LEADERSHIP IN SS.CC. APOSTOLIC COMMUNITY

1. LEADERSHIP IN SS.CC. APOSTOLIC COMMUNITY

2. The superior The superior is a companion and a helper of communal and individual growth.   Without judging, without reproaching (but confronting and mirroring), listening to each one, respecting ideas, rhythms, situations, she distinguishes what depends on her and on others (she is not responsible of all that happens in the community). She needs to learn everyday to help others: not “making up” and doing what each sister can and must do, but sharing the responsibilities. The leader involves everybody in the growth of the community (fraternally and spiritually)

3. ESSENTIAL QUALITIES OF A LEADER: • SERENITY: which means that the sensibility is under control and never prevents access to peace, freedom and life which give her solidity, enabling her to weather the storms without panicking. • INTUITION : that enables the leader to sense the mood, the atmosphere that will help her take into account the elements of the situation . • DECISIVENESS: this goes along with the sense of responsibility. A leader must be capable of taking a stand when necessary, according to what is best for everyone. • COMPETENCE: in task-oriented group, technical competence is needed in view of the goal. For life-oriented group, the competence required is an ability to bring people to live and work together in a peaceful climate, to help individuals to be themselves, to grow and to be fulfilled.

4. THE TASK OF ANIMATION.

5. OUR FUNCTION AS A LEADER IS: • A SERVICE AND NOT A TASK • A MINISTRY AND NOT A JOB

6. MARK 10: 35-45 JONH 13: 2-17 LEADERSHIP IS DEFINED AS “SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY” RATHER THAN IN TERMS OF PREROGATIVES OR QUALIFICATIONS. PRIVILEGES ARE TO BE AVOIDED FOR HUMILITY AND SERVICE WHICH ARE THEMSELVES THE MARKS OF A LEADER IN THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY.

7. LOOKING AT LEADERSHIP THROUGH THE SCRIPTURES: MT. 18 - SPEAKS OF COLLECTIVE LEADERSHIP; LK. 12: 32-34 - PROHIBITS FINANCIAL REWARDS FOR LEADERSHIP BEYOND THE SUPPLY OF THE NEEDS OF THE LEADER; JOHN 13 – 17: PATTERN OF CHRISTIAN LEADER IS ONE OF SUFFERING SERVANT – LOVE; PHIL. 2: 5-11 – PAUL’S OWN PATTERN OF SELF-GIVING AND HUMILITY; 2 COR. – CARES, LABORS, FASTINGS AS MARKS OF SERVICE FOR CHRIST; 1 TIM. 3 // TITUS 1 // PETER 5: - A LEADER IS A PERSON WHO IS NOT SEEKING PERSONAL GAIN FROM THE POWER AND PRESTIGE OF OFFICE

8. Leadership according to the World We lead more by what we saythan by listening; We lead more by doingthan being; We lead more by making things happen than by allowing them to happen; We lead more by being in control than by surrender; We lead more by comparingthan by accepting; We lead more from the head than from the heart; We lead more by external changethan internal change; We lead according to how othersreact rather than by being rooted in who we are. Leadership according to the Gospel We lead more by listeningthan by what we say; We lead more by being thanby doing We lead more by allowing things; to happen than by making them happen; We lead more by surrenderingthan by being in control; We lead more by acceptingthan by comparing; We lead more from the heartthan from the head; We lead more by internal changethan by external change; We lead more by being rooted inwho we are rather than according to others' reactions.

9. The task of animation and the style in whichit is exercised, should be related to the orientations andhistoric legacy of the Congregation. As animatoryou are invited to live this service inspired by the spiritand charism of our community. Here are some aspects of the animation that we need to consider, knowing that our first task is to put in the hands ofthe Lord the service which the community has asked of you.

10. Animation of the Spiritual life: "contemplatethe redemptive love of God" To contemplate the love of God is onemission in your service to the community. Look for a personal deep spiritual life and be consistentin your life. From your contemplative attitude, be moreauthentic and convinced of your invitation to fidelityto our common vocation and mission, and to the projectof Apostolic life assumed by the community and by each sister. Prepare yourself to animate and motivate,by example and by word, the prayer life. See thatthis life of prayer is the heart of the life of the sistersand community and that this is the spirit in which welive our consecration.

11. Animation of the Fraternal life: "live theredemptive love of God" We want to create in our communities an atmosphere of family spirit where we all can accept and live with the differences. Respect and patience with your sisters will motivate everybody to do the same. Practicing forgiveness and conversion and avoiding attitudes of superiority will help to the unity of the community. Obeying the community, favoring communication, dialogue and understanding, being humble enough to receive the observation of your sisters in the community are some of the attitudes that will help to live in the redemptive love of God.

