Leadership Conference of Women Religious Occasional Papers
Winter 2008
I have been fascinated by the idea that "we are the people of the parenthesis" since reading Jean Houston's book, Jump Time. We are living at the end of one era but not quite into the new era. Jean goes on to say that the only thing we can expect is the unexpected. We are in a time of quantum change.
This concept was brought back to me with the expression "We are in the nowhere between two somewheres," which was stated several times during the 2007 Leadership Conference (LCWR) assembly. Sister Mary Dacey, SSJ, in her presidential address, told us that we had to step into the uncertainty and chaos of our time. And Sister Simone Campbell, SSS, warned us that the only time we have is now.
Our congregation founding stories tell of the courageous women who read the signs of their times and stepped out on the Word of God. Our time is now! We must reconnect with our founding stories to know who we are. But we must read the signs of our times by listening to the voices around us: the voice of our sisters, the voice of our church, the voice of our planet, and the voice of the world. We must take great care to hear the voices of those who have no voice - the poor, the disenfranchised. Simone asked us to go home and do centering listening prayer every day and then act on what we hear communication has broken down.
The 2007 LCWR assembly conveyed a sense of urgency (but not panic) to me to:
- Be a woman of faith and prayer. Our Dominican brother, Albert Nolan, tells us "who we are" is most important— not "what we do."
- Walk bravely into the preferred future. Scripture teaches me that hope is living today as if our preferred future will be the reality.
- Always act as a reconciler and bridge-builder. I need to step into those uncomfortable places where communication has broken down. I need to continue to make connections through diversity.
- Live in a counter-cultural way, resisting the siren call of consumerism and materialism, I need to pay serious attention to the ecological footprint I am making on Earth. We must live in a "gift economy" – everything is a gift, not a possession.
As congregations, let us direct our focus outward, by dwelling less on limitation and diminishment and more adventurously on the mission.
This brings me to consider the prophetic nature of religious life as an institutional embodiment, in the midst of the church, yet for the world. I continue to struggle with the questions of how to become a more genuine prophet and to whom am I being sent to prophesy.
Sister Mary Kay Homan, OP, is a member of the general council of the Adrian Dominican Sisters. The LCWR Occasional Papers is a journal published by the conference that offers articles and reflections on topics pertinent to women religious leaders.