BY: REGINA CLIFTON
Call to Prayer
Leader We take time to remember that we are always
in the presence of God, who loves us and knows our hearts and
our innermost dreams and desires.
All Loving God, we are full of gratitude for all the
gifts and talents you have given us to be leaders in the Catholic
health ministry.
Leader We take time to remember that we are always
in the presence of God, who loves us and knows our hearts and
our "So the point is not to become a leader. The point is to
become yourself completely — all your skills, gifts, and energies — in
order to make your vision manifest. You must withhold nothing.
You must, in sum, become the person you started out to be, and
enjoy the process of becoming.1
Litany of Authenticity
LEADER Being authentic is to be our real selves in
the external world.
RESPONSE Loving God, transform us!
LEADER Being authentic is being ourselves as we engage
with others.
RESPONSE Loving God, transform us!
LEADER Being authentic is not hiding behind a mask,
not faking what we think or feel.
RESPONSE Loving God, transform us!
LEADER Being authentic is living with honesty and integrity.
RESPONSE Loving God, transform us!
LEADER Being authentic is matching our inner reality
with its outward expression.
RESPONSE Loving God, transform us!
Reading
Many Gifts One Spirit (1 Cor 12:4-13)
There are different gifts but the same Spirit; there are different
ministries but the same Lord; there are different works but
the same God who accomplishes all of them in everyone. To each
person the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common
good. To one the Spirit gives wisdom in discourse, to another
the power to express knowledge. Through the Spirit one receives
faith; by the same Spirit another is given the gift of healing,
and still another miraculous powers. Prophecy is given to one;
to another power to distinguish one spirit from another. One
receives the gift of tongues, another that of interpreting the
tongues. But it is one and the same Spirit who produces all
these gifts, distributing them to each as he wills. The body
is one and has many members, but all the members, many though
they are, are one body; and so it is with Christ. It was in
one Spirit that all of us, whether Jew or Greek, slave or free,
were baptized into one body. All of us have been given to drink
of the one Spirit.
Closing Prayer
LEADER Loving God, we know you love us unconditionally.
Give us the grace to be the persons you call us to be using
our gifts and talents to transform hurt into hope.
- Warren Bennis, from Leadership & Spirit, Russ S. Moxley,
Jossey-Bass Inc., San Francisco, CA, 2000.
Copyright © 2002 by the Catholic Health Association of the United States
For reprint permission, contact Betty Crosby or call (314) 253-3477.