Dear Friends,
During this season of Lent we join the universal Church on a pilgrimage homeward to the Father. Following in the footsteps of Jesus we set
our eyes on the Father and make him our one goal during this time set
aside for deepening our spiritual life. Our Lord points the way by his
own example and takes us by the hand to journey with him. His one
goal was to fulfill the loving will and wish of his Father and he knows
that this is the only way for us to be united totally with the Father one
day.
Lent is a time to practice for our final journey home. It is not primarily
a time for penance and self-denial but a time for love. The strictness
follows as our way to detach our hearts from those things that keep us
from loving to the full. This is the season to renew our striving to be
the best version of ourselves, that person whom God envisions us to
become as the image of His Son through our life of consecration.
I recently spoke with Father Marcel Caron, the president of the
Canadian Conference of Secular Institutes and member of the executive board of the World Conference of Secular Institutes (CMIS). He
shared that the CMIS board will be meeting with the Prefect of the
Congregation for Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life in
Rome around March 25. At that time they will present a document on
the identity of secular institutes which the Congregation asked them to
prepare.
In view of this encounter we chose our theme for the coming annual
meeting (September 15-17): The Charism of Secular Institutes as Seen
through the Eyes of Our Founders. Please set your calendars to join
us. We need you to make your
contribution to enrich all of us in
our life of secular consecration.
With blessings for a fruitful Lent
and a Blessed Easter,
Marcia Vinje
Mountaineer – Fall 2023
Dear Friends, At our annual conference this past September at
