What's Next?

When we met by province yesterday Alice, Maureen and I discussed how we will take the spirit and message of the second Maist International Mission Assembly back home.  Our hope is that at least one of us will share the message in person with each entity in the province during the upcoming year.  We also intend to meet with the provincial council to share our thoughts and listen to their suggestions.  And we hope to schedule a conference call with the school liaisons to discuss how to integrate the message into the activities of the upcoming Montagne year.  

What is the message that we will share?  While the formal message is still bring refined and translated we intend to convey the heart of what is new (or not so new):  our call to deepen our spirituality (to be mystics), our call to minister at the peripheries (to be prophets) and our common mission as Champagnat Marists (to be in communion).

Lastly, this blog will continue as a way for each of us to share our stories as we grow together.  Look for details in the near future.

Below is a quote to ponder as we continue to advance the Marist mission:

Still working/still praying

Our synthesizing process has been long and hard - as much as we all have similarities in our Marist way of being, we also have a wide spectrum of what is valid for each of our regions and provinces.  So to come up with a summary that works for everyone is quite an interesting process.  We've  contemplated individually, in small groups and large groups.  We've " voted" with our yellow and orange dots on what we think the priorities are, and a small committee of synthesizers has taken all that and put it into several documents that we've examined and pulled apart and put together again.  Today, we heard the final statement, an all inclusive document - but one that will, after our group reflection on it, will still undergo changes.  We also met with our region, Arco Norte, to talk about how to share the excitement with everyone back home, on a community level, a province level and a regional level.  Lots of good ideas...

                                                                  Hard at work

                                                            Arco Norte Regional meeting

                                                                candles at prayer

                                                             Br. Tony Leon making his decisions

                                                     Dancing at morning prayer

                                                       Hashing out the priorities

Br. Michael, Sri Lanka