2017 HORIZON, Number 3, Summer

Summer 2017 www.nrvc.net | Volume 42, Number 3

Vocation ministry with vitality 3

Updates

5

Participating in our own abundance

By Sister Sarah Kohles, O.S.F.

10 Supervision: finding grace under pressure

By Sister Helen Cahill, O.P. 15 Six ways to thrive in vocation ministry

By Father Joseph Nassal, C.PP.S. 20 Responding to inquirers

By Sister Virginia Herbers, A.S.C.J., Len Uhal, and Sister Nancy Gilchriest, S.S.N.D.

25 A new springtime in vocation ministry

By Sister Joyce Detzel, C.D.P. 31 Feed your spirit

Thoughts on being faithful and fruitful

By Pope Francis 33 Book notes

Books vocation ministers recommend

By HORIZON readers

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Editor’s note

Is your ministry vital and vibrant?

WHAT DOES IT MEAN to be part of a vocation ministry that is vital and vibrant? For starters, an ideal vocation ministry is shared by the entire community. Whether you are a leader, a member, a vocation director, an associate, or a person of good will who wants to see religious life thrive, your role in vocation ministry is essential. And your role may change as needs change and develop.

Vocation directors tell me that the ideal ministry is built on a foundation that looks like this: • A membership that believes in its future.

• Community leaders that understand the communal nature of the ministry and make it a top priority by devoting time, talent, and treasure to it.

• Members who are clear and enthusiastic about their community’s identity and charism.

• Members who are willing to adjust to the change that new members cause.

• A vocation director who receives training and plenty of internal and external support.

It’s worth noting that real life usually falls somewhere short of the ideal!

And that list might be tweaked by other vocation experts, but it’s not a bad place to start. Wherever you are among the people who care about religious life, we writers and editors of HORIZON hope that this edition gives you insight, tools, and support so that the ministry you share in can be vibrant and vital.

Pope Francis has called upon the global church to focus on “Youth, faith, and vocational discernment” in preparation for the 2018 Synod of Bishops. As our writers in this edition note, this is an exciting time to be in vocation ministry. The next chapter of religious life is being written now. May the Spirit guide all of us who labor to help shape a robust future!

—Carol Schuck Scheiber, editor, cscheiber@nrvc.net

Carol Schuck Scheiber, editor

Summer 2017 | HORIZON | 1

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HORIZON Journal of the National Religious Vocation Conference NRVC Executive director Sister Sharon Dillon, S.S.J.-T.O.S.F. HORIZON Editor Carol Schuck Scheiber Proofreaders Sister Mary Ann Hamer, O.S.F.; Virginia Piecuch Editorial Advisory Board Margaret Cartwright; Father Thomas McCarthy, O.S.A.; Brother Paul Michalenko, S.T.; Sister Elaine Penrice, F.S.P.; Sister Elyse Ramirez, O.P.; Sister Mary Rowell, C.S.J.; Jennifer Tomshack; Brother Tom Wendorf, S.M. Page Designer Patrice J. Tuohy HORIZON is published quarterly by TrueQuest Communications on behalf of the National Religious Vocation Conference, 5401 South Cornell Avenue, Suite 207, Chicago, IL 60615-5664.

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Subscribe online at www.nrvc.net/signup_horizon. Please direct subscription inquiries to Marge Argyelan at the NRVC offices at 773-363-5454 or margyelan@nrvc.net.

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EDITORIAL INQUIRIES & ADVERTISING All editorial inquiries, including article proposals, manuscript submissions, and requests for writer’s guidelines should be directed to the editor: Carol Schuck Scheiber, cscheiber@nrvc.net. For advertising rates and deadlines, see www.nrvc.net or contact the editor.

HORIZON is an award-winning journal for vocation ministers and those who support a robust future for religious life. It is published quarterly by TrueQuest Communications on behalf of the National Religious Vocation Conference.

National Religious Vocation Conference Board for 2017-2018 Father Toby Collins, C.R. Sister Gayle Lwanga Crumbley, R.G.S. Sister Sharon Dillon, S.S.J.-T.O.S.F., Executive director Sister Anna Marie Espinosa, I.W.B.S. Sister Michele Vincent Fisher, C.S.F.N. Brother Ronald Hingle, S.C., Board chair Sister Maria Iannuccillo, S.S.N.D.

2 | HORIZON | Summer 2017

Sister Kristin Matthes, S.N.D.deN. Father Don Miller, O.F.M. Sister Priscilla Moreno, R.S.M. Sister Anita Quigley, S.H.C.J. Brother Tom Wendorf, S.M. Father Vince Wirtner, C.PP.S.

Updates

Vocation workshops offered in October The National Religious Vocation Conference is conducting three workshops October 11-21, 2017 at the Marillac Center in Leavenworth, Kansas. Details and registration are at nrvc.net. The workshops consist of: • Orientation Program for New Vocation Directors, Oct. 11-15, 2017, led by Sisters Deborah Borneman, SS.C.M. and Sharon Dillon, S.S.J.-T.O.S.F. • Behavioral Assessment I, Oct. 16-18, 2017, led by Father Raymond P. Carey, Ph.D. • Behavioral Assessment II, Oct. 20-21, 2017, led by Father Raymond P. Carey, Ph.D.

2018 VISION now available The 2018 edition of the NRVC’s main resource for those open to religious life—VISION Vocation Guide—is now available online and is being mailed in August 2017 to advertisers and other distribution outlets, such as parishes and campus ministers.

VISION—in print and online—offers award-winning resources for discerners, including VocationMatch.com (for finding a compatible community), articles about all aspects of religious life, a directory of religious communities, listings of current events, videos, podcasts, and much more. Find VISION Vocation Guide, the VISION calendar, and all other associated resources at VocationNetwork.org.

Updates

One of the 2017 vocation ambassadors makes a point during the training workshop held in June.

Vocation ambassadors complete training Twenty-seven people took part in the June 9-12, 2017 Vocation Ambassadors program, held in Indiana and sponsored by the NRVC. The program prepares threeperson teams from religious communities to spread the good news about sisters, brothers, and priests today and vocations to religious life. The workshop emphasizes preparing young adults to communicate that religious life is a viable life option.

Nine groups of three (each consisting of a young adult, a communicator, and a vocation director) took part in the workshop, which was held at Holy Cross College in Notre Dame, Indiana. Each team developed a strategic plan for vocation communications.

The program was made possible thanks to a grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.

Summer 2017 | HORIZON | 3

American Missionary Sisters (AHLMA), led by Sister Inma Cuesta, C.M.S., president. The group can be reached at hermanas.latinas.america@gmail.com.

VISION & HORIZON win awards

Men at an ordination of Dominican priests, St. Joseph Province.

Increase in final vows and ordinations Recent reports from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) showed an increase over the prior year in the total number of men slated for ordination and the total number of women and men prepared to take final vows in 2016. The number of ordinands increased from 548 in 2016 to 590 in 2017. This figure includes 101 ordinands from 36 religious institutes.

On average, men being ordained in 2017 were 16 years old when they first considered a vocation to the priesthood, and religious-community ordinands reported they knew the members of their religious institute an average of six years before entering.

In a separate report the total number of both women and men taking final vows bumped up in 2016. In 2015, that number was 136; in 2016, the number was 216.

Learn more about the ordination class of 2017, as well as about those taking final vows in 2016 at nrvc.net under the tab labeled “Studies.” Both of the reports referred to here were conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate for the USCCB.

Sisters from Latin America form an organization Sisters from Latin America serving in the U.S. have organized a group to foster communication and provide one another with support. They have formed the Association of Latin 4 | HORIZON | Summer 2017

For the sixth straight year VISION Vocation Guide and HORIZON, publications of the NRVC, earned awards from the Catholic Press Association. The 2017 awards included the following: VISION received second place for the best professional/special interest magazine and second place for the article “VISION Spotlight: Vocation takes cultivation.” Alice Camille, author of “Questions Catholics Ask,” (part of vocationnetwork. org, the VISION website) won third place for best lay columnist. HORIZON won an honorable mention for best professional and special interest magazine.

Are you connected?

Get the inside scoop on all things vocation by making sure your social media accounts are connected to those of the National Religious Vocation Conference. Take a moment to find us online.

Facebook /NationalReligiousVocationConference /HorizonVocationJournal /VISION.Vocation.Guide /NFCRV Twitter @NatRelVocConf @sister_sharon (NRVC Executive Director Sister Sharon Dillon S.S.J.-T.O.S.F.) @HORIZONvocation @VisionVocation Instagram VISION Vocation Network Pinterest VISION Vocation Network n Updates

Photo courtesy of the Grey Nuns.

How we frame our thoughts about this moment in religious life affects the vitality of communities and ministry. Beginning with a sense of abundance can create a ripple effect.

Sister Barbara Harrington, G.N.S.H. at the door to her community’s chapel.

Participating in our own abundance

A

BUNDANCE IS A MIRACLE IN TIMES OF SCARCITY. When resources are scarce, we fear that our needs will not be met. Our Scripture tradition offers many examples of abundance in times of need. What would have happened if the crowds following Jesus did not eat, but had to travel home in the heat of the day? What would have happened if Sarah (Genesis 21), Hannah (1 Samuel 1), or even Mary (Luke 2) never had a child?

What would have happened if the lesser known woman with the oil did not receive the help she needed (2 Kings 4)? Not having enough can bring dangerous consequences that can impact the lives of vulnerable people.

God’s care is revealed in the abundance, and abundance is everywhere if we know how to look for it.

In spite of the many gifts we’ve been given, religious life might feel like an experience of scarcity at times. Our common experience of religious life is familiar. We know the median age of our communities is in the upper 70s. We know people are entering religious life, but they are few, and of those who are drawn to the life, many discern their heart homes are Kohles | Abundance

Sister Sarah Kohles, O.S.F. Sister Sarah Kohles, O.S.F. is Sister of St. Francis of Dubuque, Iowa. She is working on a Ph.D. in biblical studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkley, California.

Previously she served in faith formation in parishes in Iowa, Illinois, and Texas.

Summer 2017 | HORIZON | 5

Photo courtesy of Religiousbrotherhood.com

Those considering religious life have a wealth of insights, questions, and even challenges for religious communities. Above a brother talks to young men.

times of great necessity. In addition to Jesus’ miracles, we also see miracles in the Elijah and Elisha narratives in the Old Testament. Among the greatest needs people experienced then (and for too many in our world still today) were hunger and safety. If the crops failed, if there were droughts too many years in a row, then the people starved.

It is natural that God’s love and care throughout history is expressed through a plenitude of sustenance both in the stories of Jesus feeding the multitudes and the Elijah and Elisha narratives.

The woman and the jars of oil not with us. We know we are in the midst of a paradigm shift and that God is doing something new with us. In The story of the woman and the jars (2 Kings 4) offers the midst of so much upheaval, and facing an unknown insights for women and men religious and discerners future, it is understandable to feel uncertain or fearful. regarding abundance. A widow approaches the prophet But no one knows what religious life will be like after we Elisha with her very real life problem of an unpayable move through this shift. It is all too easy debt. She has a looming creditor to see what is missing or lacking, based threatening to sell her children into on what we have most recently known. slavery in order to pay the debt.

It is not unusual to see scarcity rather Elisha asks her what she has in her In the case of religious than abundance. However, in the case of house. She says she has nothing— life and those discerning religious life and those discerning the life, only a little oil. Elisha instructs the the life, an assumption of an assumption of scarcity is a mispercepwoman to collect “not a few” empty scarcity is a misperception. tion. Whether we perceive scarcity or jars from her neighbors, and then to abundance is all in how we tell the story. go into her house with her sons and John’s gospel concludes with a stateclose the door. The woman follows ment that there are many more stories his instructions and they begin pourwhich could have been told about Jesus, but were not (Jn. ing the oil. Her small amount of oil fills all the newly col21:25). We choose which stories to tell or which stories lected jars in her house and allows her to pay off her debt to omit as we create a larger story. Therefore the stories with oil to spare. The woman and her children find a way found in all four gospels must be among some of the to survive through the gift of abundance. most significant, the most essential, which the evangeThe woman and her children are in dire circumlists couldn’t leave out. Besides the passion narrative, one stances because of a lack of resources. They alone do of these rare stories is that of Jesus feeding the multitude not have what they need to survive. Unfortunately their with the loaves and the fishes (Matt. 14:13-21, Mk. 6:32circumstances were not uncommon. However, as Gina 44, Lk. 9:10b-17, Jn. 6:1-15). It is a story of abundance in Hens-Piazza notes in her 1-2 Kings commentary, it is the midst of a crisis. There is no food, no nourishment the often overlooked neighbors, as well as the woman’s available for the hungry multitudes. Then somehow own initiative that move the story forward and resolve there is enough. It is a classic miracle story. the conflict in the story. The desperate woman seeks out Indeed the miracle stories seem to take place in the prophet, receives and follows his advice faithfully.

