On 12, 13 and 14 February I participated in a formation course for general councils organised by the UISG (International Union of Superiors General). About thirty sisters were present at the UISG headquarters, with me was also Sister Pratima CJ, Sister Helena CJ attended on-line with about 200 other sisters from all over the world.
The theme of the meeting was ‘The Art and Soul of Process Oriented Leadership’, Yago Abeledo Madueño from the Missionaries of Africa congregation guided us to explore the different levels of conflict and to see how everything is interconnected. He helped us to experience conflict as an ally: conflict, he said, can bring newness, is an opportunity, is an energetic phenomenon that can create meaningful change, renew relationships and sustain community life.
Yago after an introduction on how to see conflict and how in conflict itself one encounters the solution, how to explore the inner parts of conflict and how to see chaos as an organising principle, introduced us:
- the Butterfly Framework, the Butterfly model, a framework of a holistic nature that helps us navigate the complexity of conflict with greater awareness and where we are offered a journey of transformation that requires time and pain just like the process of transformation from caterpillar to butterfly;
- The power of rank, it is as Mindell defines it “the sum total of our privileges!”. There is a social rank that is attributed to us by society, a contextual rank that we maintain in specific environments, a psychological rank that emerges from each person’s personality, a spiritual rank that can be obtained by a connection with something greater than ourselves or by experiencing and facing difficult situations with courage and resilience.
Interconnected in a spirit of synodality invited us to find and work with all our internal and external resources and to discover, identify and harness unexpected and transformative resources.
As Carl Roger says: ‘Change requires that we really want it and that we love ourselves as we are, exactly as we are’.
Wound healers, becoming Kintsugi:
Kintsugi is the art of exalting wounds.
By breaking, the ceramic takes on new life through the fracture lines to the object, which becomes even more valuable. The art of embracing the damage, the wounds, is the delicate symbolic lesson suggested by the ancient Japanese art of kintsugi.
Wound healers and warrior saints, as in the video you can see by clicking on the link below.
Sr. Anna Quinterio CJ
