LCWR and the Vatican

Well, to say there has been a flood of news coverage about the Leadership Conference for Women Religious [LCWR] during the past 48 hours, would be an understatement.

While I don't want to ignore this coverage, I want to respect and support the statement from the Presidency of Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) stating their need for time to review a mandate from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and prepare a response.

Another helpful blog post just came from "A Nun's Life" blog. It links to the statement above and has links to a few other resources. Since I hardly feel I can add to what is said in that post, I've offered a link to that as well.

Anti-Trafficking Symposium & Soundings Update

  Our April 18, 2012 edition of Soundings Update is now available at http://www.csjboston.org/su-April-18-2012.pdf

In this issue read about:

• Welcome ceremony for Sister Pavel
• 2012 Good Friday Peace Vigil
• Consumerism and the Many Faces of Human Trafficking - overview of May 5, 2012 symposium
• Celebrate Mount Saint Joseph Academy -- all that was, is, and will be.

The information about the upcoming Anti-Human Trafficking Symposium is also included below. Please join us if you are able. You can download a brochure for this symposium at:
http://www.csjboston.org/NEWS_Upcoming_Events.htm . Make copies; share them with family, friends, co-workers, parishioners, etc.



Gather with Us to Learn More About   

Consumerism and the

Many Faces of Human Trafficking

 

Saturday, May 5, 2012 — 8:45am-12:30pm 

Offered by the Anti-HumanTrafficking Coalition of the Boston Unit of LCWR

 at the Sisters of St. Joseph Motherhouse t 637 Cambridge Street, Brighton, MA 02135

8:45am                Registration and Coffee

9:30am                Prayer, Welcome

• Keynote Talks: Corporate Human Trafficking:  What we can do?    Presenter:  Rev. David Couturier, ofmcap
•  Buying Power: How Consumerism and the Sexualization of Children Put All Kids At Risk   Presenter: Kate Price, Stone Center, Wellesley College  — The focus of this presentation will be on consumerism and how the demand for goods and services is connected to human trafficking.
• Questions
• Panel: Making A Difference: Mary Lou Simcoe, SUSC

            Anti-Trafficking and Hotels: Kathy McCluskey, CSJ

            Massachusetts Anti-Trafficking Law: Carole Lombard, CSJ

            Practical  Suggestions for Action: Betsy Goodwin, OSF

12:30pm Closing  

Trust in the Slow Work of God

Today is the anniversary of the death of Teilhard de Chardin. Chardin has been a favorite of mine since I was in high school. At that time I didn't understand half of what I was reading from him but somehow intuited that I was drawn into his mystical approach to the deep presence of God in all creation.

During my years as a secondary school Campus Minister I taught a course in Christian Service and always began and ended the course with the prayer/poem below. When the students first showed up for the course all they wanted was to jump ahead and get out to direct service. They were impatient with the intermediary stages of theological reflection on their experience and learning about the systemic issues related to direct service.

I think it's fair to say that by the end of the course they had a much better sense of this prayer. In some ways the course was a process of living this reality.

Trust in the Slow Work of God

by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin 1881-1955, Jesuit, Paleontologist, Biologist, Philosopher, and Visionary
  

Above all, trust in the slow work of God

We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
unknown, something new. And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability-
and that it may take a very long time. And so I think it is with you.
your ideas mature gradually – let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste. Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances
acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow. Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be. Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.

Newly elected leadership team for CSJ's of Boston

The newly elected team gathers at the conclusion of the weekend for the first of many meetings.

During the weekend of March 23-25 the Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston elected seven sisters who will serve as our leadership team for the next six years. Read all about it in this week's issue of Soundings Update:
http://www.csjboston.org/su-April-4-2012.pdf

And in last Friday's issue of The Pilot, Boston's Catholic newspaper.
http://www.thebostonpilot.com/article.asp?ID=14508

Each newly elected team member received a corsage

Cardinal Sean O'Malley congratulates Sister Rosemary and our entire congregation

Our current and newly elected leadership team

Area Councilor Selection Committee in action

Thank you to Sister Ellen, our Facilitator through the past year.