Community Goal Setting

Community Goal Setting 2015-2016 PERSONAL PREPARATION To prepare for goal setting, please take some time for personal reflection using the following documents as background: a. Love Cannot Wait, directional statement of the 23 rd General Chapter b. How can this be? from the Addendum, Circular 7/14, Jan. 20, 2014 http://bit.ly/ssnd-how-can-this-be c. Pope Francis letter for the Year for Consecrated Life at http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-issues-letter-for-year-of-consecrated-life Pray and journal as you consider the questions below. Prepare to share with your community the fruits of your reflection. (Those living alone are encouraged to meet with other SSNDs to set goals together.) THEME: WAKE UP THE WORLD FROM OUR VOCATIONAL PLACE! Focus on Personal Development in Community from the Acts of the 23 rd General Chapter: We, the members of the 23 rd General Chapter, believe we, as a congregation, are at a vocational place. We must take a realistic account of who we are right now and discern what God is asking of us as we look to the future. We are at a crossroads of a call from God to which we must respond together. (S. Mary Maher, State of the Congregation Report, Sept. 2012) This Vocational place calls us as apostolic women religious to respond by committing ourselves to ongoing personal development in community especially by deepening our understanding and living of You Are Sent. Our community life is a witness to unity in a divided world. We commit ourselves to revitalize our community life. We invite, pray for, and accompany women who desire to share our life and mission. Together with them we discern their call. Community is the first and most believable gospel that we can preach. * Pope Francis - Rejoice! part 9

2 Goal Setting 2015 For your reflection: 1. What one or two elements of these readings carry specific meaning for you at this time of your life as a School Sister of Notre Dame? What calls to you from Pope Francis letter when you reflect on your local community living? 2. How do the challenges that are brought forward in How can this be? connect to Pope Francis expectations for the Year of Consecrated Life (that consecrated men and women would be witnesses of communion, of joy and the Gospel, and go evermore to the peripheries to proclaim the Good News)? 3. How can we answer to the challenge of Pope Francis I am counting on you to wake up the world? 4. In the Personal Development in Community Act of the 23 rd General Chapter we say: We commit ourselves to revitalize our community life. Allowing this call to fall freshly upon your hearts, How could this be? What would this look like in your local community? 5. What could I/we do to get involved in inviting women to our community to carry forward the charism of Blessed Theresa? 6. If I/we were full of audacity and hope for waking up the world this year, I/we would...? COMMUNITY SHARING/REFLECTION/PRAYER and GOAL SETTING Preparation: Arrange a prayer setting. (Consider symbols for the Year of Consecrated Life, You Are Sent, Love Cannot Wait, Acts of the 23 rd General Chapter, and How can this be...? ) In this Year of Consecrated Life, begin by singing: Wake the World with Dawning Joy! http://www.vocationnetwork.org/articles/show?id=455 Call to Faith Sharing and Dialogue: The leader calls all to recognize the presence of God, and invites each one to share the fruits of her reflections as the community looks towards the year s community goal. After each has shared, take quiet time to reflect and find the common, significant points of each person's sharing. Contemplative Listening: Following your dialogue, one or more of these readings is proclaimed as all listen to and then enter into silence. First Reading: Luke 1:26-34 In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. But Mary said to the angel, How can this be...?"

3 Goal Setting 2015 Second Reading: Matthew 4:20-22 Walking along the beach of Lake Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers: Simon (later called Peter) and Andrew. They were fishing, throwing their nets into the lake. It was their regular work. Jesus said to them. Come with me. I ll make a new kind of fisherman out of you. I ll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass. They didn t ask questions, but simply dropped their nets and followed. A short distance down the beach they came upon another pair of brothers, James and John, Zebedee s sons. These two were sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, mending their fishnets. Jesus made the same offer to them, and they were just as quick to follow, abandoning boat and father. Third Reading: YAS, GD 115 We assume responsibility for the future of the congregation by accepting responsibility for our ongoing personal development and for enabling and challenging one another to respond to the continual call of the Lord. We share in the development of new members by the welcome that we extend them and by the witness we give in our everyday living. Recognizing that we are enriched by each woman called to our congregation, we respect the culture and background of each. Period of Contemplative Silence: 5-10 minutes Goal Setting: The leader asks each one to complete the following statement: Reflecting on our community sharing and my desire to live out the Acts of the 23rd General Chapter, I would suggest the following goal... (Time for sharing.) After hearing all the suggestions, the community comes to consensus, chooses and records their goal together for 2015-16 and determines specific actions Closing: The Community offers the following petitions: That we, in solidarity with the church and world leaders may be transformed so to live in the oneness for which Jesus Christ was sent, we pray Lord, hear our prayer. For School Sisters of Notre Dame throughout the world, that through our faithfulness to God s love and our response to mission, we may be witnesses who help wake up the world, we pray Lord, hear our prayer. For all members of our Central Pacific Province, that through our living as vibrant faith communities we may witness to the most believable gospel, we pray Lord, hear our prayer. (Pope Francis, Rejoice. Part 9) That many young women will be open to Jesus call to consecrated life, a life of service in response to the needs and suffering of our world, we pray Lord, hear our prayer. Other prayers and petitions

Goal Setting 2015 Prayer: Rejoice! * Loving God, you have blessed our congregation in countless ways since your call first found an answer in the heart of Blessed Theresa. We ask that we, too, may be women strong in faith, farseeing in vision, and courageous in action (YAS, Origins), as we live community and respond generously to your daily calls to serve those in need. During this Year of Consecrated Life, we are especially grateful for all that has brought us to this point in our SSND history. Please transform our hearts and set us free to radically and faithfully live the Gospel in our times. In deep faith and courageous hope, we trust that Your Son, Jesus, will walk with, and guide us as we embrace together our unknown future. We ask this in Jesus name. AMEN. United with our International Congregation, close by proclaiming the Magnificat. (Any setting or song version) * Rejoice! is the title of the letter from the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life to consecrated men and women in preparation for the year dedicated to consecrated life. It draws extensively from the writings of Pope Francis. It is available on the Vatican website: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccscrlife/documents/rc_con_ccscrlife_doc_20140202_r allegratevi-lettera-consacrati_en.html 4

Goal Setting 2015 Community Goal for 2015-2016 Actions Community Name: _ Signatures: Please send by mail or electronically, a copy of this page to Elleen Beelman, ebeelman@ssndcp.org Thank you. 5