Diary dia una
12/09/2014 10:49
The General Chapter of 2014 opened in Assisi this morning with the Mass of the Holy Spirit. Dom Eamon presided and in his homily he reminded us about the greatness of God and God's ability to do great things with us -a timely reminder as we begin our discernment and deliberations.
Dom Eamon also commented that this is the first, full, non-mixed General Chapter. The Chapter is three days shorter than the last one, figuring that less time is needed than when two Chapters had to be coordinated.
The opening session this morning introduced new people to the Chapter: the new superiors and the recycled superiors, invitees from groups associated with the Trappists and people assisting in various capacities. Anyone who wanted to do a pirouette when introduced was given the opportunity to do so, but no one took advantage of this possibility.
After the introductions came the training with the wireless voting controls. Out of the 221 people at the chapter there are 169 people with the right to vote. When we were given the test question, "Would you like to meet the pope?" everyone voted yes and the results were greeted with cheers... although the cheers were most likely because everyone figured out how to use the voting controls.
The morning ended with the Chapter breaking up into its fourteen commissions, each of which was tasked to elect its officers and report the results back to the coordinating commission. In the afternoon we had exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and time for prayer -a peaceful way to end our day.
