October 13, 2018.
Day of Illumination with M. Mª Eugenia Vicenti and Fr. Gonzalo Fernández CMF
Today, Our Lady’s Day, we began with the Lauds prayer in one voice; this time in English, offering the day into Mary’s hands, so that she could present it to the Lord.
We pray before the Blessed Sacrament as we have been doing, allowing ourselves to be enlightened and strengthened to live the work of the day, and as an occasion to strengthen our communion around the Lord.
Today was a day of enlightenment:
We began the session with a beautiful prayer prepared by the sisters of the European Province. They presented us with four symbols, which are echoes of their culture, and with the song “Alive for Him”, which inspired all of us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.
We count with the presence, among us, of M. Ma. Eugenia Vicenti who shared with us and made us deepen in the discernment of St. Eugenia. Vicenta Maria, on the road to sainthood. We enjoyed her charismatic vitality and the life experience with which she put us before the reality of our being consecrated RMI.
Everything that he transmitted to us, “hit” us affectively and we were able to delve into it personally and with our small working communities. We felt our hearts burning like the disciples of Emmaus and the challenge of projecting all these interpellations in our Chapter work. We feel that God has placed M. Ma. Eugenia at the right time, to help us delve into the roots of our charism and thus reach the desire and will of Vicenta Maria:
- Discernment as a path to holiness and a congregational way of proceeding.
- Identification with Christ, poor and humble.
- The invitation to live humility, disappropriation, to renew the world from the smallness of our reality.
To begin the afternoon activities, we had a Power Point presentation: “The Exercises of St. Ignatius, forge of the spirituality of St. Vicenta Maria” and we continued with Fr. Gonzalo Fernandez cmf, who introduced us to the “Re-reading of the Congregational Charism, today”.
The key questions in this session were: What do we understand by Charisma? What do we understand by Spirituality?
He guided us in understanding the charisms as graces of the Holy Spirit, leading us to deepen our understanding of the difference between a life WITHOUT the Spirit and WITH the Spirit: every charism is a vital experience, in constant development. Therefore, it is not a formula. It is an experience of the Spirit to be lived, guarded, deepened and constantly developed. (cfr. Mutuae Relations no.11)
He also pointed out the criteria and questions that can help us in our discernment:
- What are the most pressing needs of the Church today in the area of welcoming troubled girls?
How to connect these needs with the experience of Vicenta Ma. Welcomed, interpreted and developed by the Congregation?
- When we think about the needs of the world, what are we thinking about, institutional interests or the needs of the recipients?
We ended our session with a dynamic sharing in the different communities of the work on the needs that we discovered in the young women of the different contexts and the values of our charism that connect better with these needs.
We closed the day with the Eucharist, giving thanks to God for so much good received.
Capitulars of the Indian Province