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Kohles | Abundance

Redemptorist Renewal Center

Yet this miracle is only successful in the context of community. If the community surrounding the woman­—her neighbors—refuses to participate, then the miracle of abundance could not occur. Also, the woman does not only have initiative in asking the prophet for aid, she also sees this action asked of her through to its fulfillment. She must collect jars, and not too few. In Hebrew the word for “not too few” is a verb in the causal form, which indicates that the woman is to initiate the action of ensuring that the jars are not too few. It is up to her to cause the jars to be “not too few.” She must participate in her own solution to difficult circumstances.

If religious life is experiencing a lack of resources, it is most strongly felt in the number of new members.

Having few young members means that traditional ministries of congregations are no longer carried out by religious women and men. There may yet be religious among us (or ourselves on a given day!) who worry about the future of worthwhile, life-giving ministries that they’ve poured their hearts and souls into. In most cases these ministries will not be carried on by religious, but by qualified, capable lay people. As religious age, there is less energy and stamina to take on difficult and risky new projects, no matter how worthy. Many communities also feel the pinch of a dearth of financial resources, which leads to difficult choices.

However, I suspect it is the absence of younger members that settles as an ache in our hearts more than any other possible lack we might experience in religious life. These miracle stories remind us of the abundance in our midst—both in our own communities and in the discerners themselves. There is something up-ending and reassuring about a miracle story that solves a problem by engaging the vulnerable in its resolution. There is an element of delightful unexpectedness in a miracle that encourages us to not become bogged down by scarcity.

An abundance of vessels from the neighbors, the word of the prophet, the actions of the woman and her children, and plenty of oil all help turn the fortunes of this family around. Such stories encourage us to explore the abundance in our own circumstances.

Abundance of the discerners What happens if we read this narrative casting religious as the woman and discerners as the prophet and the neighbors? What happens when we reverse the roles and see the discerners as the woman and religious as the prophet and the neighbors? What messages might this story of abundance hold for religious today?

Kohles | Abundance

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Let’s begin with the first scenario, wherein religious play the role of the woman. Whether or not they enter religious life, discerners bring a wealth of insights, questions, and challenges when they engage with religious communities. They are often idealistic and are magnets that are highly attracted to the ways Discerner questions in which our lives, our can disturb us and charisms, and our commake us squirm as munity living is genuine. they unknowingly and Their attraction identisometimes not-so-subtly fies the best of who we challenge the ways in are as religious as we which we have grown too live out our call. Their comfortable. abundance of questions calls us to consider our own manner of living the life anew. In a sense they are “disturbers of Israel” (1 Kings 18:17), as Elisha’s predecessor Elijah was called by the king of his day—for their presence and questions about how we live our lives can disturb, challenge, inspire and reinvigorate us.

Discerner questions can disturb us and make us squirm as they unknowingly and sometimes not-so-subtly challenge the ways in which we have grown too comfortable.

Discerners have usually not yet learned “religious life speak.” They do not know the pretty words and processes we surround ourselves with—words and processes that are born of the experiences, growth, and wisdom of our past, but words and processes that can also become stale whenever we use them to protect ourselves from change and further growth. Perhaps such interest in our lives invites us to not be too quick to respond and explain why we spend our money the way we do or why we are (or are not?) willing to take the risks we take, or whatever other questions we might be asked. Questions from discerners can be an opportunity for self and communal reflection.

Indeed discerners have their own wisdom. Wisdom is the experience of discovering what works. Discerners have matured in an entirely different world than the vast majority of religious women and men today. Naturally they have discovered new examples of working wisdom that are outside of what we would imagine. For example many discerners have travelled internationally and/ or have given a year of their lives in service. They have work experiences that might range from professional success to accepting meager salaries in order to work with marginalized people and make a difference in the 8 | HORIZON | Summer 2017

world. They are likely to have experiences with long term relationships. Such an abundance of varied experiences teaches discerners that they cannot do everything, but what they do, they want to do with intentionality. They frequently have at least the beginning of an intuition that the manner in which things are done is as important as whatever is accomplished. For some this awareness is not merely an intuition, but a fully developed conviction.

Furthermore, growing up in a pluralistic society with seemingly infinite possibilities for everything from careers to dinner choices to the consumption of culture (music, TV, etc.), discerners have experience in making choices and tolerating the differences of others. Discerners have often grown up in religiously eclectic environments that were ecumenical or even interreligious. Such people may be utterly unfazed by blending Taize music, Eucharistic adoration, and Evangelical prayer styles.

Discerners are closely connected to their families.

As someone born at the end of 1980, therefore right on the line between Gen X and Millennials, I would suggest that religious communities stop seeing close family ties as a negative thing but as an incredible support system that has nurtured many young people. Furthermore, increasing numbers of discerners are from families and countries that have a stronger family-based or community-based culture than is often found within the individualism of the United States. Therefore it is likely that these Millennials will either belong to community-oriented cultures or will be able to relate to them from their own close-knit family experiences.

Abundance in religious life What religious may lack in new members (and in some cases financial resources), they have in abundance in other resources. Sometimes it is difficult to identify our own gifts as the gifts they truly are. It is easy to take them for granted. Religious embody a rich tradition of charisms for the church and the world, which is no little oil. The value of the charisms we have to share with others cannot be overstated. People are hungry for something more, and our charisms offer a crazy quilt of possible ways to follow Jesus in a world desperately in need of these gifts. Charisms offer examples for people of what it looks like to put flesh on following Jesus. We have long traditions of serving the most vulnerable in our world and advocating to change their circumstances in order to build a more just world. Religious also have the wisdom that grows from decades of dedicated immersion in the needs of the world. We have different experiences Kohles | Abundance

Kohles | Abundance

Photo courtesy of Apostles of the Sa cred Heart of Jesus

of what has worked, as well as our own personal and communal discernment of how to expend our energies. Religious also have land and properties that demonstrate our steady presence and commitment to the communities we serve. We are connected to other religious in our own communities and through national organizations.

Some communities also have long histories of religious communities working together to effect change, while others are more recently discovering a deeper connectedness between How might discerners send religious forth to discover their own abundance? Pictured here is Sister Colleen Smith, A.S.C.J. sharing a meal with young women considering religious life. different institutes. Every relationship women and men relition on religious life, community, a deeper prayer lives, gious form and nurture—with vulnerable people, each self-discovery, etc. Imagine discerners approaching other, and lay partners—carries the potential of yielding religious saying: I only have a little—the desire in my its own abundance. heart to respond to God’s call, to serve God’s people, to live a communal life. Might we religious respond by Discerners in role of prophet showing them how to multiply that abundance (as well as the abundance of wisdom and experience they already What happens if religious approach discerners as the have)? Can we also be their neighbors and give them woman approaches the prophet Elisha? The discerners our jars and not too few? Can we show them how their take on the role of the prophet (in this imaginative rensimple desire to know God, serve others, etc., can grow dering) and offer a word of wisdom and help in a desperand be filled and overflow with abundance? Is it possible ate situation of scarcity. Is there a way in which religious that our abundance expands as we seek to encourage disare being invited and guided by discerners to solve our cerners to find their own abundance? own problems? How would we answer if the prophet asked us what we have? Surely we have more resources §§§§ than nothing and not only a little oil?

Maybe we have had only one or two candidates in The story of the woman and the little oil that trans20+ years. Maybe there is a weighty debt and no budget forms into a life-saving abundance raises interesting for basic needs. Or maybe we have only a little energy points to consider in terms of the abundance found left in our community to share with others. How would both within discerners and communities. Interestingly our discerners send us out to create our own abundance? enough, God is barely mentioned in this story and is priWould they reflect back the actual abundance we do marily implied as being behind the actions of Elisha the have? How might they send us to multiply what we have? prophet, who is called the “man of God” here (2 Kings 4:7). From our own experience in religious life, we know Religious in role of prophet that all we do is grounded in our relationship with God. The act of alternately casting the discerners and comIn an alternate reading of the passage, what happens munities in the roles of the woman, the prophet, and the when discerners approach religious, as the woman apneighbors offers us worthwhile questions to consider. proaches the prophet Elisha? The idea of discerners Ultimately our reflection encourages us to find ways in approaching religious is more familiar than religious apwhich we might participate with God and others in creproaching discerners searching for something because ating our own miracles of abundance. n discerners are searching for something—more informa-

Summer 2017 | HORIZON | 9

Supervision has helped many vocation directors to remain faithful and grounded in what can be a pressured ministry.

Sister Helen Cahill, O.P. Sister Helen Cahill, O.P., a Dominican Sister of Peace, currently serves as a spiritual director on the staff of Claret Center in Chicago.

For at least 15 years she has led supervision groups for vocation and formation directors. She holds a doctor of ministry from Catholic Theological Union in Chicago where she is also an adjunct faculty member.

Supervision: finding grace under pressure

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OR MORE THAN 15 YEARS I have been companioning vocation and formation directors in supervision, and it continues to be a joy in my life. Supervision provides me with insights into religious life that confirm my strong conviction that God is doing a new thing that will move religious life forward into the 21st century. A surprise is on the horizon! At the same time sometimes I know more about what is going on in the initial stages of religious life than I care to. With many others I believe that U.S. religious life as it has existed for the last 60 years is a thing of the past. We must now pay attention to the horizon. We can make changes in our lives and in the structures of religious life to create space for God’s creative work.

Notes on the nature of vocation ministry today 1. Vocation directors have one of the most significant and demanding ministries in the church.

Because religious are less visible than they used to be, religious life is not 10 | HORIZON | Summer 2017

Cahill | Supervision

in the consciousness of young adults as they dream about their future. Often the vocation director is the first sister, brother, or priest that many laity meet. The vocation director embodies what it means to live a vowed life, and he or she invites young adults to consider religious life when choosing a vocation. Directors have the privilege of engaging inquirers and applicants in a process of discernment. They honor the sacredness of the person’s journey and, at the same time, the processes of the congregation for admission. Functioning as coach, they walk the person through the required application materials.

2. Directors need to keep their focus on the discernment process.

It’s important to maintain this focus so that the paperwork of the admissions process does not derail a true vocational discernment. Discernment should begin with the director and then continue with the admissions committee. Of particular concern to both is understanding the person’s attraction to religious life. Is God the attraction? Do they desire to give themselves in the service of the people of God? 3. Vocation directors and admissions committees have a holy and shared interest.

That shared interest is to present people interested in religious life to the congregation for admittance. For this reason directors and committees should enjoy a strong professional relationship. The director should present an interested person to the admissions committee only when he or she is confident the applicant can live life fully as a vowed religious. Likewise the committee should feel the same before presenting the person to the congregation. This confidence allows for an immediate focus on nurturing the vocation of the applicant; in contrast to always testing it.

It is an injustice for directors and committee members to keep encouraging an applicant even though red flags are evident. A belief that everyone should be given a chance often takes priority over good common sense.

It is not fair to encourage people when they present evidence that religious life is not for them. The results of such encouragement can be unhealthy for both the congregation and the new member.

In the end everyone pays a price! Pope Francis has advised communities many times not to sacrifice quality for quantity. A guiding principle is to not admit unless there are specific signs of a vocation. The admissions process, the discernment process, the paperwork, and the Cahill | Supervision

quality of relationships provide the evidence. The work of the admissions committee is to either confirm the director’s findings or come to a different conclusion.

4. A particularly challenging aspect of the ministry can be a lack of new members.

When this is the case, directors often have to give themselves to a ministry that provides little satisfaction. A tremendous spiritual depth is needed for the directors to maintain a healthy reason for doing their ministry— God’s call. To persevere in vocation ministry, directors have to be open to the transforming power of God in their own lives.

Supervision is a safe This openness to God is place for vocation what keeps discouragedirectors to explore ment and boredom at bay. their feelings when Last summer, when Sister Marcia Allen, C.S.J. they are with potential addressed the Leadership new members and their Conference of Women feelings about being in Religious (LCWR), she the ministry. looked honestly at the struggle she faced as she prepared her presentation.

How could LCWR move forward into the future when the overall numbers of women (and men) religious are decreasing at an alarming speed? She raised the question: who is going to be there to go forward?

