Day 2: St. Ignatius Feast Day (and Mary's grandson Jonah's 4th birthday)
Thank you Gerri for doing such a splendid job with the e-newsletter.
I am presently sitting in the lobby waiting for Leanne to join me. Fr. Charlie is on my right preparing his journal as well. We decided that the delegate input would be to respond to what particularly caught our attention in the day.
Have you ever had olives for breakfast with the freshest thinnest pita, and a cream fresh of some kind...herbs to dress it up or guava conserve if one prefers, hard boiled eggs on the side. The coffee is Turkish and will take a spoon standing straight up!
Leading our first reflection as we moved into listening to echoes from our CLC history this morning was the following statement: "In Christian spirituality one cannot divide the old and the new into various parts. The reason is that what is new is authentic only if it preserves what is old, and what is old retains its vitality only if it is lived in a new way." Karl Rahner
A video helped us review our 450 year graced history and we were struck by the numerous peoples and communities across the world that have paved the way for us. To consider that the Jesuits were once suppressed (1773- 1840) and not until 1953 were the new structure of Principles and Norms were under way due to Fr. Louis Paulussen's perseverance to re-establish lay Ignatian communities under a Jesuit wing. It was 1967 that saw the Federations of Marian Sodalities take on a new name , 'Christian Life Community'. From '79 -'82 these communities moved from Federations to One World Community.
As we gathered for the 22 remaining communities to share their recent history of the last 5 years the headphones we were using for the language translation were not working properly so we were not only hearing the translation but the original language at the same time! It did not take long for the Exco to halt the process until it was gratefully resolved.
Leanne has expressed her delight in seeing a large number of young adult delegates who are representing their young adult communities, from a lot of the African countries, Chile, Philippines and more! When we come home we will share with you some of the difficulties that South Sudan, Congo, Cuba and Syria have 'lived'.
When it came time for the World reports, it was evident that member time, availability, energy and capacity are not only challenged at our national level but at the World level as well. Full digital reports will be available soon.
To close the day Elaine graduated the national delegation process through inviting once again a time of silent prayer with first and second rounds, leading to a third round in which we took the words and phrases of the first and second round and put them into a sentence. Ours was:
Filled with sincere gratitude we seek to love and serve the Lord. (Psalm 115-116)
P.S. Mary met Norbert Temble of Zambia who is asking for the Sullivans of Central Region who spent time in Zambia early in their CVX history. He would love to reconnect with them so that they could accurately record those days.
P.P.S. Also, Enrique Fernandez of Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic, is delighted to hear that Central is still with the mission school in La Cienaga- we were impressed to see them bring their yellow umbrella for the "4% for Education" campaign which we supported.
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