01.14.2020

Challenged to widen our tents 01/13

On the first full day of the Extended Council, Sister Pat Murray, executive secretary of the UISG, challenged us with the words of Is 52:52 – “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.” Using the words of the English author Charles Dickens, she led us to reflect on the situation today – that of light and darkness, belief and unbelief, hope and despair. It is in this reality that we, religious women, are called to bring light, to transform the present. We need to be stretched to make room for others in our life and be prophets of hope. This will require us to consider what contexts are most in need of our charism and what is holding us back from moving in that direction. In order to do this it is important to recognize our own prejudices and learn to live interculturally, the culture of each individual is valued and transforms the others. Only when we can reach out and truly encounter the other with a listening heart, compassionate presence and a healing glance will we create communion and model unity in diversity.

Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, the Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, joined us in the afternoon and gave us some insights into the work he does and some of his concerns concerning religious life today. One of them is the division that exists within conferences of religious in some countries. Another is the number of religious who leave their congregation after final vows. Having visited many congregations across the globe, he gave examples of how a given culture challenges religious life in that place. Using other words to express the need for unity in diversity he noted that uniformity is not from God; God created diversity. Unity is joining in diversity.