeat but fulfillment.
It's not denial, it's affirmation.
It's not dying, it's really living.

For everything under heaven there is a time. God has made everything appropriate in its time, and has also set eternity in their heart.

As we go forward, step after step, day after day, heartbeat after heartbeat, it is hard to know when that time comes. Yet as way leads on to way, eventually the time comes when we have to make a change. We have to surrender to what is, to surrender to what will be, to surrender to the heartbeat of the Eternal.

In wisdom, in gentleness, in silence, the God of Love whispers when it is time.

--Amy

....

And a new beginning ... this just out from Sr. Sarah Heger and Fr. Toby Collins:

Choose Life

As we begin our Lenten journey, the readings offer us a choice: You have set before you life and death – Choose Life! And Jesus comes along in the Gospel to remind us that choosing Life may actually require us to forfeit life. As I settle into prayer with these words, the short phrase Choose Life echoes in my heart.

Choosing life today might call me to slow down, when I want to rush, or to rush, when I would rather linger. Choosing life may invite me to be kinder and gentler when I feel my emotions rising more brusquely. Choosing life may mean standing fast when I might shrink back and take a comfortable road. It may mean standing up for myself or for others or for justice, in the face of challenges. Where will I find the courage to choose life, in whatever my day presents? I will find it in these very words – Choose Life - the Word of God that carries within it the power to renew.

As I sit in prayer, Choosing Life seems to urge me to open my whole self to the loving embrace of Jesus and to rest in his gentle arms enfolding me in peace. I let God's love flood the whole of my being and recreate me in the Divine image, in Love. With every breath I surrender to God's life as it flows through me, renewing, healing, loving. Yes. Yes to God. Yes to Love. Yes to Life.

--Amy

Sharing Faith

Recently, I had the experience of giving a retreat. It was an opportunity to assemble a series of presentations on various aspects of faith and spirituality. I had never done any quite like this before and it was really a chance to pray with and for the group, as I prepared the materials, and then as I prepared each presentation for the group. I was a privilege to see them respond to the movements of the Spirit in and through the days we spent together. I wondered at first what I might possibly have to share and how it might be able to move the group which was quite diverse. But it was an opportunity to share my deepest beliefs about who God is and who God is for us.
Sharing faith is always an opportunity to touch my own deepest roots and discover anew the God in whom we live and move and have our being. I think that living in religious community and sharing community creates ever new opportunities to share faith and to challenge one another when we are not at our best. I can loose that fire and spirit of a vibrant spirituality. But it only takes the opportunity to share it with others, and to receive their spark and my own is re-kindled. But it is also rekindled when I have the opportunity to share with others.
It seems to me that the fire and light between us is as potent or even more potent that the fire and light within. Perhaps this is the meaning of Jesus words: wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in their midst.
--Amy

A Contemplative Space: Pondering God’s mystery across faiths

The Trinity is indeed the Christian account of God. But that is not to close down the possibilities for other persons of faith sharing in God’s inner life. Indeed very much the opposite, for if God is the God who enters deep into creation and is forever shaping that creation for God’s own providential purposes, then there can be nothing and no one beyond the scope of God’s love. Read more...

Deep in the heart of the religious vocation is a spirituality that roots and grounds it. This the ever deepening source of life, community, vows and ministry. This article explores the deep contemplative space that can reach out to the God space in other religions and culture, and across the differences in community and church. It weaves together deep moments of the Catholic tradition, showing their openness to others.

Here is a sister in action - testimony of her students....