12. Animation of the Mission: "Announce the love of God" In order to build community life, whichis truly based on a common mission, encourage the sisters to value and to respect the moments whenthe community comes together to share, reflect andpray. Inevitably this requires that each sistercollaborates and gives the necessary time to this withan attitude of interest and participation. Depending on the concrete circumstances of the community, promote a style of community life which is open to other persons and outside realities, always careful, to preserve the intimate moments necessary for the life of the community.

13. SOME PRACTICAL ATTITUDES.

14. The true cell of religious life, what gives visibility and consistency is not the Major community, but the local community. And the local community, to exist, requires a minimal structure in which the superior is a key element. • What can we do to have “good” local superiors? Maybe we can think in giving them a good formation, but this is not enough. We are not managers of a big company. The service of authority is a constituent element of Religious Life and as such has to be accessible to the majority. • The root of the superior service, is tin two decisions of the heart that are intimately linked to what we call “vocation”. • The desire to keep the community “religiously” alive and awake • The appreciation of the sisters, an appreciation which is to love, to be interested in their lives, to wish them the best and to take seriously their vocation. 

15. These two aspects are rooted in a strong conviction of faith: we are not together by chance or because we have chosen each other, but because the Lord has chosen us and He counts on us and on our community to serve Him and to work for the Kingdom. • Without this conviction, these desires and these attitudes, all “formation” is useless and the task of the superior becomes frustrating and superfluous. • A sister, motivated in her vocation, can serve the community as local superior as follow: • Convoke your sisters to community meeting and prayer. Be sure that there is a rhythm for both things. Prepare the agenda of the meeting, insist in the participation. There will be always reasons to suspend the meeting, to arrive late to the prayer… to much work to do… the demands of the mission… But your mission is to remember and to convoke to insist in the participation. Without community meeting and prayer, the community will die.

16. Have a community project, revise and evaluate it. Emphasize what you want to live during this year and some actions that you can do. Review together periodically the economy. See how are we doing, are we adjusting to our budget? Are we living in solidarity with the poor? Don’t be afraid to make decisions when required, but count always with the opinion of the sisters. If you can arrive to a consensus, excellent, but remember that not always this is possible and not always can we satisfied everybody. Have interest for what happens in the rest of PPC Asia. Make accessible to everybody the information, news, that come from PPC Asia and from the Congregation.

17. Be attentive to your sisters. Sometimes is enough a small question, showing interest for your sister, for how is she and what is she living. Be available if they want to share with you. Approach them when you detect some problem and if you cannot handle it, invite the sister to talk with the formator/Major Superior. Pray, Present to the Lord the responsibility that He has confided to you. Don’t forget that the community belongs to Him. The sisters are the most beautiful thing that He posses and He asks you to take care of them. Give thanks for such a great and undeserved confidence. COURAGE, It is not so difficult. I am convinced that with these small indications a local superior can do a great service and to significantly contribute that the community be a home where the sisters feel welcomed, loved, understood, challenged… A more human, religious and fraternal home.

18. SOME FEATURESOF SS.CC. APOSTOLIC LEADERSHIP

19. LEADERSHIP: TRUSTING IN PROVIDENCE Service of authority which seeks the will of God and trusts in Providence: 1 But it is your providence, O Father, that steers its course, because you have given it a path in the sea, and a safe way through the waves..." 1 (Wisdom 14:3)

20. The first characteristic of the ss.cc. style of leadership is that our work is God’s work. Wewant to be leaders who serve apostolically trustingradically in the “Good God”. We can speak of leadershipwhich trusts in providence. The writings of our founderstell us the deep faith that they had in the Provident God. The profound criseswhich they experienced, both outside (economic,political, social, religious) and within the newborncommunity (lack of finances, inexperience, healthproblems etc) led them to appeal to God inradical faith. Radical confidence in God the Father, alsoenables us to trust ourselves and others: the sisters with whom we share our life and thosewhom we are called to serve. This basic attitude is what distinguished and colored the way they exercised authority and animated the community.

21. LEADERSHIP IN THE SPIRIT AND THROUGH THE SPIRIT 2 Authority that is inspired and inspiring The Spirit of the Lord is upon me... (Lk. 4: 18).

22. Trustin the love of God opens us to the action of his Spirit.A heart whichpossesses a deep conviction and experience of the loveof God, can exercise the ministry of authoritywith freedom and generosity. The founders continuously invite the Brothers and Sistersto allow themselves to be led by the Holy Spirit whocreates deep communion, the family spirit andrelationships that are close, simple and affectionate. Leadership that isopen to the Holy Spirit’s action, recognizing him presentin other people, especially the little ones, becomes aspiritual experience which nourishes and enrichescommunity life and prayer. The exercise of leadership in and through theSpirit leads to a deeper living of one’s vocation (Cf.RL, n. 29). The leader who wants to be an instrumentof the Spirit at work in each person calls others to trustin God’s unconditional love, tries to find which ispositive in each person and values the dignity of eachhuman being.

