One of the Documents of Vatican II is devoted entirely to the Apostolate of the Laity. The opening lines state that the desire of the Church is to intensify the apostolic activity of the People of God. To assist in this "intensification" Congregations have opened wide their doors to receiving those whom we call "Associates" that they associate with the members of the congregation in different ways namely in the study of the life and charism of the Founder or Foundress in order to understand the spirituality and also share in the celebration of feast days, jubilees and various occasions.

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny started the Associates program several years ago, but in the desire to update and to bring into focus this aspect of the Congregation, the Provinces of the West Indies, USA and Canada held a joint Assembly from 5 to 11 May 2010 at the Emmaus Centre in Arima, Trinidad. This was devoted entirely to understanding the reason for the Associates and their place in the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny.

The first thing we realized was that we were all on the same wavelength in spite of the differences of country and culture. Our associates were all seeking to draw closer to God and to understand the spirituality of our Foundress Blessed Anne Marie Javouhey and to share in the mission of the Sisters. After the welcome and introductory remarks, we were all asked to express in writing our hopes and expectations of this Assembly.

On Thursday 6, A History of the Associates Movement in the Church and Congregation was e-mailed to us from New Zealand and the Philliipines. Sisters from these parts of the world were to have joined us, but distance and finance were the chief obstacles. Sr. Clare Harris, moderator of the Assembly read the Paper. One of the quotations from the report from the Council of the Congregation in 1991 read: "This is something new and developing and it would be wise if the Church allows it to flower in a natural way before hedging it round with restrictions". The report recognised that religious congregations had spiritual riches to share which were gifts for the whole Church.

The Congregation was willing to accept men and women, people of different faiths, the married, the widowed, the divorced, and those who had left the Congregation. The Sisters have many friends, co-workers, past pupils in whom there is tremendous scope for the charism of Anne Marie Javouhey to continue in their personal lives. In these days of decreasing numbers, increasing age, changes in the ministerial and apostolic field, the place of Associates became increasingly important. The Paper accepted that the time of experimentation was over and that we had no alternative but to continue on the given path.

Sr. Regina Brunelle, a Sister of St. joseph of Cluny working in Canada, made a wonderful presentation on the Spirituality of Anne Marie Javouhey. She identified aspects of the spirituality of the Foundress that drew the Associates to her - her thirst for God's will, her simplicity and earthiness, her love of contemplative prayer and of the Eucharist, her compassion and faith, her confidence in God and her hope. She sees the Associates as companions in hope, deeply supportive of each other, experiencing the same compassion that Anne Marie Javouhey showed during her life. She said that guiding Associates into a life of authentic prayer was the most precious gift that she could offer them and noticed that as they grew in prayer, so they grow in the ability to reach out to others.

Sr. Regina feels that the Anne Marie Javouhey story was our story - facing up to the challenges of the day, their faith, their thirst for the Living God, that any real relationship with God should move us beyond ourselves to the service of others. She ended saying that what we faced today was not fundamentally different from what Anne Marie Javouhey faced. The Gospels set her free so that she was able to incorporate into her missionary life and work, those values that met Gospel standards.

On Friday 7, Sr. Mary Patrice Simmons teased our thoughts and our imagination with whether our Associates should be marginal or fully integrated. One of the ways to have them integrated was to have them participate in our monthly and yearly retreats. Sr. Mary Patrice felt that our unwillingness to allow this, was perhaps to leave our comfort zone and face deep-seated changes. She feels however that with the steady decline in numbers in Religious Congregations over the past years, the Spirit may be pointing in that direction.

She feels that in Christ and in the Church there is no room for inequality on the grounds of birth, nationality, social status or sex or as St. Paul wrote "no more Gentile or Jew, slave or free, male or female". The basic call was to all to strive for the perfection that gives glory to God, that if we are seeking the same spirituality, then we should all share the same things.

Our week concluded with a talk on "Spirituality for a technological age" by Sr. Annette Chow. From the outset, Sr. Annette referred to the benefits of technology in the alleviation of disease, instant global information, access to information with a resulting more comfortable life-style. She wondered how could we maintain our link with the divine in the midst of all this. The repudiation of our technological culture was not an option. Sr. Annette sees all as a gift from God with Creation as the completely unmerited gift.

It was in the group work of each day that all the nitty gritty was sorted out and all our uncertainties ironed out. It was here we could come to some kind of unity and organization for the Associates throughout the world.

But the week was not all talk and serious discussion. Holy Mass and the Divine Office were the pivot around which all took place. There was time for prayer and reflection. Our visitors were treated to outings to different parts of our coutry which they certainly enjoyed.

On Sunday 9 (Mothers' Day), Associates from T&T with one visitor from Dominica gathered at Emmaus Centre. It was a day of sharing ending with a cultural show.

The final 2 days, 10 and 11 May, were spent in finalising guidelines for the Associates Program. Everyone agreed that the days of gathering and sharing brought much enligtenment and renewal.

Article by Sr. Jean Devenish Huggins