Effecting Community/what Is It?

[BarbTherese]

I originally thought this said "Effing Community". Just a fan fact I thought I'd throw in.

 

 

FP - If you have really tried to live in community focused on spiritual values, there can be times when one comes away muttering to oneself "effing community" or the like :)

 

Worth considering for their themes of living together well (although addressed more at a world community level, rather than micro-communities) are the social encyclicals.
Pope John XXIII's Pacem in Terris is a good cud on which to chew, with its discussion of rights and duties, and its principles can certainly be applied to smaller communities also. 

 

 

Thank you CT.  Reading books and texts can very often come up with one or two points that one recognises as a value in forming community.  I am taking Pacem in Terris is online and will print it out.
 

 

Secret Santa is when a group of people all write their names on slips of paper & place them in a hat or a basket. :) Then each person in turn draws a name out of it & must buy a gift or do acts of charity for them during the Advent season. No one is supposed to know til the end who has their name. Usually there is a limit to how much money is spent as well. It's quite fun!   

 

 

 Thank you BM

 

BT - in many places in Australia its referred to as Kris Kringle, but its basically the same idea. 

In the community to which I used to belong, they had something called "Advent Angel" which was a rough equivalent :) gifts were handmade.      

 

 Thank you CT

 

I like Advent Angel much better than Secret Santa!

 

 

Now see - there is one way we can change something and give it a spiritual focus, a completely secular practice turned into a spiritual one! 

 

 

Thank you, Maximillion - now I can grasp your meaning of secular practice turned in a spiritual one.  I can be a bit to terribly slow sometimes.

 

Thank you all....................Barb

[Catherine Therese]

Yes, Pacem in Terris is online: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_xxiii/encyclicals/documents/hf_j-xxiii_enc_11041963_pacem_en.html

I've also done a little asking around, for example, I've checked in with an Ecclesiologist that I know. His feeling is that there really is a bit of a gap when it comes to specific works on exactly what you've raised, although many works sort of touch on aspects of it. 

 

Famliaris Consortio is another one worth reading when considering the family as one form of Catholic community.

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_19811122_familiaris-consortio_en.html

 

Then there are a range of documents specific to various lay organisations. 

 

But nothing that properly, directly or comprehensively covers what you've raised. 

Forget headaches - yes. I think we should collaborate and contribute to that empty space.  

 

(Edited to include URLs)

Edited July 21, 2014 by Catherine Therese

[BarbTherese]

Thank you, CT.  I don't think that I would have the time for such a venture as it does sound time consuming, but thank you very much for pointing it out.  At this point, anyway, I am entirely reluctant to take on any more than I now have on my plate and my spiritual director is overseas until November.  I will bring it up with him then however but tend to think that he will be thinking along the lines I now think.  Could be wrong.

 

 

Barb :)