99+Reading+10


 * Green, M. (2000b). Charisms: what possibilities and challenges do they offer principals for developing culture and spirituality in Catholic schools? Address given at the Inaugural Australian Catholic Secondary Principals’ Conference, Melbourne.**

Note: This reading does not have page numbers included. We have simply numbered the pages from 1 to 16.

"... any authentic charism is essentially concerned with both Jesus and the Church, and leads to each. The essence of charisms is that they are Spirit-given ways that grace and enable people to come to know God and share in the mission of the Gospel of Jesus." (p. 4)
 * Some useful quotes:**

"Two key concepts are contained in these understandings. A charism is, first, a Spirit-given way for people to share in the life of the Church, a way of being Christian that is their particular circumstances. Second, charisms have a purpose beyond those who share in them: they exist to empower people to further the mission of the Church. Charism is thus a way of giving the Christian faith a context in the physical world: in actual people, in time and place. Indeed, the Christian faith is essentially incarnational. Charisms are distinctive ways of incarnating, of living, the Christian faith - ways that may be incarnated in a particular person, a particular lifestyle, a particular ministry, or a particular tradition in the Church." (p. 5)

//Charisms are live within communities which share a particular perspective in the ways in which members live and act. Charism is not diminished when a member leaves as it is based upon a common view of acting out the will of God (Mary Mudge)//

"For a school to be a genuinely spiritual place, it will be led by adults who are serious about developing their spiritual lives. For it to be authentically Christian, it will be animated by educators who have met Jesus in their spiritual search. For it to be enriched by the Catholic tradition, it will be greatly advantaged if these people have been captured, in Marechal's words, by one of 'the great Gospel ideas', one that has become one of the spiritualities of the Church." (p.7)

//To know and live a charism within a school, the adults or caretakers must be always renewing their own spirituality, for it is in so doing that one can be spiritually authentic to the children.(Mary Mudge)//

“… charisma should always allow for growth and change, they also offer an important sense of continuity and consistency in spirituality and mission that the vagaries of time and circumstance would otherwise make difficult to maintain … Such things as a school's understanding of itself, its corporate memory, its language, its symbolic self-representation, an accepted value base, a shared rationale for its programmes and priorities, and that elusive concept of a school's “spirit”, are all core components of a strong and functional culture, but none is easy to develop. They are even more difficult to re-develop or re-construct.” (p. 8)

//Catholic schools must know where they have come from so that the present is well-informed. This does not imply however that the charism of a school remains static. The school is challenged to rename its vision within the context of its time - the values though mast continue to actively enacted in daily life.// (Mary Mudge)

“ … it is important to recognise that what will matter most in a school is what is in people's hearts - their instinctive ways of acting and judging, their key intuitions, their loyalties, their shared and often unstated values and working assumptions … For incoming staff, especially new principals, they are cultural realities that have to be embraced with the heart as well as the mind.” (pp. 8-9)

//It is one thing to be able to retell the historical account of the founder of a school. It is another to truly live the ethos through school policy and school life. It is not enough to articulate it must be upheld through action//

“The charismic traditions of the Church allow a school to define itself over time and across decades. Although the temporal expressions of its culture do and should change as new needs and circumstances emerge, its core cultural components remain secure. What is more, this core is a graced way of the Gospel, and a rich source of spirituality and culture for principals across the generations.” (p.9)

“The charismic traditions are rich with saints, both those officially canonized and those who are held sacredly, and often affectionately, in the story of the movement… A tradition allows for more sources of inspiration than only the lives of its great characters. It provides a story to learn, tell and feel part of, sacred places to visit, a folklore that carries the values and beliefs in normal human ways, even books to read and songs to sing. It is good for people to feel part of a story, one that is big enough to expand their <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; letter-spacing: -0.15pt; mso-font-width: 105%;">horizons, but small enough that they can feel it is their own story.” (pp. 9-10)

<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; letter-spacing: -0.2pt; mso-font-width: 105%;">“To discover the Spirit of God at work, look at where the needs are greatest. That is where <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; letter-spacing: -0.1pt; mso-font-width: 105%;">the Spirit will be seeking to move and act. So, then, with this need: let us look to where <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; letter-spacing: -0.05pt; mso-font-width: 105%;">we can see and feel sources of new life. One of these is certainly in the spirituality <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; letter-spacing: -0.1pt; mso-font-width: 105%;">programmes being offered by religious institutes… <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-font-width: 105%;">They address a real need by giving adults a way to integrate their ministry with their own spiritual journey, a way of developing in them a sense of vocation, and a way of giving them a language to express what they have already felt in their hearts… It allows for the integration of three dimensions of the Christian life: SPIRITUALITY - MINISTRY - COMMUNITY.” (pp. 10-11)

"Most religious institutes involved in education are also involved in other works… A natural sense of association and a crossover of personnel and information can give schools a connection with and an entree into these other fields of the Church's mission." (pp. 11-12)

<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; letter-spacing: -0.25pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 105%; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">“When a charism, or a spiritual tradition, no longer connects in any meaningful way to the <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; letter-spacing: -0.15pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 105%; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">daily life and mission of the staff and students of the school, the school leadership needs <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; letter-spacing: -0.25pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 105%; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">to recognise and accept this.” (p. 12)

<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; letter-spacing: -0.05pt; mso-font-width: 105%;">“A school can come to terms with its past, <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; letter-spacing: -0.2pt; mso-font-width: 105%;">not denying it but honouring it, and then deliberately choose a particular future.” (p. 13)

<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; letter-spacing: -0.25pt; mso-font-width: 105%;">“We all need to be alert for the tell-tale symptoms of cultism: exclusive <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; letter-spacing: -0.15pt; mso-font-width: 105%;">membership, suspicion of outsiders, unhealthy levels of independence and self-focus, secrecy, and disconnection from the world of ordinary people.” (p. 13)

<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; letter-spacing: -0.1pt; mso-font-width: 105%;">“A <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; letter-spacing: -0.35pt; mso-font-width: 105%;">reality, of life in the Catholic school sector is that there is little opportunity for teachers to <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; letter-spacing: -0.1pt; mso-font-width: 105%;">develop their careers within particular charismic traditions.” (p. 14)

<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; letter-spacing: -0.2pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 105%; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">“The Church continues to grow, change and renew.. <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; letter-spacing: -0.3pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 105%; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">. So, in <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; letter-spacing: -0.15pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 105%; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">Catholic education new schools are being built, for fresh generations of students and <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; letter-spacing: -0.3pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 105%; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">teachers, replacing the old people, the old ways and the old places. The cycle of birth and <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 105%; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">death and rebirth goes on. Sometimes discussions about charisms and charismic <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; letter-spacing: -0.2pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 105%; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">traditions can lose sight of the growth shoots of the Church, as if all the great charisms of <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; letter-spacing: -0.05pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 105%; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">the Church have already been born and all the great schools already built. Each of the <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; letter-spacing: -0.2pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 105%; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">now great charismic movements of the Church, however, was at one time small and new, the response to an emergent and urgent need. The Spirit will, of course, continue to grace <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; letter-spacing: -0.05pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 105%; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">the Church in original and powerful ways; old frames of reference will be broken and <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; letter-spacing: -0.2pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 105%; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">new frontiers pushed.” (p. 15)