The THEME that will inspire the Chapter process:
Walk, Listen, and Dance
with OTHERS
FOR others
from the Other.
WE ARE HANDMAIDS OF THE DIVINE HEART TODAY.
THESE THREE VERBS are verbs of action, of movement. They project the future with vast horizons. In the development of the act of walking, listening, and dancing, we live within the desired process of renewing our lives and vocation as Handmaids. In the same manner, this process is irreversible: we can only BE and renew our BEING HANDMAIDS OF THE DIVINE HEART TODAY with courage and confidence if we start walking, listening, and dancing with, by, and from.
TO WALK is
An outward movement, a movement of action, of being on the road journeying with others.
Incarnation, to be on the same ground, to step on the same soil, to inhabit.
TO LISTEN is
To be in silence, to be aware of our interiority, from within, to be in the here and now.
Receptiveness, forgetting ourselves, welcoming the other, being available for them.
To create the necessary environment to be in connection with others.
To open ourselves to the will of God, to know his will.
To be sensitive to Creation, to the suffering of the world, of the earth and of the vulnerable.
TO DANCE is
Brotherhood and sisterhood, synodality, networks.
Renewing the beauty of our life and vocation.
Flowing, setting free, pacing the rhythm, universality.
Freedom, gratuity, surrender, offering
Expressions of our identity, aspirations, hopes…of new languages and new rituals.
THE PREPOSITIONS
These prepositions link and connect words to give birth to meanings. In our theme, these prepositions help us link realities; they encourage us to work in a network, to be connected with those we serve, with each other, and with other voices of the Church and the world.
with OTHERS.
Synodality, work and being part of networks, with other sisters in the community, with the world, with the Church, with the laity, with all “Inter” (congregational, community, generational, intercultural…)
It speaks of “our conversations” that connect, enrich, and transform us.
WITH others.
In favor of the weak, of the future, of the Kingdom built by everyone and for everyone, of the transformation of the world.
For the education, the creation, the youth, the evangelization…
from the Other…
From our centered self, connected and united within, from the primordial relationship with the Lord and the experience of his Personal Love.
Inhabiting the creation, the common home as a sacred space.
And lastly, WE ARE HANDMAIDS OF THE DIVINE HEART TODAY.
This final affirmation is intended to be a signature or an identity stamp. It gathers the congregational sense of renewal, deepening, updating, and embodying of our identity as Handmaids of the Divine Heart today.
The word TODAY is a special and differentiating facet in this XXI General Chapter. It alludes to the moment of profound change in which the Chapter takes place. It reflects the constant need on how to live our Charism in this changing reality. It talks about the renewal, new languages, and new stories. Moreover, it not only has a temporal but also spatial resonances, which make us think of where and how are we as a Congregation at this very moment.