takes being in the right place at the right time to speak just the right words to the right person. It takes having those opportunities to interact with those who are discerning a call to religious life.
In looking ahead to the New Year, my hopes and wishes are focused on creating opportunities to engage others in a conversation about religious life and Precious Blood spirituality, to continue the parish visits and to schedule Days of Reflection, and also to host a Mission Trip to pbmr in Chicago. It would be a weeklong opportunity to engage in ministry, reflect upon what we have done, and share our c. pp. s. story. Another hope and wish would be to find some new and challenging ways to interact with possible inquirers other than the traditional vocation booth. I much prefer to interact and have a conversation with someone else while engaged in a project. I’ m not one to just sit and visit over a cup of coffee. I wish to explore some different service type projects that could be inviting to potential inquirers, and while doing the work have an opportunity to share our story and invite another to consider religious life.
I don’ t do this ministry alone and so another wish is to receive names from other members of men interested and worth a conversation to see where the journey might lead. Here’ s still hoping and wishing it will be a journey with us. W
Editor, continued from page 2 The board is especially helpful, in that each member shares responsibility for soliciting articles and working with writers to further develop articles as needed. Unsolicited articles continue to encouraged and welcomed. Our goal is to invite members, Companions, candidates and volunteers( and others) to tell the Precious Blood story and share how Precious Blood spirituality and charism is expressed in our lives and ministries.
The new year begins in the cold and dark of winter for many of us. We look back with gratitude and forward with hope. So I will end this with a favorite poem of mine, Gratitude to Old Teachers by Robert Bly. When we stride or stroll across the frozen lake, We place our feet where they have never been. We walk upon the unwalked. But we are uneasy. Who is down there but our old teachers?
Water that once could take no human weight— We were students then— holds up our feet, And goes on ahead of us for a mile. Beneath us the teachers, and around us the stillness. W
Leadership, continued from page 3 financially. We have children who no longer receive Communion at our School Masses because their parents don’ t come to Church on Sundays— and the children know this is what is required and so they don’ t go to Communion during the week either. There are others who believe that going to the school Mass during the week satisfies their being there on Sundays.
The“ new normal” has created a whole new way of how we continue to support and enhance Catholic education at the local level. The former assumptions that we used to depend on are no longer valid; to continue to insist on those past assumptions only leads to frustration and possibly despair. What is needed is a new understanding of how we pass on the faith to future generations in a way that is both affordable and effective. This has become the mission of the Pastoral Council and the School Advisory Council for parishes who have schools.
But just as the assumptions of the past are no longer valid in today’ s world for Catholic schools, I wonder what assumptions of the past are no longer valid as we look at our own future as a Society of Apostolic Life. In the past, most of our future members came from our parishes or from those who participated in parish missions led by our Mission Band; this is no longer true. In the past, families had 4-6 children; this is no longer true. In the past, parents felt blessed to have a son or daughter in religious life; this is no longer true for many parents.
I suspect there are other assumptions that are no longer valid as we look to the future and plan on remaining a province of hope and sustainability. A new approach needs to be discovered, and that seems to be our mission today. Is it possible to let go of past assumptions and trust in new approaches that will produce a new hope and future for us? What kind of future can we imagine that will project us into a future of hope and promise? Will it be a change in our ministries, will it be a change in how we live community life, will it be a change in how we name our relationship between incorporated members and covenanted companions, or will it be a new awareness of how our spirituality can speak to our world of today? W
January 2017 • The New Wine Press • 5