A lay link
Mary-Ann Greaney
Many religious congregations all over the world are open to promptings of the Holy Spirit and are welcoming lay people to share their founding charism.
My ‘Associate’ relationship with the Order of the Presentation Sisters was formalised just over 25 years ago. Knowing I have been gifted with the charism informs all I am involved in both at home, work, and leisure hours.
‘Associates’, ‘Family’, Friends’, ‘Companions’ and so on, are broad terms used to describe numerous relationships between laity and
religious institutes.
Many Associates recognise they have been gifted with the charism of a particular institute and seek to express it in their daily lives.
While they are not members of that institute they share a close relationship based on a common charism, which enables collaboration for mission.
The Associate movement has taken its lead from a number of documents post Vatican II. Lumen Gentium (1964) recognises the Church as the whole people of God where our vision is to be inclusive. The Decree on Ecumenism (1964) calls all to greater collaboration. Christifideles Laici (1988) calls on the ‘lay faithful, by reason of their secular character, obliging them, in their proper and irreplaceable way, to work towards the Christian animation of the temporal order’.
Various New Zealand Associates recognise they have been transformed in some way. To quote some of them: Alexander Henderson said, ‘I began to listen more carefully, to reach out to people in a quietly different way’.
Margaret Craig said, ‘It has enriched our lives and given us real purpose, and to know there are like-minded people around New Zealand gives a real sense of identity’. And from Teresa Homan, ‘I am less self-orientated and realise I have a duty to care not only about my own needs but the collective needs of those around me.’
Father Paul Darroch, who ministered in parishes where Associates have been active said, ‘It would be impossible to estimate the number of volunteer hours Associates put in or the number of people who benefit from their services directly or indirectly.
Belonging to the Presentation Associates is the motivating force behind much of what they are involved in.’
The Associate movement is based on the principle of people recognising they have been gifted with a particular charism.
The Sisters of the Presentation are a community of Catholic religious women called to follow Christ in the spirit of their foundress, Nano Nagle, and to bring the good news to the poor by promoting God’s kingdom of truth and goodness, justice, love and peace.
Presentation Associate Mary-Ann Greaney is a Pastoral Advisor and Justice, Peace, and Development A
dvisor at the Catholic Centre, Wellington.