REDEMPTORIST NORTH AMERICAN SECRETARIAT FOR PARTNERSHIP IN MISSION

NOTES FROM GO-TO-MEETING

MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2017

1:30 p.m. NL; 1:00 p.m. Atlantic; 12:00 Eastern; 11:00 a.m. Central; 10:00 a.m. Mountain.

Present: Mario Doyle, CSsR; Mike Smolinski, CSsR; David Louch, CSsR; Anne Walsh.

Absent:  John Fahey-Guerra, CSsR; Francis Gargani, CSsR; John Kingsbury, CSsR; Dominic Nguyen, CSsR; Glenn Parker, CSsR.

Prayer: Fr. Mike Smolinski, CSsR opened the meeting with a prayer.

Review of the Retreat/Workshop for Partners in Mission at the Redemptorist Retreat Center, Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, October 19-22, 2017

General feedback of the members and those present was that the retreat/workshop was a positive experience for all, and that it was a valuable experience of building community, bonding and growing together in understanding and appreciation of the Redemptorist charism. The variety of presenters/animators, their experiences and perspectives was rich. The energy and enthusiasm for partnership in mission was wonderful, and the participants were attentive and responsive.

One area to be attentive to in planning for future events is that there was not enough time for personal reflection.

Follow-up and Next Steps:

www.cssr.net-- Mario Doyle, CSsR digitally recorded the presentations at the retreat/workshop, and has spent the past month editing the footage. He has created a website for the North American Secretariat for Partnership in Mission, and has uploaded the edited presentations and the handouts used during the retreat. These will now be available as formation resources for the circles of Redemptorist Associates and for individual Redemptorist Associates who wish to use the material for study, reflection, formation and prayer. We will continue to upload material to the website as we move forward with the formation of circles of Redemptorist Associates in the Conference, beginning in early 2018.

We will contact all those who took part in the retreat/workshop, inviting them to review the material available on www.cssr.net.

Living Redemptorist Spirituality:

There has been a request from the vocation directors of the conference to re-publish the prayer resource that has been published by the previous North American Commisison for Partnership in Mission, working closely with Liguori Publications. There was enthusiasm from all for this common project. We will circulate the PDF of Living Redemptorist Spirituality to all members of RNASPIM, asking them to review it and submit their suggestions for updating and revising the resource. Deadline for the reception of feedback will be January 31, 2018. Anne Walsh, David Louch, Mario Doyle and Mike Smolinski will then meet on Monday, April 9, 2018, the day preceding the joint Canadian Chapter, to review the suggestions. We will gratefully accept the offer of Wendy Barnes of Liguori Publications to assist with the editing and layout of the revised booklet.

In the immediate, the following suggestions were made:

• Add the Martyrs of Cuenca to the section on CSsR Saints and Blesseds and to the calendar

• Update the material on Maria Celeste Crostarosa, reflecting her recent beatitfication. Move her into the section with the other blessed of the Congegation. Make sure that this is also reflected in the calendar.

• Consider not naming the members of RNASPIM in the opening pages, in order that the volume might not become so quickly outdated.

• OLPH icon—consider updating this section to encourage a movement from devotion to mission.

• Find a prayer of or to St. Alphonsus that has more general appeal than the arthritics’ prayer.

• Review the translation of Passerat’s prayer for neighbour

• Consider shortening or even eliminating the bibliography in order to allow for the inclusion of the Spanish martyrs.

• Pp 9 and 25, re-word the invitation to read something like, “remembering that we are in God’s presence…”

• If we choose to retain the bibliography, check the title of the book cited on p.29.

Special Assistant for Partnership in Mission:

Anne Walsh has been engaged by the Edmonton-Toronto Province as a member of a new Faith Formation Team, and will be available to the units of the North American Conference as a resource for Partnership in Mission. Anne has proposed a work plan to Fr. Jack Kingsbury and Fr. Mark Miller. Once this has been reviewed and approved, Anne will share this with all members of RNASPIM.

It is Anne’s hope that, within the next year, each unit will:

- Establish a v/provincial commission, committee or working group for partnership in mission;

- Offer information and formation for the professed around partnership in mission, its goals and purpose;

- Form circles of Redemptorist Associates around local communities, ministries, shrines, etc.;

- Offer a “come and see” event for prospective partners in mission;

- Offer an initial retreat and at least three follow-up sessions, extending the themes of the retreat, and focussing on living Redemptorist spirituality in daily life.

