Blessed be the Lord,
God of Israel, for He has visited…His people. (Lk 1:68)
The Provincial Assembly of the Holy Family Province has been an experience of God’s visitation to our Province with the abiding presence and guidance of the Holy Spirit. This was participated by 46 sisters on a hybrid manner: 37 onsite at the Provincial House and 19 online from the different places.
On October 22, we had the half-day recollection that disposed us to the stirrings of the Holy Spirit for the different tasks of these assembly days. The recollection guide united us in prayer and reflection as one provincial body.
The Opening Mass of the Assembly on October 23, celebrated the 11th Canonization Year of St. Bonifacia where Edary Joy and Giang renewed their Vows with joy and gratitude. All was so enthused to reimagine spaces for the Charism with zeal marked with humility having St. Bonifacia as our example.
At St. Joseph’s Conference Room, Marcelina Sta. Cruz officially opened the Provincial Assembly. She welcomed all the sisters onsite and online and presented the Assembly’s objectives, the helpful ways to achieve them and the accompanying processes and tasks. The Sisters expressed their oneness and readiness to embark into this final phase of the Provincial Project of Discernment of our Presences and Projects.
From the work of the communities-taller brought to the Cluster Assemblies, the fruit of these spheres of discernment went through the collaborative work of the Cluster Coordinating Groups, Communities-Taller Coordinators and the Provincial Team.
The process of personal reflection, group and plenary consensus entailed listening to each other and being sensitive to the stirrings of the Spirit for us to arrive at the Criteria for the discernment of our presences and projects followed by the Realistic Dreams for the Province for the 5-year and 10-year terms.
The task became more intense on the second day, October 24, when we worked through the Proposals. We enriched the consensualized Proposals with the consensualized Visualization, which also included the prioritization as we discerned the Proposals to Strengthen and Create our Presences and Projects.
The discernment experience in plenum was indeed an experience of being led by the Holy Spirit, even during moments of confusion. We were able to make a consensus on the 9 discerned proposals. Joyfully, we gave them our resounding YES!
We continued the process of discernment on the first part of the following day, October 25. After reviewing the Pros and the Cons of the Discerned Proposals, space and time were given for silence to look within in the face of these Proposals. Then, we proceeded to the Confirmation of the Final Decision in its totality for the future of the Province. All these were in hybrid plenum. There was peace and all expressed their support and commitment.
The Holy Spirit continued to lead us
up to the last day of the assembly. We were able to put together, after the
work of each small group, the steps we need to undertake to realize the
proposals and what we need to safeguard in order to make these steps possible
and, at the same time, generate life.
The closing Eucharistic celebration, reverberated our endless gratitude to God’s visitation and journeying with us all throughout our Provincial Assembly. This we expressed through the symbolic offering of each group in order to highlight our joy and gratitude and our full commitment to whatever will be asked of us for the implementation of all our Decisions for the Province. Before the end of the mass, Marcelina, gave her words of thanks to Fr. Jay, the priest presider, to the sisters who offered particular tasks in the assembly, to each one of us for her active participation, and to all the collaborators for all the services they rendered during the past four days.
Indeed, as Siervas de San Jose of the Holy Family Province, we are ready to embark in this journey with humble prayer and total self-giving to reimagine spaces for our charism, in synodality, committed to the emerging reality.
The road before us
is still long but we are sure that our God who has visited us will continue to
journey with us to be able to reach our desired future according to His will
and for His greater honor and glory.
No comments:
Post a Comment