By Jenny Beatrice, Regional Communications Director, USA/Toronto

Members of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd leadership teams and partners-in-mission, representing the three USA/Toronto provinces and the Congregation, were part of the recent Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) Assembly 2024 entitled, “Our Time is Holy: Who Then Shall We Be?”.

The assembly, held in Orlando, Florida, from August 13 to 16, brought together 500 LCWR members and 250 collaborators from all parts of the United States and 12 other countries.

The assembly critically examined the realities of religious life and the world to explore the call of women religious for today and an emerging future. Woven throughout the presentations was the need for justice in both religious and global communities, uniting the OLCGS commitment to a universal culture of justice with the communion of women religious.

“Participating at the LCWR was a time of grace and blessings,” said Congregational Councilor Sr. Yolanda Sanchez. “Something resonating in my heart and mind was the call for transformative justice … One of the strong calls that was shared was to be a healing presence in the world, to bring voices of hope and courage, moral authority with values of reconciliation, mercy, and justice.”

We shall be morsels of encouragement, life and love for our broken world.

LCWR President Sr. Maureen Geary, OP, took the assembly on an expedition around the theme question, “Who then shall we be?” by exploring various pathways such as “Where then shall we go?” and “What then shall we do?” Although the answer to the emerging future is unknown, the priority of being over doing is a constant. Geary said, “We shall be morsels of encouragement, life and love for our broken world … Who we shall be is a journey of discovery, a journey of becoming.”

“What does it mean to be a sign of courageous hope in a time that we do not know how to name?”

With threads of justice woven in an emerging future rooted in healing a broken world, Rev. Bryan Massingale offered this question as an invitation to dialogue and discernment as leaders grapple with and face a world and church on the brink of unprecedented transitions and change.

He outlined how the deep transitions that grip the USA parallel the dynamics of contemporary religious life. He turned to the Christian tradition of lament to share what must be done to better navigate the challenges of these times. He suggested that women religious need to continue to lament and grieve the brokenness of our world and allow grief to inspire action for greater justice.*

“Lament names the pain present; they forthrightly acknowledge that life and relationships have gone terribly wrong,” he said. “Lament does not accept the status quo. Lament demands change.”

Holding the world in our arms, offering it hospitality, is a viable and loving alternative to certain individualistic ‘habits of the heart’ that are alive and well in our society today.

In a talk prepared by Sr. Maricarmen Bracamontes, OSB (delivered by Sr. Pat Henry, OSB), the intentional experience of radical inclusion and Christian hospitality were presented as a “kind of antidote that helps to counteract everything that distances, separates and divides.”

In examining the linguistic meanings of the words ‘hospitality’ and ‘guest,’ she noted that the Greek root of the word guest has the same root as the word enemy. Those seen as other are considered a threat or, even more egregious, not fully human. Radical inclusion and hospitality involve risk and mutual trust. “Reciprocity implies vulnerability,” she said. Vulnerability makes it possible to offer the gift of welcome, the heart of Christian hospitality.

What we experience and how it transforms us will bear witness to the wider world.

One way this radical inclusion and hospitality is being expressed within religious institutes is via a trend of interdependence and collaboration. The findings of “Discerning our Emerging Future,” an initiative of the LCWR membership exploring trends in the evolving future of religious life, were presented by LCWR staff member Sr. Anne Munley, IHM. “As religious communities, we have much to learn and to share with one another as we live into shifting intercultural and intergenerational realities within and beyond our institutes,” she said.

She noted there is increased awareness that different ways of praying, leading, living mission, and being in solidarity with one another are gifts to our communities, religious life, the Church and the world. Being authentic witnesses to mutuality and inclusion will be transformative.

The wisdom gleaned to live this out is to “cultivate a mindset of spirituality of collaboration that lets go of desires to control and creates space for others to enter … Collaboration is integral to synodality.”

As Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd seeks to build a universal culture of justice, the LCWR assembly experience connects with an emerging future to practice, model, and witness radical inclusion and hospitality both within and beyond the congregations. It is this way of being in the world that women religious can bring today that will leave a legacy for tomorrow.

For more information and links to the talks, visit LCWR Assembly 2024 | LCWR

*With excerpts from the Assembly Summary by Sr. Annmarie Sanders, Director of Communications at Leadership Conference of Women Religious