The Lord seeks to establish a new covenant, another type of kinship, as he conveys to us the experience of a God who is Father and who wishes to exclude no one from his family.
Often older religious comment “No one taught me how to do this time of life.” Called in Baptism to share in the mission of Christ, the spiral of call moves through all the different phases of discipleship. This webinar is designed to offer older religious a spiritual model of aging and support them in their desire to
Sr. Ann Billard, OLM, Ph.D. is a Sister of Charity of Our Lady of Mercy with many years of pastoral ministry experience. She is a certified grief recovery specialist and has graduate degrees in pastoral counseling from Loyola University in Maryland. Currently coordinating Transformative Aging programs, she provides spiritual direction, lectures, workshops, and retreats on grief recovery and the spirituality of aging. She has presented at national conferences and to groups of older adults both nationally and internationally.
Sr. Sallie Latkovich will lead us in an exploration of “spirituality” and “holiness” in the context of the Christian Lenten journey. She will reflect on the events of the Triduum, a three-day commemoration of Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection, and how they form Catholic/Christian spirituality and act as catalysts to renew the faith community year in and year out.
Sallie’s experience and interest is in adult education and faith formation, particularly with lay men and women who are serving or seek to serve God’s people. She teaches Biblical Foundations of Spirituality and The Bible for Ministry at Catholic Theological Union. Having accompanied groups to the Holy Land since 1990, Sallie is the Director of CTU’s Biblical Study and Travel Program.
Fr. Dan Horan discusses his recent book on this encyclical by Pope Francis titled Reading, Praying, Living Pope Francis’s Rejoice and Be Glad: A Faith Formation Guide.
Daniel Horan, OFM
He is a Franciscan Friar, Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology and Spirituality at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, and the author of numerous articles and twelve books, including The Franciscan Heart of Thomas Merton: A New Look at the Spiritual Influence on his Life, Thought, and Writing (2014) and, most recently, Reading, Praying, Living Pope Francis’s Rejoice and Be Glad (2019).
Hope is a powerful emotion that arises from the most basic human longings – it is a life- sustaining force, rooted in relationship and our relationship with the future. In our challenging and chaotic present time, hope is more essential than ever.
In our time together, we will explore the connection between reality, grief and hope, how our thoughts and feelings create the unique energy of hope, some core competencies to help us move beyond our personal and present limits to create a better tomorrow, understanding hopelessness and how hope can be learned and is a ministry shared with others.
In this Year for Consecrated Life we have been urged by Pope Francis to make a grateful remembrance of the recent past and to embrace the future with hope. If not now, when? If not us, then who?
Artwork credit: “Journey of the Soul” © Doris Klein, CSA. Used with permission. See additional work by Doris Klein, CSA at www.doriskleincsa.com
Lynn M. Levo, CSJ, Ph.D.
is a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet, and a licensed psychologist, lecturer and consultant. She received her Ph.D. from the University of New York at Albany, completing her clinical training at The University of Kansas School of Medicine. Lynn consults with religious congregations of women and men, dioceses and health systems on mutuality, transitions and stress, anger, managing conflict, aging and healthy personal, sexual and spiritual development across the life span. Lynn has presented nationally and internationally to women and men religious, intercommunity novitiates and seminaries, on fostering healthy integrated sexuality, celibacy, relationships, intimacy, mutuality in community, emotional intelligence, collaborative leadership, hope, living at the edge of chaos and the call to be evolutionaries. In addition, Lynn also facilitates team development for several leadership teams of women religious, utilizing her experience as a former congregational leader and consultant.
After completing 12 years of ministering as Director of Education at Saint Luke Institute, a residential treatment facility for women and men religious, Lynn currently is a Consulting Psychologist in private practice, offering consultations and presentations/workshops both in the U.S. and abroad.
Even though hope is essential to human and Christian life, very little has been written about it in comparison to faith and love. Faith sees what already is, while hope sees what is yet to come. Charity loves what already is, but hope puts its trust in what is not yet here.
Living in very dark times, hope is a most important, necessary and rare virtue.
For Christians, for vowed Religious, “hope” is linked to the person of Jesus Christ. Consequently we would do well to give greater attention to the precise nature of Christian hope. What exactly is it? This day will offer a clear understanding of the nature of hope to deepen our capacity to give an account of the hope that is within us (1Peter 3: 15), especially in the face of resistance and indifference.
Rooted in an understanding of the kenosis of God in Christ as the reason for our hope, the presentation will be interspersed with poetic reflections that help express the nature of hope.
Michael Downey, PhD
With a Master of Arts in special education as well as in theology, Dr. Michael Downey is the first layperson to receive the Ph.D. in theology from The Catholic University of America. His abiding theological concern for those who are wounded and marginalized has brought him to serve the church most in need through lectures, conferences and retreats in different parts of the world. Editor of the award-winning New Dictionary of Catholic Spirituality, he is founding North American editor of Spirituality, an international journal of the Christian spiritual life. Author or editor of more than twenty books, as well as journal articles, essays, and book chapters numbering in the dozens, he is the recipient of three honorary doctorates. Two of his better known books are Altogether Gift: A Trinitarian Spirituality (2000) and The Heart of Hope (2009). A member of the editorial board of Cistercian Studies Quarterly, he works extensively with enclosed contemplative communities, and is active in retreat work. Dr. Downey has a particular interest in Trinitarian theology and a theology of hope, both of which are expressed in his Living the Justice of the Triune God [with the late David N. Power] (2012). On March 31, 2005 Pope John Paul II awarded him the Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice.
As we enter a new year, what is our present moment in terms of the issues we face within religious formation? What are our underlying assumptions about our world and our church? Where does our hope lie? In 2021 and beyond, what should be our agenda moving forward? This webinar is an an exercise in naming and explores our response as believers in Christ’s Good News.
Webinar with Ronald Rohlheiser, OMI
In the middle of this winter’s darkness and social distance, in a period of Lenten renewal, we might find it hard to recognize God in our midst. Refining our skills of theological reflection is one critical way to attune our hearts to God’s presence. In 2014, Pope Francis said, “Our God is a God of surprises...” With this in mind, Dr. Christina Zaker will guide us to reflect on God’s movement in our lives. Drawing from the wisdom of the parables, she will encourage us to recognize God’s surprising nearness, explore what that nearness means and what it demands of us as Christians. Time together will include conversation, reflection and shared wisdom that encourages each of us to ask, as Pope Francis suggests, “Am I open to a God of Surprises?”