[Editor’s note: Men and women continue to be called to religious life, and since 2000 there has been a steady uptick in new entrants. According to data from the Center for Applied Research on the Apostolate, 216 men and women entered religious life in 2016, an increase over the number in 2015. However the gains are much fewer than the losses, so the overall number of U.S. religious continues to decrease.]

If truth be told, most religious and especially vocation directors, face the same dilemma as Sister Marcia Allen. Facing this question within themselves will enable vocation directors to be real with discerners about the current demographic reality. Even though the latter “know” this before they enter, it is very different for them when they actually begin living the life. The aging populations of religious communities and the small number of new entrants have generated a strong sense of insecurity, instability, and vulnerability among many members. These days new members typically have little or no peer support in their local community settings since professed members are, generally speaking, old Summer 2017 | HORIZON | 11

ing today?” We need to question if the traditional two enough to be their grandmothers or grandfathers. or three years in formation under current structures are This situation raises an ethical question in some sufficient to prepare new members for first vows with a communities: should congregations that have not had certain amount of freedom. The rethinking and restrucanyone take final vows in the past 20 or 30 years be adturing of formation needs to begin with conversations mitting new members? Some congregations recognize that will spark creative ideas. Vocation directors must be the seriousness of this situation and have courageously intimately involved in these discussions. decided to bring their communities to completion by not admitting new members. Others continue. (See “A new springtime in vocation ministry” on page 25.)

Supervision can enrich It is beyond the scope of this article to look at the internal and external pressures that have resulted in Having offered some thoughts on the current context for communities with few persisting new members. Howvocation ministry, let us now look at how supervision ever, it is the position of the National Religious Vocation can be a helpful tool in coping with the demands of this Conference (this journal’s publisher) that context. Let’s look first at an example of God continues to call people to religious how supervision can help provides perlife, and that religious life remains a viable spective and insight to the minister.

Supervision is life option and gift to the church; a major Vocation director Bill is in contact intended to focus on demographic shift is underway, but the with a man interested in exploring the the experience of the way of life continues to hold great value. possibility of religious life. They meet minister, with special regularly to discern his call. The voca5. The director has to have tion director shares with his supervision attention to his or her assurance from the leadership group that he is aware that he does not interior movements of team that once a person is like the man. The last time he was supthe heart. admitted, a healthy local posed to meet him, Bill canceled the community will be able welcome meeting under the guise of not feeling the person. well.

Such a community must both welcome and nurture the When Bill presents at supervision, he tells the group new person’s vocation. Dysfunctional behavior among what is happening. As the conversation proceeds, Bill professed members in a community can make it difficult realizes that the man he doesn’t like is just like his father, to provide healthy living situations for newcomers. It who did not like Bill. By naming the source of his resishas broken my heart to hear new members say, “I didn’t tance and by committing himself to work with his own expect community living to be easy but I never expected issues, Bill realizes that he is now much freer to meet this [dysfunctional behavior].” A lack of healthy commuwith the man and keep his own personal issues out of the nity can create an ethical dilemma for vocation directors. way.

Being human, we all have unresolved issues, internal 6. The current stages of formation, which blocks and internal lacks of freedom that hinder the flow basically have not changed in 50 or 60 years, of God’s grace and affect our relationships. An operaneed to be rethought. tive principle in supervision is the premise that when Members entering religious life today have very differvocation directors share their reactions in a supervision ent histories and approaches to life than in the past. To group as Bill did, then the director will be freer to commention a few: some come with very rich experiences passionately be with other people. Relationships ordinarthat members of the community have never experienced; ily become easier as we are more and more in touch with others have little faith formation; some speak languages ourselves. Supervision is a safe place for vocation direcforeign to most members; some enter having lived many tors to explore their feelings about the ministry and their years with a high degree of independence, e.g. having emotional response to potential new members. owned homes, cars, etc. Others come with family of oriIt is my position that everyone in the public mingin concerns that require therapy. istry of the church has an ethical responsibility to be in Each community needs to ask, “Are we shoehorning supervision or, at a minimum, to be in conversation with people into traditional structures rather than creating someone who will listen to them and help them sort out formation structures to meet the needs of those enterhow they are responding to their ministerial responsi12 | HORIZON | Summer 2017

Cahill | Supervision

bilities. This applies also to vocation directors who need to be companioned as they companion others.

Discerning a life call with young adults is an awesome responsibility that requires, as we see above, the directors’ attention on many levels. When vocation directors come to supervision, they bring up any situations in their ministry that are difficult for them to handle. This includes relationships with any of the publics they engage with, including but not limited to their leadership team, the persons seeking religious life, members of their community, and so forth.

Supervision is a graced opporFaithfulness to supervision meetings needs to be a priority for the process to be effective. Above: tunity with a goal of growth in self participants in a workshop for men religious hold a discussion. awareness and interior freedom. Although participants experience suppeople, and yet they are faithful to meetings. It is a priorport and companionship in what can be a lonely experiity for them, or they wouldn’t bother to attend. Just the ence, supervision is much more than that. Supervision is other day one of the men who has been attending sesintended to focus on the experience of the minister, with sions for five years said, “I wouldn’t miss these meetings special attention to his or her interior movements of the for anything (and he doesn’t). I travel two hours to get heart. The process asks what is going on in the minister here, but let me tell you I would come from Mars!” as he or she works with those interested in religious life.

Directors need to attend to what it is like for them In a supervision session I was part of recently, a to companion others and what it is like for them in their director shared with the group her sadness and discourparticular ministry. For example: are they excited, happy, agement. In the past month, a woman who was ready bored, anxious, angry, or maybe out of touch with their to begin the admissions process informed the director own feelings? Common reactions that directors experithat she was backing out. A boyfriend from the past had ence may be: attraction (sexually or otherwise) to the re-emerged. A second person called to say she decided person in discernment; or they may not like the person, against religious life. Finally, aware of her loneliness in even dread seeing them. Lacking confidence in themthe ministry, she was in touch with the fact that no one selves directors may be afraid to get into certain issues in the community had contacted her to suggest anyone and therefore not bring them up. who may be interested in the life. What is the point of Supervision as described here is different from suher ministry she wondered. It felt like a waste of time. pervision in the workplace, and it is distinct, too, from In the course of the session the director learned consultation. The former, an experience of accountability that others in the group had shared her experience and to a superior on the job, often focuses on performance were living with similar concerns. The group was able and what is or is not working. The latter, consultation, is to be compassionately present to each other and to talk a “how to” experience: “Help me. I don’t know what to through what was happening interiorly for each them. do with this situation.” The form of supervision I advoThe process helped those involved to know themselves cate for vocation directors focuses on the internal experimore deeply and strengthen their spiritual and psychoence of the person seeking supervision. logical foundation for this ministry.

Supervision can be done one-on-one or in a group.

In my experience groups need good leadership to be efMeetings must be a priority fective and to endure. The ideal situation is to have a professional person who is not necessarily in vocation work The directors I companion in supervision are busy Cahill | Supervision

Summer 2017 | HORIZON | 13

to lead the group. Unless there are people in the group who grasp what supervision is and have the ability to exercise leadership, a group without a professional outside leader will not survive.

When people go to supervision, it is important that they be honest and open for supervision to be effective.

Participants put themselves in a vulnerable position when they share in this manner. One cannot predict where the conversation will go. Supervision requires trust, which grows over time. For trust to grow among the participants, confidentiality is a must. What happens in the group stays in the group. No one is ever free to tell another person’s story to anyone. (The stories in this article are composites, not narratives lifted from actual sessions.)

The focus of the group is Peer supervision is the experience of the person a process of staying presenting. Peer supervision with a person in an is a process of staying with attitude of reverence a person in an attitude of and respect. reverence and respect. The group is not judgmental and makes every effort to refrain from analysis, assumptions, or interpretations. The latter must always be checked out.

The group must be clear about boundaries and not get into counseling or therapy. For example, it would not be appropriate for the group to explore with Bill the issues that he had with his father. Supervision enabled him to get in touch with the reason he disliked the applicant.

Bill may need therapy to continue his inner work, especially his relationship with his father.

Getting started in supervision As I understand it, the network among vocation ministers is quite strong. A beginning point to start a supervision group would be to inquire whether others are interested in forming a group. If so, they would have to discuss their understandings of peer supervision and establish some ground rules for their particular group.

They may want to do some common reading to facilitate their conversation. Depending on their experience, group members may decide to avail themselves of professionals to at least get them started. These professionals might include spiritual directors, formation personnel, or others in the helping professions who are experienced with this type of supervision.

Opportunities for supervision are not always avail14 | HORIZON | Summer 2017

able, especially in regions with scarce resources. Zoom, Skype, Facetime and other communications technology may be helpful options. If these are not possible, finding a person who can act as a coach is another viable alternative. Although a coach may not have the expertise of a professionally trained person, she or he can be a strong support simply by listening. We know from experience that when we articulate what is going on in us, we can sometimes be surprised by what we say. We then ask ourselves, “Where did that come from?” A coach can also assist the director in sorting out the dynamics of the relationships involved, that is, which concerns belong to the director and which belong to the discerner. If the director agrees, a coach may suggest behavioral changes to help the relationships.

In whatever form supervision is available, it is not uncommon for vocation directors to resist it, claiming they don’t need it. Sometimes this response, especially in women’s communities, arises from the fact that they are not in relationship with any potential new members. Even so they work at making religious life known to young adults and, as noted above, vocation directors have struggles particular to them. What is it like for them to entertain questions about what they are doing with their lives? What is it like to be in a ministry with few signs of success? Vocation directors are not strangers to disappointment! “Numbers are not important” is often repeated in circles of women and men religious, but how true is that? Vocation directors frequently field the question, “How many do you have?” Such questions can put burdensome pressure on directors. What they need to understand is that supervision is a safe place to process their experience—whether or not they are relating to discerners. When directors do not go to supervision they run the risk of isolating themselves from peers.

In my years of accompanying vocation directors in supervision, I have found the process a graced and necessary place for soul work. n

RELATED READING “Supervision and consultation: the vocation minister meets the mirror,” by Sister Cindy Kaye, R.S.M., p. 20, Spring 2009 “Peer supervision: path to self-awareness in vocation ministry,” HORIZON interviews Sister Helen Cahill, O.P., p. 19, Fall 2001

Cahill | Supervision

Vocation ministry takes inner strength and a deep reservoir of faith.

Here are six secrets to nurturing both.

Father Vince Wirtner, C.PP.S. and fellow vocation ministers sing and pray together.

Six ways to thrive in vocation ministry

K

“

EEP CALM AND CARRY ON” is one of those slogans that lingers and lasts because it can be applied to so many situations. The phrase originated in the spring of 1939 in Britain as the country anticipated the dark days of World War II. The government designed the famous poster and printed more than two million copies but according to Brittany Fowler, author of a history of the phrase for Business Insider magazine, “not one of them was posted, as officials had last-minute doubts about whether the content was too patronizing or obvious.”

Most of the posters were destroyed, but more than 60 years later, one of them surfaced when a bookseller found it hidden in a book that he bought at an auction. He put it up over the cash register at his bookstore and customers began asking where they could purchase the poster. The shop owner started printing copies, and a craze was born.

The phrase has been adopted, adapted, and some might say exhausted over the last several years. But its truth is timeless because it captures an essential quality of faithfulness, steadfastness, and resolve in difficult situations. So how do we apply this truth to vocation ministry?

Nassal | Ways to Thrive

By Father Joseph Nassal, C.PP.S. Father Joseph Nassal, C.PP.S. is a Missionary of the Precious Blood currently serving as provincial director of the Kansas City Province and living in Liberty, Missouri. He has worked in retreat, renewal, and reconciliation ministry since 1988. He also has published eight books and has served in justice and peace ministry and in formation, vocation, and leadership ministry for his congregation.

Summer 2017 | HORIZON | 15

I’ve spent a little time as a vocation director myself, and I’ve given my share of retreats for worn out ministers. Putting together the wisdom I’ve acquired from these experiences, I offer six ideas to encourage thriving among vocation ministers and other wanderers, wayfarers, and dreamers of God’s realm. I hope these thoughts will help us to keep the faith and carry on when the road seems treacherous and we discover more dead ends than expressways, more roadblocks than rest stops.

1. Live in the now Thomas Merton mused, “Time is given to us not to keep a faith we once had but to achieve a faith we need now.”

