Video: 2003 to 2008

On the first day of the Chapter, Congregation Leader Sheila Lemieux shared a video prepared by Communications Director Paulette Krick that summarizes the years since our 2002 Chapter. You can now watch this video online below.

Wednesday: Audio Podcast of John Dear's Presentation

Press the ">" key in the box below to listen to John Dear's presentation to the Congregation Chapter.

Wednesday: Living Nonviolently

John Dear, SJ we were told this morning, “believes and lives peace through justice.” He is the “internationally recognized voice for peace and nonviolence” and is the author of many books on the subject.

Today John Dear urged us as CSJPs to speak the truth, resist war, practice nonviolence, pray, and follow the nonviolent Jesus. We have no need to be afraid in our mission as peacemakers, he said. We have our own Constitutions which should compel us to take a stand, be the voice ofpeace in our poor world which at this time is living in an Orwellian nightmare of war.

We are blessed in having such a powerful heritage from Margaret Anna Cusack, an historic peacemaker. The question for us as we follow her lead is how to become stronger voices for peace. We have to ask how our life as a Congregation fits into the life of Jesus.

John spoke dynamically and passionately about formative influences in his journey into nonviolence – Martin Luther King, the Berrigan brothers, and Ignacio Ellacuria, who told him bluntly he could no longer be for the reign of God unless he could stand up publicly and actively against the anti-reign; silence would be complicity in war.

In our own lives we can harbor violence about the smallest things so we must work towards becoming communities of nonviolence. In order to be faithful to the journey, John asked us to be:
contemplatives of peace, full time activists, students and teachers of active nonviolence, visionaries of nonviolence and prophets of peace.

John asked us to make our lives a journey of peace, to breathe peace as we walk in the footsteps of the nonviolent Christ, remembering those who have led the way in our recent past – Dorothy Day, Gandhi, Daniel and Phillip Berrigan and Martin Luther King, who said “the choice is no
longer violence or nonviolence, it is nonviolence or nonexistence.”

John asked us to think and talk in our table groups about five questions:
1. How do I define gospel nonviolence?
2. When have I experienced it?
3. What’s the most difficult challenge for me on the journey
of nonviolence?
4. Jesus – was he violent or nonviolent?
5. How can we take another step, this week, on the road
to active nonviolent peace?

Responding to comments from table groups, John said that we in America and England live in a
world of total war and there is a subtle spirituality of violence all around us. We are urgently needed as leaven for the new church of peace, because war is not the will of God.

In the afternoon, John focused on the Beatitudes, saying that Gandhi read Matthew, Chapters 5,6 and 7 every day, and we would do well to do likewise.The Beatitudes – the teachings of Christ our peace – are the blueprint for nonviolent action. Can we as a peacemaking community fulfill the demands of these beatitudes? He ended the day by asking us to reflect on
the following powerful and disturbing questions:

How are we already living out the beatitudes of peace?
How do we love our enemies?
What is our image of God? Is our God non-violent?
How are we peacemakers?
What decision by the Congregation will help us become
beatitude people?

John Dear’s powerful witness and challenge was followed up by an invitation from Annie Welch and the Liturgy Committee to consider taking the Pax Christi vow of nonviolence. This will be considered as we continue in the Chapter process.

Video: Blessing John

Alexandra Kovats, CSJP blessed John Dear before he addressed the Congregation Chapter on Wednesday Morning. Watch the video below.

Tuesday: A Process of Contemplative Listening

Nancy Sylvester, IHM addressed the Chapter on Tuesday. Weaving the Transa poem into her presentation, she guided us through a process of contemplative listening. "Transitions. Crossing Overs. Trasna. The Crossing Place. Consciousness Waking," she said. "I suggest they are describing the same reality, and the choice to cross over is the choice to become the holy rising in our midst. That is our challenge, the challenge of all of us who have come to this new consciousness at this point in our history."

Nancy shared her belief that women religious are uniquely positioned to approach this crossing place for two reasons.

1. The compressed time frame in which we have shifted our awareness from pre-modernity to modernity to post-modernity – all in the last 40 to 50 years.
2. Our capacity to move forward from a contemplative space.

She noted that we as a Congregation have spent time discussing and reflecting on how we want to live from a Well of Integrity these past six years. She believes that it is crucial to live out of the contemplative stance if we are to move forward and cross over.

