as the new Vice Ecclesiastical Assistant for the World Christian Life Community.

Fr. Rico had been long-time EA of CVX Portugal, and possesses a depth of experience in accompanying and working with the laity. We welcome him as he takes on the role in the last quarter of 2016.

UPDATE NEWS!!!

The next UPDATE DEADLINE for submissions is

May 10,2016!

contact email

WAVE OF PRAYER

In Canada, since 1991, it has been our custom to have a 24 hour 'wave' of prayer from coast to coast on March 25th. This practice has also been adopted in many other countries within our World CLC. For the Atlantic Region: 4 am - 9 am, Central Region: 8 am - 1 pm, Prairies Region: 12 pm - 5 pm. Rockies Region: 4 pm - 12 am. All are encouraged to pray in solidarity...

Why do CLCers celebrate World CLC Day on Mar. 25, the feast of the Annunication?

Click Here to read more!

CVX Lebanon has contacted a member of CLC Canada asking if there is any way that we can help a family of 5 presently living in the refugee camp in Lebanon. This family has expressed a desire to come to Canada.

They are originally from Aleppo and have been members of CLC in Syria. They are hoping to begin a new life in a French speaking environment in Canada.

Members of CVX Quebec and CLC Canada are working together to hopefully make this happen.... Would you like to join us in this mission project? If so, please contact Leanne (General Counsel contact) at Leanne.salel@gmail.com

Just a Thought!

Do not ask the Lord to guide your footsteps, if you are not willing to move your feet.

Prayer

Lord, when all is darkness and we feel our weakness and helplessness, give us the sense of Your presence,

Your love, and Your strength. Help us to have perfect trust in your protecting love. Bless us with Your strengthening power, so that nothing may frighten or worry us.

We trust that in living close to You, we shall see Your hand, Your purpose, Your will through all things.

St. Ignatius of Loyola

For those interested in ordering Sue's book it is $10 and $4 shipping. Contact email is Rambow.susan@gmail.com. Cheques can be made out to Sue Rambow and sent to:1225 England Ave. Courtenay BC, V9N 2P1

INVOCATIONS OF LENT

Trevor Scott, SJ, NEA

We enter Lent in the Spirit of a long winter:

A cold, frozen time...

consisting of days with the shortest hours of sunlight,

with little signs of life.

We long for Spring - for life... for light...
but are still in the depths of a seeming cold, dark desert. We are in waiting mode.... waiting to be released...

Waiting to live again surrounded by life.

Lent is a fragile time...

Click Here to read the full article.

ACCOMPANIMENT OF AN ECCLESIASTICAL ASSISTANT

By Trevor Scott, SJ, NEA

Since my ordination nearing three years ago I have continually pondered upon my new identity as a priest. Have I been acting too priestly in the clerical sense? Have I accepted my responsibility and identity as a priest fully enough? Such a tension of questions will continue to be a particular examen for me I suspect, a healthy tension - I pray - that I am really quite grateful for.

Related to this examination of my identity and role as a priest is how I am being called to serve as an Ecclesiastical Assistant within CLC Canada - both in the National capacity, and a Regional capacity in Atlantic Canada.

Click Here to read more.

PRESIDENT, Leah Michaud

It strikes me that it might prove interesting to imagine the whole of February (and March) as a speed bump reminding us to slow down and take time to ponder. Lent is about change (conversion); it is about moving from side shows to the main event of growing and flowering. Moving from petty jealousies, worries about small things (much of which we really can't control), from fears and anxiety and the sundry other things (that distract us from the point of it all) to beholding Jesus' incredible love and self sacrifice. Lent is the time to focus thoughts and actions on the invitation to change whatever needs to change that impedes growth. The goal of this growth is to become more like Jesus.

Click Here to read the full article.

MISSION IN ACTION - ROCKIES REGION

On Sunday, January 24th, the Vancouver CLC celebrated the temporary commitments of four members of the St. Mark's CLC...

