CSSJ Federation: Gathering the Daughters

This week I'm in Skaneateles, NY at the Stella Maris Retreat and Conference Center for a meeting called "Gathering the Daughters." The picture above is a view of Lake Skaneateles from the porch of the retreat center. Jean-Pierre Medaille, who wrote down our earliest documents back in the mid 17th century, referred to our first sisters as "Daughters of Joseph." I guess that's the background behind the name of this meeting. What this is is a meeting of newer members of the Sisters of St. Joseph mostly from around the United States and Canada as well as more "seasoned" members who are part of vocation and formation teams from the US Federation and the Canadian Federation. There are about 100 of us here. About 60 of our newer members were able to come and the rest who are here are "seasoned" members. We came up with these terms out of a reluctance to label ourselves "younger" or "older" -- very clever.

The energy in the group is wonderful. There is such hope for the future among this group. I said we are mostly from the U.S. and Canada because there are also a few of our sisters from other countries as well -- Mexico, India, Japan, and Vietnam to name a few. There were supposed to be two sisters from Peru but they were denied visas...with no explanation. This was very disappointing for everyone.

We haven't had one keynote speaker presenting input. The input is coming from the experience of the group and that is good. This morning three sisters shared stories about their experience of living our charism [spirit]. The panel is pictured here. The sisters who shared were from India, Mexico, and the U.S. Someone from California presented a powerpoint from the sisters in Peru who were denied visas. They put this together and sent it when they realized they would not be able to travel here. The "input" from all of this was profound. In turn, each participant was invited to share her own story of living our charism in a smaller group at the table.

At the end this we "gathered the graces" of what was in our hearts. Paula, the sister who is facilitating the meeting, keeps reminding us that this is a "gathering of the daughters for the life of the world." Although we are mainly from the U.S. and Canada, this way of framing our time together creates such a spaciousness and a sense of the global reality of who we are as Sisters of St. Joseph throughout the world.

We still have another entire day tomorrow. I realize I'm only scratching the surface of the experience of being here but there is so much to reflect on. My introvert side needs sit with it all in prayerful reflection for a while. More later...