who are studying to become members of religious orders of women and men. We looked at
the essence of religious life, namely falling in love with Jesus and nurturing that relationship day
in and day out. The speaker, Brother Sean Sammon, FMS, challenged us to go back to the charism of our religious communities. He described “charism” to all religious communities as the Spirit leading our Founders and Foundresses to read the signs of the times and respond according to God’s will. His belief was that anyone completing a novitiate today needs to accomplish two things: 1) fall in love with Jesus and 2) assimilate and embrace the Founder/Foundresses’ gift to the church. He went on to suggest that the question that is before us religious, both our newest members—postulants and novices and temporary professed—and the “seasoned” members is how do we read the signs of the times and to what is the Spirit leading us in response to the signs of the times? Brother Sean reminded us that in Mary’s day the Word of God broke out among the marginalized of society. Mary herself was a Jewish peasant, most likely illiterate, and considered, as a woman in the culture of her day, a second-class citizen. Then, as now, the Word of God was revealed, not among the rich and powerful, but among the poor and marginalized, Brother Sean stated. As members of religious communities today, we are among the marginalized of the world—this is where the Word of God will be revealed and God’s will manifested. So what a grace to be in religious life in this century, Brother Sean mused. Just as Mary said “yes” to God’s call and transformed the world and salvation history in her day, so, too, are we called to be a source of transformation in the world and in the church of our day. Are we willing, Brother Sean asked, to allow the Spirit to lead us in the direction that God wants us to go as a congregation, all of us endorsing a common vision, a common mission to be carried out in a variety of ways, as our Foundresses and Founders and earliest members did? Our Foundresses and Founders, Brother Sean commented, would probably be impatient with us who say that we are dwindling, diminishing, dying, and therefore don’t have the resources to do what needs to be done in the world of today. With fewer members and much, much less material resources, they committed themselves to a daunting task of developing a healthcare, educational, and social justice agencies/systems that thrive to this day. They read the signs of the times in their day and responded, not with material wealth, but with the wealth they possessed in loving God and His Ways above all else. They truly had fallen in love with Jesus and nothing He asked was too much for them. What about us?
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