Time passes quickly, and with so much pain and suffering in the world, we are often advised to “keep the faith.” But what faith The kind of faith we are we keeping? Is it the need today is one faith that served us as children when we were that reminds us that spoon-fed without quesno matter the bitter tioning? Is it the faith disappointment or the that leaves little room for beauty too stunning to doubt and often fails to describe, life goes on. give others the benefit of doubt?

What kind of faith do I need now? The older I get, the more doubt crowds in. I need a faith that leaves room for doubt and gives others the benefits of my own doubt, understanding that the opposite of faith is not doubt but certainty. I need a faith that helps in those times when fear threatens to get the best of me.

The kind of faith we need today is one that reminds us that no matter the bitter disappointment or the beauty too stunning to describe, life goes on. Perhaps the work of faith is to simply know and believe that life goes on.

Recently I was listening to National Public Radio’s Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me. The guest was Norman Lear, who is credited for changing television from Father Knows Best to “Father Knows Least” also known as Archie Bunker and All in the Family in the 1970s. The host asked him about his longevity—he is almost 94 years old and is still working, still creating. Lear said essentially that he is guided by two words, “over” and “next.” The image he suggested is hanging a hammock between two poles marked “over” and “next.” So how does he remain creative? When one project is finished, whether it is a 16 | HORIZON | Summer 2017

success or a failure, he moves on to the next. He doesn’t dwell on what happened before; it’s over. It’s on to what’s next.

Then there is the image of the hammock. To some it might be a symbol of a lazy summer’s day. But it also speaks to the creative process. Taking time to listen, to rest one’s mind, to calm one’s heart, to allow the new to emerge in the gentle rocking back and forth allows one to stay focused, stay faithful, remain calm, before carrying on to the next project, the next person, the next possibility.

When we apply this to religious life and particularly vocation ministry, if we dwell only on our losses, we’ll get stuck. We must allow time for quiet to invite the Spirit to stir our creativity. And then we move on to what or who is next.

2. Keep your eyes on the road Every Sunday in the New York Times is a column on leadership called “Corner Office” which carries interviews with CEOs of successful companies. In a recent column, the CEO of a software company said he learned many life lessons from his rowing coach in college who gave him this image: “When you are driving and rain is pouring down, with the windshield wipers going,” he said, “you can either watch the windshield wipers or you can watch the road. Which is going to be more successful?”

When we are going through difficult stretches on our journey, if we pay more attention to the rain, the storm, the wipers, instead of keeping our eyes on the road, we’re going to be in trouble. And yet, how easy it is to lose our focus or compromise our vision when the storms of life move in around us.

Keeping our eyes on the road is what spiritual writers call mindfulness. It is the ability to center oneself, to pay attention to what is most important, rather than being distracted by the worries and fears that can cause us to lose our way. We can be “attentive and compassionate toward our own fear without being paralyzed by it,” spiritual activist Robert Gass writes. Awareness of fear “while cultivating … a capacity to think and act with clarity and power” is at the heart of the matter of mindfulness.

Cultivating this inner silence is an absolute necessity when confronted with a culture that is impatient and prone to shame and blame in public ways. Thus, if we are less than enthusiastic about our mission or ministry, we might check the pulse of our prayer life. Keeping our Nassal | Ways to Thrive

Support from fellow vocation ministers can foster insight and resilience.

Pictured here are NRVC members in conversation: Father Don Miller, O.F.M., Father Adam MacDonald, S.V.D., and Sister Maria Brizuela, O.S.F.

eyes on the road affords us the opportunity to pay attention. Our time in solitude will lead us to connect with others who share a passion for our community mission.

3. Cultivate community Author and pastor Rick Warren has noted that most people fall into three categories: caretakers, undertakers, and risk takers. Our communities are filled with people who dwell in each of these categories. Which category do you dwell in?

Most of us are caretakers—that is the nature of religious life. We take care of one another and those we are called to serve. We take good care of those we love and even those we find difficult to love.

But we also know some undertakers in our communities—those who take us under, whose cynicism and sarcasm serve as sharp shovels to dig a grave and bury us. Sometimes we are the undertakers and we dig our own graves with our negativity. We sense the life drain from us as our energy is depleted by the shadows of doom and gloom that often shroud our world. When we feed on this negative energy of those who take us under, we will experience an acid reflux disease of the soul. Its symptoms are anger and bitterness.

We need to surround ourselves with people who are not bitter, who do not suffer from lethargy of spirit, with people who remain grounded in hope. We need to surround ourselves with risk takers, people who enlarge our Nassal | Ways to Thrive

minds, hearts, and imaginations and instill hope.

The biblical tradition is filled with risk takers. From Abraham and Sarah to Elizabeth and Zechariah to Mary and Joseph; from the prophets of old to the first disciples and witnesses to the resurrection, we have numerous examples of ancestors in faith who took the ultimate risk to trust God and say yes to what seemed incomprehensible and unimaginable.

What allowed them to be risk takers? It has something to do with this understanding that we are formed, known, dedicated, and appointed by God. Those are the verbs expressed in the call of the prophet Jeremiah (1, 5). He could be the patron saint for vocation directors because he thought he was too young to be a prophet. He needed more time in community to understand the history and spirituality, and to deepen his relationship with God. In reflecting on the call of Jeremiah, we often focus on his excuse instead of the original call of the prophet.

Notice the actions taken by God: formed, knew, dedicated, and appointed. God forms us and has a purpose for us before we are born. Our vocation reaches back to the very mystery of life. We are formed and known by God. Jeremiah’s call to be a prophet was his purpose in life. Discerning one’s purpose is at the heart of vocation ministry. When times get tough and losses mount, it is important to return to the original source of our call and to ask ourselves: what risks are we willing to take to promote and propel the reign of God in our lives? What Summer 2017 | HORIZON | 17

risks are we willing to take to make our charism, spirituality, community, and ministry known to those who are seeking to belong? What risks are we willing to take in calling forth from our congregations a deeper and wider commitment that will shake, rattle, and roll those undertakers in our community who have their sights set on death rather than life?

4. Preserve your perspective Returning to our original inspiration allows us to preserve our perspective. We keep our perspective by focusing on the question, “Are we living our charism in the most relevant way possible?”

I once heard an interview with a British historian who interviewed a survivor of the Nazi death camp for a book he was writing. After the interview, the historian called a cab and waited on the curb. He had a plane to catch and the cab was late. As he kept looking at his watch and no cab showed up, the historian became increasingly angry. He paced back and forth on the sidewalk, kept calling the cab company and yelling into his cell phone. At one point, the survivor of the Holocaust who had been watching him from her apartment window came downstairs to wait with him. He told the interviewer that she came over to him and gently touched his arm and said, “What does it matter? Why worry about missing your plane? There will be another plane.

When you have lived in a Nazi concentration camp these daily annoyances don’t matter so much.”

The prophet Micah put our lives in proper perspective when he wrote about what God requires of us. Three things, the prophet said: “Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.” One of my favorite films of recent years was The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, about a group of older folks who go to India to spend the twilight of their lives in a sort of resort-like paradise. But once they arrive, the hotel turns out to be less than they expected. Upon their arrival, Sonny, the young entrepreneur who is more of a dreamer than a manager but is trying to save the hotel that his father bequeathed to him, tells one of the guests who finds the accommodations substandard that there is a saying in India, “Everything will be all right in the end. And if everything is not all right, then it’s not the end.”

Life is often a matter of perspective. We keep our perspective by asking the important questions. Since so much in our world doesn’t make sense today, Father Timothy Radcliffe, O.P., former master general of the Dominicans, believes religious life must be the answer 18 | HORIZON | Summer 2017

One way to stay healthy in vocation ministry is to let go of perfectionism, to allow ourselves to have flaws.

to the question, “What is the sense of human life today?”

One image he offered that serves as a possible answer is that of a nun in Venezuela singing the Exultet at an Easter Vigil he attended. “People must be able to recognize in our lives an invitation to be human in a new way,” he wrote. For him, the image of that nun singing in the dark to the paschal candle reflects the present and the future of religious life.

5. Embrace imperfection As we seek to stay calm and carry on in the work to which we are called, we need to avoid getting caught in the roundabout of perfectionism. Or else we will just be going around in circles.

We confuse perfection with holiness or wholeness.

It is easy to do since so much of our religious training has focused on perfection. That word, perfection, occurs early in Matthew’s gospel when Jesus talks about discipleship in the Sermon on the Mount. In the context of loving one’s enemies, Jesus says we must be “perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.” (I prefer Luke’s version where he says we must be “compassionate as our God is compassionate.”)

The pursuit of perfection can stifle our growth and development as a human person because we are called to be human, not perfect. We must be who we are and stop trying to live up to an ideal that we or others (parents, family, church, society, profession, and our own false self) place before us. In her book, Being Perfect, Anna Nassal | Ways to Thrive

Quindlen reflects on her desire as a young girl and high school student to be perfect by living up to the expectations of others. “Trying to be perfect may be inevitable for people who are smart and ambitious and interested in the world and its good opinion,” she writes. “What is hard, and amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.”

Helping a candidate to religious life become him or herself within the parameters of a congregation’s charism and spirituality is at the heart of the process of discernment. If we are still living up to the expectations of others—of church or family or community or Wall Street or the people down the street, how can we help a candidate discern his or her place in religious life if he or she is dealing with the same issues? It is important to ask ourselves if we are still trying to shape our lives in response to what other people think of us, of how they define us, of who they want us to be? Are we still trying to be perfect in an imperfect world? Or are we seeking to be whole and holy?

In discernment with potential candidates for our communities, we must pay close attention to this question of perfectionism because as Quindlen points out, one of the many downfalls of pursuing perfection is that it “makes you unforgiving of the faults of others.” But the main reason to avoid the path of perfection is that moment in our lives when we fail at something we truly wanted to succeed at, or we’ve lost a loved one who meant the world to us, or a dream has turned to dust—then “you will fall into the center of yourself ” and “will look for some core to sustain you,” Quindlen writes. “And if you have been perfect all your life and have managed to meet all the expectations of your family, your friends, your community, your society, chances are excellent that there will be a black hole where the core ought to be.”

sion begins because as Henri Nouwen wrote, “When I really bring others into my innermost being and feel their pains, their struggles, their cries in my own soul, then I leave myself, so to speak, and become them; then I have compassion.”

Kindness is born when we learn compassion. And we learn to be compassionate from our losses. Not long ago I met the widow of a 50-year-old man who died suddenly of a heart attack. She and her two children, one in high school and the other a freshman in college, were devastated and grieving this most unacceptable loss. She came to the retreat to help with her grief. She told me the story of her son, the freshman in college, who at his father’s funeral said to the brokenhearted congregation, “Dad, you gave me your name. It is the greatest gift you gave me. I will do my best to carry your name with the integrity, compassion, and love that you lived.”

That young man is farther along the path of compassion than most. What will keep him going in the aftermath of such a great loss is the memory of his father’s integrity, compassion, and love, and the desire to live up to the name his father gave him.

The memory of those who have loved us, encouraged us, and challenged us; the love and compassion we have experienced with God in silence and prayer, in the faith communities we serve and the people we have met along the way; and the name we carry that expresses the charism and spirituality of the life to which we are called will keep us going in our vocation ministry as we seek to create safe places for those we accompany on the journey.

As we journey forward in faith, may these six points fuel our souls to keep the faith, stay calm, and carry on. n

RELATED READING 6. Practice kindness Embracing our imperfections reminds us that we are not invincible and teaches us to be vulnerable. When we are in touch with our own vulnerability, we learn a little more about compassion. Creating an environment for discernment where the candidate experiences a compassionate presence and feels safe enough to share his or her story is one of the most important gifts a vocation minister can give to a person sensing a call to religious life.

To be a compassionate presence in a world where there is so much apathy and indifference, to practice such kindness, we must first go inside and sense the fire of God’s love burning within us. This is where compasNassal | Ways to Thrive

“Leisure and the vocation minister: Rediscovering the spiritual value of down time,” by Father Lawrence Janowski, O.F.M., HORIZON, Fall 1999, No. 1 “How I stay healthy and hopeful as a vocation minister,”

by Sister Renée Daigle, M.S.C., HORIZON, Fall 2006, No. 1 “Renew the glory of your vocation by clinging to the hand of God,” by Brother Paul Bednarczyk, C.S.C., HORIZON, Winter 2011, No. 1 “Feed your spirit: What are you really doing?” by Sister Melannie Svoboda, S.N.D., HORIZON, Spring 2013, No. 2

Summer 2017 | HORIZON | 19

When a person makes a vocation inquiry, it’s critical that a community respond well.

