Those who seek membership with us should evidence love of God, an attraction to prayer; and the desire to acquire the spirit of the Congregation.
Provisional Constitution

It is a blessed privilege to serve on the vocation/formation committee for the new congregation. We find it enlivening to come together to Share the State of our Hearts, the passion we have for being Sisters of St. Joseph and the love we have for our ministries.

While we have been meeting since September, 2005, it was in July of this year that we were officially asked to design a program/process for vocation and formation. While these two ministries are very connected, they are also very different from one another. These differences plus the size of the project helped us to realize that we needed to begin doing more work separately, yet continue to come together to interface and respond to the work of each other.

The vocation ministers have truly begun to work as a team, visioning, dreaming, making and implementing plans to make vocation ministry come alive in the Congregation of St. Joseph. We have developed a vocation brochure to be used during this time of transition and are putting together a service trip to New Orleans during the week of December 17-24. We are in the initial stages of looking at guidelines, policies and process for entrance into the new Congregation.

The formation ministers are trying to stay current on formation issues by discussing an article at each of their meetings. They find the discussions to be stimulating and helpful as they begin putting together a program and a process that they believe will best serve our Congregation, the Church and the world by preparing well those who are currently in the initial formation process and those who are yet to come. Among the many things they are considering for each stage of the initial formation process are purpose, rights and responsibilities, discernment, assessment, financial issues, ritual and programming.

The more we do, the more we realize there is to do! Despite this, the committee continues to grow in energy and excitement. We are grateful to have each other as support in this time of letting go. We know and feel that the relationships that we are developing in the process of our work are what will sustain us in years to come.

Vocation/Formation Directors:
Bottom row L to R: Kathy Brazda, Karen Salsbery
2nd row L to R: Marie Hogan, Bernie Dean
3rd row L to R: Anne Letourneau, Judith Minear, Carol Hannig
4th row L to R: Jackie Goodin, Ily Fernandez

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