First Friday of August

We have this wonderful formation booklet: Life Unfolding...Offering the Gift created for the Society of the Sacred Heart in 2013. It tells us that we are in a process of formation that never ends. I am sure that I used parts of it in my blog during these past years, but I went back to it to prepare prayer for Westwood as we are now praying together every Monday evening. The booklet calls us to be transformed. First it tells us that "formation is a way of being open to life, a constant invitation to learn, to grow, to let ourselves be transformed."

Transformation is not the same as change for the strategies of change come from our own initiative, while "transformation is always the fruit of an Encounter. It happens when we venture with our whole being into a deep, sincere encounter with God and let ourselves be encountered by God, just as we are, with nothing in our lives remaining outside of this encounter."

"We need to move, to let ourselves be transformed and renewed, so that we can respond from the depths of our being and throughout our lives, remembering who we are and by Whom we were called."

I think the wisdom found in this booklet is for others, too. You do not need to be a member of the Society to value the twelve fundamental elements affirmed -  I will share these tomorrow.