Charism Guide

“Our charism is God’s gift to us and our gift to the Church.”

The IHM Charism Guide grew out of a recommendation by the Chapter 2018 delegation to “affirm our use of Mentoring/Coaching for the purpose of sharing our charism in mission and    ministry.” This recommendation was charged to the Mission Implementation Committee to devise a method of making this sharing possible. The sisters on the Mission Implementation Committee have met over these past three years, have researched, and have developed our IHM Charism Guide, Sharing the Fire: A Guide to Infusing our IHM Charism in Daily Ministry.

While the Mission Implementation Committee was charged with the task
to discover a way to mentor/coach on the charism,
it is the sacred duty and privilege for each sister to discover
ways to inform others about and share our charism.

“Sharing the Fire” has a three-fold goal:

• To deepen the understanding of the IHM Charism and mission among our sisters with the hope that each sister will make an intentional recommitment to infuse the charism into the spirit, purpose, and environment of her ministry in every way possible.
• To encourage and assist our sisters in promoting and sharing our charism with our lay colleagues who are presently serving with us, or who succeed us in ministry now and in the future.
• To provide an easily accessible and user-friendly resource to all IHM sisters and lay colleagues to assist and support their efforts to implement our charism in very practical and inspiring ways.

“Each sister is a founding expression of the Charism.”

                                                                 (Maryanne Donohue-Lynch)

Content
The materials and resources for “Sharing the Fire” have been carefully selected to provide you with both simple and in-depth information on our Congregation’s Foundation, Purpose, History, Mission and Ministries. Some resources are print-ready for immediate display in your environment or for use at meetings, in classrooms, or at prayer.

The Mission Implementation Committee recognizes the challenges involved in sharing our charism, especially for those who might be the one and only sister serving in a particular ministry. While everyone can’t do everything, everyone can do something. Each sister is invited to find ways, unique to her and her ministry, to be a “Joyful Bearer of God’s Redeeming Love.”