September 8-10 found our NOVA Community once again gathered to engage in new ways of seeing and understanding. For many years Shrine Mont was our home for retreat and we will forever carry in our hearts the joy experienced during those shared times. For the past three years our retreat has been held within the peaceful space of Bon Secours Retreat Center in Marriottsville, Md. This year we were privileged to be led by Sister Simone Campbell, Sister of Social Services and former director of Network, a Catholic lobby group for social justice.
Our topic for 2023: Community: Shared Commitment to Our Future.
During the weekend Simone led us in considering many of the seeds we must nurture to grow and sustain our community. We were introduced to the importance of developing a “Prophetic Imagination”, and of allowing ourselves to touch the pain of the world as real. She spoke about an “Active Experience of Hope” and about “Effective Discourse across Generations, Cultures, and Differences as well as “The Capacity to Sustain Long-term Tension with the Dominant Culture.” Simone shared generously from her own experiences, each session being intense and rich.
We enjoyed being together at “Happy Hour” and acknowledged our younger selves as we played games and danced during our Saturday “Fun Night.”
Sunday morning’s Liturgy saw us gathered in Thanksgiving, once again amazed at how our little community has survived these more than 50 years, reminded that:
“It is in community that we come to see God in the other: It is in community that we see our own emptiness filled up. It is the community that calls me beyond the pinched horizons of my own life, my own country, my own race, and gives me the gifts I do not have within me.” – Sr. Joan Chittister
Our topic for 2023: Community: Shared Commitment to Our Future.
During the weekend Simone led us in considering many of the seeds we must nurture to grow and sustain our community. We were introduced to the importance of developing a “Prophetic Imagination”, and of allowing ourselves to touch the pain of the world as real. She spoke about an “Active Experience of Hope” and about “Effective Discourse across Generations, Cultures, and Differences as well as “The Capacity to Sustain Long-term Tension with the Dominant Culture.” Simone shared generously from her own experiences, each session being intense and rich.
We enjoyed being together at “Happy Hour” and acknowledged our younger selves as we played games and danced during our Saturday “Fun Night.”
Sunday morning’s Liturgy saw us gathered in Thanksgiving, once again amazed at how our little community has survived these more than 50 years, reminded that:
“It is in community that we come to see God in the other: It is in community that we see our own emptiness filled up. It is the community that calls me beyond the pinched horizons of my own life, my own country, my own race, and gives me the gifts I do not have within me.” – Sr. Joan Chittister
