The Second Vatican Council has asked all religious to look back to their origins and their initial inspiration as part of the process of renewal. As our forebears stood on the docks of New York facing a world so different from the one they had left behind, we now stand on the brink of a new era, not only for our Congregation and our Province, but for the Church, for the charism of religious life, and for the mission of Jesus Christ in America.

The challenge of giving new life to Vincent’s original inspiration compels us to collaborate with laity as we foster their own unique calling in the Church. Our renewed appreciation of the Church as the People of God will demand that we, as religious called to further the mission of Jesus, courageously face a world very different from that of those who have gone before. Our apostolic activities are shifting as we address the needs engendered by advanced technology in a Post-Modern era even now being born. How will we respond to the needs of the destitute, the homeless, the divorced, the abused, the alienated? How will we concern ourselves with the spiritual impoverishment of those caught up in materialism and consumerism? How will we address the needs of those who hunger for a deeper knowledge of God?

We are being asked to face the burdens of our limitations with hope and determination, to let go of the plans we might have had in order to know God's plan for us in these changing times. But fortunately, in facing the dreams and visions of a future we can only dimly see now, we have the strength and courage that come from knowing that others went before us —others who dared to trust, who took bold initiatives in the face of tremendous difficulties and who spent their lives in faithful loving service.

It is true that we do not know the details of the years ahead. But we do know that our loving Father calls us to embrace our history as Jesus embraced His, and we know that our saintly Founder gave us an example of adaptation and flexibility as we place at the service of the Kingdom the gifts of nature and grace that we receive in the persons called to face this challenge with us.

DOES THE PROSPECT OF THIS CHALLENGE ATTRACT YOU? YES