Image from InFormation 2018 Number 2, Summer

InFormation 2018 No. 2 : Awaking to Our Thirst : Continuing Formation, by Thomas Johnson, FSC

InFormation Bulletins - InFormation 2018 No.2 Summer

"Through all of these programs, we aim to have Brothers and Lay Partners focus on their ministry, their journey and their spirituality. Ultimately each religious is responsible for his or her continuing formation but we all share the responsibility to accompany each other in awakening our thirst before seeking the water of the Spirit."


Click here to access the full article.
Members must be logged in to view this content

Author: 
Johnson, Thomas, FSC
Image from InFormation 2018 Number 2, Summer

InFormation 2018 No. 2 : Importance of Ongoing Formation for Dominican Sisters, Springfield, Illinois, by Marilyn Jean Runkel, OP, Ph.D.

InFormation Bulletins - InFormation 2018 No.2 Summer

"Several years ago, our congregation established six standing committees as resources for life and mission. These committees ordinarily meet quarterly to review, study and share with the entire community various aspects of living our Dominican charism of Preaching. The Ongoing Formation Committee (OGFC) consists of eight to twelve members who volunteer for a term of three years, renewable for a second three-year term. During the past three years the committee has focused on the integration of all areas of lifelong formation."


Click here to access the full article.
Members must be logged in to view this content

Author: 
Runkel, Marilyn Jean, OP, Ph.D.
Image from InFormation 2018 Number 2, Summer

InFormation 2018 No. 2 : Ongoing Formation : U.S. Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, by Patty Johnson, CSJ

InFormation Bulletins - InFormation 2018 No.2 Summer

"For the U.S. Federation of the Sisters of St Joseph, ongoing formation is an unfolding and evolving process of responding to God’s call. It is a continuation of the initial commitment and expands our understanding and expression of the charism and spirituality of the Sisters of St Joseph. That understanding and expression changes, grows, and deepens through all the stages of life."


Click here to access the full article.
Members must be logged in to view this content

Author: 
Johnson, Patty, CSJ
Image from InFormation 2018 Number 2, Summer

InFormation 2018 No. 2 : Ongoing Formation for the Whole, by Ellen Dauwer, SC

InFormation Bulletins - InFormation 2018 No.2 Summer

"Ongoing/lifelong formation focuses on the continual growth of the whole person to promote a deeper, fuller commitment. Again, it is not about professional recycling or giving more information or helping members to be better informed. Ongoing formation is not the complement or correction of initial formation. Contrary to much of our thinking and structures, it doesn’t begin when initial formation is 'completed'."


Click here to access the full article.
Members must be logged in to view this content

Author: 
Dauwer, Ellen, SC
Cover of InFormation 2020 Number 3, Fall

InFormation 2020 No. 3 : The Hope of Discernment and Decision Making in Uncertain Times, by Marian K. Diaz

InFormation Bulletins - InFormation 2020 No.3 Fall

"For me, the experience of these uncertain times should serve as a wake-up and a shake-up call to a new reality. I know that many hope that this pandemic is an interruption and that life will soon go back to 'normal.' I think that some people think the same thing about the protests and systemic racism or even climate change. But I hope that we listen to this time, sift through the different elements of this reality and choose the 'gold' that we want to carry forward with us into a new form of life."


Click here to access the full article.
Members must be logged in to view this content

Author: 
Diaz, Marian K., DMin

WEBINAR | THAT YOUR JOY MAY BE FULL: THE EMOTIONAL JOURNEY TO THE FULLNESS OF LIFE

On the way to the deep and full joy that Jesus desires for us, we feel profound anxiety, deep rage, powerful shame, and intense grief in response to the ordinary experience of life that can challenge our faith, shake our hope, and limit our love. This webinar will help participants to deepen awareness of our emotional lives as invitations to transformation, growth, wisdom and peace all opening us to deeper faith and genuine hope. In addition to naming and removing the obstacles that block life giving emotions, this webinar will also discuss ways of expressing emotion that will deepen our intimacy with God and with others.

