What is Emerging?
Posted on December 1, 2021, by Mary Ellen McElroy SL
During the past few months, the Loretto Community has been given the opportunity to become more involved in the needed changes in the government section of I Am the Way, as well as the financial needs in the near future and beyond. These are important areas of the changes we will need to make in the next few years. We also know that underlying these changes is the inner work of being that brings about transformation — the kind of change which is the beginning of something new, as in the caterpillar emerging forth as a butterfly, completely transformed.
During the month of October, the Emerging Forms Committee offered conversation circles on the topic of “What is emerging in our personal life and the life of the Loretto Community?” The response to these conversations was mostly exciting and nourishing, a general feeling of finally talking with each other about soul work or inner work. We are also becoming more aware that for this kind of emergent transformation to happen, there are some conditions. Martha Crawley expressed it this way in her conversation circle, which seems to sum up what it takes for something new to be born: “There are requirements for emerging that involve waiting, intention, and attention. This involves both individual and collective soul work.”*
So, what is this soul work? Waiting, waiting, waiting! Would this kind of waiting be like a passive, couch-potato stance? Or is it an active inner activity of listening, noticing, learning, letting go of our ego and waking up? Does intention mean that our motivation is from the heart/soul? When our attention moves into the now, we become alert and focused and single-minded, truly living in the present moment.
How is soul work like a seed which bears visible fruit when nourished and tended? And what might it look like for us to tend this seed as individuals? As a Community?
We invite you to join us in pondering the wisdom of soul work and how the Spirit is moving us forward in this process! If you would like to share your reflections with us, we would be happy to receive them. Thank you.
*Used with permission
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