By Sister Virginia Herbers, A.S.C.J., Len Uhal, and Sister Nancy Gilchriest, S.S.N.D.

Responding to inquirers The Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Sister Virginia Herbers, A.S.C.J. serves the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in leadership, having worked in vocation and formation ministry.

Len Uhal is the national vocation director for Divine Word Missionaries. He discerned with the SVDs and is now married with children.

Sister Nancy Gilchriest, S.S.N.D. is director of the North American Vocation Team for the School Sisters of Notre Dame.

20 | HORIZON | Summer 2017

By Sister Virginia Herbers, A.S.C.J.

I

N THINKING ABOUT MY COMMUNITY’S APPROACH to vocational inquiries, I realize the value of articulating my own philosophy of vocation ministry even before explaining our method. Our community has made a strong communal commitment to vocation ministry by appointing a full-time vocation director, as well as engaging each of our sisters in a variety of vocation events and initiatives. Responding to inquiries is my responsibility, and my approach has four basic principles: 1.

2.

3.

4.

Know the target population.

Treat each person with reverence.

Know the ministry and its boundaries.

Make deliberate choices.

First, a word about the target population. The vast majority of our inquirers are in their 20s and 30s. They contact us through multiple channels—web-matching sites (a shout-out to NRVC’s VISION and VocationHerbers, Uhal, Gilchriest | Inquiries

Match.com), our community’s website (www.ascjus.org), social media pages (mostly Facebook and Twitter), and through direct email. Rare is the inquiry that originally comes via phone or print material. Not so rare is the personal contact through one of our community members or through my meeting a woman in person somewhere.

I see these personal contacts as our best-case scenarios— the strongest type of initial contact. But since the overwhelming majority of our initial inquiries come through digital sources, maintaining a vibrant presence online is of vital importance to the ministry. Tweeting and posting may not seem like a method of maintaining contact, but I assure you we have found it essential!

Another aspect of knowing our target population is realizing what my communication comfort zone is and what theirs might be. As with any ministry, if I remain in my own comfort zone to minister to the needs of others, it might make me happier, but it will likely not be ministering in the most coherent or effective way for those considering religious life. I admit that it is an effort for me to maintain our social media accounts—tweeting does not come naturally to me—but it is as natural a part of a 20-something’s life as walking down the street, so it behooves me to put aside my own preferences if I want to truly meet inquirers where they are.

That being said, social media has its limits when it comes to vocational discernment, so another piece of knowing our audience is knowing when it is time to have a more personal, real-time meeting, in-person or via phone, Zoom, Skype, or Facetime. Being attentive to the incarnational nature of relationship requires that emailing and texting eventually yield to person-to-person conversation.

This leads to my second principle: treat discerners (the target population or audience) with reverence.

When I receive an inquiry, do I treat it as another item on my to-do list, adding it to my pending email and need-to-make phone calls? Or do I receive it as a person who has asked for my help and accompaniment on a journey led by the Holy Spirit? Because each contact represents a person’s vocational journey, I insist on replying to their inquiry within no more than one week of receiving it. My first response is usually email, followed soon after by a phone call if the person has provided a number. If she has provided a social media address, I learn more about her there before contacting her. If I don’t receive any response, I follow-up once more about two weeks later. If she still hasn’t responded, I let the connection go, with a promise to carry her in our community prayer.

Herbers, Uhal, Gilchriest | Inquiries

In my experience, about 50 percent of the inquiries I receive end up in this last category; about 35 percent respond and engage in an initial conversation; and only about 15 percent end up maintaining contact and moving on to attend one of our discernment events (retreat, live-in experience, day of prayer, or ministry shadowing).

Once a relationship has been established (i.e., we’ve had at least one real-time conversation, and it’s the discerner’s intention to continue) I add the person to our vocation email list and make sure I keep in contact with her about our upcoming events and vocation opportunities. If six months go by without hearing any further response from her, I reach out again with a call, and if I still don’t receive a response, I make the assumption that she would prefer to drop contact, and I My guiding question oblige. After a year’s worth of sustained non-contact, I rewhen it comes to move her from our email list. whether to continue One aspect of reverencthe effort to stay in ing the discerner is persevertouch is: “Why—and ing enough to allow for the for whose benefit?” demands of her busy schedule and ongoing discernment, but also not being so persistent as to become pesky. My guiding question when it comes to whether to continue the effort to stay in touch is: “Why—and for whose benefit?” That question keeps me honest, and the answer indicates pretty clearly what I need to do!

Thirdly: I need to know my ministry and its boundaries. As a vocation director I am called to accompany inquiring women on their discernment journey. So the first question is whether or not this person feels called to religious life. This is typically the topic of conversation the first time I speak with someone. In listening to her story and trying to help her discern how God is leading, I find that offering a sense of what distinguishes one community from another (charism, mission, spirituality, etc.) is also helpful. If, in the course of our conversations, it becomes apparent that although it seems she has a religious vocation, my community would not be a good match, I am a firm believer in expressing that directly, clearly, honestly, and compassionately, and recommending other communities to contact. Recognizing my own biases and projections is vital in order to ensure that I am not interfering with God’s movements in the person’s life—I don’t endorse “cutting people loose” too early in the relationship—but neither can I, if I truly believe a woman and the community would be an ill-fit, treat the Summer 2017 | HORIZON | 21

person like a commodity simply to benefit our desire for an increase in new members. Rather I believe God’s job is to call someone to the consecrated life and to a particular community. My job is to help a woman discern how God might be speaking and moving, and to convey the identity of my own religious community in order to facilitate her vocational discernment.

Lastly, in responding to inquiries, each community and each vocation director must make choices. How restrictive is our screening process for those who make God’s job is to call inquiries? Do we engage someone to the every inquirer equally— consecrated life and to whether that person reaches a particular community. us through email, personal My job is to help a contact, or through a Facewoman discern how book “like”? What are the God might be speaking. possibilities as well as the non-negotiables for my community? For example, do we have an age restriction? Would we accept undocumented persons? Can we be flexible in ministry assignments and formation programs? Is there a “standard pathway” for engaging with the community, or is that decided on a case-by-case basis? How long do we maintain contact with someone without receiving a response? Is the community willing to pay for a discerner’s travel to visit in person? Does the community feel an in-person meeting is important enough for the vocation director to visit each inquirer?

These are but a sampling of the questions that will inform and direct the way a community responds to inquiries and nurtures contacts.

And , to end where we began, the process a community chooses will be the ministerial expression of its own philosophy of vocation ministry. Far from being dry abstractions, this philosophy will hopefully make manifest the Way, the Truth, and the Life of vocation ministry: Jesus Christ himself.

Society of the Divine Word

By Len Uhal

A

QUICK QUERY OF OUR CANDIDATE database shows that we entered 1,557 “new names,” as we call them, over the last five years from 25 different sources, and we currently have 458 “active names.” This is an average of 311 new names a year, and 22 | HORIZON | Summer 2017

it does not count the hundreds of names we did not add to the database because an inquirer did not meet our admission criteria based on age, health, faith affiliation, residency, or another standard.

Where do these names come from? What do we do with them? How do we organize them? Who follows-up and responds to them? Who provides information and nurtures them? Who develops a relationship with them to assist them in their discernment? How do we keep sufficient and friendly contact with them without being overbearing or high pressured? These are all good questions, and there are probably more.

For the SVDs the process begins with a referral or inquiry to our vocation office from a multitude of different sources. As noted above, we received inquiries from 25 different sources in the last several years. These include inquiries from our free and paid print or online advertisements in VISION, OYE, Guide to Religious Ministries, Facebook, VocationMatch.com, Vocations Placement Services, various program booklets, and other magazines, websites, and periodicals. Our sources of new names include our Search Engine Marketing (SEM) advertising, direct referrals from Divine Word Missionary brothers and priests, referrals from current or former men in formation, hits to our website, referrals from benefactors, and of course contacts received through our vocation team’s promotion activities, such as visiting parishes, giving presentations, hosting retreats, visiting college campuses, attending vocation fairs, taking part in Catholic youth conferences, etc.

Our job as a vocation team—which consists of three SVD priests, an SVD brother, an office assistant and me—is to regularly put ourselves in front of young people to invite and encourage them to consider a religious vocation. When someone says, “I’m interested in learning more,” we collect the man’s contact information and enter it into our database, which is an Excel spreadsheet with many fields to track things like initial contact, Come and See visits, and even the formal application process if a candidate gets to that point.

Once one of our vocation directors obtains a new name, we receive a phone call in the office from an inquirer, or we receive a name from a referral source (like Vision, for example), our office assistant enters the person’s information into the database and immediately sends an initial letter and mails a small packet of information to the inquirer. If one of our vocation directors obtained the new name, he almost always walks with that candidate through the entire process—from initial phone calls and information to discernment and possible Herbers, Uhal, Gilchriest | Inquiries

application. If the new name was a “cold referral” from a phone call to the office or from a referral source like Vocations Placement Services, I assign a vocation director to the candidate based on the state where the candidates lives and the geographical area that each vocation director covers.

Within seven to ten days after our office assistant mails the packet of information, a vocation director reaches out to contact the candidate. As we all know, this can sometimes be difficult with cold referrals. We telephone them, we e-mail them, and we sometimes reach out through Facebook. While some candidates reply quickly, much of the time we struggle to connect one-on-one with our cold referrals. The men we meet at vocation fairs and through personal contact are much easier to engage in conversation, but we do not give up on the cold referrals—some of the ones from the past are active members of our Society today!

We remain persistent in trying to make contact with all of our referrals. In addition to phone calls and e-mails, we try to engage our candidates through social media, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. With these and with our monthly e-newsletter, we try to drive our candidates to our website to learn more about us even though they may not want to reply to an e-mail or phone call. Quarterly we send our mission magazine to them, a four-color periodical that highlights our ministries around the world. We also send birthday and Christmas cards to candidates, and this year we even sent Easter cards. For three to four years—before we sent the formal initial information packet—I personally hand-wrote a note on a greeting card to every cold referral. The thought was that maybe the personal touch would increase our ability to connect with the young man. Over the years we learned that there was no significant difference or likelihood that a person who received a handwritten note would reply to phone calls or e-mails any more than someone who did not. We abandoned that time-consuming practice.

All of the action steps above are meant to provide information to our candidates about our community and hopefully encourage them to begin a conversation with us. Once we make direct contact with a candidate via phone calls, text messages, e-mail, Skype, Facebook or whatever platform, our goal is to help them in their discernment. We engage them in many conversations about religious life and hope that we can eventually meet with them in person. After one or more meetings with candidates, we invite them for a Come and See visit.

Sometimes it takes multiple visits and several months or Herbers, Uhal, Gilchriest | Inquiries

PREPARE TO BE HEARD We understand you’re under pressure to evangelize.

We’re here to help.

PREPARETHEWORD.COM

Summer 2017 | HORIZON | 23

even years for a candidate to decide to make an application to our community—or decide that religious life is not for them or our community is not the right fit for them. However all of the activities above help us and the candidate come to an informed decision.

Unfortunately we are not able to connect personally with all candidates. In fact we are unable to make any contact with most of our cold referrals. Despite all our efforts we never speak directly with the majority of them.

Generally we keep them on our active list for six months or so. We try to make several phone calls and e-mail attempts as well as send them a few e-newsletters, a couple mission magazines, and maybe a birthday card. In the end, if they never respond, we drop them from our active list, but they remain in our database in case we hear from them a few months or a couple years down the road, which has happened more than once.

While we have tweaked the process over the years and have tried many different advertising and vocation promotion events, our method of working with our candidates has been a blessing for our Society in the United States. In the last 14 years, 640 candidates participated in a Come and See visit, 270 men entered initial formation with us and 88 professed First Vows as Divine Word Missionaries in the USA after completing our novitiate program. Having a systematic and well-organized vocation promotion plan in place is crucial to successful vocation ministry.

School Sisters of Notre Dame

By Sister Nancy Gilchriest, S.S.N.D. As Jesus passed by, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.

—Matthew 9: 9-13

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ECOGNIZING THAT GOD does the inviting, the School Sisters of Notre Dame Vocation Team responds to an inquirer in the following fashion.

If the query arrives by email, the SSND Vocation Director responds in a timely manner, sending information that is requested and answering any general questions that are asked. Having the director be the first point of contact helps ensure that a response is given within five days of the request. If the individual asks that a vocation minister contact her, then the director arranges a mutually convenient time for them to meet, either in person or by phone. This conversation is the first step in allowing the woman to get to know the SSNDs, and vice versa.

