Community of the Passion weekend at Wistaston Hall

Community of the Passion at Wistaston Hall

The Community of the Passion held their first gathering of the year at Wisaston Hall in Crewe, this weekend. Passionist Development Worker Paschal Somers writes:

The Community of the Passion is a dispersed community of women and men, finding together a new way of being Passionist, under the auspices of the Passionist Province of Ireland and Britain.

Married and single (and including some vowed Passionist members), the Community engages in practical solidarity with the Crucified people in their daily lives, seeking to be a Gospel presence at sites of suffering today. Committed to prayer with and for each other, we find God in our encounter with and commitment to all those who are poor, powerless and suffering. We support each other in our living out of our faith and our call to missionary discipleship.

One way in which we support each other is through regular meetings, via zoom and in person. Most of these meetings are held locally or regionally but the Community gathers twice a year for weekend meetings. Whenever we meet, the focus of our gathering is our sharing of how we have experienced the Passion of Christ in our lives and in the lives of those around us. We also share what are termed 'Resurrection Experiences', where members give expression to any signs of hope, growth or new life that they have experienced lately. In this way, the lens of the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus becomes the way in which we interpret our common discipleship journey. Our meetings always include shared meals and social time, culminating in the sharing of the Eucharistic meal.

On 23rd to 25th May 2025, the Community of the Passion held its first weekend gathering of the year in the lovely setting of Wistaston Hall, the Oblate Retreat Centre near Crewe. Twenty-one members of the Community who had travelled from various corners of the country were joined for the weekend event by Gerard Bennett, leader of the Passionist Companions, a lay group based in Ireland and Scotland.

On Saturday morning, community member Ben Bano gave a presentation on 'The Cost of Discipleship' during which he drew out similarities between the teaching and witness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer whose eightieth anniversary of martyrdom under the Third Reich is commemorated this year and Passionist Spirituality. Ben's presentation was followed a lively Q&A session.

Renewed by this coming together, we departed the weekend with a fresh sense of our Passionist calling to 'keep alive the memory of the Passion of Christ' and with gratitude for the countless blessings that being part of this Community brings to each of us.

LINKS

Community of the Passion - Passionist Life: https://passionist.life/community/2021/11/community-of-the-passion/

Wistaston Hall: www.orc-crewe.org