The nub of the national meeting was to consider a new national project that aims to reflect CLC Australia’s priorities of forming members and sharing national spirituality, caring for God’s creation and walking with the excluded.
Introducing a new project, Ignite the Way, Frances Tilly, executive director for mission formation with Jesuit and Ignatian Spirituality Australia, said the goal of the national project was to take the existing expertise of the members and apply it collectively.
Discernment is needed to help us reflect on what God wants us to do.
The project’s title, Ignite the Way, ‘is about deepening discernment in common, and that would I hope encourage you because you are not beginners,’ she said. ‘There’s so much experience among you. So it’s about deepening and working together in a way that enriches and bringing what we have together.’
To clarify why ‘discernment’ is a necessary tool for modern social challenges, Ms Tilly played a message from the Society of Jesus Superior General Fr Arturo Sosa Abascal in Spanish, which translated as: ‘Discernment is necessary when the Christian community finds itself in the intersection between the message of Jesus and the concrete challenges of the life that we live.’
The gift of our spirituality isn’t something we should be hoarding for ourselves. We need to be taking it out to others.
It is needed, the message continued, to help us reflect on what God wants us to do, ‘so that we follow Jesus more closely and love him more deeply.’
Ms Tilly urged the gathering to take advantage of their time together to dream, share experiences and learn from each other. She said the aim was for each person to leave with a concrete plan, ‘a plan that contributes to giving form to the change that we all desire’.
CLC Australia spent the final day of the gathering looking forward and listening to younger voices as they considered their future direction.
‘We can’t remain inward-looking and always dwell only on the needs of our own community,’ Dr Walker said. ‘The gift of our spirituality isn’t something we should be hoarding for ourselves. We need to be taking it out to others, and that is also the surest way to ensure that we continue to grow, because it brings us in contact with other people.’