You are here

National Gathering

Date: 
Jun 27 to 30, 2019
Location: 
St. Louis, Missouri
Every two years, the Giving Voice community hosts a National Gathering to provide space for Catholic Sisters under age 50 to build bridges across communities in a peer-led setting  to deepen relationships with God and each other and to foster growth, leadership skills, and a vision for the future of religious life. During our 4-day gathering we will experience the joyful presence of our shared sisterhood and discern together how we are called to live religious life now, by boldly celebrating the beauty of communion.
 
Our next gathering is June 27-June 30 at Fontbonne University in St. Louis, MO, with possible pre-gathering workshops on June 26th and a post-gathering day on July 1st for women discerning religious life. We welcome all Catholic sisters under age 50 to join us! Sisters who are unable to join in-person are welcome to join us in prayer and through our live-streamed events.
 
The theme for our 2019 gathering is Boldness and Beauty of Communion: Living Religious Life NOW. As Catholic women religious, we aim to celebrate our shared life and the beauty of diversity. Influenced by different charisms and united in the same Spirit, we are aim to open our eyes and hearts wider to the beauty of God’s activity within and around us. We seek to deepen our contemplation of how to live Eucharistic lives, celebrate the holiness of creativity and the beauty of the arts. Centered around this theme, our gathering will include prayer and input related to the Eucharist, arts, and intercultural community life.

We are inspired by Pope Francis’ call for consecrated religious to be “experts in communion” and witness to the power of sharing in a communal life even in a polarized Church and society. We are are also energized by the words of Sister M. Regina van den Berg, F.S.G.M who reminds us that “the consecrated religious must develop an eye for the beauty which “hides beneath the surface” of our everyday experience.”

We are hopeful about the future of our shared religious life. May our communion help us heal and enflame God’s world with love and hope!

Register today for our National Gathering! 

 
Fill out my online form.

 

Information from past gatherings can be accessed below.

July 6-9, 2017: Poised to Lead: Healing Divisions & Building Bridges (Iona College, New Rochelle, NY)

August 6-9, 2015: Crossing Boundaries in Religious Life (Savior Pastoral Center, Kansas City, KS) 

July 5-8, 2013: Mission & Ministry in the 21st Century (Notre Dame de Namur University, Belmont, CA)

July 21-24, 2011: Engage the Emergence (Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL)