July 8 – To Shelter the Homeless

Our July Conversation Groups are the second dedicated to the year of Mercy. In Chapter yesterday Fr. Mark shared with us personal, local, and liturgical promptings that have led us to consider the Corporal Work of Mercy to Shelter the Homeless as our topic this month. In the face of the evident challenge of homelessness in our own area and in the contexts provided by the Year of Mercy, the Biblical preference for the poor and the marginal, the identification of the Son of Man with the homeless, and our community input from our January 2016 Conversations regarding mercy, we discussed:

  • WHAT do we have to offer?
  • WHO and WHERE are the people we offer it to?
  • HOW do we make it easy for them to receive what we have to offer?

The topic prompted lively conversations that reflected honest reflections regarding our relationship and responsibility to those who suffer in conditions of material poverty. Integral to the conversation was the sharing of reflections pertaining to our communal and personal vocation of fidelity to monastic life in voluntary poverty, hospitality, and separation from the world.

 

Conversation Groups (CG)

The purpose of the CGs is to provide a forum where the brothers “come together to listen to the Spirit speaking through one another,” to foster skills of good communication that will promote mutual understanding and trust (Gdlns 2), and to provide the superior with the data he needs for taking decisions with foresight and fairness by the brothers humbly and honestly expressing their views (RB 3)