As soon as she begins in the new role in January 2018, Anne will develop a “start-up kit” for use within the units. The start-up kit will include:

- A brochure that outlines what a Redemptorist Associate is, offers a simple prayer for vocations to the Redemptorist Family, and can be offered when a confrere invites an individual to a ‘come and see” event;

- A Brochure describing the role of professed Redemptorists in establishing circles of Redemptorist Associates;

- An outline of a “Come and See” event, and resources for that event;

- An outline for the initial retreat that would be used to get each circle of Redemptorist Associates started, engaging the professed members of the local community.

- Session outlines for three follow-up formation sessions for new circles of Redemptorist Associates

The meeting concluded at 2:20 p.m. NL time.

denverlink UPDATE, The Redemptorists/Denver Province, Volume 10, Issue 25, November 3, 2017

First North American Conference Partners in Mission Retreat

by Anne Walsh

The joy and excitement were palpable as 40 Partners in Mission – professed Redemptorists and lay people – gathered to learn, grow, reflect and pray together at the Redemptorist Retreat Center in Oconomowoc on October 19-22. We came from seven of the eight Redemptorist provinces and vice provinces in North America. Our faces, experiences, countries of origin, and mother tongues were a wonderful and rich picture of diversity, and evidence of the power and universality of the message of Plentiful Redemption.

Our time together was a combination of retreat and workshop. We began by sharing our life experiences, focusing on how we have been drawn to the most abandoned and the proclamation of the Good News of Plentiful Redemption. In joy and wonder, we heard stories of how we had been drawn to service in our families, through groups we had become part of, or through Redemptorists and the opportunities they provided. Our discussion ushered in a time of reflection on Luke 4:16-20, the passage in which Jesus stands up before the people in the synagogue and first proclaims his mission, “I came to proclaim good news to the poor.. liberty to captives...”

Much of our second day together was spent exploring the “four pillars” of Redemptorist spirituality – crib (Incarnation), cross (Redemption), altar  (Eucharist) and Mary (particularly under the title Our Lady of Perpetual Help). These sessions were led by Fr. David Louch (Edmonton-Toronto), Fr. John Fahey Guerra (Denver), Fr. Francis Gargani (Baltimore) and Anne Walsh. We were especially grateful that Fr. Piotr Chyla, Director of the Center for Redemptorist Spirituality in Rome, was able to join us and frame our retreat with an eye-opening session about the foundation of the Congregation and stories of the 20 Saints and Blessed of the Redemptorist family.

Our sessions were very interactive – a combination of presentation and discussion in small and large groups – with plenty of time for individual reflection and only a few awkward silences! Participants were curious, intrigued and engaged as we bounced our experiences against what we were hearing and learning, and discerned whether and how we were called into partnership in and for this great mission of proclaiming Good News to the most abandoned, particularly the poor.

On the third day, we explored how lay people and professed and ordained Redemptorists can and do share this mission of redemption. We looked at how “mission” is a bigger reality than “ministry,” and how lay partners who share the spirit can take the message of Plentiful Redemption wherever they live and work and socialize, extending the reach of the Redemptorist family into all corners of our mission field. As examples, we looked at the experiences of the participants. Some – very few – work in explicitly Redemptorist environments. Most of us don’t, but viewed through Redemptorist “glasses,” we saw how work as veterinarians, real estate agents, hospice ministers, teachers, retailers, and caterers (the list could go on and on!) brings us into contact with people who exist on the periphery of society and the Church and explored how important collaboration is to extend the message of God’s love and redemption to all.

Of course, we spent time socializing, getting to know one another better on long walks around the beautiful property and during our evening socials. Sometimes the best sharing happens in these relaxed moments!

A renewed and refreshed, excited and passionate group was sent forth from the retreat! Our time together was graced, and the only appropriate response is “Thank You!” We hope that this retreat and workshop will be the first of many, and that it will bear fruit in the creation of Circles of Redemptorist Associates all over North America dedicated to empowering and strengthening lay people and Redemptorists working together for mission.