News - October - November, 2011
On From the Crossing Place: Fall Assemblies
Associates and Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace gathered in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Bellevue, Washington and Rearsby, England for our Fall Assemblies. The material for these meetings came from the listening sessions of this past year (the leadership team spent a great amount of time in each region dialoguing with the associates and sisters about issues which were of concern).
We began the Assembly meditatively singing:
May all I do today be for the healing of the whole.
May all I do today mend our broken world.
May all I do today bring blessing on the earth.
May all I do today be for the good of all.
All I do today. (Jan Novotka)
The first session was a continuous prayer with various mantras, antiphons, a video, time for personal prayer, table discussions, and group discussions interwoven throughout the morning. We used the material in the “On From the Crossing Place” booklets that we received earlier in the month and shared our thoughts and feelings regarding some extremely important and challenging topics:
In what ways do you resonate with these perceptions/observation of our lived reality?
Reading all this and thinking back on the meetings in your regions, what excites you, gives you energy and hope? What concerns you?
We sang and prayed Jan Novotka's "Something New":
Open the eyes of my heart.
Purify and bless my heart.
Open my heart that I might see,
that I might be, something new.
Behold! Behold!
I’m making something new!
Open the eyes of our hearts.
Purify and bless our hearts.
Open our hearts that we might see,
that we might be, something new.
Behold! Behold!
I’m making something new!
Behold! Behold!
I’m making something new!
During the afternoon, various members of the leadership team presented reports on many extremely important topics; among them were: Sponsorship, Congregation Retreat, Congregation Program, Chapter Planning, Formation, Justice and Peace, and Finance. After the report, time was given for quiet reflection, then discussion, and questions.
Our day ended with a Missioning Ritual blessing and commissioning the sisters in the three regions who are members of the Community Ministry and the Health and Pastoral Care Groups.
Our final prayer (adapted from John O’Donohue) embodies the entire day:
May we live each day
Compassionate of heart,
Clear in word,
Gracious in awareness,
Courageous in thought,
Generous in love.
Amen