Communal Life

Communal Life

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Architecture and design can enhance your community life

By Jack Kelley

Housing can be set up deliberately in ways that promote friendships, communal gatherings and positive relationships. Read more...

Recentering on the vows lived in community

By Fr. Michael J. Himes

Father Michael J. Himes claims he “hasn’t a clue” about what religious life will look like in the new millennium. Read more...

What I was looking for in community and what I found

By Julie Brandt S.S.N.D.

I recently returned home from a provincial assembly meeting and found myself renewed once again by a sense of belonging to the School Sisters of Notre Dame. Strangely, in the midst of a weekend holding a great deal of tension and conflict, I found myself feeling very much at home. Read more...

Community life in the monastic tradition: a call to conversion

From its beginnings, monastic life has held the concept of community as one of its guiding values. Life in community is the place where we learn our frailties as individuals and where we practice the value of love for neighbor as taught by Jesus in the Gospel. Read more...

Community: ready or not?

By Kathleen Bryant R.S.C.

Wouldn’t we all be delighted to have an influx of new candidates eager to transmit our charisms to the next generation and to engage in our ministries with us? Or would we? With fewer people entering our various communities, some of us have not been particularly challenged to go out of our way to welcome new members and adjust to the dynamics created by these additions. In a quiet, subtle way we have become so used to things as they are, that the new member can seem like an intrusion rather than a welcomed and long-awaited member of our local communities. Read more...

Community, communitas and downward mobility

By Anthony Gittins C.S.Sp.

When we think of the word “community,” a number of images come to mind. We all have ideas, both of what community is or is not, and what it could be. Read more...

Implications of small-group living arrangements

By Sr. Patricia Wittberg S.C.

Could households of two or three be hurting the communal life of your congregation? Read more...

Creating a welcoming community that can help form new members

By Ken O’Malley CP

This author led a men’s community through a five-year process of evaluating its way of incorporating new members and creating a new way to meet that need. Read more...

Process for preparing a community to welcome and mentor new members

By Carole Riley C.D.P.

This author led a men’s community through a five-year process of evaluating its way of incorporating new members and creating a new way to meet that need. Read more...

Communities that attract and the people who are entering them

By Sr. Mary Bendyna R.S.M.

After years of speculation, at last the NRVC-CARA study provides solid information about what attracts today’s candidates and who is joining religious communities. Read more...

Community appeals to a lonely nation

Community appeals to a lonely nation

By Craig Gould

In a country with strong individualism, many young adults are lonely and yearn for community. Religious have something to offer. Read more...

What do we mean by community? What do candidates dream about?

By Gaston Lessard SM

Talk about religious life and it won’t be long before you talk about community. Community is at the heart of the actual life of most religious. Read more...

Book Notes: Searching for the common good

Book Notes: Searching for the common good

By Sr. Patricia Kenny R.S.M.

We are called, as Americans and as Christians, to build a society that benefits all the people in it. Read more...

Book Notes: Conversion goes under the microscope

Book Notes: Conversion goes under the microscope

By Sr. Patricia Kenny R.S.M.

When the call to religious life taps at our hearts, it’s fear of how that would change things that makes us back away and ask for time. Read more...

Questions we must ask to build strong communities

Questions we must ask to build strong communities

By Sr. Patricia Wittberg S.C.

For a community to live on into the future, it must ask—and respond to—some hard questions. It must have a strong identity and clear boundaries. It has to address and resolve conflict. And it has to be relevant to new generations. Read more...

Building communal life through prayer

Building communal life through prayer

By Sister Marcia Allen C.S.J.

Those who consider consecrated life are seeking a community life worth joining. And prayer is foundational to community. Read more...

Signs of readiness for community life

Signs of readiness for community life

By David Couturier O.F.M., Cap.

Given the many new realities in today’s church and world, what are the signs that an individual may be prepared for life in a religious community? Read more...

Craft authentic community

Craft authentic community

By Sister Ruth Anne Harkins I.H.M.

Authentic Christian community requires a willingness to embrace differences and engage the inevitable challenges. Read more...

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Sister Tarianne DeYonker, O.P.

Sister Tarianne DeYonker, O.P.

Sister Tarianne DeYonker, O.P. is part of the vocation team for the Adrian Dominican Sisters headquartered in Michigan. Her six-person vocation team initiates and nurtures relationships with many young adults--especially those who are making decisions about how to use their gifts. Read more...

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