Leaders of the Congregation of Christian Brothers are gathered in Dublin since January 23, 2022 to reconvene after the prorogued Lima Chapter in 2020, due to the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic. The General Chapter will last till February 5, 2022. The Chapter is taking place at Emmaus Retreat Centre.

A General Chapter is a time of communal discernment and decision making that emerges from the delegates (attendees), centered from a personal prayer, contemplative listening, and conversation. Each time the Christian Brothers hold a General Chapter, they select a theme that guides them through the whole process of the Chapter. In each Chapter they also elect their new authorities for the next five years, and some guiding principles/initiatives emerge from this process.

The guiding scripture text that has been chosen by the Chapter Planning Group is Luke 8: 22-25 in which Jesus calms the storm:

One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.” So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!” He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. “Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.”

Accompanying this text is the painting Be calm! by Fr. Sieger Köder.

CHAPTER PRAYER

Loving God,
As we continue to discern your will and to co-create our future as Religious Brothers, we pray that we be free from all self-interest and fear.

Open us to your ever-present creative Spirit
which leads us to see your love in all things and all people.
Renew in us the charism of our Founder, Blessed Edmund Rice
who saw Christ present and appealing to him in the poor.

Help us to engage in enriching conversation with our Brothers and all people as we seek to deepen our response to the invitation of Jesus to see everything with the eyes of faith,
to do nothing but with a view to You
and to ascribe all to You.

May the Brothers who gather in Chapter
be faithful to our deepest aspirations
and at this time of change and challenge, give us the courage to say ‘The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away: Blessed be the name of the Lord’.  Amen

Follow the General Chapter HERE