It has evolved for you. it has evolved for me. We are all one.

 I remember the first time I consciously used the word evolve.
It was at a community meeting and we were considering whether to allow sisters to live alone. At the time I was among a handful of people in our congregation who was living by myself.

“It has evolved for me” I said, meaning that over time, as I chose to remain in the Berkshires, and return to minister in North Adams, circumstances had led to me living singly in an apartment. “Yes” responded one of the congregational leaders, “I can see how this has evolved.” At the time we were discerning how to respond to the request of some sisters who were sensing a need to live alone for a period of time.

Fast forward 20 years and we voted in a Congregational Chapter, to allow the model of the Community of St. Joseph and the Agrégée form of membership to evolve. This unfolded as women and men expressed a desire to engage in life with us in a variety of ways. 25 years prior to this we responded to a similar request which had evolved our Associate form of membership.



Every thing take time to keep evolving.

 Time not only gives perspective. It also allows us to see how the seed of something, once it takes root and has the tending it needs, shows us what it is becoming. As we grow in our awareness that this becoming is actually part of us, we gain a perspective on consciousness. We recall the memories of how something started to attract us. We see how our choices helped this something to take shape. As we realize there is more to this yet to be revealed, there comes a moment of convergence. We know that we are one with this becoming. It needed us as much as we needed it! I am reminded a Rilke poem reflection that attracted me years ago. It is from his “Book of Hours” translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy.

“All becoming has needed me. My looking ripens things and they come toward me, to meet and be met."

A vocation evolves. It begins with an attraction. Our choices and experiences help it to take shape. It continues to change day by day, season by season and year by year. All the while it is ripening. We are becoming one with it.

I invite us all to spend some time looking, as the spring season begins to blossom into a summer of ripeness. You may enjoy visiting a web-site of Sister Patricia Bombard: www.consciousevolutionmemoir.com. Here we are guided on a path to help us become aware of how our ripeness has evolved. Adapting the process to vocation will be exciting, especially when we share our discoveries with one another on this blog. I can hardly wait.