Section:
companions
2007 Annual Retreat Day
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Sister Christa Marie Thompson shared with companions how Francis answered God's call to rebuild His Church. |
The annual gathering of sisters and companions’ on March 24, 2007 was once again a time to remember, rejoice, and regroup. Sister Christa Thompson’s presentation, “Rebuilding the Church – Answering the Call,” was presented in sections.
The theme of the first part was “It’s good to be here.” This section was highlighted by a powerpoint presentation (all pictures taken by Sister Christa) showing various locations on the grounds of the motherhouse. The pictures were beautiful and it was like seeing the motherhouse for the first time
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We then moved into the main theme. Sister Christa showed how Francis answered God’s call to rebuild His Church and discussion moved toward our role in answering the call as companions.
We then focused on legacy. How will we be remembered? This segment was especially poignant since Sister Christa shared her personal memories of her sister, Marian Petrillo, through pictures which showed her “living life joyfully to the end—as it was a wonderful life!” This presentation gave us all reason to rethink our purpose in life and determine how we can contribute as companions to rebuilding the Church today in our own way.
The closing segment was a series of beautiful pictures, each highlighted by a meaningful quote. This segment ended with Josh Groban’s “And I will Raise You Up” to emphasize how God walks with us and lifts us up as we lift up others.
Sister Christa provided reflection cards throughout the day emphasizing all facets of her presentation. These cards were appreciated as they remind us of the joyful day we spent together in prayer and reflection.
Josie Pettinelli
2007 Annual Gathering Day
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Jesus may have been nonviolent, but He was not passive, retired Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton said. |
Ending war requires more than the intellectual conviction that it is wrong. It requires a profound conversion that enables mankind to respond to violence as Jesus did, by reaching out with love.
That was the message retired Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton gave to the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia and those who share their mission at a peace seminar on March 25, 2007.
“For most of us it’s going to be a long, slow process of conversion,” the bishop said, one that comes through what he called praying the Scriptures. “If you do that, you begin to watch how Jesus acts, you listen to his words, and then the words begin to have impact.”
The bishop used the events of Holy Week to make his point. After Jesus enters Jerusalem, he said, the first three Gospels say he went away and came back to the temple to find people selling things, “robbing the poor.” “[He] acted with anger. Just because we think of Jesus as nonviolent, it doesn’t mean he was passive.” Pope John Paul II, Bishop Gumbleton pointed out, advised young people that though some might view nonviolence as the passive acceptance of injustice and say it’s cowardly not to use violence to deal with injustice, nonviolence actually has everything to do with seeing injustice and transforming it into good.
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Companion John Vernon chats with Bishop Gumbleton at the Companions Gathering Day. |
Bishop Gumbleton then turned to the events of Holy Thursday. When Judas betrays Jesus and returns at the forefront of the mob that will arrest him, he said, “Jesus walks up to Judas and embraces him, reaching out, trying to draw him back.” But that kind of love is not easy, the bishop said; even Jesus struggled at times to respond with love. “He was fully God, but he was fully human and he had to grow.”
Bishop Gumbleton then cited the familiar passages in which Jesus has difficulty accepting his approaching death. “Knowing of Jesus’ struggle helps us keep on with our own feeble efforts to change,” he said.
Love, the bishop said, is “not going to happen because you heard it this afternoon; it will happen if you pray the Scriptures and let it sink into you in contemplative prayer, joining your consciousness with the spirit of Jesus.”
Bishop Gumbleton cited the reasons Pope John Paul II believed so passionately that war had to stop: it takes lives, undermines human goodness and destroys future prospects for peace.
From news reports and his eight trips to the Persian Gulf, the bishop gave his own reasons to end the war, including thousands of civilian lives lost; increased rates of cancer and birth defects caused by the dust created when bullets with radioactive coating explode; and the current inability of the federal health system to handle the number of physical and mental trauma victims from the war.
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He told of the “palpable sadness” about the war in Iraq that a reporterobserved in Pope John Paul II when he visited Spain in the spring of 2004 and called on young people to become “artisans of peace.” On that trip, Bishop Gumbleton said, the pope repeated “Peace, the word needs peace” as though it were a mantra.
“Peace” has been something of a mantra for Bishop Gumbleton, who has been an internationally recognized peace activist for decades. He was in Aston to give a seminar at the sisters’ “Gathering Day,” a meeting with their “Companions,” about 100 men and women who in their own vocation and lifestyle share the Franciscan mission.
“Jesus rejected violence for any reason, in any and every circumstance,” Bishop Gumbleton said. “Jesus taught us how to die, not how to kill, how to die loving and forgiving the very people who are putting us to death.”
Reprinted with permission from The Dialog,