The St. Mark's community, named for the Catholic college on UBC campus where they meet, is unique in a number of ways. First of all, it is an "open" CLC. This means that while there are regularly committed "core" members, the group is open to welcoming individuals at any time who wish to "come and see". As one member recently put it, they invite newcomers to "come journey with us". The community has been richly blessed by those who have joined it in this manner. Significantly, St. Mark's has made a communal discernment to remain an open community, even after several members have now made their temporary commitments. The group feels strongly that it has a common apostolic mission to be a community of welcome and to offer the gift of Ignatian spirituality to seekers. This innovating approach, we believe, has been the initiative of the Holy Spirit and it continues to bear great fruit.

Click Here to read the full article.

SYRIAN WAR HAS A PERSONAL DIMENSION FOR CLC

By Leanne Salel

It may surprise some of our members to know that Syria is among the sixty countries worldwide with CLC communities. In fact, our Syrian CLCers played a central role in welcoming and hosting delegates at the 2013 World Assembly in Lebanon. As one of the delegates at that Assembly, one of my most profound memories was the joyful presence of those Syrian CLCers at a time when their country was gripped in civil war and some had already suffered loss.

Now in 2016, as the stories and media images of war and fleeing refugees continue unabated, the

question that haunts me is, where are our Syrian CLC brothers and sisters? How have they been impacted? These are some of the questions that I have started to search for answers to this year.

This week I contacted Antoine, the former president of CLC/CVX Syria.

Click Here to read more.

PRAIRIE REGION FALL FORMATION

The Prairie Region Fall Formation gathering took place in November. Implementing an Examen on our Environmental Consciousness as well as excerpts from the Encyclical Laudato Si, the participants sought a new awareness of their relationships to the planet, family, and the CLC way of life within their own groups.

Click Here to read more about this gathering and view the resources applied.

THE ECOLOGY FRONTIER: SOIL SUSTAINABILITY

Ixthus CLC was asked to form a working group to address the ecology frontier at the 2013 World Assembly in Lebanon.

This article presented by Beulah Costain is the working group's response that request:

Growing up on a mixed farm on PEI made me aware that good soil was the

source of our family's physical and economic well-being...

We, as children, learned the importance of respect for the land and all

creatures living on our land, providing necessary organic nutrients to the

soil...

The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) states: "Healthy soil is the foundation for food security and is the key to sustaining life on earth". At the present time there are more than 805 million people in the world facing hunger and malnutrition and unfortunately 33% of our world soil resources are reaching critical limits of degradation (UN Environment Project).

Click Here to read the full article.

CLC CANADA MEMBER COMPLETES BOOK ABOUT HER CLC COMMUNITY

Sue Rambow, an Emmaus CLC member from Comox BC, has just completed the book Welcoming Strangers: An Emmaus Community Story, which documents the history of her Emmaus CLC community.

Sue writes, "We have lived for the past 30 years in an intentional covenanted Christian Life Community called Emmaus. Some time ago it became clear to me that just like the disciples who wrote their stories of life with Jesus, we as a community also have a story to document for future generations....We are made up of professional, middle class Christians who became increasingly aware of the social; and economic injustices within our society and consequently have chosen to live a gospel that calls us to live a `preferential option for the poor and marginalized in our society."

Click Here to read the full article.

PROJECT 163 -- BREATHING SPACE

This letter is not a rally cry for further activism; not a request for further action. Still, whether taken in an individual or communal apostolic sense, we find it important to give it space for consideration. It is an invitation to re-enter a sanctuary - a breathing space. Let this space be akin to that moment in our history when everything stood still- that instant prior to the re-creation that was to be our salvation: Mother Mary's fiat. Our invitation is for you to be with us, and Find Pause, Breathe In, and then, Exhale, as we relish this Marian moment in our history....

Click Here to download or to read more about Project 163.

Update Editors Gerri Tingley / Liz Garrett