2019 - SSpS Year of Communion within our Congregation

Our interculturality as SSpS is an expression of the Spirit's many faces.

Humankind is expanding its consciousness to global horizons. At the same time, peoples struggle to maintain their cultural identity and national sovereignty. We experience both the richness and the struggles of intercultural and intergenerational community living.

We become aware of and honestly own the lights and shadows of our intercultural and intergenerational living. We open ourselves to continuous transformation as we befriend diversity and the unknown.

Our formation today, both initial and ongoing, asks us to be open to paradigm shifts in the expression of our consecrated life, community life, and leadership styles. Congregational structures and leadership styles have to facilitate participation and communion. We experience the value of communal discernment and participative leadership. Moreover, the way we use our resources, both human and financial, and the way we make decisions and carry out our ministries have the concerns of the poor at heart.

We evaluate and re-form congregational structures to best serve our mission.
We use appropriate methods of communal discernment in our decision-making.
We examine our lifestyle in the light of our total commitment to mission and concern for the marginalized.

15th SSpS General Chapter

Immersed in the life of the Trinity,
transforming the world with compassion

PRAYER

Most Holy Trinity

We praise and thank you for calling us to share in your loving unity and for entrusting us with the mission of widening the circle of Communion.

As we prepare for our 15th General Chapter, send us your Holy Spirit to guide us in this discernment process, grant that we may be united as we listen with compassion to the longings of our Congregation and the cry of our broken world.

Help us to be attentive to your promptings and inspirations; empower us to joyfully renew our commitment.

Triune God, we long to be immersed in your life of love and to share in your work of transforming the world with compassion.

In union with our Founding Generation and the thousands of SSpS who have gone before us, we entrust our whole Congregation into your providential care.

May the Holy Triune God live in our hearts and in the hearts of all!

Essential aspects of SSpS life in mission

Spirituality and Charism

As Servants of the Holy Spirit, we are in communion with the spirit of the Founding Generation and the thousands of SSpS who came before us. Living in a fast-changing world that has become increasingly fluid, polarized, and technology-driven, our Trinitarian Missionary spirituality and charism impels us to have a contemplative stance and to be a transformative presence.

Community

There is a longing in us SSpS to make our communities truly homes. Inspired by the communitarian nature of the Triune God, we strive to be more self-giving, compassionate, relational, and united. We want to take a step further in intercultural and intergenerational living by valuing it as a gift to be celebrated and shared among us and with the world.

Mission

Our Congregation was founded for frontier mission. And today, the cry of the victimized, abandoned, oppressed and exploited demands our attention and action. We, like the Founding Generation, are challenged to respond audaciously and creatively to these cries. We foster greater collaboration and networking with laity, other congregations and organizations to continue God’s mission.

Peace-building and Reconciliation

We, SSpS recognize that there is woundedness and violence within us, in our communities, and in our world. We long to give authentic witness to the Spirit’s transformative power by being instruments of peace and reconciliation.

Leadership

Effective leadership is crucial for mission and we are blessed with competent sisters and lay collaborators. However, we acknowledge the reality of an ageing and dwindling membership, and the increasingly complex administrative challenges.

Technology and Social Media

The gift of technology and social media plays a vital role in our lives and holds great potential for mission. As a missionary congregation, we harness the power of modern technology to facilitate communion and promote Gospel values. At the same time, we are concerned about the consequences on the self, community and ministry when it is used inappropriately.

Formation

We are aware that integral formation is a life-long process and we appreciate the opportunities given to us to grow in our religious missionary vocation. Yet, realizing that the complexity of the world and mission itself has an impact on us, we feel that our formation needs to go further in helping us grow in maturity, personal responsibility and dedication to God’s mission.

Spirituality and Charism

A reflection by Sr. Krystyna Szweda SSpS

Spirituality is essentially about how we see, experience, and respond to the world in which we live, and to God’s presence in it. Historically, it was often associated with the so-called religious aspects of Christian life such as prayer, penance and fasting. More recently, it has been defined in wider terms and we can say that “spirituality” is our daily life lived in response to the Holy Spirit. I would like to offer some points which can help us to reflect on how we value and live the heritage of our Founding Generation, and the thousands of SSpS who came before us, in our missionary call “here and now”.

Read/Download the full text of the reflection