The New Wine Press vol 25 no 8 April 2017 | Page 10

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by Fr. John Wolf, c.pp.s., Future Task Force Chairperson
“Living the Bond of Charity, our life reflects a multicultural communion of incorporated members and lay as-
sociates. Faithful to the missionary charism of Saint Gaspar, our mission houses are sacred spaces of hospitality
and renewal for mission” (from the Vision Statement of xx General Assembly 2013).
These few well-crafted words reflect the vision of
the xx General Assembly as the delegates discerned
the value of community life for our missionary
congregation. Desiring to see these words put into
action, the General Curia and Major Superiors of
our world-wide congregation developed a pastoral
plan for all the provinces or units to explore and
flesh out the values of “authentic community life
in the context of Precious Blood spirituality.” How
does Gaspar’s model of mission houses play out
for us today in the 21 st century? How can we better
witness to a simple lifestyle? And in light of the new
energy surrounding the movement of lay associ-
ates (Companions), how do we develop and grow a
fuller “communion” together in our life, spirituality,
and mission? Dialogue and conversation on these
and other questions, as well as reflection on sug-
gested writings will culminate in the Community
Life Symposium in Rome this summer, with par-
ticipating delegates from all the units of our inter-
national congregation. It remains to be seen how
8 • The New Wine Press • April 2017
this all comes together, but the plan is to create
a “framework of shared understanding” of what
constitutes authentic living in community. Then
it goes back to the units for the continued work
and practice of living into our common vision of
community life in the context of our charism as
Precious Blood missionaries.
In our Kansas City Province, we already had a
vehicle in place to move this dialogue forward. The
Future Task Force has been in place for the past
year, leading the province members through several
encounters and conversations on “reimagining our
future” and deepening our commitment to com-
munity and a more intentional way of gathering
in sharing our lives together. Part of the conversa-
tion was a fuller engagement of our Companions.
So when the challenge came from Rome to take
up the questions on community life, it was handed
on to the Future Task Force to develop a discus-
sion format. To that end we have the Community
Life Discussion Workbooks, which are unique to our