TRANSFORMATION OF RELIGIOUS LIFE IN NORTH AMERICA: AN ACTION ORIENTED INITIATIVE

MISSION AND RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE 21 ST CENTURY Religious Life Today: - Religious life as we know it is in crisis. - Religious life as we know it will die. - The number of members in our Orders and Congregations has gone down during the past 40 or 45 years.

Changes that might be described as negative: Crisis of authority Anarchy Worldliness Lack of norms in terms of the sexual and the physical etc.

Positive Changes: Development of technology-communication systems Moving toward a greater personal and mature responsibility Suspension of a dualistic way to see our beliefs and the world Greater discussion placed on the value of the sexual and the physical Discussion on how to carry on our mission

Mission It has changed From “them” to “us” From missions to Mission There is a call for ALL to be missionaries There is a call to recognize the dignity of Baptism

Lumen Gentium 32 “There is one chosen people of God, one Lord, one faith, one baptism; there is a common dignity of members deriving from their rebirth in Christ, a common grace as children of God, a common vocation to perfection, one salvation, one hope, and undivided charity. In Christ and in the Church, there is, then, no inequality arising from race or nationality, social condition or sex, for there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave not free, there is neither male not female, for [we] are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Jurgen Moltmann The Church has a Mission vs. The Mission has a Church

“The Church has a Mission” - The Church has a position of control, a central place… instead of the Kingdom. - We have the tendency to tame the kingdom… creating a lifeless Church. - The kingdom starts to serve the Church and what it becomes important is the institution. The institution becomes the focus, the center… instead of the Kingdom. - We start paying lip service to the Kingdom. -We give the kingdom a quality or characteristic that very often is disconnected from that which is practical.

“The Mission has a Church” -Then we can start seeing things in a way that our ministry becomes more profound. - The kingdom is at the center while the Church as an institution is a servant. - The Kingdom is much larger than the Church but the Church helps in the proclamation and the building up of the Kingdom.

Community Life “True religious life is not coldly calculated or controlled by reason; it is often inspired or supported by a religious imagination that gives wings to thinking and discloses surprising possibilities for action.” Anthony Gittins

Community Life The role of IMAGINATION HOPE “Where there is no vision, the people will perish” Proverbs 29:18

The Reign of God Availability Commitment to humanity Totus Christus Open to the possibility of transformation The experience of the Divine within us To be transparent

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…” Ikebana: A sense of BALANCE AND HARMONY - Flowers come alive -Make flowers active -Make flowers fresh -Enhance each other

Multicultural and Intercultural Communities: Iceberg Analogy by Eric Law

FIESTA!! “The Gift of life is made concrete in the Creator’s love for us and in our active response to that love, a response made manifest not only in the act of celebration but also in that love of neighbor and commitment to justice which are the sociohistorical verification of our belief in life-as-a-gift.” Roberto Goizueta

Alleluia!!