"In the poem," she said, " we are asked: 'Why go on? Is life not short enough? Why seek to pierce its mystery? Why venture further on strange paths risking all? Why be a pilgrim still?' The only answers that make sense come from the well of integrity – from a contemplative heart."

In the late morning and afternoon sessions, Nancy invited us to enter into a contemplative listening process. She prefaced this portion of the day by suggesting that we practice spaciousness and hospitality. "Take in and make welcome that which you find unpleasant or uncomfortable," she said. "Stay with it, be spacious with it, welcome it because it's going to tell you a lot about yourself."

She guided us through a personal reflection on the following question: "When I imagine the possibility of becoming a Congregation-without-provinces I feel …" She likened this heart-focused process to taking a geological core sample, going deeper and deeper with the same question. We anonymously recorded our responses on pieces of paper which were taped to the wall of our meeting space.

Nancy then guided us through a group listening and inquiry process focused on the question of becoming a Congregation-without-provinces. "It's not about whether you want to do it or not do it," she cautioned us. "The question before you now is how you feel about it."

Many of those present were filled with gratitude for the open manner in which participants shared their feelings. "We learned that there was a span and intensity of feelings," said Mary Thorne, CSJP. "Overall we appreciated everyone's honesty and the process."

Nancy closed by sharing her belief that "out of your Well of Integrity, you will 'see' in new ways how to enter the River of Peace and, trusting together, you will have the light you need for your first step."

To learn more about Nancy and her work with Engaging Impasse: Circles of Contemplation and Dialogue, visit their website.

Tuesday: Audio Podcast of Nancy Sylvester's Presentation

Press the ">" key in the box below to listen to Nancy Sylvester's presentation to the Congregation Chapter.

Monday: Audio Podcast of Sheila's Presentation

Press the ">" key in the box below to listen to Sr. Sheila Lemieux's "State of the Congregation" address to the Congregation Chapter.

Tuesday: Process with Nancy Sylvester

Tuesday morning we were blessed to have Nancy Sylvester, IHM share her thoughts with us about this holy place where we find ourselves ... the crossing place, Trasna. We'll post more about her presentation here later.

In the late morning Nancy invited us into a process of contemplative listening around the question, "When I imagine the possibility of becoming a Congregation-without-Provinces I feel." The process was heart focused. As Nancy said, "It's not about whether you want to do it or not do it. The question is how you feel about it. It's not about analysis or decision making, but why you feel the way you feel."

After time for an individual guided reflection, we gathered for knee to knee conversations and then posted our reflection sheets on the wall of our meeting room.

Monday: Three Challenges from Sheila

Congregtion Leader Sheila Lemieux gave the Chapter her “State of the Congregation” report on Monday, with a theme of “Releasing the Charism.” “We gather in abundance,” she said, “we gather for a feast, we gather to be transformed. This Congregation Chapter is the public occasion when we release the charism in new and different ways.”

Sheila noted that Crossing Place serves as rich metaphor for this time as we are called to go deeper and be truth-tellers and called not just to tolerate our diversity, but to draw on its power.
She gave us three challenges:

• She challenged us to interpret the charism in light of contemporary needs
• She challenged us to direct possible reconfigurations to mission, to releasing the charism
• She challenged us to give expression to our oneness as Congregation by selecting one focus or mission to mark the upcoming 125th anniversary of our foundation.

In the 2nd phase of Sheila’s report, a DVD prepared by Congregation Communications Director Paulette Krick movingly summarized our work as Congregation to fulfill the commitments made in our Well of Integrity and Rivers of Peace Chapter Acts (this DVD will be available to all).

Finally, Sheila challenged us to move beyond our comfortable identities and boundaries, to expand our horizons for the sake of mission. “Perhaps the deepest purpose of religious life,” she said, “is to cooperate with God’s grace and allow ourselves to evolve to a level of consciousness that sees everything as interconnected, intertwined and interdependent.”

Our first day concluded with a beautiful liturgy in which all participated, celebrated by Fr. Terry Moran,
CSJP-A.

Video: Blessing Sheila

Alexandra Kovats, CSJP blessed Sheila Lemieux before she addressed the Congregation Chapter on Monday Morning. Watch the video below.