Spirituality (pt 1)

We come to André House community blessed with the Spirit and inspired by the Gospel of Jesus. Our community is formed in the Catholic traditions shaped by individuals, lay and religious, men and women, influenced by the customs of the Catholic Worker and religious life in Holy Cross. Our time together is part of an ongoing quest for relationship with God and communion with God’s people. As we live and serve together, we strive to assist each other in that quest, seeking, studying, praying and living the Good News. We strive for integrity so that the values we profess in faith become part of our entire community and individual lives.

Individual Spiritual Life
· We expect people to be responsible for nurturing their own spiritual life.
· We encourage and will support each person in making a personal retreat. The timing and nature of the retreat should be discussed with the Core Community.
· We encourage each person to seek spiritual direction with someone outside the house.
· We encourage each person to become involved in the life of a local church, especially on Sundays.


Communal Spiritual Life
As a community we gather daily for prayer and worship, attending to the spiritual life of the group. We break bread together, we pray before meals and at points throughout the day, seeking integrity in life and ministry. As a community of hospitality we invite others to join in our spiritual life, but never make it a condition of service. We open ourselves to discuss faith issues with other community members.

· We encourage that individual spiritual gifts and leadership be shared with the community.
· We expect that when people are asked to lead prayer, that it be planned with sensitivity. We are open to diverse forms of prayer.
· We expect that the community will periodically step away from normal activities for retreat time together. We expect all members to participate.
· We expect members to participate in the prayer life of the community whenever possible. We reach out to absent members.
· We expect members to participate in First Fridays and in all special community celebrations.