2. Letter of communion from the two General Councils
On this Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, a day particularly dear to our two
religious Families, Mother Giustina and Fr. Alfonso, together with their
respective General Councils, send you their greetings. In response to a common
desire to strengthen communion between our two Congregations, the General
Councils of the DSMP and the SdC desire to continue on the path of establishing
a better mutual dialogue.
Their intention is to partake, even at operational levels, in supporting and
developing the many projects in which we collaborate are already being
implemented in different parts of the Guanellian world.
This was the purpose of our two first meetings, on December 14/15, 2006,
and on May 11, 2007. We also decided to continue to have joint meetings at least
twice every year on a regular basis in the future.
It is the Church pointing us out this process of communion as the privileged
approach for evangelizing a world that tends to stir up opposition, exclusion, and
everything else that we know too well.
Our Guanellian family has an extra reason to take to heart this object. It
comes from the intentions of the Founder, from the experience of our
Congregations, especially in the first decades of our history, and from our own
particular charism that in serving the poor we must offer them our shared
ministry
that expresses, God’s fatherhood and motherhood.
At our two Meetings we have experienced how important is reflecting and
planning together to respond more adequately to the complexity and challenges
of our society.
But, especially, to support each other on the way to holiness that our
religious vocation asks us to seek, so that we may strengthen our common
charism and encourage a better formation on our charism from which we may
give some answers to what the new evangelization requires from us.
By summarizing the main topics we have addressed, we would like to
present you the vision of what the future has in store for our Congregations so
that we may achieve deeper communion with all of you.
Shared activities of formation on the charism
We have recalled the formative activities that we had in the past, and we
have envisioned other possible projects such as:
– the School of Guanellian Spirituality;
– revitalization of the Guanellian Study Center in Rome and the Centers
present
in different Provinces;
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– the opportunity to keep going the Guanellian Weeks held in Fall;
– favoring meetings between formators and formees, both at the central
level and in
the various parts of the world;
– the promotion of prayer activities for the whole Guanellian Family
(Spiritual Exercises, Days of recollections, Lectio Divina...), especially
in preparation for the Centennial of the Profession of Fr. Guanella and of
the first Servants of Charity.
It was of great interest among us the recent Meeting of Provincial and
Delegation Councils of the two Congregations held in Paraguay. Besides being a
good example of communion existing among them, we appreciated their
common commitment to inculturate the Guanellian charism, by following the
requests of the Latin American Church,
preparing itself, at that time, for the Fifth
General Conference.
Guanellian youth and vocations ministry
In reviewing this sector, we noticed that among the Guanellian youth there
is a general incapacity to hold on and to persevere. It seems that we have to start
from scratch all the time.
Our pastoral ministry among them often experiences ups and downs, strong
initial dedication followed by disappointment. In several parts of the Guanellian
world the pastoral care of youth is not promoted at all, and it is not present
among the pastoral activities of our communities.
For sure it is not easy to work with young people today. People should be
well acquainted with their way of thinking, their way of life, their good qualities,
and also with the weak points of this age that are affecting their life.
We have to prepare ourselves to meet the young people and to spend time
with them. We should be ready to respond to their questions, worries and hopes
too often disappointed by the society in which they live. Good will is no longer
enough!
Both General Councils agreed on the need to refresh this pastoral ministry
by a shared planning, and by giving a greater role to our charismatic values.
Perhaps, in the future we will all together build a “Youth Hub” that will offer
common charismatic values to young people to be incarnated in the countries
where our
Guanellian Family is present, saving at the same time the international
perception of the world that they hold.
Regarding vocations ministry, we rejoice in seeing the generous responses
of so many young men and women in Asia and Africa. It is not enough! We
believe that we all have to increase our prayer, our willingness to meet young
people and be their spiritual directors, and to open our houses for the well-
known “Come and See” or other such experiences.
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