As members of St. Joseph Educational Ministries prepare for their work in helping to maintain the Catholic identity and the values of the Sisters of St. Joseph at its five schools, they agreed it would be helpful to focus their formation this year on what it means to be Catholic.
Under guidance from Sister Mary Flick, the SJEM formation director, members looked more closely at the four pillars of the Catholic faith: the Creed, the sacraments, the moral life and prayer.
With help from the book A Well-Built Faith: A Catholic’s Guide to Knowing and Sharing What We Believe, by Joe Paprocki, (Loyola Press), members were assigned to one of four groups. Each group then presented a review of the reading materials and offered case studies stemming from real-life school situations. They discussed how the particular pillar of our faith could assist them as SJEM members in forming a response to the situation presented.
The three-hour Zoom sessions featured prayer, PowerPoint presentations and small and large group discussion. Each session concluded with a presentation on some related aspect of the CSJ heritage, presented by a vowed member of the province.
In June, members gathered at the Carondelet motherhouse for their fourth and final session on prayer, then spent Saturday on retreat. Sister Linda Straub led the members in considering the Eucharistic Letter, one of the CSJs’ four primitive documents and the foundation for the prayer life of the CSJs.