| Religious life |
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| The goal and projects of the Commission
for Religious Life |
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 The General Council is promoting various initiatives to support Provinces and Districts in the work of animating the consecrated life of our Brothers and communities.
Formation plays a key role in doing this, both in the initial stages of Marist life and in the ongoing formation process that lasts a lifetime. The Commission for Religious Life is meant to serve in animating this way of life both in our communities and in the area of formation.
The aim of the Commission is to support the work of the General Council:
In animating the religious life of our Brothers and communities throughout the Institute, fostering structures and support teams for initial and ongoing formation, and accompanying individuals and communities in the processes of human growth, in accordance with the first two calls of the 20th General Chapter.
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Projects and activities |
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Based on this aim and courses of action
recommended by the General Chapter, the Commission is working
on the following PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES: |
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| 1. Visiting Centers of Initial
Formation |
By making onsite visits to centers of initial formation the Commission for Religious Life seeks to animate and support the work of formation teams, and at the same time to encourage the growth of each youthful aspirant. In some regions of the Institute, the Commission has concentrated its attention on novitiates and post-novitiates. These visits are being coordinated with those that the Superior General and his delegates are making to different Administrative Units. Please see “Initial Formation.”
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| 2. Courses for Community Animators |
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We are interested in ways to support community directors in their important and sensitive role as animators. To this end, the Commission set up formation courses to enable participants to assist local directors in our Provinces and Districts, helping them work as a team with their provincial and exercise leadership in the field of animation in their part of the world. These courses took place during the year 2005. See “Ongoing Formation.”
The Commission for Religious Life conducted a follow-up of the Brothers who attended the courses. The follow-up was by way of (a) dialogue and (b) updating of information about leadership in community life. |
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| 3. Course for Formators |
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The Commission offered to the entire Institute an English-language formators’ course which was set up in Nairobi, Kenya, and ran from August 2005 to June 2006, the last month of the course taking place in France at the Hermitage. See “Initial Formation.
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| 4. Meetings of brothers working
in formation |
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The Commission takes part in or sponsors meetings of Brothers working in formation at the provincial and regional levels. Our aim is to bring together formators from houses responsible for the same stage of formation. Also, to hold meetings that bring together each stage of formation with those that come before and after it. These meetings encourage an exchange of experiences and provide opportunities for reviewing and planning the very work of formation.
The Commission organized a meeting which took place in Rome in February 2007. The meeting was for formators working at the post-novitiate level throughout the Institute. In addition, with the assistance of the Administrative Units of Africa, the Commission estab-lished a meeting for formators working on the African continent.
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| 5. Revision of Chapter 4 in
our Marist Constitutions |
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The 20th General Chapter asked the General Council “to begin a process of revision of Chapter 4 of our Constitutions – Our Life of Prayer – that will enable the next Chapter to take account of the journey made by the Institute regarding Marist apostolic spirituality. This revision could apply to the whole text of the Constitutions.” (Acts o f the 20th General Chapter, §48.4). The Commission will accompany this process. |
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| 6. Marist Spritituality |
Throughout the Institute, from October 7, 2007 to October 12, 2008, the Spirituality Year is being celebrated. The goals of the Spirituality Year are the following:
- to deepen our spirituality which is Marial and apostolic
- to live it more vibrantly and make it better known
- to maintain the focus of the Institute on the First Call of the XXth General Chapter
- to set in motion formative processes which will continue beyond the actual Year.
- to provide a structure within which the spirituality text Water from the Rock can be effectively disseminated within the Institute.
The Spirituality Year has been tied in with the June 6, 2007 publication of “Water from the Rock,” the document on Marist spirituality. Through retreats, meetings and seminars, the Commission for Religious Life is responding to various requests which it has received requesting such activities.
To the extent that it was possible, a member of the Commission was in attendance at the meetings of the spirituality networks existing in Latin American as well as in Europe.
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The two First Calls of the 20th General Chapter |
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We feel called to:
Center our lives and communities in Jesus Christ, like
Mary, with passion and enthusiasm, and to implement processes
of human growth and conversion that promote this.
Acts of
the 20th General Chapter, §18
Revitalize our communities so that they
might be places of brotherhood, simplicity and Gospel
life in service to our mission.
Acts of the
20th General Chapter, §22
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| The
members of the Commission for Religious Life |
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The members of the Commission for Religious Life are Brothers:
Peter Rodney, President; Antonio Ramalho and Théoneste Kalisa, General Councilors;
Teófilo Minga, Secretary; and Ernesto Sanchez Barba, Director of the Vocations Bureau. |
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