Opening Formator's meeting

It was heavy rain with thunder when we were about to have our opening prayer to begin our formator's meeting, 7-15 September 2022. The plan was we will have an opening prayer at 17.00, but because of that we only began our opening prayer at 17.30. Bro. Raphael Besigrinee lead our opening prayer and he out the theme "...Until Christ is formed in us."

In his introduction, he told us about the story of a fig fruit to illustrate how we have to train our candidates to grow and develop their vocation as religious people. Going through religious formation is an ultimate life task undertaken by the individual. The formation is a life task. The formator should be aware of both the realities and mystery of God within the formation environment. He has to be open to the promptings and influence of the Holy Spirit; He has to be attentive to the transformative power of God Until Christ Is Formed in Us. Like the pollen-laden newborn female wasps, the newly formed religious are potential formators until they are in the formation house themselves to do the ultimate sacrifice. 

After opening prayer at the chapel, we went to the dining hall to have our supper together with our fellow brothers who stay in the Saint Louis community.

In the welcome address by the Provincial Superior of Ghana, he welcomes all the participants, facilitators, and secretaries who come from the Netherlands, Malawi, and Ghana. He mentions that this meeting is a very important meeting that comes from one of the resolutions of the General Chapter 2018, namely: Proposal 10A, International Meeting Formators. The theme of this meeting is "Formation for Consecrated Life". He wishes that this formator's meeting will courage us to be more serious in our effort to accompany our candidates going through the process of initial formation and ongoing formation. Especially this meeting is also time for the formator to share their experiences and opinion on how they have done to the formatees and their ideas for the better forming of our candidates.

Our general superior in his opening address mentioned that it is very important that we need to keep training ourselves and our future members to become capable enough to freely practice those human virtues that favor encounter, dialogue, and promotion of association and collaboration with others. 

"He stressed Internationality: its values and its spirit present huge challenges for the church and international and multicultural religious congregations. We need to be convinced of these values and teach and prepare our future members to cherish the nature of our FIC family. We need to root out issues of nationalism, cultural pride, and tendencies of domineering cultures among us. We need to be well grounded in knowledge of the history of our Congregation; the content of our Constitutions and Congregational Statute; and to give full-hearted priority to initial and ongoing formation programs. Also very important is a good grasp of a common language with which we can express ourselves at a deeper level and have the same level of encounters as members of one family."

After the opening address, we close our program of the day with a short prayer and followed by recreation together. We thank God for his blessing and guidance for us during the opening session of our Formator's Meeting. 

Theodorus Suwariyanto