CRA President, Fr Peter Jones OSA.
I am presently at a phase of life where one by one several of those who were guides, examples and mentors for me from my religious congregation are, one by one, slipping away. Naturally each passing provides a poignant time of reflection. Memory, gratitude, loss - all are real, all are there.
I mention this because for many of us the attraction to a religious life vocation emerged from encounters with particular persons who embodied a charism that inspired us through how they lived and who they were. As maturing takes place, we learn to embrace the vulnerabilities as well as the strengths of those to whom we look up just as we face these in our own lives.
In the Gospel narratives and the Acts of the Apostles, discipleship is advanced by encounter and experience. With these foundational works of the New Testament Scriptures, we do not have dogmatic treatises in which key beliefs are systematically arranged. We have events in which grace breaks through in Jesus’ presence in the life of another or disciples witnessing to faith as they engage with others.
The best ways we witness are often ordinary and not so obvious. The sharing of Easter faith works itself out in the simple moments with depth. It is not so much the grand plans by which we have an effect but in the daily being in the greater or smaller ways whereby we have an influence on others and they on us.
May this Easter season be a time of continued blessing for all.
Fr Peter Jones OSA,
President, Catholic Religious Australia.