Soundings Update & CSSJ Federation Gathering the Daughters 2014

http://www.csjboston.org/news-and-events/soundings-update/soundings/
Check out our latest issue of Soundings Update.

Read about a Good Friday interfaith procession of the cross and the CSSJ Federation Gathering the Daughters 2014. 
While you're there, check our website for liturgies and other events at which all are welcome.

CSSJ Gathering the Daughters

Our latest issue of Soundings Update is available at: http://www.csjboston.org/su-May-2-2012.pdf Featured in this issue of Soundings Update is an event that happens every other year called Gathering the Daughters. The title of this year's gathering was: Rename, Reclaim, Rediscover Our Vision in the 21st Century.

There was a wonderful spirit among close to eighty who participated in this gathering. I'm tempted to say more but please read the article.

The article on page two is about a visit to our Motherhouse by about 50 participants in the annual conference of Spiritual Directors International. The group met in the Boston area this year but the visitors were from all over the world.

Also...Yesterday was the feast of St. Joseph the Worker. To celebrate this day the U.S. Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph launched a new public Facebook page. If you're already on Facebook, you can "like" the page by searching for US Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph. In a few weeks there will be a new CSSJ Federation webpage. I'll be sure to let you know when that goes live.

Soundings Update

Here is our latest newsletter. Just click on the masthead above or the title of this post and you will be linked to the April 29 edition. This week's edition has an article about Gatherining the Daughters which I wrote about last week. Some of it will be familiar. But there are more pictures in the Soundings Update newsletter.

Anyone reading this in the Boston area is also invited to our next Taize Prayer evening. It's next week at our Motherhouse. Details are on page 2 of the update.

On a personal note: The forsithia in this edition was photographed outside our Motherhouse the other day. The two tulips on the second page were in my back yard at home this past weekend. We finally cut them and placed them in a vase for the prayer table in our house.

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...