Province of Spain – Joint Formation Meeting of Brothers and lay people in Saragossa
Chronicle of a Joint Formation Meeting of Brothers and lay people
On 26 and 27 March, the second meeting of the 2022-2023 course of Joint Formation of Brothers and lay people of the Province of Spain took place at the Casa de Espiritualidad de los Santos Ángeles in Saragossa.
Arriving from various places in Catalonia, Madrid and Aranda de Duero, the Saturday morning welcomed us with a marvelous light, very appropriate for the day we were celebrating: The Annunciation, our patronal feast.
In our opening prayer, we let ourselves be filled with the music and words of the song “Madame”, from the musical “Bernadette de Lourdes”, and we expressed our desire, like Mary, to be a gentle and warm place to welcome Jesus with joy.
We had again the speaker, Claretian Father Luis Alberto Gonzalo Díaz, Doctor in Theology from the Pontifical University of Salamanca, writer and director of the magazine “Vida Religiosa”. First of all, we addressed the concerns that arose after the previous encounter, held in November, to then deal with the theme that occupied us that day: INTERCULTURALITY, SHARED MISSION, SYNODALITY and LEADERSHIP.
Some of the ideas that were expressed were these:
- Regarding interculturality, a basic principle at the moment, it was said that it was complicated because it is linked to feeling. Culture defines us, conditions us and educates us, and establishing a dialectic between cultures does not work, but we have to reach an encounter.
- As far as Shared Mission is concerned, we must bear in mind that it is a task for people with a vocation for mission. We must be very careful with life projects without LIFE, because they can result in projects that are not viable. Shared Mission is a very artisanal task. No educational community is the same; although we live the same life, we are vitally different and this must be taken into account in a SM project.
- With synodality the concept of leadership changes. The Pope encourages a new leadership, a leadership that never tires of listening. Some may find it chaotic, but remember that God created out of chaos.
- Leadership and SM are underpinned by the theology of mission. For this, formation, reflection, discernment and emancipatory decision-making are essential. It is the Holy Spirit who demands these emancipatory decisions, not continuity. The paradigm shift is to stay with the community model of Jesus, but adapted to this time.
- In terms of SM in synodality and interculturality, formation has to be intervocational (consecrated, priests, married lay people, single lay people) in order to live and be as we are each one in our own personal vocation. When we succeed in integrating all vocations, we will all be at ease.
- This formation has to be from freedom and for freedom. The principle of mission demands the disengagement from concrete spaces and styles to give way to the necessary newness. Formation will lead us to understand what the charism consists of and thus to separate it from the school and the task we carry out. The diversity of gifts does not have to dynamite communion. We must distinguish charism from actions. Our differences do not stem from our personal qualifications, but from a different call for each one of us.
- We must bear in mind that we must first create a climate of freedom for each one to make his or her own vocational process. This formation in the SM is not a teaching, but is carried out through witnessing. And it is linked to Christ, who is freedom. It consists of discovering: What does God want? What does he need at this time?
On the afternoon of 25 March we spent some time savouring the meaning of our patronal feast by situating it in history, as well as the name of the Congregation: Brothers of St. Gabriel. We analyzed the actions of the angel Gabriel in the three biblical episodes in which he appears and contrasted it with the mission of a brother of St. Gabriel as expressed in the Rule of Life. Finally, we saw how all this could challenge a Montfortian Gabrielite educator. Then we celebrated a very special Eucharist with a dramatized reading of the Annunciation.
Saturday morning of the 26th was dedicated to work on the theme “How to infect others to walk together”. After a motivational video, we split into small groups around some questions, to later present and discuss them in assembly. Finally, we made a series of concrete proposals to study them and see how we can take transformative steps in our Shared Mission.
We all agree that these meetings of Brothers and lay people are not only pleasant and profitable, but also help us to grow in self-knowledge and to advance together on the path of the Shared Mission.
Shared Mission Formation Team
