Reections on Mission

Mission as Expressed Through Core Values

Sr. Rosalie Curtin, SCL Director, Mission Integration Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Kansas City

Introduction This resource in Catholic Charities USA Reection on Mission series is designed to help you explore the concept of mission and its relationship to the core values of our agency. Reections on Mission is a series of resources to help you understand mission as a concept and how to integrate the mission of your agency into your work. This series is meant to be practical to give information that will further your understanding of mission and to provide questions that will encourage you to think about how you are a living witness of this mission in who you are and what you do at the agency. Leaders are encouraged to adapt and make changes to this resource to adapt to the needs and circumstances of the participants.
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eader: Welcome. This session will look at the Core Values of Catholic Charities and try to discover how they help us live out the Mission that is ours. Let us begin with prayer:

Opening Prayer
Spirit of power and love, time and again throughout history you have blessed your servants and sent them on mission; to speak your word to the poor and the sick, to extend hospitality and love to all your people, to care for women and children to heal the sick. We desire to serve your people with compassion and competence to work for social justice and to encourage the Church community and other people of good will to share in these eorts. We pray that we, as sta of Catholic Charities, might be true to that mission. Amen.

Reection:
The mission of an agency denes the purpose for which it exists. It should answer the question, Who are we? and Why are we here? It reects the beliefs and values of the agency and, hopefully, the values of those who work there. We can expand our understanding of the mission by looking at the mission of the Church as found in scripture and its history over the centuries, by reading the Catholic Social Teaching documents that highlight a strong commitment to the poor and vulnerable persons of society. We also express that mission through the Core Values which Catholic Charities embraces.

Activity:
Give each person a sheet of paper with the lines numbered 1-10 followed by 5 smaller columns. Invite them to list 10 things they like to do. (This is done in silence.) In the rst column, check the things youve done in the past year. (Give time for this.) In the second column, check the things youve done in the past month. In the third column, check the things youve done in the past week. In the fourth column, check the things you do alone. In the fth column, check the things that cost you money.

Invite them to reect upon the above activity and then to write something they learned about themselves, some conclusions or insights. When everyone is nished, invite them to share their insights with the person next to them. Then, let the whole group compare their insights.

Reection
(leader or someone designated) Setting aside your papers for now, let us consider the values of Jesus. He was compassionate, loving, had respect for each person, healed, provided services, had a denite preference for the poor and marginalizedcame to give us life in abundance. All of us value something or someone. Take a moment to think about what you value. We all agree that some values are more important than others. We call them Core Values. This comes from the latin word Cor that means of the heart Values that inspire and motivate us. Look again at your papers. By considering where you spend your time and what you do with it, Ill bet you can come up with your Core Values, e.g. if almost everything you have on your paper is something you do alone, one of your Core Values might be solitude. Or, if everything you have written is done with others, perhaps one of your Core Values is community or service. Or maybe your Core Values were not expressed here and you just want to think about them. (Have them nd at least one of their Core Values and share it with the group.) (To the whole group) What do you think might be the Core Values of Catholic Charities? (Give them time to think and then list them on the newsprint. There will probably be a great deal of overlapor maybe the agency has already dened its Core Values. This will vary from agency to agency.) Catholic Charities has Core Values too. Compassion, it would seem, would be the essential Core Value of a service agency committed to the poor and vulnerable. But others might include Charity, Respect, Stewardship, Social Justice, Excellence. Using the following as a guide, the specic Agency might prot from an exercise like this to put esh on their Core Values. These values tell us and everyone outside of us who we are or who we are not, if they dont see the agency in operation! Compassion is the essential Core Value at Catholic Charities and the foundation for the other core values, which include:**

CHARITY Assisting the vulnerable and poor Responding to need Being receptive to new challenges

RESPECT Treating others fairly and honestly Recognizing the dignity of all Welcoming inclusivity as well as diversity

STEWARDSHIP Holding all resources in trust Developing the talents and gifts of all Being responsible for nancial and human resources in order for the mission to continue SOCIAL JUSTICE Motivating others to take advantage of available resources to improve their lives Advocating for positive change

EXCELLENCE Assuring a high degree of professionalism Establishing measurable goals Implementing best practices with resources available

Activity:
Questions for reection: (Write the answers to #1 and #2.) 1) How do the values I try to live by correlate to those of CC? 2) How do I make the mission come alive in my work? Further questions to ponder: + What motivates you in your choices? (It could be a lot more than one motive.) You might want to think of a choice you have made recently and then think of all the dierent motivations that were part of that choice. + What one thing do you value enough to die for? + What have you found helpful when your values have been tested? + Who are your models for your life and why? Share your answers to #1 and #2 with the person next to you or in a small group.

Closing Prayer:
Loving God, let us continue to hear and follow your call to be unied in purpose and in values, able to listen and understand and to balance many competing needs. Help us to do the mission of Catholic Charities bountifully and to live those values that call us to be our best selves. Help us to do your work with joyful hearts and light steps. Amen.

**The Core Values listed above were selected by the sta at Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Kansas City, KS. Other agencies and dioceses will probably share all or some of the same values and add new ones to the list. It is important that each agency identify what its deems as its own Core Values.

About the Reections on Mission Series

Reections on Mission was developed by Catholic Charities USA to assist agency sta with understanding the concept of mission and to facilitate integrating mission into their work. These resources are meant to be practical; to provide information that will further your understanding of what you do within the context of mission and to oer questions that will stimulate you to think about how you are a living witness of this mission in who you are and what you do at your agency. The tools in this series are designed to be userfriendly and to allow for your imaginative self-expression.

Providing Help. Creating Hope.

www.catholiccharitiesusa.org
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