“We are called to actively participate in the process of recapturing and passing on of our OND treasure more intensely and with creative fidelity.” (AC 2005)
Our treasure can be recognized from the beginnings and the subsequent development of our congregation that we, individually or communally, recall. It may consist of the basic elements of our society’s spirituality based on Scriptures, the character of the founders, the first impulse of the call which may be a word, a phrase, an inspiration, a prompting or a unique religious experience that motivates or invites one to give birth to something and which had been made alive and sustained by the members.
The treasure also includes the congregation’s dominant practices, celebrations, popular sayings or phrases that form part of our personal and corporate memories. We ourselves and those we have worked with and for, reveal that the defining character of the OND includes our courage to be poor and to serve them, our pastoral creativity, community spirit, zeal for mission and quest for the divine.