Taking up the threads again

Holy Mystery, Sacred presence,

All embracing, Creator God,
Gracious Spirit, Womb of all life
Ever gracing, Most wondrous God
In this moment, In our being
We are one, We are one.

The Morning Prayer was rich in allusions to our communion with the One who is and with all that is.

The time of deep discernment during the elections, when other business was suspended, is over.  

Refreshed after a day of rest, the Capitulants are returning to the task of putting form on all that has been germinating over the past weeks.

Christine outlined a ‘big agenda’ for the day.

·        The two key Chapter documents, Vowed for Mission and the Document emanating from the reflections, conversations and discussions in the Chapter, fuelled also by the contributions from the wider Institute, together with suggested amendments, had to be finalised. They were accepted by the Capitulants on the undeerstanding that the French and Spanish translations need to be refined.

The title Corporate Commitment was retained for the Document.

·         The Martillac project, for which the Capitulants had indicated their support, was given formal approval to continue in a show of ‘green cards’.

·         Evaluations

Christine pointed out that there were three evaluations to be done: one on the election process, one on the whole Chapter process and one for the house. She asked that they be done individually.

·         Marian had some items of interest for the Chapter

i.                The Pierre Bienvenu Noailles Foundation: This is a Foundation set up in France to finance Holy Family development projects. Not too many people know very much about it. Marian filled in some details and answered questions. We will leave it to the leaders and bursars to inform the members in their Units.

ii.               Another very interesting, even exciting, piece of information is that the General Administration is in the process of arranging to have its own Internet Server. At present, they (and we) are using different servers for our emails, websites and social media and this makes us more vulnerable to hacking.

The purpose is to provide greater security and privacy for everything regarding the Family. Each Unit will have an address with this Server and all information will be transmitted in this way, so that it becomes a sort of Intranet. Every Unit that so wishes can also use this Server for its own websites, emails, social media, blogs...

·         Chapter Recommendations

All the recommendations from the Chapter that need to be given to the General Leadership Team for implementation are being gathered by a group of three – Ana Maria, Adela and Eithne. Anyone who wishes to make a serious recommendation for the future may give it to the group before tomorrow’s deadline.

Other Conversations requested by the Chapter

The relationship between the Contemplative and Apostolic Sisters and Intercultural Communities were two topics  dealt with at some length and will form the subject matter of our next blog post.

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