New Spirituality
Our journey of the past twenty years has seen the original inspiration of Edmund Rice recaptured and reclaimed by the Christian Brothers both internationally and locally. This has been for our ministries an awakening to the Edmund Rice charism.
Where were you twenty years ago?
What have you learned from the past twenty years?
THE CONGREGATION STORY
The wisdom the Brothers gleaned from the last twenty years can be summed up as an awakening. It can be explained as a movement from:
- Church to Kingdom
- Law to Gospel
- a controlling and exclusive God to a liberating & larger God
- parochialism to internationality
- a predominantly clerical spirituality to an emerging fraternal/familial spirituality.
The brothers theme for 2008 and beyond is: God has revealed a new face to us...
In doing this they heard the Call to Discipleship - Come and share in my experience of God!
THE JESUS STORY
Discipleship moved Jesus in 3 directions.
- Jesus was called to live in the awareness of the Presence of God in all things.
- Jesus learns to live with an alternative wisdom. At the heart of his new wisdom is compassion - compassion that is stirred by the everyday affairs of people.
- From this central insight of compassion Jesus moves into action - a liberating action that causes him to speak out against the injustices of his time; to speak for those most excluded. This direction is both personal and political.
THE OCEANIA/EREA STORY
The Brothers wisdom of the past twenty years informs us that to be disciple is to see the gap between what living the Kingdom of God is about and what building kingdoms is about.
Your role in the Edmund Rice Network requires this discernment at regular intervals: Is the team/ministry living the Kingdom or building kingdoms?
THE EDMUND STORY
The Christian Brothers recommitted themselves to this action at the Congregational Chapter in Munnar, India in May 2008. They agreed upon five commitment statements:
- To be ever open to exploring the Mystery of God in all creation
- To reflect on the Jesus story in the light of our new understanding of the Cosmos
- To build healthy compassionate, communities living in a heart centred spirituality and supporting one another in mission
- To open our hearts to the cry of Earth and the poor and be moved to prophetic action through advocacy and works of justice
- To allow the charism of Edmund Rice to fly free with freshness into new expressions of commitment