23. 3 PASCHAL LEADERSHIP Authority which offers its life So othersmight have life! For the Son of Man came not to be served but toserve, And to give his life a ransom for many (Mark 10:45)

24. “Paschal” presumes the experience ofthe cross and new birth according to the dynamic ofthe paschal mystery. It means living that attitude of thesuffering servant who gave himself without limitaccepting all the consequences. It means followingJesus who went so far as to have his Heart pierced onthe cross ( Cf. Const #3). The consecration to the Sacred Hearts makes our apostolic leadership capable of generating life because we are united with the Father’’s plan to save the world through love. Our leadership invites us to be witnesses of the paradox of death-life, and enable us to perceive, understand and accept, somehow, the sufferings and the crosses of our sisters as well as our own. To be paschal leaders involves a spirituality of life, the mystery of a new life that sprout where there is only death.

25. 4 LEADERSHIP AS WITNESS A service of authority which makes us act from our conscience you will be my witnesses... to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8)

26. Leadership as witness in which thereis consistency between doing and being.This kind of authenticityis clearly founded in the experience of the Father’smerciful love and the power of the Spirit at work inus. The authenticity of our life and work is inspiredby the attitudes, options and tasks that led Jesus to the pointof having his Heart transpierced on the Cross (Const,art. 3). Self-awareness in community is a basic aspectof a leader’s authenticity. We have to really be ourselvesrather than to play roles or wear masks. It is about seeing authority and any otherministry as our personal response to God’s call andnot as a way to seek our own advantage. The leader must encourage growth. That involveshelping people to know and accept themselves. Thegoodness and mercy of God that forgives, heals andlifts up, inviting us to himself, will always be the basisfor the knowledge, acceptance and growth necessaryto be authentic.

27. FATHERLY-MOTHERLY AUTHORITY 5 Authority Which is Mercifuland fruitful Indeed, in Christ Jesus I became your father through the Gospel (1 Corinthians 4:15b).

28. A leader who lives in an ongoing relationship with the God of Jesus Christ, who is Father and Mother, makes his own God’’s paternal and maternal way of relating. She does this in her openness and mercy, in her commitment and firmness. Simplicity and the family spirit are the characteristicsof our relationships within our international Congregation, whichdesires to be open to all people. Our community life gives witnessto the Gospel and makes our announcement of redeeming Lovemore convincing. (Const, art. 7) This family spirit becomes the bestwitness of God’s love which radiates from thecommunity bearing fruit for the world and for theCongregation.Ourawareness of the merciful tenderness of God leads usto become living witnesses of this tenderness by ourunderstanding, gentleness, availability, sharing andhospitality.

29. Paternal-maternal leadership calls us to lookonce again at various aspects of our life. Here are some of them: Mercy, tenderness, compassion “Be merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful”.We must hear this call in our exercise of authority, soas to fulfill it with tenderness and compassion for thesisters that we accompany Attention to interiority A motherly-fatherly style of leadership demandsthat we give special attention to helping individuals asthey grow and assimilate their lived experience. We are called to personalized authority, which knows how to integrate action with interiority and commitment with prayer. To be fruitful We are called to be instruments of life which isborn from the creative love of God.

30. 6 VISIONARY LEADERSHIP Authority that envisions the future and leads the community toward the future By faith he left Egypt, unafraid of the king's anger;for he persevered as though he saw him who is invisible (Hebrews 11:27)

31. Visionary leadership is idealistic, able to stepback from the immediate, capable of envisioningdifferent possibilities, intuitive, imaginative, creativeand able to imagine a future that arouses hope. It meansworking at the level of both consciousness andunconsciousness, vision and dream. Given thechallenges we experience in our lives, we need a critical consciousness. We needtime in our own “Motte d’Usseau” where we couldenvision responses, imagine the future, listen to theLord so that we can make the necessary changestogether in creative fidelity. The role of the leader is then to make thetransition from the present to the future, to redefinereality and change it.To face new situations means somehow letting go ofthe past in order to seek the future. At times the hardestpart is precisely letting go of traditional ways ofunderstanding a situation. Often we think that the mosthabitual approach is what provides the most security.

