Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto Nida Fe Chavez and Divinia Pedro wrote about their experience in the summer 2025 ForMission residential session June 8-15 at St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein, Illinois.
We are very grateful to our Leadership Team for sending us to the two-year ForMission course, a program for formation ministers currently accompanying new members at any state of initial formation, those preparing for formation ministry and those in elected and informal leadership who want to support and strengthen the inseparable reality of leadership and formation.
The program fosters personal and communal transformation for the sake of communal life and mission and develops skills necessary for formation ministry. The program is divided into four one-week long residential sessions, and the rest of the work is done at home.
The first week-long session was on Communal Life/Community Life, a topic appropriate and foundational as formation begins in a formation house community. This was held at St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein, Illinois from June 8 until June 14, 2025. We gathered for Mass on Sunday, June 8 at 4:30 p.m. followed by dinner.
There were 12 participants (two men and 10 women) from different congregations in the United States and Canada, with diverse cultural backgrounds from Mexico, Dominican Republic, Philippines, Ireland, Scotland, Poland and England.
Each day was full and always began with Mass at 7:30 a.m., followed by breakfast at 8 a.m. Our sessions started at 9 a.m. with morning prayer, input, horizon analysis in small groups, lunch, interaction with the presenter, theological reflections in small groups and meeting with contact mentor. There were breaks in between and dinner and the day ended with social time.
The different topics and presenters were very good: interactive, creative, and informative.
On Monday, June 9, the topic was "A Graced Opportunity: Understanding, Integrating, and Utilizing Psychological Evaluations in Formation Today" presented by Father Gerard McGlone, SJ. He emphasized the importance of proper/prayerful assessment of those in initial formation, similar to what we had at Southdown. He considered this as a Mercedes-Benz type of assessment. Awareness of how we feel before meeting with a person in formation is very important as we bring our feelings during the interaction. He reminded us that while we have a Formation Community, all members of a religious community are considered formators.
The session "Leaning on Grace: New Testament Reflections on Life in Community" on Tuesday, June 10 was presented by Sister Laurie Brink, OP. She reminded us of our call to live harmoniously with one another and to remember MRI in our relationships (Most Respectful Interpretation), which speaks of our own congregation's Maxim 52: “Interpret everything in the most favourable way.” She said to remember that relationship is at the heart of every ministry and formation, in particular.
Laurie left us with these questions: What are your experiences of the best way in living in community? What made it so good? What are your experiences of the worst way in living in community? What made it worse?
Father Robin Ryan, CP spoke to us on Ecclesiology on Wednesday, June 11: "Reflecting on the Nature and Mission of the Church focused on the teachings of Vatican II and Synodality."
He emphasized: the importance of walking together as Synodal church, mutual/sacred listening in formation ministry, and sharing our charism and receiving the gifts of the one entering the community. He encourages all religious in formation to get theological education and to know good theology. God is a God of life and rejoices with us when we are happy.
Sister Pat Bergen, a Sister of St. Joseph from Chicago, spoke to us on Thursday, June 12, on the topic "Community at the Core of Spirituality." She emphasized our oneness and interconnectedness, Love in the heart of God and simple acts like singing, dancing, and eating together are spiritual practices.
Sister Pat led us in a mirroring exercise to show us the importance of respect in leadership and in allowing others to lead, including those in formation. She spoke of the value of diversity and the uniqueness of everyone and the value of the universe which is differentiation.
On Friday, June 13, Dr. Carmen M. Nanko-Fernandez spoke about "Divine Diversity: Cultivating Cultures of Encounter." She emphasized storytelling as a means of doing theology and cultivating a lifestyle of creating life together.
Wherever we are, is a place of encounter where we learn from one another especially their culture. Our call is to show respect and to value the gift in diversity. Towards the end of her presentation, she read a poem by Francisco Alarcon:
Roots I carry
my roots with me all the time
rolled up
I use them as my pillow.
Saturday, June 14 was designated as integration day, when we gathered the graces of the week. We surely built community and a network of religious men and women who are involved in or preparing for formation ministry.
We are grateful for our dedicated and hardworking mentors: Donna Del Santo, SSJ (Rochester), Paul English, CSB and Corrina Thomas, FSPA. We left on Sunday, June 15 with joy and gratitude for God’s many blessings and surprises during the week.