Facing Forward in Hope
Working Retreat, October 24 - 26, 2017
Our three communities met to explore and strategize our next concrete steps as Tri-Community.
We were blessed to have our Federation President, Sister Lynn McKenzie and two more sisters from the Pittsburgh monastery with us. The days were facilitated by Mark Clarke, Community Works, Inc.
Our three communities met to explore and strategize our next concrete steps as Tri-Community.
We were blessed to have our Federation President, Sister Lynn McKenzie and two more sisters from the Pittsburgh monastery with us. The days were facilitated by Mark Clarke, Community Works, Inc.
Those who have far to travel
If you could see the journey whole,
you might never undertake it,
might never dare the first step
that propels you from the place you have known
toward the place you know not.
Call it one of the mercies of the road
that we see it only by stages
as it opens before us,
as it comes into our keeping,
step by single step.
There is nothing for it but to go,
and by our going take the vows the
pilgrim takes:
To be faithful to the next step;
to rely on more than the map;
to heed the signposts of intuition and dream;
to follow the star that only you recognize;
to keep an open eye
for the wonders that attend the path;
to press on beyond distractions,
beyond fatigue,
beyond what would tempt you from the way.
Keep them, break them, make them again;
each promise becomes part of the path,
each choice creates the road
that will take you to the place
where you at last kneel to offer the gift most needed -
the gift that only you can give -
your Self!
(Jan Richardson, "Circle of Grace," adapted)
If you could see the journey whole,
you might never undertake it,
might never dare the first step
that propels you from the place you have known
toward the place you know not.
Call it one of the mercies of the road
that we see it only by stages
as it opens before us,
as it comes into our keeping,
step by single step.
There is nothing for it but to go,
and by our going take the vows the
pilgrim takes:
To be faithful to the next step;
to rely on more than the map;
to heed the signposts of intuition and dream;
to follow the star that only you recognize;
to keep an open eye
for the wonders that attend the path;
to press on beyond distractions,
beyond fatigue,
beyond what would tempt you from the way.
Keep them, break them, make them again;
each promise becomes part of the path,
each choice creates the road
that will take you to the place
where you at last kneel to offer the gift most needed -
the gift that only you can give -
your Self!
(Jan Richardson, "Circle of Grace," adapted)