Ray Dlugos, OSA is an Augustinian friar from the Province of St. Thomas of Villanova in the eastern United States. Originally from the Philadelphia area, Ray was ordained a priest in 1983 and served in secondary education, parish, and vocation ministry before pursuing graduate studies in Counseling Psychology at the University of Albany, State University, New York. After earning his PhD in 1999, Ray joined the clinical staff at Southdown Institute in Aurora, Canada and was appointed Chief Executive Officer in 2003. In August of 2008, Ray became Vice President for Mission and Ministry at Merrimack College in North Andover, MA, a sponsored work of the Augustinians. He currently holds the position of Vice President for Mission and Student Affairs at Merrimack while also serving on the provincial Council of his community. Fr. Ray presented at the 2012 Transformation of Religious Life: An Action-Oriented Initiative together with Luisa Saffiotti, PhD. on the topic of “Engaging Resistance in the Service of Communal Discernment”.

Click here

WEBINAR | CAN YOU LET GO OF A GRUDGE? - A SPIRITUALITY OF FORGIVENESS

Based on the recently released book, Can You Let Go of a Grudge? Learn to Forgive and Get on with Your Life (Paulist Press, January 2014) Fr. Desiderio will give a brief overview of the spirituality of forgiveness based on five steps:

  • L - Look deeply at what went wrong
  • E - Empathy for the other is key
  • T - Tell the story differently
  • G - Give the gift of forgiveness
  • O - One day at a time, keep forgiveness strong.

This webinar will offer practical tools for women and men religious who want to bring peace to persons caught in a web of unreconciled relationships whom they encounter in their various pastoral, administrative, peace and social justice ministries. It will also offer inspiration about living more peaceably with oneself and in community and healing rifts through reconciliation. 

Frank Desiderio, C.S.P. has been a parish priest and campus minister (UCLA), a radio and TV producer and, currently, is director of the Paulist Center in Boston. He is the executive producer of the documentary “The Big Question: A Film About Forgiveness” which launched him into a new ministry of forgiveness and reconciliation. Since 2009 he has offered retreats, parish missions and days of recollection on the spirituality of forgiveness. From Victoria, B.C. to Washington D.C. retreatants have said, "this is the best retreat I've ever been on." Participants come away saying; "I have been waiting for this for a long time", "this is exactly the kind of thing the Church should do", "I feel so much lighter", "this is what I needed to heal."

Click here

WEBINAR | RESILIENCE: AN INSIDE JOB

Being resilient in the face of adversity requires us to look inward rather than outward and examine our approach, our expectations, and our reactions to situations. This webinar will focus on the following topics: the definition of resilience, the factors that enhance our ability to be resilient, the distorted scripts that lead to burnout, the difference between healthy vs. unhealthy self-sacrifice, and the importance of establishing a self-care plan. 

Eran Talitman, Ph.D., C. Psych. is a registered psychologist in the province of Ontario, Canada. He has provided assessment and treatment services to individuals, couples, and families in both a hospital setting and private practice. He has also been a consultant to individuals diagnosed with HIV, cancer, and traumatic brain injury. For the past 16 years, he has been at the Southdown Institute and has provided individual and group therapy as well as assessment services to religious and clergy. He has provided workshops and presentations on Intimacy, Healthy Sexuality, Developing Healthy Ministerial Boundaries, Keeping Our Soul Alive, Effective Leadership, and Working with Personality Disorders. 

Click here

WEBINAR | HEARING GOD'S PROPHETIC CALL: A MODEL FOR INITIAL AND LIFELONG FORMATION

What do the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures tell us about the nature of a prophetic call by God and our response?  How do the narratives of the Bible challenge us in terms of both initial and ongoing formation?  This webinar will examine the call narratives of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Mary and seek to understand better how the stories of their call can deepen and enrich our own.

Brad A. Milunski, OFM Conv. is a friar of the Our Lady of the Angels Province of the Franciscan Friars Conventual. Having professed final vows in 1989 and ordained to the ministerial priesthood in 1993, Fr. Brad currently serves in province leadership and as director of post-novitiate formation in Silver Spring, MD.  He holds a Licentiate in Sacred Scripture from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome.

