Daily report and Reflection on 8^th October,2019

Feeling anxious to see what the presentation of the day will be, the day started with a morning prayer led by the Religious House, Netherlands delegation. The theme of the reflection was Love for his Brothers, an extract from the Rules of conduct for superiors of the Brothers of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, by Bro. Bernard Hoecken

The focus of the morning prayer was to reflect on how leaders of our congregation and/or communities are to exercise their authority on their fellow brothers. The main model of a superior’s leadership was the person of Jesus Christ, who became all things for his followers.

It was touching to realize that authority is nothing else but to be a servant of all. This also includes making a deliberate choice daily to take care of the needs of fellow brothers and especially those who experience difficulties and need the support of others to lighten the burden of life. This responsibility is likened to being a father and a mother to others.

The day’s reflection was done by Br. Johan Mutjens and centred on the founding of our congregation by Monsignor Louis Rutten and Brother Bernard Hoecken. Emphasis was on the time and context, the social situation at the time and the commitment of our founders in opting to educate the poor youth of Maastricht and the unwavering trust in the providence of God and their reliance on the Immaculate Virgin Mary and her protection on our congregation.

From this context, religious leaders, especially the superiors are to strive to emulate the trust our founders had on the providence of God and the Immaculate Mary, Patroness of our congregation.  From all what was presented and discussed one thing came out clearly that all decisions taken by a leader must be  motivated by LOVE and this is what helped our founders to start the congregation.

The afternoon session was facilitated by Bro. Valentinus Daru, on the use of Canon Law in the decisions we take as leaders. It was insightful to observe that there are many areas of Canon Law that influence the decisions we take. Some decisions would have been taken thoughtfully if we had some knowledge of the areas where we could have applied the Canon Law to lawfully exercise justice.

From the questions and the clarifications that came to the fore, I begin to see the usefulness of consulting Canon Law in matters I am not conversant with. Consulting the document is ultimately for the common good of the brothers and the quality of decisions we sometimes struggle with in order to harmonize our living together as brothers and the exercising of our authority in the best way possible.

By Lawrence Sitima