Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity recently gathered for a Community Education Meeting on the theme of ‘ Transforming Our Losses’. Sister Jane Kinate, a member of the General Administration, explained that this year’s gathering’s emphasis was on personal growth as we deal with the effects of a pandemic that has not completely disappeared. As a community of Sisters, we have dealt with many losses – death of many Sisters as well as family members and friends, ministry changes, to name just a few. There are other losses that are more personal to each Sister.
Sister Mercedes McCann RSM was invited as the guest presenter. Sr. Mercedes McCann currently serves in the position of Leadership Relations in the Consultation, Education, and Outreach Department for the Saint John Vianney Center. In this position, Sister is a liaison to those in leadership roles in religious communities and is available to leadership for consultation, education, and facilitation. Sister’s particular focus is women’s religious communities. Our acquaintance with Sister is through the monthly Colloquia presented by the SJVC for leaders of religious congregations.
Sister Mercedes focused on the Scriptures from Triduum to the Easter Tomb to help us move from life being changed, but not ended. We were encouraged to grow in mindfulness while moving to transformation on the road to Galilee. The virtue of hope, in particular anticipatory hope, was imaged as all of us are called to be myrrh bearers, like Mary Magadalene and the other women at the tomb.
The program included not only large group presentations, but also small group discussion and large group sharing.
Image: By Snežana Trifunović – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2566551
