Pilgrimage in a Time of Movement
by Teresa Maya, CCVI -- LCWR President-Elect
We live in a time of incredible movement -- of people, goods, ideas, and challenges. Surely, there have been times in history that displaced millions of people, but the scale, the stakes, the responses are all new to our time. Pope Francis has called us to be a Church that goes forth. The Spanish - “Iglesia en salida”- works better to illustrate the call: a Church always “leaving”. And, we have a lot of leaving to do -- out of our comfort zones, out of what we know, out of our own challenges. This invitation became very clear to me the last few weeks.
I just returned from a long trip abroad that included the LCWR annual visit to the Holy See, the CHA ecclesiology seminar, and my congregation’s co-sponsored CHRISTUS Health pilgrimage to Rome and Lyon. Small wonder I bear all the signs of a returned pilgrim: worn out and disoriented, with the crumpled clothes to go with it!
At each stop of my journey, I realized that there is no perspective without distance. We need to “go out,” to go forth or simply to “salir,” in order to see our call with better clarity. Our stories as women religious are filled with courageous women who “moved” -- left their familiar surroundings, engaged the world with conviction, and migrated to the far corners of the world. How are we going to participate today in this time of incredible movement? Are we even considering moving, any “salida”? Can we at least “move” a little distance away from our convictions? Continue reading by downloading the PDF version of the newsletter below.
