Six calls to Women Religious
Tim Williams, CM of Australia wonders whether they are also calls to the Vincentian Family. Speaking before an international gathering of women religious leaders, Indian theologian, Assumption Sister Rekha M. Chennattu called for a radically new religious paradigm. She listed six calls that women religious today are being asked to respond to.
1. “We are being called out of piety and ritualism into deep communion and communication with God, which results in a vibrant spirituality that is nurtured by the experience of the Paschal mystery in our daily life, made relevant in constant interaction with the challenges of present society and sustained by ongoing renewal (metanoia) in our way of life.
2. “We are being called out of individualism and personal perfection into community living and sharing of our resources and talents. We are called out of our secure and fixed community into an alternative prophetic community bound by love and lived in common mission.
3. “We are being called out of our tendency to be conformist into a profound openness to God’s ways and wholehearted commitment to God’s mission (obedience). We are being called out of our exclusive and alienating love into a liberating and empowering relationship manifested in self-giving service (chastity). We are being called out of our enslaving attachments to things into a radical freedom from accumulating material wealth in the midst of a consumerist world (poverty).
4. “We are being called out of our faithfulness to a set pattern of life into a dynamic process of integral formation.
5. “We are being called out of our secure and safe environments into newer and deeper commitment in favor of God’s choices, witnessing to Jesus’ identification with the poor, his blazing anger at injustice, human rights violations and discrimination against women, and his passion for God’s reign (prophetic mission).
6. “We are being called out of control and domination into an empowering friendship model of leadership and shared responsibilities in religious life.”
She says it well. She says what I think Vincent has always said and envisioned but look how long it has taken to filter down into all the Church of Religious Women–almost 400 years!!!! This piece is a living work showing how CHANGE TAKES TIME! Finally, the average woman religious sees the message, the path, the vocation. Finally. If I were not almost 70 years old (in a few weeks or so) and married (33 years or so), I’d be running–not even walking–to sign up once more and say:’Here I am. Count me in!’ gh1 Comment
She says it well. She says what I think Vincent has always said and envisioned but look how long it has taken to filter down into all the Church of Religious Women–almost 400 years!!!!
This piece is a living work showing how CHANGE TAKES TIME! Finally, the average woman religious sees the message, the path, the vocation. Finally.
If I were not almost 70 years old (in a few weeks or so) and married (33 years or so), I’d be running–not even walking–to sign up once more and say:’Here I am. Count me in!’ gh