32. CRITICAL LEADERSHIP 7 Leadership with a critical conciseness and with initiative of changes Woe to you when all speak well of you, For that is what their ancestors Did to the false prophets (Luke 6:26)

33. Looking at our history, our charism and thechallenges of today, we can speak of a style of leadershipthat is critical. It offers a style of leadership and authority in keepingwith the message of Jesus and the essential values ofthe Gospel. Society and culture exercise a stronginfluence on us. This can happen even in very subtleways. They shape our consciousness and little by littlewe find ourselves accepting values and behaviors whichare out of sync with the Gospel and our life choices.Examples of such values would be denial of truth andthe emphasis placed on comfort, the superfluous andpleasure. Our founders were always faithful to the Gospel. Article 5 of our Constitutions reminds us of theneed to transform the world according to the criteriaof the Gospel.We are called to develop a styleof leadership and authority which is creative and whichoffers alternatives ways for living the Gospel accordingto our ss.cc. vocation. We could describe this kind ofleadership as counter-cultural and non-conformist.

34. REPARATIVE AND LIBERATING LEADERSHIP 8 Authority that responds to inequality Andworks for justice Learn to do good; seek justice, Rescue the oppressed, Defend the orphan,plead for the widow (Isaiah 1:17)

35. Another characteristic that we see from our ss.cc.history and which has special relevance for our ministryin today’s world is what we could call reparative orliberating leadership. This is leadership faithful to themission of Christ and inspired by his love. It is sensitiveto injustice and in solidarity with the poor. It promotesthe transformation of hearts and works for a just andreconciled society. Our reparative-liberating work is a manifestation of God’s desire thatpeople have life and have it abundantly (Const. N0 4).The Rule of Life presents two central elementsof our ministry of leadership: its communal dimensionand its liberating dimension. Liberating leadership remindsus that in our ministry we are called to create communionand to be apostles of God’s plan of love.Reparative and liberating leadership will lead usto confront reality.

36. 9 COMMUNAL - PARTICPATIVE LEADERSHIP Authority that is dialogical and co-responsible He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority (Mark 6:7a)

37. A characteristic of the way we exercise leadershipin the Congregation and in our ministry is that it iscommunal and participative.Even at a time when authority in the church andreligious life was understood in a vertical sense, our founders were known to use expressions of trust,dialogue, consultation, care and respect for individuals.This characteristic of participative-co-responsibleauthority invites us to reflect on our role in the communities we serve. In this leadership, power isunderstood as service. Participative and co-responsible leadershipinvolves dialogue which trusts others and delegatesresponsibilities for the good of the community weserve. Participative leadership means renouncingindividual power and taking on authority in a co-responsible way, having a collaborative and interdependent attitude.

38. We are servantsfor a time who must receive from others and continuethe mission of Jesus. Authority and leadership that iscentered on ourselves can damage the unity andcontinuity of the community. We have to see our leadership as a ministry thatfinds its origin and energy in the ss.cc. community,which is the foundation for mission.Some characteristics of the apostolic leadership:to promote fraternity, dialogue, co-responsibility and teamwork; to love others so as to work with them moreeffectively. The key to this new style of leadership is thedistribution of work among all the members of theteam.

39. CONFLICTS IN THE EXERCISE OF LEADERSHIP

40. POSSIBLE REACTIONS TO PROBLEMS: • ESCAPE • HARDEN UP • FIGHT BACK • GET DROWNED • LAL (Look, Accept, Live)

41. HOW TO DEAL WITH CONFLICTS Conflict is inevitable and often good. Helps to raise and address problems. Energizes work to be done on the most appropriate issues. Helps people “to be real", it motivates them to participate. Helps people to learn how to recognize and benefit from their differences. Conflict is not the same as discomfort. The conflict is not the problem - when conflict is poorly managed that is the problem.

42. SOME STEPS TO RESTORE THE ATMOSPHERE IN THE COMMUNITY WHEN THERE IS SOME CONFLICT • CLARIFICATION WITH THE PERSONS IN CONFLICT MIGHT BE NECESSARY; • CLARIFICATION AT T HE LEVEL OF THE WHOLE GROUP MIGHT BE INDICATED; • MATERIAL CONDITIONS MIGHT HAVE TO BE IMPROVED; • SOME RULES OF COMMON LIFE MIGHT HAVE TO BE ADAPTED TO NEW CIRCUMSTANCES; • SOME DECISIONS MIGHT NEED TO BE MADE.

43. PROBLEMS….? Prophets: They help mold our future. Reminders: We are not self-sufficient; we need God and others for help. Opportunities: They pull us out of our routine and cause us to think creatively. Blessings: They open up doors we usually don’t go through. Lessons: Each new challenge will be our teacher. Everywhere: No place or person is excluded from them. Messages: They warn us about potential disaster. Solvable: No problem is without a solution.