Let’s keep talking

I hesitate to start a new post, as we’ve had some lively conversation on the last post about women in the Church and don’t want to cut short further discussion. Thanks, Koko, for getting it started. And please, let’s keep having engaging conversation on this or any topics.

This will probably not be as lively a conversation, as I’m just checking in to let you know why you won’t be seeing a lot of me here over the next couple of weeks.

Wednesday, I travel to Baden for the beginning of the second part of our Chapter, the Chapter of Elections. 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 and to each other, to try to discern how God may be leading us at this time in our history.

We will end on Saturday with a new team of four women who have generously made themselves available for this ministry. My hope is that they will move boldly to encourage all of us to embrace all that we have committed ourselves to. After all, we are all leaders…we’ve been talking about non-elected leadership a lot over the past few months, which is encouraging to me.

After Chapter, I will be beginning my annual directed retreat, and that will last about a week. During that time, you won’t be seeing me interacting on this blog. If I have time, I’ll prep a few posts to appear during that week, and hopefully it will keep some conversation alive here until I finish retreat. (I’m recalling that character on Saturday Night Live who often said, “I’m all verklempt … (sniff) … talk amongst yourselves .. I’ll give you a topic ….”)

Pray for us as we enter these important days as Sisters of St. Joseph.