3 minute read
Reflection
By S. Joan Penzenstadler, SSND, Vice President for Mission and Identity
There is a lot of buzz surrounding the Trinity Woods venture these days with all the possibilities that could open up on campus for internships, interactions and innovations. I would like to reflect on Trinity Woods from another angle, how this move for us sisters is a profound part of our transformative process. Ted Dunn, a clinical psychologist, offered his thoughts to the Leadership Conference of Women Religious on what work lies ahead for sisters in our society, and I wish to share some of those thoughts as we look ahead to Trinity Woods. With the rapidly changing demographics S. Joan Penzenstadler, SSND in religious communities, it is obvious that life cannot continue as it has in the past. We cannot maintain all of and in the community, we are freed for the service our properties, work harder, make slight shifts and avoid of God’s reign … Freed and trusting, we are ready to the day when the last one standing turns out the lights. approach others openly in dialogue, to hope against hope, We provide avenues into the future by risking new to accept privations, and to welcome insecurity.” approaches. What is the rich soil of the past that will help This crossroads is what the Celts called a “thin” time, us nurture into being what is yet to come? How do we where the doorway between the present world and the discern what will help us plant the seeds that the future world of Spirit meet. Trinity Woods is offering such is calling for, and what old growth needs to be composted a threshold, inviting us to deeper connections with to make the ground even richer? the divine. This kind of transformation is beyond our Wrestling with many questions, we School Sisters of Notre Dame move to Trinity Woods to begin a new approach in intergenerational living on a college campus. This change, in itself, is not to be equated with transformation. Transformation, as Dunn notes, “is comprehension, but it does not come about without our cooperation. Martin Luther King, Jr. once wrote, “Human progress never rolls on the wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of [people] willing to be co-workers with God.” an internal process, a journey that shifts the patterns, Instead of precisely planning our future, we are trying to practices, norms and values, along create the conditions for grace to proceed with the structures that support these, as we pack up, discard once-treasured realigning the soul with its outward expression.” The School Sisters of Notre Dame articles and leave the halls that we have walked for over 160 years. We are The School Sisters of Notre Dame are at a graced crossroads where we are choosing a road that has not been are at a graced crossroads where we are choosing a road that has dynamically living into a new way of being for the sake of the life that is yet to be. This is our mandate. “Choose life, then, traveled before. Our Constitution states, “Trusting in divine providence not been traveled before. that you and your descendants may live” [Deuteronomy 30:19].
SISTER JOAN PENZENSTADLER
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2900 North Menomonee River Parkway Milwaukee, WI 53222-4597 mtmary.edu Non Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Milwaukee, WI Permit No. 340
Returning in 2021 NEW LOCATION ON CAMPUS BEHIND THE BLOECHL CENTER
ORIGINAL ART $100
OR LESS
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2021 10 a.m.– 5 p.m.
FULL EVENT DETAILS: mtmary.edu/sas
BERGSTROM HALL
Open to the public
• Restrooms and food will be available • Check out the new health sciences lab • View artwork for sale by the SSNDs and more
