Saturday, April 25

     The warm sun greeted us on Saturday morning and was most welcome. We could see more signs of spring and rebirth. And Saturday was for us at the Assembly an extraordinary day....here are some of highlights....

      Saturday morning’s prayer ritual using salt and water expressed the pain of the world and disposed us for the keynote presentation, which immersed us in an amazing story of mission.  We listened to the witness of two joyful young women, Sarah and Heather, and Fr. Jack Costello, SJ.  We heard how their hearts had been broken open as they learned about just being with the refugee claimants at Romero House in Toronto. Fr. Jack’s reflection illustrated vividly these points: “the interior and the exterior life are one; prayer and justice are one; the hidden life and the public life are one in prayer.”

    This Saturday morning experience was a pivotal point of transformation for our Assembly. Our communal heart was deeply moved and stretched toward our own call to be community on mission with the Risen Christ. From this moment on in the Assembly, we were given new energy and passion to find creative ways to make the Fatima priorities our own. Emerging from the breakout sessions which followed, the Assembly expressed the desire to promote and provide the Spiritual Exercises, to encourage the development of leadership, young adult and family CLC?s, networking, communal apostolic discernment and financial co-responsibility/commitment/membership. There was an unprecedented desire in some groups to move CLC mission into areas of social justice relating to the environment, poverty and marginalised people.

     In the early afternoon, most of the participants took a guided walk through the Loyola Centre grounds. The weather was perfect...T he Regional groups met later and were asked to reflect on the impact of the Assembly and begin to discern, decide and act upon the directions needed in their Regions.  

     Fr. Jim Webb our Jesuit Provincial came to be with us for a couple hours. He celebrated the Eucharist with us and "provided" extra drama during his homily, with the sounds of a raging thunderstorm that knocked out our electric power for the evening! He talked about the different kinds of presence of the Risen Christ....taking off from the Gospel for feast of ST Mark.....

   We then had a reading of a first draft of an Assembly document trying to capture what was happening, how God was leading us as an Assembly.  We received feedback from the Assembly delegates to help the writing team (John Sumarah, Peter Nightingale, Pam Daigle and myself) revise its draft for the next morning.  We ended the afternoon with a communal examen prayer led by the Atlantic Region...

    The re-writing of the graces of the Assembly kept us (writing team) busy for the next 5 hours!  Meanwhile the rest of the participants enjoyed a candlelight celebration with music and dancing.....

      We went to bed not sure when the electricity would come on......!   It was a transformative day for us....even though tiring it was full and engaging.