July 13 – Struggles and Conversions
Today we resume our monthly Conversation Groups after a one-month hiatus. Our conversation follows upon our recent refectory reading of the Abbot General’s conference, “The Order in 2017 and Some Horizons for the Future.” The Abbot General’s conference quoted from New Wine in New Wineskins from the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. Material from this document also informs today’s conversations. The theme of “continuous formation” flows through the questions we have been invited to consider. Today’s questions invite us to name some struggles New Melleray faces and to identify the actions we are taking to address them. We are also asked to reflect upon the term “second conversion” and share our understanding of its meaning and our experience of its reality. Finally, we have the opportunity to describe our experiences of the “continuous attitude of listening and sharing of vocation, problems, and horizons” in our lived relationships with one another.
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)