Congregation conference and formators’ meeting: Day 3

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

As it is part of our tradition to pray together, we started day two with a beautiful Prayer service at seven o’clock. This prayer service was led by the brothers from Malawi province after which, breakfast followed. After a few minutes of preparing ourselves, we gathered in the in the conference room at half past eight to continue with the recollection that started yesterday. Brother Guido is the one who continued with the facilitation of the recollection. He reminded us that today’s recollection was meant to give more light to what was experienced the previous day. 

The facilitator reminded us that Christian maturity is about being able to fulfil the promises that we made at our baptism. He also said that sexuality is more about fully embracing ourselves in order to be more loving. He then introduced the topic of the recollection for the morning part and the topic was about; General Principles of FIC Formation. This topic was divided into three subtopics which included (a) the purpose of FIC religious formation, (b) Aspects common to all stages of formation, this subtopic has five points under it, and (c) some core phrases/ key sentences from our constitution to inspire and guide us in programming or work on formation. He told us that he used the FIC constitution and a booklet called; Directives on Formation in Religious institutes, by the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. Then we were asked to read and reflect individually chapter two of the booklet and then to come to discuss in groups according to our provinces. This exercise took us up to tea break at 10:30 am.

From 11:00 am we met again in the conference room to share what we discussed in our groups. In the plenum all groups agreed that the agents and environment of Formation that were suggested in document J were true. These were numbered from a. to f. and are as follows: 

a) The Spirit of God; forms, guides, teaches and reminds the candidate that he has to remain open to the promptings of Holy Spirit.

b) The Virgin Mary who is a model of total surrender to God. She is a symbol of obedience, perseverance and also patience. Mary is a woman who ponders, reflects and responds appropriately and the formees have to look to Mary as their model. 

c) The church is also an agent because the people of God are found in the church. So the formees have to be able to embrace the church and not only work with but also within the church. 

d) The community is another agent as such the quality of the community determines the quality of the brothers that are produced. The formees have to be prepared for community life and be ready to live a good community life. 

e) The candidates themselves are main agents of formation. They are the ones who received the call in the first place and the formation programme only helps them to be able to respond appropriately to their own call and be able conform to the ideals of religious life. Lastly, 

f) The instructors or formators are also agents. Much as the candidates are the main players in  the formation process, the work of formators is very important. In order to have a successful formation programme there is a need for formators to work in collaboration with other members of the team, and the superiors.

• It was also observed that the role of men is most often not mentioned let alone talked about in the formation process. It is necessary that the candidates to brotherhood be helped to appreciate their being men since there are some specific roles that are for men ony such as to care and protect. These roles are some of the positive tenets of a man and if understood well they may help to make good religious brothers. It was also mentioned that formation programmes need to always start with the healing therapy because some of the candidates come from harsh backgrounds and need to need heal their past. At twelve o’clock noon we had to break for lunch and only to resume at four o’clock in the evening.

At four when we resumed, Brother Guido gave us another paper, document J, Fomation Ministry and Mystery. This document had the following points to be reflected on: Role, Task, Qualificatios and Skills of Formators. A booklet on the same topic by Fr. Philbert Namphande was given to assit in the reflection. After about twenty minutes of explaining, the facilitator asked us to go and read individually the booklet that was provided on Formation Ministry and Mystery. We met again in our groups as provinces at half past five and the results of the group discussions will be shared in a plenum the first minutes of the following day’s sessions. 

Mass followed at 19:00 hours, followed by supper and we closed the day with recreation at 21:00 hours. 

Reported by,

Br. Stanslao Finye