The closing gathering commenced with a beautiful prayer service that helped the participants to collect themselves and begin the 4 days programme in a meaningful way. S. Barbara Bozak in her welcome address briefed the participants of the program of the year that was coming to an end. Sisters Sally and Margaret addressed the participants on behalf of the general teams of the three congregations.

S. Cynthia Gonsalves FMM the resource person for the two days explained at length the topic, “Leaders Transformed from Within.” She explained the dynamics of this psycho-spiritual journey leading to transformation. The participants could easily identify and locate their creative or reactive tendencies within this framework. They were also enabled to find out the root cause of various types of behaviour patterns. Cynthia explained at length how the image of God gets diminished and distorted in us when we take an ascending path in our life to fulfil the ego needs as a result of our childhood experiences of conditioning and socialising. We need to take a journey downward as leaders to enhance the image of God in us and in others just like Jesus who emptied himself of his and became a human being.

The sharing of stories of the 31 participants about their growth experience of the past one year while doing the Leaders as Leaven program was very enriching. They surely had embarked on a difficult journey downward to find the true image of God deep within themselves and others.

S. Margaret Gallagher SJA lead the group beautifully on the day of integration with this question, “What will you do with your one wild and precious life?”

Mrs. Virginia Saldanha, a theologian, feminist and an activist was another resource person for the group. Virginia was able to instil enthusiasm and confidence in the group and challenge them to take action on some of the social and church issues that are not addressed by the women religious.

The four days of gathering was concluded by Srs. Sally and Margaret thanking Barbara and her team for their dedicated work, and mentors for being a support to the mentees. The concluding prayer service helped the group to go through the growth experience like that of a seed sprouting and slowly becoming a huge tree. This gathering brought greater unity and collaboration among the three congregations of Lyon, Annecy and Chambery in India and was a great success.  

S. Navya Neelamvilail