Province of Spain – A lived process and a horizon in Shared Mission
On March 2, at the college of Nuestra Sra. del Recuerdo, in Madrid, the SHARED MISSION team of CONFER (Spanish Episcopal Conference) gathered all the congregations that since their inception have walked together to celebrate ten years of this wonderful experience, to share our achievements, reflect and continue dreaming in the construction of a synodal Church.
This path that began by calling itself Shared Mission, for some it will be short and will have very doubtful continuity because they have simply limited themselves to sharing tasks between religious and laity. Those who have not fallen into this trap have discovered that the charism should be with the mission, because there is no mission without spirit. And by sharing mission and charism, people feel called to communion, to be in solidarity with one another, to feel part of something bigger that also enhances the person. By sharing the charism, we enter into the spirituality that discovers the meaning of the mission. By sharing the charism, we discover the mission that we share as the mission of the Church. With these presuppositions the road is filled with life, but also with challenges to which we must respond. The horizon, which is already visible, brings with it a profound change in the way of understanding the relationship between religious and laity. It is not constituted “around” a religious Institute to support or accompany this Institute or to collaborate in whatever is determined.
The central axis of this communion is the foundational charism, lived in different forms of Christian life. And its purpose is to serve the mission indicated by the charism, in a co-responsible way, with the creative capacity to invent new works and not simply to prolong those that the Institute has.
From now on, the creative fidelity necessary to maintain and continue the charism in the Church will depend not only on the Institute that has represented it, but also on the various groups that make up the Charismatic Family and on all those who come to be associated with it.
How can we move towards this horizon? Walking together in the light of the Spirit. This criterion must preside over every line of action: in the encounter of persons, in community life, in the creation and accompaniment of groups, in the development of formative itineraries, in the preparation of lay formators, in the creation of new structures of animation that allow an authentic co-responsibility of the laity together with religious men and women.
In the times in which we live, everything goes very fast, and in this matter even more; let us calculate well in what we use our forces and possibilities in order not to waste them. Let us focus our efforts on what is worthwhile: creating bonds, promoting formation and interrelation in a network that nourishes communion, co-responsible service to the mission, motivation and formation of people with formative itineraries… These are our challenges to reach that horizon of true Shared Mission. This is what we are working on in our Province because we believe that together we are more.
Team of Formation MCG
