Objective D: Reflect on the Experience of Past and
Current Congregation-wide Renewal Experiences
so as to see what is the ‘More’ added by the Dimension.
Day Four of the Edmund Rice International Gathering was Saturday, 27th June, the Feast Day of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, a day traditionally honoured by the Christian Brothers and the Edmund Rice Network. It was also the day specially chosen by Br. Philip Pinto, the Christian Brother Congregation leader, to be a day of prayer and fasting, a day when everyone connected to the Network engaged in soul-searching and silence as they sat in ‘still and alert attention’ with the findings of the Ryan Commission Report.
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| The first session began with a very meaningful reflection and prayer exercise in the Chapel led by the Indian Province participants, Noel, Neville and Senan.
A simple clay pot was passed around and used to facilitate a sharing of our positive experiences as part of the Edmund Rice Network.
In the background, the Gayatri Mantra (the foremost mantra in Hinduism) was recited and incense sticks burned fragrantly. The silent calm of the sharing was concluded in a dramatic fashion by the disturbing sound of the clay pot being shattered by Noel; symbolising the breach of trust and the destruction of the legacy of Edmund Rice that has occurred, and underlining our need to seek forgiveness and restoration of relationships. | Participants were next invited to reflect in silence on a twelve page booklet which contained Br. Pinto’s open letter to his Brothers on the Ryan Commission Report, and various other reflections, poems and wisdoms.
The session concluded with the sharing in small groups, of people’s feelings and responses to the abuse that occurred and their responses to the materials presented for reflection. |
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| The second session, back in the Finn Room, focussed on what structures sustain and nurture our own personal spirituality and sense of faith belonging. Participants were invited to use their creativity to express themselves with a Mandala drawing, and to share the meanings behind their creations with one other person. |
Francis Hall then invited the participants to name groups operating under the Edmund Rice umbrella with which they were familiar. The exercise was repeated with participants being asked to write down on another sheet a succinct phrase encapsulating what those groups actually did. Finally, participants were asked to write down on a third sheet where they saw the Network moving towards in the future. When laid out, all of these sheets formed a powerful visual surround that enhanced the centre piece of the room. |
Lunch was not taken in keeping with the intention of the fast day. |
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The third session began with an invitation to the participants to consider where they thought the Edmund Rice groups fitted into the spiritual landscape of our time, either within Catholicism, or on to Christianity and beyond to different faith traditions.
The general thrust of opinion expressed recognised that the Edmund Rice groups occupied a large number of positions on this spiritual landscape, a recognised reality that inevitably incorporates a healthy tension between the differing theological, cultural and spiritual perspectives of the different ER groups. |
Participants were secondly asked to discuss their vision for a new form of Church, the theological assumptions behind those thoughts, and how the ERN could be part of that envisioned reality. Thirdly, they were asked to consider, and write down on paper, what it was that each of the two charisms of Lay and Religious brought to these new expressions of ERN. The dichotomy and terms used here however brought some opposition from some of the participants who indicated that they considered their use as incongruent to their own particular visions for new forms of Church. The consensus was that the gathering might fruitfully further explore the distinction between the Lay and Religious contributions to the ERN (if any). |
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| The fourth session, which was of a shorter duration, invited the participants to consider the impact, benefit and potential of the international aspects of the ERN. This session allowed the participants to move out of the ‘Finn Room’ (fly free!) as they engaged in discussion about the reality, purpose and possibilities yet-to-be-imagined of the international exchange dimensions of the ERN. We shared a word of intention for the ERN whilst each in turn holding a cup owned by Edmund Rice. This cup was then used in the Eucharist. |
The fourth session concluded earlier in order to accommodate the Liturgy of the Eucharist in the Edmund Rice Chapel. Celebrated by Fr John Bennett msc and which led into the evening meal which was especially welcomed by participants who had been fasting for the entire day. |
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| Following the evening meal Br Dan Casey performed his one-man play on the life of Edmund Rice. The performance was open to members of the local community and was followed by supper. |
