Today was the opening day of the Extended Leaderhip Meeting of the CJ. Together with the ibvm leaders, they are gathered in Loyola.
Read the welcoming address of our General Superior, Sr Veronica, here:
Welcome address ELM Loyola, September 2024
It is with great joy and gratitude that I, on behalf of our whole team, welcome you all here in Loyola to our first ELM in presence! Many of you already know each other from former gatherings, be it in presence or online, but there are also some new faces among us – a hearty welcome to each one of you!
When we come together here as extended leadership from all the provinces and regions, we do so in an attitude similar to that described by Saint Paul in his letter to the Ephesians (4:4): “For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.” We are here in the awareness and the joy that we belong to ONE BODY, held together by the ONE SPIRIT who always guides us – very specially in the coming days. We are here in the awareness that in our respective personal and common VOCATION as companions of Mary Ward, we are given a common, unshakeable HOPE in which we can face our reality and co-create our future.
The special thing about this ELM is undoubtedly that it is the first ELM that we are celebrating together with the IBVM in the ongoing process of Becoming One. In the days ahead, we are all invited to generously engage in a process of opening up, of discovering new horizons and getting to know each other, to explore and experience the deep union in all our diversity and the vision that emerges from it. We are invited to generously embrace each other in love, reverence and appreciation as a basic condition of all sharing and discussion. We are called to listen carefully, to learn from each other and to share as much as possible, to engage in a process of slowly growing together at all levels.
A few weeks ago, I came across a poem by Waltraud Dechantsreiter that expresses well what these days are all about. It is entitled “Our journey together”
It says:
The right way is always the way,
that we walk together.
No distance is too far for me,
let me be surprised.
Curious about you
And our way – adventure
Without ifs and buts …
I hope and wish we all will be able to engage joyfully in this journeying together towards surprising horizons during these days, knowing that the one Spirit guides us.
Let me also welcome with gratitude our facilitators, David McCallum SJ who is not yet with us today, Sandra Chaoul who will lead us through this day of re-connecting with each other and Anjet van Linge who too will join us tomorrow together with David. As you know from our online ELM, they are all members of the Discerning Leadership Team and will facilitate the first part of our meeting here in Loyola.
Our resource person for the safeguarding unit will be Tina Campbell – many of you know her already. She will join us on the 20th September.
A warm welcome also to our translators, Isabel and Cecilia, who will be our indispensable bridges of communication and without whom we would be really completely lost! Thank you very much in advance for your valuable help!
For any practical questions or needs do never hesitate to contact the members of the generalate team.
I wish us all good and blessed days in which we will hopefully find a good balance in listening to the Spirit of God personally and together, in working together constructively and in what will surely be many enriching personal encounters as well as moments for relaxation.
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There will be times where both groups work separately and times where they discern together.
Read the daily recaps here: https://www.congregatiojesu.org/elm-in-loyola-daily-recaps/