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INQUIRIES CHECKLIST a Prompt response (within days) a Ongoing, regular contact, gently offering possibilities for face-to-face connection a Respect for inquirer’s desire to opt out of communication a Systematic way to track contact with every inquirer a Commitment to encourage vocational decisions that are right for the person discerning

Depending on the location of the inquirer, the SSND vocation director might ask one of the five sisters on the Vocation Team to continue the conversation in order to foster this relationship of understanding the mystery of what happens when “Jesus passes by.” If the inquirer comes directly to a School Sister of Notre Dame, that sister contacts the director, and a particular vocation minister becomes the main contact.

The community is involved with special events, such as Busy Persons’ Retreats and diocesan vocation events which could elicit interest in religious life. We always have a contact information sheet at events so women can sign up to continue the conversation. The sheets are labeled “Would you like more information about religious life? Would you like to be contacted by an SSND vocation person?” In addition each SSND vocation minister distributes business cards whenever it is appropriate.

The process continues with a time frame of approximately three weeks between points of contact. This gives the inquirer the space and the grace needed to move to an understanding of her call. For those who do not respond to us, we’ll be in touch twice over a six-week period before discontinuing contact, and our last communication lets her know that unless we hear from her, we’ll stop contacting her.

For a woman who stays in touch, as time passes we will invite her to meet with other SSNDs, volunteer at an SSND ministry, or participate in particular events, allowing the relationship between her and the School Sisters to deepen. The vocation team member is the link connecting the two. In prayerful support and mutual conversation, the vocation team member companions the woman as she discerns God’s invitation to “follow me.” n Herbers, Uhal, Gilchriest | Inquiries

An unlikely community begins to receive new members. Among the reasons is a conscious decision to embrace new life and not allow grief and downsizing to take center stage.

Sister María Cruz de la Cruz, C.D.P. receives a wooden cross from Sr. Ann Petrus, C.D.P., superior general, during her first profession of vows with the Congregation of the Sisters of Divine Providence of San Antonio, Texas.

A new springtime in vocation ministry

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ELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE UNITED STATES is not a single reality. Many religious institutes are in transition and are taking on new shapes and forms. Some congregations are thriving; others are maintaining or simply surviving. Some have come to completion or are in this process. These shifts profoundly impact vocation and formation ministry. In what seems surprising to some, in the midst of all this flux, U.S. religious communities experienced an increase in 2016 of those beginning formation and of those taking final vows.

Our God of Surprises continues to bring forth new life and new consecrated vocations despite our worries and sometimes even despite our lack of innovation and creativity. The preparatory document for the 2018 synod of bishops (Young People, Faith and Vocational Discernment) encourages those in vocation accompaniment to go “beyond a preconceived framework, encountering young people where they are, adapting to their times and pace of life and taking them seriously.” Every community, the document declares, must boldly find “creative ways of addressing young people in a personal way” and avoid the trap of “stifling what is new” with a “closed and complacent pastoral attitude that says: ‘We have always done it this way.’”

My own congregation works at embracing this creative vision put forth in the preparatory document for the 2018 synod. My community is

Detzel | New Springtime

Sister Joyce Detzel, C.D.P. Sister Joyce Detzel, C.D.P. is the vocation director for the Congregation of the Sisters of Divine Providence of Texas.

She a convert to Catholicism, a lawyer, mother, campus minister, and educator. Detzel also conducts retreats and workshops and has previously served as a member area coordinator for the National Religious Vocation Conference.

Summer 2017 | HORIZON | 25

now seeing an unexpected surge in serious discerners, applicants, and entrants after undergoing a significant vocational fallow time. Our initial formation group now consists of four annual professed sisters, one novice, one pre-novice, and three affiliates with action plans moving them toward entrance.

Our youngest new member is a 26-year-old novice; the oldest is a 42-year-old affiliate. The vocation team consistently works with five to seven additional serious inquirers. Perhaps even more striking is that all eight women who have professed vows over the last 10 years remain in the congregation. That constitutes an almost unheard of 100 percent retention rate. So how do we explain it?

We don’t fit the profile A national expert in contemporary religious life once said, “I don’t get it. You don’t fit the profile of a congregation attracting vocations.” Others might continue this train of thought by saying, “You are too old.” Our median age is 81.5. “You are too small.” We currently have 133 sisters. “You are not international.” We have a small Mexico region and several international sisters from other religious institutes who study and live with us, but our professed sisters primarily live and minister in informal hubs within a two state radius.

The list of anomalies goes on: “You are an underfunded group with limited resources for vocation outreach.” Despite our limited resources, our congregation generously supports and actively encourages vocation ministry. Leadership had the foresight to maintain fulltime vocation and formation positions during the vocationally lean years. As a result, we were updated and ready to receive women when they came. Use of social media, creative and innovative thinking on the part of the New Membership Team, and collaboration with associates, local religious congregations, and national organizations, such as the National Religious Vocation Conference, National Catholic Sisters Week, and SisterStory have created dynamic and expansive forms of outreach and follow-up that do not over-extend our budget.

“You are not visible.” We have diverse expressions of community life and prayer; our apparel is inconspicuous; and our ministerial presence is collaborative. This is our blessing and gift to the church. Instead of focusing on visibility as an issue, we simply tell others we are women of Providence hidden in Christ among the people.

“You don’t have new transfer sisters.” Honesty with ourselves and others is essential. We are open to trans26 | HORIZON | Summer 2017

fer sisters and do desire congregational growth, but we guard against becoming a safety net for sisters seeking respite from hard personal and congregational issues.

Deep conversations with women seeking a transfer have not indicated a God-inspired call to transfer. Rather the conversations have powerfully affirmed that these women do see something happening in our congregation that they long for in their own groups.

We don’t fit a stereotypical profile, but we do attract women of all ages, including younger women. We foster the developmental, interpersonal, and spiritual growth appropriate for women of all ages in formation and in our broader congregation. Together we become more mature, grounded, faith-filled, and relational.

God will always be a God of Surprises. We try to remain faithful to how God has fashioned our particular way of living religious life in today’s church and world.

The hovering hope for all is that under the right conditions, new life and vocations will take root and flourish in the fertile soil of groups like ours who do not “fit the profile.”

So what attracts women to us?

One of our new members recently noted, “You don’t get nine women by accident.” Vocations and vowed membership thrive or wither within a context. Vocation ministers try to identify what draws discerners toward or away from their group. Here are some of the factors that we think are attracting.

A relevant charism—For us this means being the face of God’s provident, loving care for all creation. Our charism flows from a deeply held belief that God is in the middle of all things, regardless of how it may look, actively engaging us in helping to bring things to good.

After due diligence on our part, we trust God will provide for what is lacking. This was true in the past, but is equally true now, as we hope it will be in our future.

A strong sense of belonging—God’s provident love shapes the heart of our message. The desire to be the living embodiment of God’s care and love pulses through relationships we form with God, each other, and those we serve. We know we are not alone. We are in it together regardless of where “it” takes us. Belonging is a powerful life sign that can be palpably felt by discerners.

Transparency and honesty—Our virtue of simplicity calls us to come before God and others with honesty, Detzel | New Springtime

style of religious life (including ours) can’t be presumed.

Vocation ministers face the paradox of distilling, introducing, and exploring issues of institutional viability with those just beginning to explore a call. The blissful naiveté of the past is over. Today vocation ministers must articulate the Paschal Mystery inherent in their own religious institute, spot candidates who will fit with their group at this precise point in the congregational lifespan, and encourage discerners who do not fit to seek other directions. As such, vocation ministers, even in thriving A collaborative, creative spirit—This spirit is religious institutes, need to be prepared to honestly adopen to new life and different possibilities. Life can trandress “burying the dead” questions while simultaneously scend but not circumvent diminishment. We can dilimoving discerners towards life, goodness, and hope. gently work with hard questions and concrete realities One such question pertains to when serious discernwithout languishing or becoming caught in the quagmire ers, candidates, and postulants should be introduced to of larger-than-life, self-imposed myths about diminishinstitutional financial and operational complexities. Apment and liminality. The central belief is that Providence plicants typically provide full financial disclosure to their does more than we can ask for or imagine and urges us religious institute prior to admission. out of the rut of past rumination or presJustice requires that we provide them ent worry, nudging us toward a more dywith an accurate financial snapshot of namic space of life and possibility. ourselves, too. As an underfunded group, Vocation ministers our reality may be difficult to swallow, Excitement to be crossing the face the paradox of but any woman journeying with us must threshold of another major evodistilling, introducing, grapple with it. They have not bolted or lution of religious life— As in any and exploring issues become disillusioned. Rather, financial religious institute, our members have difof institutional viability transparency on our part allows us to see ferent responses to being in the thick of a with those just how they react to our challenging institutime of transformation. Women of Provibeginning to explore a tional realities. Are they mature women? dence as a whole are spiritually wired call.

What can we learn about their priorito be hopeful, open, curious, and full of ties and motivations? Do they have the life. An elderly sister, when asked about stamina to stay the course and work with finding herself in yet another transition us as a team? What business, financial, or period, smiled and said, “We’ve done this legal expertise or everyday common sense do they bring before. The first time we had plenty of energy but not a to the table? How do they handle protective concern lot of wisdom. We know more about how to do it this from family and friends related to our financial vulnertime around. Just think, I get a second chance in my lifeabilities? How do they explain the situation to others? time to help shape religious life!” What a gift. What an Aging, death, and grief surface other “burying the attitude. What a contagious source of energy and hope dead” questions. Death and loss are dramatic but less for everyone, including discerners! spoken-about countercultural aspects of convent life.

Discerners can’t be shielded from grief and the secondBurying the dead ary impact of watching others grieve. With a median age of 81.5, loss of beloved members is a regular part of Discerners standing at the threshold of contemporary the rhythm of our congregation. Newcomers become religious life awaken great hope and energy for everyone. part of a loving, prayerful network of elders who provide They are eager to walk into our religious institutes with faith and wisdom and who model our form of religious eyes wide open. These resilient and hardy individuals are life well-lived. But how does everyone respond to the not afraid to say “yes” to a life form that they can’t entireprospect of intergenerational living? What are discerner’s ly envision. Serious discerners, just like professed memexperiences related to aging and illness? Have they exbers, must be gently introduced to the truth that in this perienced the death of a loved one or navigated through modern world of secularization, flux, and change, the the complexities of grief? Where does faith come into long-term survival of any particular religious institute or directness, and candor. It takes individual and congregational growth to become more of who God calls us to be. On the flip side, for better or worse, we also are who we are. A woman in initial formation remarked after her first visit, “You don’t hide anyone, do you?” No we don’t.

What you see is what you get. As counterintuitive as that may seem, it makes it so much easier for a vocation minister in the long run!

Detzel | New Springtime

Summer 2017 | HORIZON | 27

Sister María Cruz de la Cruz, C.D.P., Sister Berenice Trachta, C.D.P., the longest living sister in the 149 year history of the congregation (now deceased), and Sister Misty Garriga, C.D.P., spend time together. The impact of a median age of 81.5 is something the community discusses early on with affiliates. Photo, here and page 25, courtesy of the Sisters of Divine Providence of Texas.

play? Might our charism add other nuances? These are vocation and formation issues we attempt to deal with directly. A convent subculture shaped after decades of communal living may appear foreign or diametrically opposed to a discerner’s feelings or previous family reactions to loss, death and dying.

Finally, a personal call is influenced by the vitality and viability of a religious community. Religious institutes are at various points on the spectrum of a congregational lifespan. The discerner and the vocation minister step into this mix. Religious institutes in a stable maintenance mode may respond differently to vocations than those engaged in shifts such as mergers, coming to completion, or institutional transformation. It must be decided when, how, or even should important organizational shifts be shared with the discerner.

Even vocation ministers who do not address specifics inevitably encounter discerners who visit social media sites and blogs where newer members voice hope and joy in their calling. They also may express fears about becoming casualties of their own institute’s preoccupation with the dying process. Discerners may learn that care of elders or preoccupation with handing on a legacy can siphon away precious, life-giving energy needed to cultivate vocations or expand mission. They may witness group division or speak with new members who feel hurt or marginalized after essential yet sensitive communal conversations about whether to invite new members or fund vocation outreach. Vocation ministers are like white water expedition guides, navigating the rapids of changes in contemporary religious life with a boat full 28 | HORIZON | Summer 2017

of vocation prospects. And to top it off, they navigate a fine line between firing the passion for religious life and putting out internal community fires that threaten to consume the entire vocation.

