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Closing Words to the General Congregation
Closing Words to the General Congregation, 28th October 2009.Casa Divin Maestro, Ariccia, Rome In Christ the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God. Eph.2:21-22 Liturgy of the day How appropriate for us are these words from the first reading today! We know that in Christ alone must be placed the hope that he will preserve and carry forward what he deigned to begin for his service and praise Vol. I Cons. 812. This beginning was 400 years ago and this afternoon we confirmed, affirmed together a very significant step on this long journey.
Several have spoken about the sense of goodness we find in each one here and in us as a group; the desire in us to do what was best as we endeavoured with all possible energy (Vol. I Cons. 101) to express in words the essence of our way of life in worldwide mission at the service of the reign of God and of humanity today and into the future. Several of us experienced significant graces as we allowed ourselves listen deeply and began to see things from another perspective, in the context of the whole Institute and as part of the ongoing evolution of our life and mission. We drew on our inner resources, on the stirrings of the Spirit within us and on the strengths within the assembled body to engage in reflection and honest exchanges. We sensed the support of love and prayer from our members worldwide and were truly grateful for this. We know too that the members of the Congregatio Jesu were keeping us in heart and mind. The goodness we have sensed in ourselves here exists in all of our members, in the whole body, I believe. It is nurtured by the law of love and freedom we so often mention. It will enable us to continue to claim these Constitutions as our own and live them deeply into the future. Mother Michael Corcoran, as General Superior, speaking over 100 years ago said we have to think not only or chiefly of the greater present good but of good in the future; not of ourselves only but of those who come after us because we have the right to expect the handing down intact of the spirit and tradition of our Institute and for our part there must be no smallness, no selfishness, no narrowness. With such an attitude who knows where the next twenty / thirty years will lead us as Mary Ward women in search of union of minds and hearts. Let us trust that our members old and young will live and run with these Constitutions into the next 30 or 40 years in the 23 countries where we live and work. Let us never underestimate our younger or our older members. In truth let us never underestimate ourselves and our capacity to engage and act around what really matters in life and mission The same engagement and owning is possible around the Constitutions – especially if we support each other in different ways around it. We here have experienced the richness and depth of understanding which comes from taking time to share. Hopefully we can facilitate this in the provinces/regions throughout the Institute in the months and years ahead. We owe a great debt of gratitude to each other – we have been gifts to each other in so many ways during these days both inside and outside this meeting room. Personal gifts have been generously shared for the greater universal good. So we thank each other for this. The first reading speaks about us being built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God. Significant building has occurred here and now as we move out of here we continue to be prophetic in the sense Paul speaks about in I Cor. 14:3. Our role within the body and beyond is
As we have concluded the work of revision of our Constitutions and we have given formal assent on behalf of the whole Institute to the final draft which will be presented to the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated life and Societies of Apostolic Life for approval I declare this Extraordinary General Congregation closed on this day 28th October 2009. May God whose glory is our goal and our strength fill us with confidence and courage as we move forward into the next stage of the journey. Jesus say Amen! Marian Moriarty IBVM 28th Oct.2009 |
We gather in this space which has been especially ours for the last two weeks. We know that it is not only what happened in this room that created the experience of this extraordinary general congregation…… We each hold memories and know deep down that a general congregation is truly a special experience of union of minds and hearts in the Institute.