During a recent national tour, Pennsylvania-based Sr Mary Pellegrino CSJ addressed South Australian consecrated men and women about the challenges facing religious communities and the importance of embracing change. Source: The Southern Cross.
A natural communicator, Sr Mary has a wealth of experience in writing and presenting on topics related to religious life.
“My mother gave me an early love of language, as did my teachers,” Sr Mary said after presenting her seminar “Reality, Grief, Hope: Prophetic Witness in a Change of Era” at the Monastery last month.
“It’s all about story and connecting.”
When asked what she hoped the religious women and men of the Adelaide and Port Pirie Dioceses got out of her presentation, Sr Mary focused on two things.
“One is that I hope that the people were able to see this moment in a context; not only where they are personally in a religious life, but where we are as a world in a broader context and how everything really is connected,” she said.
“When we’re able to see something whole and integrated, it makes more sense for us.”
From a religious life perspective, she hoped attendees were able to see things differently.
“This is a moment in religious life, and it’s a moment where something is radically changing, but the [religious] life itself is going to go on. How do we want to contribute to that, even though we won’t [live to] see it?”
Sr Mary exudes hope for the future.
“I may not see it in my lifetime, but I do believe that there is an evolution underway that is very creative, and what we’re experiencing now is resistance to the new,” Sr Mary said.
“I think we have an option to either cooperate and participate and co-create or we stifle it,” she said.
FULL STORY
Prophetic witness in a change of era (By Katie Spain, The Southern Cross)