Heralds of hope, centers of resilience Fires also bring about change and regeneration. Vocation ministers are heralds of hope and agents of transformation. Sister Misty Garriga, C.D.P., a member of Giving Voice and an annual professed sister in our congregation, writes that younger members find themselves “ultimately spending time in the tomb as we await our resurrection and ascension into a different version of religious life.”

Resilience helps those “coming out of the tomb.” It brings stability and equilibrium during times of change, setbacks, and challenges. Religious institutes, vocation ministers, and serious discerners must be able to rebound.

My former work as an attorney who represented immigrant women and girls fleeing violence showed me the connection between resilience and “coming out of the tomb.” The aftermath of life-altering trauma took on different faces such as anger, paralysis, discombobulation, fear, mistrust, or a desire to avoid or flee. The degree of impact was influenced by the reactions of others, the type and duration of the trauma, resources at their disposal, and their desire for wholeness and healing. Time varied between initial healing and their adjustment to a new “post trauma” normal. Changes and transformation in religious life are also life-altering events that can trauDetzel | New Springtime

matize vocation ministers as well as religious institutes.

Resilience is needed even when the end result of change is ultimately positive.

Resilient vocation ministers find ways to integrate changes in religious life, in secular life, and in organizational lifecycle directions. They are well positioned to encourage innovative vocation programs and effective one-on-one discussions with discerners. They also: • Honestly try to work through the fear, paralysis, anger, or powerlessness associated with congregational change and its ramifications on vocation outreach; • Break through barriers of thinking things must be done in the same old ways even when those ways are not working; • Discover ways to recharge faith and deepen hope and love for their religious institute and members; • Find the creativity and courage needed to innovate and try things that might fail or might not be initially embraced by membership, leaders, or the vocation team; and • Search for new information and develop skills that help vocation outreach flourish.

The bottom line is that the vocation minister must believe deep inside that his or her religious institute is capable of carrying on. Does that belief match with reality?

Members, too, must believe in a future. Life instinctively knows life. Discerners will pick up and identify with the life and resilience that the vocation minister does or does not exude.

Candidates too must be resilient: flexible, able to let go, grieve, and move forward. Some have an age-old, yet ever new pioneering spirit, exhibiting strength, a hardy spiritual life, a dogged persistence. They may champion justice or have a deep love for the poor. Some resilient candidates bring creativity and are able to foster new life and spark hope. Do your candidates have the makings of a good leader or follower? Can they see a crossroad and have the courage to take a new path? Are they functional and stable during times of change? Can they bounce back with renewed energy and hope even when things don’t work out as expected? Each institute may value different qualities of resilience. The resilience in candidates must complement the congregational style of resilience.

No candidate will have all of these qualities, but at least some of them are required.

Detzel | New Springtime

Collaboration aids discerners Energy harnessed together surpasses that which is attempted alone. The Archdiocese of San Antonio and the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese have long-standing traditions of religious institutes and seminaries working together to promote vocations. Co-ed “Life Awareness Retreats” are hosted in Houston, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, and Dallas. Each retreat site typically draws 35 to 50 men and women of all ages who are exploring a call to consecrated life and the priesthood. The weekends are staffed by brothers, sisters, priests, and people in initial formation from 10 to 20 different religious institutes. The retreats take place in a non-competitive retreat atmosphere and offer sound basic information about religious life. In some locales discerners meet for monthly followups or attend intercommunity pre-novitiate days. A number of inquirers and entrants throughout our archdioceses have been Life Awareness participants.

Other collaborators include vocation promotion committees run by lay people, Serra Clubs, our associates, and other parish groups. Sometimes several religious congregations who trust each other band together to sponsor “Come and See” retreats, “Nun Runs,” or mission trips. Discerners see different models of religious life, meet others who are discerning, and visit several convents. A supportive culture of vocation reduces work load, increases energy, and provides insight about where an interested person might fit. It requires, however, that religious orders intentionally dismantle their silos of isolation.

Working as a team draws on strength from God, other vocation ministers, their religious institutes, the laity, partners in mission, and the broader church. Intercommunity experiences may one day expand beyond the usual monthly intercommunity novitiate and intercommunity pre-novitiate gatherings. Perhaps religious institutes that no longer invite new members or are coming to completion will play a role in furthering the future of religious life by pairing with underfunded or underresourced congregations of similar or different charisms.

A collaborative environment serves as a seedbed to generate new ideas, try new things, and allow space for failures. The possibilities are endless.

Proactively respond to barriers Most women come to us “convent curious” rather than “convent ready.” That means much of our energy is spent on pre-entry vocational catechesis. Discerners are Summer 2017 | HORIZON | 29

exposed to the essentials of religious life, debunked of myths, given tips on how to grow in the faith, and are introduced to the varied styles of religious life. This takes time and wisdom.

Many things in today’s world can create perpetual discerners. To counter that, we have designed a concrete and quantifiable Moving Forward process for our affiliates (the stage that prepares serious discerners for entry into our congregation.) It is renewed annually and is a useful tool to gauge the progression of a serious discerner with a stated desire to one day join the community. Our sisters still ask why it takes discerners so long to enter, but the Moving Forward Plan helps our New Membership Team understand the complexities and be a little less in the dark!

The Moving Forward Plan has three parts. The first provides general information and outlines the times, dates, and specific events and congregational celebrations the affiliate will attend throughout the year. It states the frequency and method of contact with the vocation minister. The affiliate proposes a plan to grow spiritually through spiritual direction, spiritual reading, and parish involvement.

Another section in the Moving Forward Plan addresses lifestyle adjustments appropriate to this new preentry phase in her life. What behavioral changes will she make to see if religious life fits her? What will she gently do throughout the year to try living in the spirit of the vows of poverty, celibacy, and obedience? The affiliate suggests ways she can grow in community living skills and intentionally live our virtue of trust in Providence.

The final part of the Moving Forward Plan pertains to overcoming the major obstacles that most women face when entering religious life: finance and debt; possessions; pets and animals; medical issues; relationships; and housing, rent, or mortgages. The affiliate records her current reality in each area and formulates practical, concrete actions she will take over the year to make changes in that area. Timelines provide additional accountability.

The Moving Forward Plan is a joint effort between the woman and vocation minister. Both work out the details together and sign off on it. Both understand it is an indicator of the affiliate’s level of commitment and follow-through. The plan identifies areas where additional assistance may empower the woman to take the steps needed for entry. If little movement has been shown by the year’s end, depending on the circumstances, it provides tangible grounds to determine whether the woman should discontinue being an affiliate.

30 | HORIZON | Summer 2017

Embracing the future with hope Resilient vocation ministers take into account the reality of diminishment and at the same time move discerners toward life, either in their congregation or elsewhere.

They are generally positive, focused, and flexible people, who preserve what is meaningful from the past, swim against the current of organizational stagnancy and engage in the life-giving task of finding creative and imaginative ways to excite and inspire those called by God. Vocation ministers are called to be purveyors of the truth who can honestly embrace the future with hope.

They do not present serious discerners with a false bill of goods. They understand that these men and women have a right to know if a religious institute is moving toward completion, is undergoing significant structural change, or has become caught in an ambiguous place of liminality and diminishment. Even congregations poised to thrive must still explain that despite many positive factors, challenging days still lie ahead.

Should the task of attracting new members seem daunting, Sister Misty Garriga, C.D.P. reminds us to “embrace the future with hope. God alone is the recruiting agent.” She encourages us to keep “reminding each other of the joy, enthusiasm, and zeal that calls us to this life.”

This new springtime in vocation ministry takes place as vocation ministers quietly accompany discerners, assist in burying the dead, wait patiently in the tomb, and joyfully help unbind religious institutes now being called forth into new, transformed life. n

RELATED READING “How one community renewed its spirit and attracted new members,” by Father Dave Donnay, O.S.C. and Father Richard McGuire, O.S.C., p. 27, Winter 2016 “Communities that attract and the people who are entering them,” by Sister Mary Bendyna, R.S.M. and Mary L. Gautier, p. 5, Fall 2009 “Questions we must ask in order to build strong communities,” by Sister Patricia Wittberg, S.C. p. 22, Spring 2013

Detzel | New Springtime

Feed your spirit Photo by Bob Wick

Pope Francis points out that God often uses seemingly hopeless conditions as a starting point for building something beautiful. The natural world, too, displays this capacity for transformation. In spring 2017, part of the American West experienced a “superblooom.” Seeds that had remained dormant in Arizona and California desert areas burst into bloom in a show of flowers little glimpsed during a decade of drought.

Thoughts on being faithful and fruitful Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, (The Joy of the Gospel) details and lifts up the Christian virtue of hope. Every church minister, whether laboring in parishes or vocations, knows that hope is essential.

We scatter seeds; God creates the harvest. Following is a section of Evangelii Gaudium (276-280) that elaborates on this theme of hope.

Pope Francis | Faithful and Fruitful

By Pope Francis Photo: Korea.net

C

HRIST’S RESURRECTION IS NOT AN EVENT of the past; it contains a vital power which has permeated this world. Where all seems to be dead, signs of the resurrection suddenly spring up. It is an irresistible force. Often it seems that God does not exist: all around us we see persistent injustice, evil, indifference and cruelty. But it is also true that in the midst of darkness something new always springs to life and sooner or later produces fruit. On razed land life breaks through, stubbornly yet invincibly. However dark things are, goodness always re-emerges and spreads. Each day

Excerpted from Evangelii Gaudium, available in book form or downloadable from the Vatican website, vatican.va.

Summer 2017 | HORIZON | 31

we need an interior certainty, a conviction that God is in our world beauty is born anew, it rises transformed able to act in every situation, even amid apparent setthrough the storms of history. Values always tend to rebacks: “We have this treasure in earthen vessels” (2 Cor. appear under new guises, and human beings have arisen 4:7). This certainty is often called “a sense of mystery”. time after time from situations that seemed doomed.

It involves knowing with certitude that all those who Such is the power of the resurrection, and all who evanentrust themselves to God in love will bear good fruit gelize are instruments of that power. (cf. Jn. 15:5). This fruitfulness is often invisible, elusive At the same time, new difficulties are constantly surand unquantifiable. We can know quite well that our facing: experiences of failure and the human weaknesses lives will be fruitful, without claiming to know how, or which bring so much pain. We all know from experience where, or when. We may be sure that none of our acts of that sometimes a task does not bring the satisfaction we love will be lost, nor any of our acts of sincere concern seek, results are few and changes are slow, and we are for others. No single act of love for God will be lost, no tempted to grow weary. Yet lowering our arms momengenerous effort is meaningless, no painful endurance is tarily out of weariness is not the same as lowering them wasted. All of these encircle our world for good, overcome by chronic disconlike a vital force. Sometimes it seems tent and by a listlessness that parches the that our work is fruitless, but mission soul. It also happens that our hearts can is not like a business transaction or tire of the struggle because in the end we No single act of love investment, or even a humanitarian are caught up in ourselves, in a careerism for God will be lost, activity. It is not a show where we count which thirsts for recognition, applause, no generous effort is how many people come as a result of rewards, and status. In this case we do meaningless, no painful our publicity; it is something much not lower our arms, but we no longer endurance is wasted. deeper, which escapes all measurement. grasp what we seek, the resurrection is All of these encircle our It may be that the Lord uses our sacnot there. In cases like these, the Gosworld like a vital force. rifices to shower blessings in another pel, the most beautiful message that this part of the world which we will never world can offer, is buried under a pile of visit. The Holy Spirit works as he wills, excuses. when he wills and where he wills; we entrust ourselves without pretending to The kingdom is present see striking results. We know only that our commitment is necessary. Let us learn to rest in the tenderness of the Faith also means believing in God, believing that he truly arms of the Father amid our creative and generous comloves us, that he is alive, that he is mysteriously capable mitment. Let us keep marching forward; let us give him of intervening, that he does not abandon us and that he everything, allowing him to make our efforts bear fruit brings good out of evil by his power and his infinite crein his good time. ativity. It means believing that he marches triumphantly Keeping our missionary fervor alive calls for firm in history with those who “are called and chosen and trust in the Holy Spirit, for it is he who “helps us in our faithful” (Rev. 17:14). Let us believe the Gospel when weakness” (Rom. 8:26). But this generous trust has to be it tells us that the kingdom of God is already present in nourished, and so we need to invoke the Spirit constantthis world and is growing, here and there, and in differly. He can heal whatever causes us to flag in the missionent ways: like the small seed which grows into a great ary endeavour. It is true that this trust in the unseen can tree (cf. Matt. 13:31-32), like the measure of leaven that cause us to feel disoriented: it is like being plunged into makes the dough rise (cf. Matt. 13:33) and like the good the deep and not knowing what we will find. I myself seed that grows amid the weeds (cf. Matt. 13, 24-30) and have frequently experienced this. Yet there is no greater can always pleasantly surprise us. The kingdom is here, freedom than that of allowing oneself to be guided by the it returns, it struggles to flourish anew. Christ’s resurrecHoly Spirit, renouncing the attempt to plan and control tion everywhere calls forth seeds of that new world; even everything to the last detail, and instead letting him enif they are cut back, they grow again, for the resurrection lighten, guide and direct us, leading us wherever he wills. is already secretly woven into the fabric of this history, The Holy Spirit knows well what is needed in every time for Jesus did not rise in vain. May we never remain on and place. This is what it means to be mysteriously fruitthe sidelines of this march of living hope! ful! n Because we do not always see these seeds growing, 32 | HORIZON | Summer 2017

Pope Francis | Faithful and Fruitful

Book notes

Books vocation ministers recommend

H

ORIZON ASKED MEMBERS of the National Religious Vocation Conference to weigh in on books they have found helpful in their ministry. Dozens of members reported their favorite titles, naming books that helped them in their professional development and in ways to grow spiritually and stay grounded in a demanding ministry. They also listed resources that they recommend to discerners, titles that give them a better understanding of the current young adult or church context, and books that deliver in-depth understanding of the very concept of vocation.

