My soul sings in gratitude!
Provincia Filippine - Australia - Saipan - Taiwan
Inserita il: 30/01/2017
2 commentario(i) ...
“My soul sings in gratitude!” (Lk 1:46)
Every year, at the end of our summer holidays we gather as a community to reflect on our life and ministry and to communicate important events that mark the life of our Congregation. We plan our spirituality program for the year which includes the celebration of our feast days, our annual and monthly retreats, our participation in events in the local Church, our journey with the Pauline Cooperators and other important aspects of our apostolic life.
This year the community met at Bundoora on the 24 and 25 January 2017. The celebration of the Eucharist during the meeting is central. On the first day this year, we had the joy of welcoming our friend Fr David Cartwright, parish priest of St Fidelis, Moreland, where Sr Candida did pastoral work for many years. In his homily, Fr David picked up Pope Francis’ affirmation that where there are Religious, there is joy, and the source of this joy in the Lord. On the following day, we welcomed Fr Brendan Byrne, our Jesuit friend and prominent Scripture scholar. In his homily, he drew some interesting parallels from Acts and our vocation. For example, “… you are, in your vocation as Pastorelle, all Ananias’s—you bring your faith and your human gifts, especially of sympathy, healing, and compassion, to those—like Paul immediately after his conversion—who need healing and deeper integration into the community of faith.” (see more).
During the meeting, Sr Revelina Santiago, Provincial Councilor, who recently joined the community of Australia, gave us a report on the first phase of the Provincial Chapter that took place in Manila at the end of December 2016. It was also good to hear about the Sisters in the Philippines and learn about some of the projects that are being reflected upon, especially in view of the care of our sick and the elderly Sisters in the Province.
Day two was facilitated by Sr Sue Richardson IBVM who is the Vicar for Religious for the archdiocese of Melbourne. Sr Sue, through a gentle process of listening to the Spirit, answering questions, sharing in small groups and using the prayer of the Magnificat, helped us to get in touch with our experience of pastoral mothering. She made the point of the unique relationship we each have with our God and to be aware of the gifts we each have received to be able to exercise our pastoral motherhood. Equally important for us to recognize some of our un-freedoms and where we are still growing/learning to be pastoral in this way.
We all agreed that the two-day meeting was a fruitful and grace-filled way to begin the New Year and to make Mary’s prayer of the Magnificat our own as we also move towards the celebration of the 9th General Chapter next June-July 2017.
sr Mary La Bruna sjbp
Leggi i commenti
Maria Hetzler
05/02/2017 | 20:18
Wunderfull!Thank you: ...a gentle process of listening to the Spirit, answering questions, sharing in small groups and using the prayer of the Magnificat...Hermoso!
sr rosanna
31/01/2017 | 10:31
Thank you for giving me the chance to see your smiling faces! I present to the Lord your future and your commitment in pastoral motherhood among you and the people you are working with.
