We've had an amazing week. We met for four days with our formation team. If we were novices in an established community, we would have a formation director who would help us learn about community life, monastic tradition, liturgy, and other things. But we are building the plane as we fly it. So three gifted people with experience in community are working with us to help us get "formed" and to prepare us to be formation directors for those who come to join us.
We wrote a charism statement that describes who we are and what our dream is. It's now on this site. We wrote a Rule, after 17 months of reading other rules and living into our covenant. We designed the next year's formation program. That would be enough for anyone. But the Spirit keeps coming.
As the week progressed, we started to share more deeply about our dreams of mission and ministry. Dreams bigger than anything we had said to one another before, dreams that call us to use all our gifts and challenge all our limitations. By Thursday night we found ourselves fundamentally changed from where we were on Sunday.
I think this is often how growth happens. It's like an earthquake. Underground, the pressure builds. On the surface you don't see it, even if the air shimmers a little. But then, one day, one minute - the ground moves under your feet. Things you couldn't even imagine are suddenly not only desirable, but possible - even urgent. Things that had mattered suddenly don't. Things that had seemed stuck are in rubble.
Now, earthquakes are violent. We need time to settle, and clean up, and learn the new territory. We need prayer and patience. But underneath is the certainty that a way has opened where there was no way.
Jesus has left the building, and is now dwelling in us. The Holy Spirit is making even the cats restless. We are Snoopy dancing up and down the hill. Stay tuned!
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