Following are all of the titles NRVC members submitted, as well as comments people gave about their choices.

Big Questions, Worthy Dreams, by Sharon Daloz Parks (2nd edition 2011, Jossey-Bass). I’ve found this book helpful in keeping me focused on the developmental issues of 20-somethings. We use it to train new professionals in student affairs and campus ministry, and I think it would help those working in vocation ministry.

Awakening Vocation, by Edward Hahnenberg (2010, Liturgical Press). I find this book helpful for providing the theological underpinnings to the work we do in campus ministry.

—Melanie-Prejean Sullivan

A Sacred Voice is Calling: Personal Vocation and Social Conscience, by John Neafsey (2006, Orbis Books).

—Greg Darr and Brother David Murphy, S.M.

Book Notes

Summer 2017 | HORIZON | 33

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, by Susan Cain (2012 Crown Publishing). At least a third of all candidates vocation directors will be dealing with are introverts. And there is much more to an introvert than just a preference to reading a book versus attending a party! An introvert myself, I was once told by a community long ago that I did not have a vocation with them because I was not an extrovert. I recommend this book because it is highly enlightening and can revise stereotypes that just are not true.

—Sister Marva Hoeckelman, O.S.B.

Sing a New Song: The Christian Vocation, by Father Timothy Radcliffe, O.P. (1999, Templegate). This is a book to which I return time and time again. Indeed, reading it for the first time many years ago awakened me to the vibrancy of religious life in the contemporary world so much so that it was my inspiration for entering my own community. Father Radcliffe’s reflections cover a wide-range of topics, including prayer, the countercultural witness of religious life today, the nature of vows, human sexuality, the biblical significance of study, building communities and living in “contemporary tension.”

The way in which he presents these topics is vibrant, still relevant, and profoundly human. Father Radcliffe invites and inspires the reader by presenting religious life as a viable and exciting commitment to deep loving. The text is eminently practical and provides a wonderful basis for walking with those who are discerning and as they enter into early stages of integration into religious community.

While the material in the book was intended primarily for religious, I believe it also helps those of us in vocation ministry who strive to work with others to build a “culture of vocation” more broadly.

It calls all Christians to be a transforming presence in the world, especially with the poor in mind. It is an invitation to fidelity and passion for all of us in the promises and commitments of our lives. For, as Father Radcliffe 34 | HORIZON | Summer 2017

points out in a personal story, the very fact that humans are willing to make vows or promises into an unknown future makes each one “hope for the most hope-less” in the world. This is a book that, I believe, can enable us at every level to enter into our vocation ministry with energy for the future.

—Sister Mary Rowell, C.S.J.

The Holy Longing: The Search for Christian Spirituality, by Father Ronald Rolheiser, O.M.I. (2009 reissue, Image).

—Father Adam MacDonald, S.V.D., and Father Jeremy Paulin O.M.V. Vocations Anonymous: A handbook for adults discerning priesthood and religious life, by Sister Kathleen Bryant, R.S.C. (2014 Rogationist Publications) I especially like Chapter 4, “Religious Life.” It contains six reasons under “Why Consider Religious Life?” and 10 transformative elements of religious life.

—Sister Lucille Flores, S.S.M.B and Sister Alice Condon, C.S.C.

Discerning the Will of God: An Ignatian Guide to Christian Decision Making, By Father Timothy Gallagher, O.M.V. (2009, Crossroad Publishing).

—Father Adam MacDonald, S.V.D.

Catholics on Call: Discerning a Life of Service in the Church, edited by Father Robin Ryan, C.P. (2010, Liturgical Press).

Prayer: Our Deepest Longing, by Father Ron Rolheiser, O.M.I. (2013, Franciscan Media).

Book Notes

My Life with the Saints, by Father James Martin, S.J. (2007, Loyola Press).

—Sister Theresa Sullivan, D.C. A Simple Life-Changing Prayer, by Jim Manney (2011, Loyola Press). This book about the Ignatian Examen can be very helpful, and it’s easily accessible.

What’s Your Decision? How to Make Choices with Confidence and Clarity: An Ignatian Approach to Decision Making, by Michael Sparough S.J., Jim Manney, and Tim Hipskind S.J. (2010, Loyola Press).

—Father James Stoeger S.J. A Book of Hours, by Father Thomas Merton, O.C.S.O., edited by Sister Kathleen Deignan, C.N.D. (2007, Sorin Books) This is a sort of “greatest hits” of Merton quotes.

I don’t recommend reading it straight through, but I do find wonderful quotes that are useful for both prayer times and reflection sessions.

—Sister Laura Leming, F.M.I.

Lover of my Soul: Delighting in God’s Passionate Love, by Alan D. Wright (2013, Random House).

Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World, by Father Henri Nouwen (2002, Crossroads).

Both books speak of the great love God has for us and how much Christ cares for us along with the important foundation of personal with them on the journey of discernment. These books speak to the deepest desires of our hearts and to a call greater than ourselves.

—Sister Connie Bach, P.H.J.C.

Engaging a New Generation: A Vision for reaching Catholic Teens, by Frank Mercadante (2012, Our Sunday Visitor).

Forming Intentional disciples: The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus, by Sherry Weddell (2012, Our Sunday Visitor).

I learned about both of these books at the 2016 NRVC convocation in Overland Park, Kansas. These two books give a good understanding of teens today (Mercandante) Book Notes

and a perspective on what type of church you should invite the candidates to (Weddell).

—Father Leandro Fossa, C.S.

Seven Sacred Pauses: Living Mindfully Through the Hours of the Day, by Sister Macrina Wiederkehr, O.S.B. (2010, Sorin).

New Generation of Catholic Sisters: The Challenge of Diversity, by Sister Mary Johnson, S.N.D.deN. Sister Patricia Wittberg, S.C.; and Mary Gautier (2014, Oxford University Press).

The Wiederkehr book has been invaluable in helping me move discerners toward a deeper appreciation of the Liturgy of the Hours. New Generations of Catholic Sisters has helped to put vocation ministry into the bigger context of the demographic changes in religious life. It also addresses the changing perspectives on the unfolding of religious life in this time of immense challenges and opportunities.

—Sister Adrienne Kaufmann, O.S.B.

Discernment: reading the signs of daily life, by Henri Nouwen (2015 reissue, HarperOne).

—Friar John Bamman, O.F.M. Conv.

Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West, translated by Daniel Ladinsky (2002, Penguin Books). I find this book is very beneficial for my own sanity and peace of mind.

—Brother James McDonald, C.F.C. The Bible Summer 2017 | HORIZON | 35

A few books are useful for the practical aspects of the ministry, but it’s the Bible that nourishes me the most and keeps me going, so I’d say it’s the most helpful!

—Sister Theresa Lee, F.M.A.

The Art of Winning Souls, Pastoral Care of Novices, by Father Michael Casey, O.C.S.O. (2012, Cistercian Publications).

—David Murphy

God’s Voice Within: The Ignatian Way to Discover God’s Will, by Father Mark Thibodeaux, S.J. (2010, Loyola Press). —Father Adam MacDonald, S.V.D. and Sister Elisa Ryan, O.S.U. Theology of Ministry, by Father Thomas O’Meara, O.P. (Second edition 1999, Paulist Press). This book is written by a theologian who, as noted on the book’s back cover, describes ministry as “past Scripture and present movements suggest what the Holy Spirit intends ecclesial service to be today. This turns out to be a theology of grace which views God’s presence in the world as the source, milieu and goal of ministry.”

The whole book is fascinating; I particularly recommend reading O’Meara’s definition of ministry in Chapter 6, part 2: “Christian ministry is the public activity of a baptized follower of Jesus Christ flowing from the Spirit’s charism and an individual personality on behalf of a Christian community to witness to, serve and realize the kingdom of God.” And then read the expansion of this definition as time permits.

—Maureen Cetera Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation, by Parker J. Palmer (1999, Jossey Bass).

The Art of Discernment: Making Good Decisions in Your World of Choices, by Father Stefan Kiechle, S.J. (2005, Ave Maria Press).

—Lori Ritz, Associate, Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mother The Art of Discernment: Making Good Decisions in Your World of Choices, by Father Stefan Kiechle, S.J. (2005, Ave Maria Press). We encounter many books on discernment in vocation ministry, and we wonder which book to use. I was drawn to The Art of Discernment for its simplicity, practicality, helpful information, and readability. Within its 121 pages, the book explores what to do when the mind and heart are at odds, the issue of time, and the will of God. For vocation directors, discerners, and readers who are looking for greater simplicity in discernment, the book provides the criteria for and methods of discernment. Kiechle also acknowledges difficulties that come up while discerning, ending the book with a chapter on “The Ten Guiding Principles of Discernment.” I usually give a brief presentation on discernment using the main points from the book at our discernment weekends and Come and See Days. Busy vocation directors, young adults, and more serious discerners who may not have the time to read many books on discernment may find the book calming and helpful as this book can be read in a brief period of time but be referenced throughout their discernment journey.

—Sister Mary Yun, O.P.

Related reading “Help is at hand: Guidebooks on the way to religious life,” by Joel Schorn, VISION, VocationNetwork.org.

Wise Choices: A Spiritual Guide to Making Life’s Decisions, by Margaret Silf (2007, Bluebridge).

36 | HORIZON | Summer 2017

Book Notes

2017 NRVC Fall Institute Orientation Program for New Vocation Directors Sister Deborah Borneman, SS.C.M. and Sister Sharon Dillon, S.S.J-T.O.S.F. October 11-15, 2017 Marillac Center, Leavenworth, KS Behavioral Assessment 1 Father Raymond P. Carey, Ph.D. October 16-18, 2017 Marillac Center, Leavenworth, KS Behavioral Assessment 2 Father Raymond P. Carey, Ph.D. October 20-21, 2017 Marillac Center, Leavenworth, KS

Go to NRVC.net to sign up.

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PRE-CONGRESS WORKSHOPS, NOVEMBER 16 Mentoring: A Near Occasion of Grace Mary Pat Garvin, RSM The Grace of Encountering the Family of Creation Daniel P. Horan, OFM

CONGRESS, NOVEMBER 16-18 KEYNOTES Becoming Prophets of Encounter Stephen Bevans, SVD Encuentro: A Call for Our Time Teresa Maya, CCVI

RELIGIOUS FORMATION CONFERENCE

2017 CONGRESS MILWAUKEE, WI NOVEMBER 2017 Registration for the RFC Congress 2017 can be found at relforcon.org.

SEMINARS Being Human and Sexual: An Evolving Understanding Lynn Levo, CSJ Recognizing and Responding to Disordered Personalities in Community Raymond Dlugos, OSA Encountering Each Other and Those We Serve: An Approach from Cultural Diversity Juan Molina, OSsT Religious Formation in the Way of Justice: The Love Language of the Bible Margaret Mayce, OP POST-CONGRESS WORKSHOP, NOVEMBER 19 Re-Imaging Formation for Religious Life for the Future: A Sociological and Theological Analysis Mary Johnson, SNDdeN and Sandra Schneiders, IHM