I shared the following with my Christian Life Community tonight. This is the statement that tells the story of how I and the other members of my religious congregation want to be about incarnating the mission of Jesus as Sisters of St. Joseph over the next five years. The statement starts with a prologue that sets the context for the commitments that follow. One of the CLC group commented about how communion seems to be the theme…so it is, by design (and of course, the grace of God!)
Pray for us, that we might embrace these commitments with passion and great generosity, even when it becomes costly for us to do so.
Moving always toward profound love of God and love of neighbor without distinction, we, Sisters of St. Joseph of Baden, recognize that our vocation compels us to mine the riches of our heritage and commit our energies and resources to respond to urgent needs in the world.
Claimed by the great love of God incarnate in Jesus and his mission, we regard the critical state of both the world and our Congregation as an invitation to grace. Among our Congregation’s deep riches are our spiritual lineage and encounters with God’s people. Simultaneously, we acknowledge the fragility of our Congregation. We hold with gratitude both our richness and our poverty.
We know the profound effects of God’s forgiveness and healing throughout creation. Yet, we recognize that in this day, Earth’s human and biotic communities are in danger of catastrophic and irreparable harm. Violence ravages human beings and other life forms. Oppressive systems drain life at every level of existence. This consciousness calls us to courageous action and faith in God who meets us in the struggle with abundant grace for transformation. We count on this power.
Relying on God with radical abandon, we join in this great movement of love. And so,
- We commit ourselves to advance global communion.
- We commit ourselves to deepen communion among ourselves.
- We commit ourselves to nurture communion through expansion of participation in mission.
[...] This is the part when we choose elected leaders we think will best move us as a congregation in the direction we articulated in the Chapter of Affairs last month. This is all done in a context of communal discernment, where we listen very deeply to the Spirit [...]