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Introductory Comments – Mary Murphy

The Fire - Sharing the Inspiration Course was an invitational gathering of 30 participants from around Oceania. The community that formed throughout the five days was nurtured through sharing prayer, ritual, research and story. The group’s focus was framed by the Oceania Chapter’s recommendation to develop a missiology framework that would underpin the daring disciple identity.

This five day exploration aimed at discerning our mission principles required openness of mind, attentiveness of body, deep listening of Spirit and trust in each other.

We valued the presence and lived experience of the Christian Brothers in our midst who embrace the missionary journey and demonstrate passion for the marginalised people whose lives are entwined with their own....

 Mary's introduction continues followed by Reflections:

• Donella Brown, Maryanne Confoy and Jim D’Arcy

Our image represents a journey.  I suspect that when we gathered for Firestic we may have thought that the stage of the journey for us was near the arrowhead but in fact these last few days have been a journeying back into the story of Edmund and Ambrose Treacy.  The Journey in is represented by the blue spiral and the journey out is the red spiral.  You will notice that in the centre of the spiral is the black centre which represents “the Mystery” (the God the Creator the Deity).  You will also notice that on the path we have also added the black to represent that encountering mystery is always possible on any part of the journey....

• Pat Cronin cfc

It is hard to know where to start with this reflection.  First I felt very privileged to be invited to the course. The second thought was that it really was a formation exercise, with lots of reflection and communal prayer. Damian particularly was brilliant at this. The use of symbols, and the sacred space was so creative! I enjoyed the pilgrimage as well. All of this made for a very inspiring experience, and helped us to re-live and re-connect with the heart of the Brothers’ mission....I suppose my question all the time, was how can each session help us to write what we mean by mission? I knew you needed something to come out of it. So I have used three sources that seemed to me to give that focus....

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