Tuesday, 9^th December, 2014(Day Seventeen)

The focus today was on “FIC Community Life” and facilitated by Bro. Raphael Besigrinee. Chile province led a beautiful Morning Prayer centering on the theme to begin the day.

In his introduction, Bro Raphael emphasized on the fact that community life is not new to us as Religious and as FIC Brothers. Reflecting on “Growing towards Jesus in Community” as the main topic for the day, Bro. Raphael said Jesus called his disciples to accompany Him in his ministry and this serves as the basis of our Religious Life.He said his presentation was a reminder to day participants. His aim was therefore:to assist participants become more familiar with the nature of community Life, to acquaint them with the rudiments of the nature of the FIC Community Life and finally to help participants become more aware of attitudes that enliven community life.He added thatcommunity life is mainly driven by the spirit of Jesus. His method of presentation was lectures, power-point, group discussion and sharing.

During his presentation he dwelled on the nature of Religious community thus, giving some definitions of a Religious community and the fundamentals of religious Life. He touched on the important of prayer in community life, and the Eucharist as the Centre of community life. The last points he talked about during the morning session was about Our Founders, especially Bro.Bernardus and Our Constitutions referring to articles 36, 37 and 38 of the FIC Constitutions. Also, some text from the biblewere quoted to bring home his points (Col 3:14; Rm 12:10,16; Mtt22:37-38; Jn 13:34-35; and many others).

During the afternoon session, Bro. Raphael presented two questions for personalreflection and exercise. The first question was to imagine and draw a building (community) indicating which part of the building one thinks he is, and write down your contributions in the community living. The second question was to reflect on the Oasis experiences and write a letter to the house superiorof your community, suggesting five ways to improve community living and justifying the suggestions.

At 4.15PM, we reconvened in the conference hall.Due to time factor, a few members shared their reflections based on the exercises given during the morning. This was really very touching. Bro. Raphael presented five questions again for reflection and discussion. This time participants first went for individual reflection and later reconvened in the contemplative dialogue groups for the sharing until supper time.

The Eucharistic celebration followed immediately after supperled by Fr. Koos, district superior of the SMA and was facilitated by Chile Province. The Ghanaian evening (cultural presentation) was the last event of the day. It was a wonderful evening where the Ghanaian Province gave a brief history about Ghana amidst some cultural displays of drumming and dancing. A powerpoint presentation of some FIC communities and apostolates in Ghana were also presented.

Bro. Alpitio Kog     (FIC, Ghana Province)

Wednesday, 10^th December, 2014: FIC COMMUNITY LIFE

Ghana Province led a beautiful morning prayer on Community Life to usher us into the day’s business. The topic of the day was a continuation of previous day (FIC Community Life).Bro. Raphael recalled the presentation and discussions of day previous and asked participants to share what particularly touched them. Due to time factor, a few participants shared their inspirations as very satisfactory, touching and factual after which he proceeded to the business of the day.

The presentation on the second day was centred on “THE REAL COMMUNITY LIFE”. Five questions were presented for a brief individual reflection, and a discussion later in the smaller groups. Each group was to answer one question and to report in the plenary groups afterwards. Below are the questions with the reports from the various groups:

Group one (Question one): What makes you happy in Community?

(Good Corporation between Brothers; Feeling of acceptance, understood, and attention; Given a responsibility in the community; Self-acceptance and acceptance of others in the community).

Group Two (Question Two): In what concrete ways can you contribute to the happiness of the individual Brother in your community?

(Knowing each Brother as much as possible; Knowing the families of fellow Brothers; Attending to programmes of community; Showing fellowship with fellow Brothers (difficulties & joys); Sensitivity and ready to help fellow Brothers in their needs; Attitude to listen to fellow Brothers; Good communication; Honesty and openness; Visiting families of fellow Brothers.

Group Three (Question Three): In what concrete ways can you contribute to the wellbeing of your community as a whole?

(Availability to the community; Be a Brother of faith and in action; Giving service and being responsible in the community; Accepting and giving fraternal correction; Be flexible in your dealings with community members; Attending to little things in the community apart from your external apostolate).

Group Four (Question Four): What do you hope to receive in community? What do you hope to contribute or offer or give to the building of the FIC community?

(a)

(Real love; Acceptance of each other as we are in the community; Protection of one another; fraternal correction; Forgiveness of one another in the community).

(b)

(Self-availability and willingness to serve the community; Listening to the Brothers in the community; Protection and care for each other especially the aged Brothers; Cordial relationship between Brothers and families of Brothers).

Group Five (Question Five): What are the main conflicts of community living?

(Individualism; Time (lateness to gatherings); Talking about the brother instead of talking with him; Not fulfilling your tasks in the community; Lack of attentiveness to the needs of the individual brother; Use and care for community property; Proper and clear communication; Lack of appreciation of the talents of brothers; Lack of openness).

After coffee break members still shared their fillings about the questions and discussion as so interesting and meaningful.

The sub-topic for the day was “Attention to the Individual Brother”.Bro. Raphael, in his introduction referred to the text in 1Cor. 3:10 –13 which were the words Bro. Bernardus also used for community living at the time. He thanked the groups for the exercise done well because what the groups presented were to buttress his points prepared.

He then introduced a simple game to illustrate a conflict in a community and how to solve it before he went ahead with his presentation. All participants enjoyed the game. When asked to mention the lessons from the game, participants came out with many lessons including the following: there was cooperation, the need for helping each other was clear, thinking and discernment process was involved, need to seek external help to solve the problem was part, and also initiatives taken to solve the conflict.

After the presentation, a video clip was shown about the teaching from the geese and a song “Where love and charity abide …”was sang to conclude the morning.

The afternoon session started at 2.30. The following exercises were given to participants: A text about the history of Bro. Bernardus was given for reading and answering a question about what participants admire about him; A poem entitled “For whom is religious life?” was also presented for study and to rewrite one’s own poem; Lastly, two questions for individual reflection were given to participants.

At 4.15 pm, there was plenary session where some participants shared their poems and general impressions concerning the whole exercise. It was a good impression given about the exercise.

A prayer composed by Bro. Raphael asking for the Spirit of Bro. Bernardus was prayed together to conclude the presentation and thereafter, three questions were presented again for individual reflection to be shared in the contemplative groups at 5.00pm, to end the day’s activities.

Bro. Alpitio Kog

(FIC, Ghana Province)