Click here

WEBINAR | MINDFULNESS: A WINDOW INTO THE SACREDNESS OF THE PRESENT MOMENT

Mindfulness been introduced and accepted into the mainstream of mental health treatment as an important tool in assisting the regulation of emotion, flexibility in responding to life situations, and the development of healthy relationships and self-concept. However, mindfulness has a deep religious context and origin as a spiritual tradition, including the Christian contemplative tradition. In this Advent webinar participants will explore mindfulness, as a Christian discipline and practice that helps us uncover the sacred in our everyday experience.

Benjamin Williams, Ph.D., is on the clinical staff at Southdown in Ontario, Canada. For more than fifty years, Southdown has offered compassionate care to vowed religious and diocesan clergy.

Click here

WORKSHOP | HOPE IS A CHOICE THAT MATTERS: A PSYCHO-SPIRITUAL PERSPECTIVE

Hope is a powerful emotion that arises from the most basic human longings – it is a life- sustaining force, rooted in relationship and our relationship with the future. In our challenging and chaotic present time, hope is more essential than ever.

In our time together, we will explore the connection between reality, grief and hope, how our thoughts and feelings create the unique energy of hope, some core competencies to help us move beyond our personal and present limits to create a better tomorrow, understanding hopelessness and how hope can be learned and is a ministry shared with others.

In this Year for Consecrated Life we have been urged by Pope Francis to make a grateful remembrance of the recent past and to embrace the future with hope. If not now, when? If not us, then who?

Artwork credit: “Journey of the Soul” © Doris Klein, CSA. Used with permission. See additional work by Doris Klein, CSA at www.doriskleincsa.com

Lynn M. Levo, CSJ, Ph.D.

is a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet, and a licensed psychologist, lecturer and consultant. She received her Ph.D. from the University of New York at Albany, completing her clinical training at The University of Kansas School of Medicine. Lynn consults with religious congregations of women and men, dioceses and health systems on mutuality, transitions and stress, anger, managing conflict, aging and healthy personal, sexual and spiritual development across the life span. Lynn has presented nationally and internationally to women and men religious, intercommunity novitiates and seminaries, on fostering healthy integrated sexuality, celibacy, relationships, intimacy, mutuality in community, emotional intelligence, collaborative leadership, hope, living at the edge of chaos and the call to be evolutionaries. In addition, Lynn also facilitates team development for several leadership teams of women religious, utilizing her experience as a former congregational leader and consultant.

After completing 12 years of ministering as Director of Education at Saint Luke Institute, a residential treatment facility for women and men religious, Lynn currently is a Consulting Psychologist in private practice, offering consultations and presentations/workshops both in the U.S. and abroad.

Click here

Cover image InFormation 1996 Number 3 May-June

InFormation 1996 No. 3 : HIV Testing of Candidates, by James Keenan

InFormation Bulletins - InFormation 1996 No.3 May-Jun

"It is curious to consider that we priests and religious do not scrutinize our own way of proceeding as well as we do others; moreover, we scrutinize others ways of proceeding from the pulpit and in episcopal letters and we hesitate scrutinizing our own, even within internal proceedings. The silence about the testing issue is disturbing, in the least."


Click here to access the full article.
Members must be logged in to view this content

Author: 
Keenan, James F., SJ
Cover image for Resource Manual Volume 3

Resource Manual Volume 3, Part 1, Ethics : Chapter 03

Formation Resources - Resource Manuals - Volume III


Part I: Code of Professional Ethics for Formation Ministers

  • 3. "Formation Ministry and Healthy Boundaries" by Rev. John Heagle, J.C.L. & Fran Ferder, FSPA, Ph.D.

Click here to access the full document.
Members must be logged in to view this content

John Heagle, J.C.L.   Fran Ferder, FSPA, Ph.D.

Author: 
Heagle, John, J.C.L. ; Ferder, Fran, FSPA, Ph.D.

Pages