January 2007 - Twice a year, National VOTF designs an action meant to help affiliates stay focused on VOTF goals and energize your work. Our 2007 Lenten Action is unique and suitable for all affiliates because of its inherent flexibility. We believe it can be an enriching experience for you and the members of your affiliate. Lent is always a special time for introspection, contemplation and dialogue around faith-.. This Lent our “action” is precisely that.

As we all prepare for the countdown to our national convention on Discipleship, Oct. 19-21, we are preparing internally first. We are preparing for a response from our inner voice through revelation, the Church’s position on conscience and optimally accepting the call to share in Christ’s mission of justice. This action is introspective in that we are looking for our membership to dialogue on the topic of conscience. We are asking you to prayerfully call upon the Spirit contemplating what conscience is calling you to do as the year evolves. It is dialogue because we have designed this Lent to be a communal immersion experience on the topic of conscience.

As always, the first step in discipleship is revelation. We have provided prayerful tools to begin this immersion experience. This Lent is very flexible to meet the needs of your individual affiliate and the issues germane to your parish, diocese, or region. Our design allows you to choose between 1-4 meetings to meet the usual meeting schedule of your affiliate. It allows yet another adaptation which could be used as a Lenten retreat day for your members. Whether you opt to choose 1 meeting or 4, the materials provided will help you maximize your time. The outcome we are looking for is recognition of our collective power if we respond to that inner voice for justice in our Church combined with naming the actions that are most relevant to your unique parish/diocesan situation.

We know that some responses will be dramatic; others may be a continuance of what you are currently doing, while others will be new, innovative, and different. That’s how the Spirit works! It will be at this crossroads that doubt will creep in. This is where we must have the resilience and reassurance that Jesus has called us to share in his life-giving mission through baptism. This is where we must all be mindful that Jesus’ call is counter-cultural and that is why He reassures us 366 times in the bible to not be afraid.

Many of us have spent hours, weeks, nay years reading, watching, complaining, and discussing the plight of our beloved Church. We must be cognizant that Christian spirituality is about discipleship and discipleship is anything but passive; but preparation is key to any action we take. We want to model the behavior we expect knowing full well that revelations such as we are about to engage in transforms people.

We pray you use these tools wisely so that we grow into reflective Catholics that take on Christ’s mantle for justice seriously.

Our wishes for a Lent steeped in the Spirit!

The CIT (Convocation Implementation Team):
Mary Pat Fox, Mark Mullaney, Hugh O’Regan, Susan Vogt, Sally Vance-Trembath, Vince Grenough, and Janet Hauter

Click here for VOTF 2007 Lenten Action on Conscience

For a printer-friendly version of VOTF Lenten Action on Conscience in a PDF format click here.

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