June 18 ZOOM Session
Good morning, Bom dia, Buenas Dias, Good afternoon, Bon Pomerigio, Bon après-midi, God eftermiddag, Wan Shang Hao!
It is wonderful to gather and to be together even though it is not in person! Today is truly a milestone in our journey together, a journey whose name is the 30th General Chapter of our Congregation. I am very grateful to have each of you as companions on this sacred journey.
We have embarked on many journeys together over these past 5 and a half years. We began in 2016 committed to living the dynamism of reconciliation and of being a healing presence to the many fractures in our societies. This journey of healing lead us to explore the mystery of sacred encounters and to live our desire for these encounters with one another and with those with whom we minister. The deepening of our encounters with God and each other, brought us to a new level, one in which we committed ourselves as leaders to live the graces of encounter by incarnating love with joy. And now, all of us are invited to welcome and embrace the necessary graces to nurture our ability to be women and communities immersed in the Spirit connected with our world.
As we move deeper into this immersion in the Spirit, we as a Congregation have spent these past 10 months reflecting on our experience of living the calls of our 2015 General Chapter. From your responses and our experience with you,it is clear that all of us have grown in our ability to be reconcilers and healers, to be women of respectful and loving encounters, to be more candid with ourselves about our own need for forgiveness and to grow in our ability to forgive others, to be less judgmental and more gracious in welcoming the “stranger” into our beloved communities. We have moved to the peripheries both physical and emotional, and have allowed ourselves to celebrate these new and challenging experiences. Called to be pioneer women, we responded in ways we could not have imagined five years ago, as we lived these past sixteen months of the ongoing global pandemic.
These years, filled with both joys and new life, with sadness at the deaths of loved ones, including the sisters who began this journey with us in 2016 and who are now interceding for us with God; and with a mixture of gratitude and melancholy at the closure of some of our ministries, but joy at the opening of new missions and welcoming of new members. All of these experiences fertilized the soil of who we are as a congregation, enriching us with the precious nutrients we need to sustain our onward journey. These moments have been eucharist for us, uniting us in the mission of Jesus as we responded to new Gospel calls.
The global pandemic provided us with the unique opportunity of being more vulnerable than perhaps at other times in our lives. It left us raw and wounded especially as we touched the wounds of those suffering near and far. This touching of others’ wounds and embracing our vulnerability is one of the precious nutrients that will now carry us into our future. We are stronger and more resilient…we are connected to each other in a new way because we have entered into the suffering of one another in ways we have not been able to do in the past. We are determined women who are committed to be present where we are most needed, present as witnesses of joy, accompanying others into a future of greater equality where hope is not a commodity to be purchased, but hope is the air which all are welcome to breath.
As we just heard in the last song of our Opening Prayer, I invite all of us to Dare to Live, Dare to hope, to go beyond, to reach across the boundaries or limits we set for ourselves; to journey into the unseen, the unknown, letting go of extraneous structures and rules, consumerism, petty feelings, and competition with others. Let us Dare “to seek out others and embrace the world as it is, without fear of further pain or a sense of inadequacy, because there in that person we will discover all the goodness that God has planted in human hearts.” Fratelli Tutti 78
Come, come join in the immersion of the Spirit, come dive into a pool of refreshing water, experience a new Baptism, inviting each of us to be freed from all that will hold us back from entering fully into this next journey, a global journey of light and hope, a journey we are embarking on together with our sacred but needy world.
Thank you for who you are and for all of God’s unconditional love that you share with so many people.
Meu.convite interior é todos os.dias rezar pelo Capítulo Geral Vinde Espírito de.Sabedoria com seus.sete dons sobre cada delegada ou participante do capítulo. Que cada uma dócil.ao Espírito Santo possamos descobrir com.suas luzes que o Designio Amoroso de Deus sobre nossa Congregação na.Humanidade de hoje junto a todos os necessitados, em particular os.mais.desprovidos sermos mulheres imersas no Espírito.