Good Things Were Afoot in Circle K

Bill & Ted at the Circle K

This year's Giving Voice National Gathering was really an intergenerational conversation.  Giving Voice is an organization of women religious under the age of 50, but we invited Sisters over 50 including Sandra Schneiders, IHM to engage the emergence of religious life in the 21st Century.

We used the PeerSpirit circle process, which is actually a process that our conference planning team has been using the past nine months to plan the gathering.  I had the privilege/challenge of assigning folks to the 20+ circles in a way that hopefully would have an even distribution of under/over 50 as well as a good distribution of religious communities.

It took me many hours of sorting.  So I took the opportunity to place myself in Circle K.  Yes, it was a pop culture reference that made me smile.

I had a great group.  We shared deeply, listened attentively, and broke open our experiences and hopes for religious life.  During the check out of one of our last circle conversations, one of my circle members (in her mid 60s) said that when she received her name tag with her assignment to "Circle K," she immediately thought of the gas station.  "And I need a little bit of gas for religious life," she said smiling.  The rest of the women in my circle went around and said how much they appreciated everyone in Circle K.  By the time it was my turn to talk, I had to confess that I'd put us in Circle K for a reason!  I explained the pop culture reference, and told them that I thought good things would be afoot in Circle K.  A nice moment, courtesy of Bill & Ted (and God).