What is your dream?

12/10/2012

What would you like to tell the members of the Order? Do you have a dream for new forms of ministry? of our structures at the local community or province levels? Share your ideas here.

6 Comments

Robert Dueweke, OSA link

12/22/2012 08:34:12 am

If we are to revitalize our ministries and structures, we need to first think about the mission. In radical discipleship, we are called to mission (and not as a mere "resource" for New Evangelization, as mentioned by the last Synod of Bishops!). See
http://ncronline.org/news/global/religious-india-push-revive-missionary-fervor

Jerome Knies, osa

1/23/2013 05:08:02 am

I have sent this to curiaosa but maybe it should be placed here. My comment on recent "What motivates you..."

Out of Bed in the AM!

“The Church’s deepest nature is expressed in her three-fold responsibility: of proclaiming the word of God (kerygma-martyria), celebrating the sacraments (leitourgia) and exercising the ministry of charity (diakonia). These duties presuppose each other and are inseparable” (Deus Caritas Est, 25).

With the above quote from his own encyclical BenXVI captures what gets me out of bed in the morning. My prayer is to be enabled to respond as Christ’s risen presence in us. I am encouraged by the following from BenXVI Deus Caritas Est, 33:

33. With regard to the personnel who carry out the Church's charitable activity on the practical level, the essential has already been said: they must not be inspired by ideologies aimed at improving the world, but should rather be guided by the faith which works through love (cf. Gal 5:6). Consequently, more than anything, they must be persons moved by Christ's love, persons whose hearts Christ has conquered with his love, awakening within them a love of neighbour. The criterion inspiring their activity should be Saint Paul's statement in the Second Letter to the Corinthians: “the love of Christ urges us on” (5:14). The consciousness that, in Christ, God has given himself for us, even unto death, must inspire us to live no longer for ourselves but for him, and, with him for others.

…”for others” is especially to be noted. Piety has moved from the “Jesus and me” orientation of the past 500 years to “our Father”. The formation of priests and religious during all that time with philosophy and theology never addressed the enormous crimes of slavery and the excesses of the industrial revolution. Our Thomas of Villanova was a rare exception. Of special note today is a quote from Vat II of 50 years ago:
Vatican II: Pastoral Constitution of the Church, Gaudium et Spes, 2, 24-25:

Indeed, the Lord Jesus, when He prayed to the Father, "that all may be one. . . as we are one" (John 17:21-22) opened up vistas closed to human reason, for He implied a certain likeness between the union of the divine Persons, and the unity of God's sons in truth and charity. This likeness reveals that man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself.(2)

25. Man's social nature makes it evident that the progress of the human person and the advance of society itself hinge on one another. For the beginning, the subject and the goal of all social institutions is and must be the human person which for its part and by its very nature stands completely in need of social life.(3) Since this social life is not something added on to man, through his dealings with others, through reciprocal duties, and through fraternal dialogue he develops all his gifts and is able to rise to his destiny.

The Holy Spirit is the mutual loving generosity of The Father and The Son. Given to us is this very Generosity calling us as religious to be generous ourselves as God is Generous. Today the religious is not called into religious life in order not to do something. Poverty can’t be merely giving up riches, when the poor need riches to be given them. Chastity can’t be merely giving up sexual experience along with affection for people, especially for the lonely and marginalized. Obedience can’t be merely not having one’s own way when the Church desperately needs a leadership to obey. Thus, I believe the underlying generosity of the religious vocation, Augustinian or otherwise, is a life devoted to generating riches for the poor, affection for the lonely and marginalized, and leadership for the sake of obedience.

There are new offenses against the vows that I believe we need to bring into explicit focus. One can take a vow of poverty in order to settle for a minimum of comfort and not to help the poor. There is a vow of chastity taken to justify a grumpy joyless celibacy and distancing from the human condition in need of affection, compassion and laughter. There is a vow of obedience taken to justify waiting until someone else says “March!”, someone else challenges the status quo, a pious excuse for not hoping for much more than already is.

With the above introduction I offer the following suggestions to the Chapter 2013 of our International Order referencing responsibility for our service/ministry in behalf of human dignity and diminishing unnecessary human suffering:

1. Assign specific documents and reading material to the Chapter Members to justify the expense of having the Chapter in Rome. There should be specific questions or areas of interest to be addressed and responsible homework to be done before getting to Rome. Visiting churches, museums and shrines will not protect religious life from

Robert Dueweke, osa

2/5/2013 10:22:05 pm

FYI on religious orders and renewal in India. How can we ignite a new discussion on renewal?

http://m.ucanindia.in/news/religious-discuss-challenges-of-consecrated-life-20208.html

Genesis, osa link

3/5/2013 02:25:31 pm

One ministry that is maybe not much develop in the order is social media apostolate. How can we create an atmosphere to all members of the order that would cater interconnectedness among each circumscription? Developing Social media apostolate could be an avenue to share news updates, share ideas on what we do in our apostolates. A concrete action that is possible is to make the website of the order be brought into a wider hosting of news updates of different circumscriptions regarding their various ministries. True that this has been addressed already, yet what I mean is that, each province should at least send a news article for a major event. Let them participate more actively.

Noel Hession OSA (HIB)

3/13/2013 06:39:20 pm

Lives committed to ministry can encounter real challenges when active ministry is no longer possible due to age or infirmity. In provinces (particularly European) that now have more friars over sixty than under it this is a difficult situation to address.
The meaningfulness of the lives of so many of our men is closely identified with their capacity to minister to the people of God. As this becomes more difficult the implications for our communities are not insignificant.
Preparation for retirement for our own friars needs to become a normal part of our ministering to each other.
Furthermore, these retired men are the ones who, generally, spend more time being physically present in our houses. These are the men who transform these houses into homes by the way they welcome, support, engage with and even challenge those of us who are more active. In many ways, they are often the ones who enable ministry - they are a prayerful presence; they are the ones who meet people at our doors; they are the ones who interact most with our neighbours; they are the ones who are interested in our ministry when nobody else seems to care.
I would like to see that the ministering presence of these men be acknowledged and recognised as what it is - ministry, not a replacement for ministry. This is not about treating these men with kindness and respect (that goes without saying). This is about encouraging and creating the awareness that theirs too is ministry and, is important to the rest of us and valued by the rest of us.

Jerry Knies

3/14/2013 09:39:04 am

Dear Noel Hession OSA

Thanks for your observation. I (77) now have a Pope that is younger than me! I would add as one of the elders we elders need to be attentive to the kind of encouragement we can give to the younger friars. I would add further that we elders need to be careful about reciting how things used to be. We need to help younger friars make it better than it used to be by avoid routines of thought or action that only serves to snuff out the youthful enthusiasm needed to get beyond what has been and on to what all of us hope for in the final analysis: that Christ may come again, and again, and again...

Jerry Knies, osa

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Robert Dueweke, OSA

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