New Community forming, Marian Franciscans

[DameAgnes]

Information here. Apparently they are finishing up a year's formation with the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady.

http://www.carmelitesisters.com/carmelite-events/new-community-of-sisters#.W-Tf-vkrJpg

 

Is it just me or do a lot of these newly forming communities sound rather vague as to their missions? 

[Kayte Postle]

Here’s their website 

http://marianfranciscans.org/about/

[lanpingpug]

Do they still exist? Having trouble viewing the website. 

[HollyDolly]

Might have to try Google or Bing. Funny they are getting formation from the Sisters of charity, Of Our Lady,Mother of the church. I wrote to the sisters years ago. However due to my mom  and later dad having health issues, I was unable to enter any community.Funny thing is, many years later, out of the blue i heard from them.They sent me a prayer book, and a Miraculous Medal key chain. I've sent the sisters  some money to help them in their work.But it's really weird I  should hear from them  after all this time.Weird they still have my home address too.

If I were to  start a community, which  i have thought of on occasion,though circumstances right now doesn't allow it., I'd have some sort of plan.Like visiting families in their homes, providing child care, teaching catechism, and working with  authorities to provide care  for abused children,especially emergency care. Activites, like the daughters of Charity and Little Sisters of the Assumption do. At least that's my thought.Especially the child care, since you read about so many horrible abuse cases.

[Nunsuch]

3 hours ago, HollyDolly said:

If I were to  start a community, which  i have thought of on occasion,though circumstances right now doesn't allow it., I'd have some sort of plan.Like visiting families in their homes, providing child care, teaching catechism, and working with  authorities to provide care  for abused children,especially emergency care. Activites, like the daughters of Charity and Little Sisters of the Assumption do. At least that's my thought.Especially the child care, since you read about so many horrible abuse cases.

I'm curious. If other communities--well established and so on--are already doing these ministries, why is a new community necessary? 

[asimina]

Maybe the need calls for more people doing it?

[GraceUk]

I don't think there is anything wrong with new communities form in even if similar work is already being done by established communities.  A newer community might appeal to younger people.  

[Sister Leticia]

9 hours ago, asimina said:

Maybe the need calls for more people doing it?

Then why not encourage vocations to the existing, established order?

8 hours ago, GraceUk said:

I don't think there is anything wrong with new communities form in even if similar work is already being done by established communities.  A newer community might appeal to younger people.  

A new community might sound fresh and exciting or appealing, but it isn't necessarily so. There are dozens of threads on here referring to new communities, many of them with only a couple of members, even after a long time - or maybe only a foundress, so not even a community. And as Dame Agnes has observed, so many of them seem very vague about their mission (and often about their spirit and charism too, especially when they mix/merge different spiritualities).

I know a couple of women who spent some time in a very small new community. They were attracted by the idea of newness, of being part of a founding group, being co-creators... they found it to be difficult and dysfunctional, precisely because it was new, and everything was still in the process of being put together. Things kept changing, according to the foundress' latest ideas, which they found very disorientating. 

Yes, there are a few new communities which have grown and thrived - I'm aware of the DSMME, as a prime example - but they are the exceptions. And the DSMME are not vague about their identity or their mission.

[Nunsuch]

2 hours ago, Sister Leticia said:

Then why not encourage vocations to the existing, established order?

Yes, there are a few new communities which have grown and thrived - I'm aware of the DSMME, as a prime example - but they are the exceptions. And the DSMME are not vague about their identity or their mission.

Also, the founding superior of the DSMME was a longtime superior of the Nashville Dominicans, who brought 3 other experienced sisters with her. Thus, this was not a founding by people without experience in religious life. 

[GraceUk]

Yes on second thoughts I can absolutely see why maybe it would be better after all to enter a long established order. But say The Sisters of life are a comparatively new order I think. And they've gone from strength to strength. On the other hand there wasn't really another order totally dedicated to the work they do. 

[asimina]

12 hours ago, Sister Leticia said:

Then why not encourage vocations to the existing, established order?

A new community might sound fresh and exciting or appealing, but it isn't necessarily so. There are dozens of threads on here referring to new communities, many of them with only a couple of members, even after a long time - or maybe only a foundress, so not even a community. And as Dame Agnes has observed, so many of them seem very vague about their mission (and often about their spirit and charism too, especially when they mix/merge different spiritualities).

I know a couple of women who spent some time in a very small new community. They were attracted by the idea of newness, of being part of a founding group, being co-creators... they found it to be difficult and dysfunctional, precisely because it was new, and everything was still in the process of being put together. Things kept changing, according to the foundress' latest ideas, which they found very disorientating. 

Yes, there are a few new communities which have grown and thrived - I'm aware of the DSMME, as a prime example - but they are the exceptions. And the DSMME are not vague about their identity or their mission.

True. Time will tell I suppose. There must have been thousands of groups down the centuries which served only a short purpose. Actually there aren't that many orders if you think how many people there have been through time!

[Dymphna]

Yes, new communities can be unstable and dysfunctional - but I tend to think that if a well-established community can't find new members, or they are all leaving before permanent vows, there are probably reasons for that too. Reasons which are not only within the discerning applicant/sister.

A former(?) UK vocations director, Gemma Simmonds, uses the term "People like us" - she wrote for example "whoever wants to join the religious life will not be PLU — “People Like Us”. We will have to adapt to them. It’s a mutual process, and it costs."

I think this is an important point which some established communites may not have fully realized. A new foundation does not have to adapt to today's discerners, but a community which exists since many generations, and these days often has an overwhelming majority of older members, needs to make a conscious effort to be a community in which people wanting to live religious life today are actually able to do this.

[beatitude]

This discussion reminds me of the one element that has been consistent in my own vocation journey: I always looked for clarity of will and purpose among the religious community and the two secular institutes that I discerned with seriously. I didn't realise this was part of my search until I went on retreat with the second secular institute and met most of its members. Mulling over what these women had been like, I saw that they were quietly confident in what they were doing, they were humble and curious yet decisive when they had to be, and their perception seemed clear and prudent. I realised then that this is the hallmark of a prayerful and flourishing group - I've seen the same qualities at work in many places. So now my question would not be so much "New community or established community?" but "Do I see that same clarity of purpose and acuity of perception in this group?" From what little I've seen of new communities, the ones that have flourished have had those things from the outset. By contrast, I've interacted with the founder of one new community many times and known a few people who have discerned there, and if anything their ideas get more changeable and all over the place with time. That would make me hesitate, regardless of whether I saw it in a new or established congregation.