| 2010 Chapter Mandate |
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2010 General Chapter Mandate
ICM IDENTITY
RATIONALE
The spiritual heritage Mother Foundress bequeathed finds its inspiration in the key elements of Augustinian spirituality, blended with her passion for mission.
These give shape and form to our ICM identity today, as we have symbolically expressed in the roots of our ICM tree. It continues to be shaped in a dynamic interaction with the world. This living gift of God holds and forms us together as one body. It grounds us in the essentials of who we are and who we are constantly called to become by the God of Mission. It is the energy with which the Spirit engages us in mission especially among the poor. It determines the quality of our life in community, our priorities, and our manner of response to the emerging needs of mission enabling us to live the mystical and prophetic dimensions of our life. In this our religious missionary journey, we too, like Mary, are invited to ponder God’s Word in our heart. Clarity in our ICM Identity makes for wholeness, vitality, and fruitfulness. Experience shows that circumstances in our ICM history have brought about gaps in our understanding and living out of the fundamental elements of our identity. Lack of clarity in our ICM identity diminishes the quality of membership. Mission ad gentes, the core of our charism, is being compromised. Zeal for ministries and being driven by the context of mission often leads to the neglect of what is essential. Our tendency to accommodate subtly and gradually pulls us away from our identity. This weakens the impact of our corporate witness and our faithfulness to the God of Mission.
Are we settling for something less than ‘who we are’? “The time has come for a more conscious appropriation of our Corporate ICM identity, and thus for a more authentic living of our membership as Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.” (GT Report, 2010)
CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
As One ICM Body, women seized by the love of Jesus, we want to articulate and to live an ICM Spirituality that is relevant to our times. We commit ourselves to: ¶ Draw deeply both from our spiritual heritage - our Foundress, St. Augustine, and Mary - and from our engagement with the world especially the poor. ¶ Foster intercultural formative communities of faith and love. ¶ Be sensitive and vigilant to the context of mission to arrive at a well discerned response. ü Implement ICM Mission Priorities ü Make the evaluation of ministries an ongoing process ü Network with other groups ü Through shared commitment discover partners in mission ¶ Make ad gentes truly the core of our Charism and be uncompromising. You will be my witnesses to earth’s remotest end. (Acts 1:8) ¶ Strengthen the quality of our Religious Missionary Life where presence to God and presence to people draw on each other (Const. 4). ü Live our vowed life with authenticity marked by humility and vulnerability, concern for the common good, a simple lifestyle, a prophetic stance that points to God, letting go of securities and comfort and taking risks. A missionary sister must not only love Christ. She must live Christ with a heart as wide as the world. (Living Thoughts of MF) ü Give witness to Jesus’ Mission of gathering-in peoples and the whole of Cosmos to the Heart of God through our relationships in community and in ministry. To live together in harmony being of one mind and one heart on the way to God. (St. Augustine) ü In each of the above are an opportunity for and a call to personal and corporate conversion … until Jesus is formed in us (Gal 4:1
MISSION AD GENTES
RATIONALE
‘As the Father sent me, so I am sending you.’ (Jn. 20: 21) ‘You will be my witnesses to earth’s remotest ends’ (Acts 1:8)
With these words Jesus sends us to proclaim God’s Reign to the world: a world, marked by materialism and a deep crisis of faith, and where, because of injustice and wars, globalization and ecological devastation, masses of people, made poorer, are pushed into migration and displacement.
From the dynamic interaction between the fast evolving context of our world and church on the one hand and our vision on mission on the other hand, we are challenged to re-envision our understanding and living of Mission Ad Gentes, the core of our charism. As ICM missionaries, women of faith, we feel the urgency to live out our mystical and prophetic call with the poor at the heart of mission.
This constantly urges us to cross boundaries at all levels, so that we may be able to enter into a dialogue of life with other cultures, faiths, ideologies and with the poor to be transformed together into God’s people.
Our specific witness is building among us and with the people we are sent to, inter-cultural communities where reconciliation and right relationships are fostered. With all peoples we struggle for justice in order to humanize and affirm all life.
Thus in a spirit of ongoing discernment, we live out radically Mission Ad Gentes.
CHALLENGES
ü Setting mission priorities ü Creating structures and processes on all levels that will help facilitate this model of being in mission. ü Readiness to be sent implies moving out of self, willing to move from one community to another, from district or country and letting go of our securities, comfort zones, fixed mind set, prejudices, individualism, selfishness, etc. ü “To think congregation”: To be ready to share out of our poverty for solidarity in mission. ü Find ways to resolve resistance of sisters ü Forming and enabling local and congregational leadership in view of moving on ü A discerning leadership & membership with a vision for mission ü To keep abreast of changing realities and be relevant missionaries calls us to continuous reflection and updating on Missiology.
JUSTICE AND PEACE AND INTEGRITY OF CREATION
RATIONALE
God in his goodness and love created the world and the universe. We human beings are intimately one with all of creation.
However, human beings have taken the place of God as the center of creation and have exploited and devastated this gift. “Conflict and division spread. Injustice and exploitation became embedded in the very structures of society” (ICM Const 1). The web of life is disrupted, endangering LIFE and the quality of all life on the planet.
Globalization has aggravated inequality among peoples and nations as well as the exploitation of natural resources. Wasteful living, greed, consumerism, materialism, and individualism have worsened the ecological disintegration of the planet. The most innocent poor are the first and most vulnerable victims of social and ecological catastrophes induced by these human activities.
The cry of the poor is the cry of the earth.
Justice impels us to be in right relationship with God, with each other and with all of Creation. We, ICM women religious-missionaries, with our preferential option for the poor, can no longer remain complacent and indifferent to this groaning reality. We commit ourselves NOW to a transformation of our consciousness, take concrete actions to renew our life and participate in the enhancement of the quality of ALL life.
“If you want to cultivate peace, protect creation… (environmental issues) have a profound impact on the exercise of human rights, such as the right to life, to food, to health and to development…” –Benedict XVI (World Day of Peace message January 1, 2010)
CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
ü Demands a letting go of materialistic and consumerist lifestyle in both our personal and community living, and a proper use of the earth’s resources. ü Develop and nurture loving and respectful relationships among ourselves and all of creation. ü Listen deeply to the cry of the poor, to be touched, to discern and to respond with concrete actions.
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