CONCON – BUIN – CHILE, FRIDAY, 6^TH OCTOBER, 2017       

So soon the first week of the 2017 Brothers FIC Congregational Conference (ConCon) has come to an end. We look back at the past days with gratitude to God for his blessings and favours for all that he has enabled us to realise in these days. It has been a fruitful time of deliberations on matters that define us, as Lay Religious in the Church and also as a Congregation. As highlighted in earlier reports, the first two days of the conference were devoted for recollection on the Identity and mission of the Religious Brother in the Church. The third day focused on reports from the various Provinces, while the fourth day concentrated on two main topics. The first topic was sharing on our respective implementation experiences of the new formation curriculum initiated a year ago. The second discussion looked at the genesis of our international ongoing formation programme (FIC Journey to spiritual enrichment) for the Brothers, the experiences garnered so far and some future projections on the matter.

The foregoing activities paved way for advance preparation of the 2018 General Chapter. Given the importance of this item, it captured our attention the entire morning of the day.  At about 12.30pm the house visited Hermano Bernardo Centro De Educacion Especial (Bro. Bernardus Centre for Special Education). This School is one of the schools established and run by the Brothers FIC Chile Province. It is a school that provides education to children and young adults with special needs.

Due to the limited number of Brothers in Chile Province currently, none of the Brothers work in this school. However, one of the Brothers is on the Governing board of the school. This means that, the daily operations of the school is entirely in the hands of lay people who try to keep the spirit of the Brothers FIC alive in the school. The teachers are doing incredible job in their bit to give the needed attention to each of the students under their training. They do this in the hope of getting them ready for integration into the normal school system as when they are assessed to be ready for that as years pass by.

The training offered the children is not limited to classroom activities only. Engrained in their curriculum are other forms of explorative activities that allow students to discover their potentials. Students produce beautiful art work to include drawing and paintings etc. In the area of entertainment, music and culture, the children show that physical disability does not inhibit one’s ability to do something in other fields. They displayed knowledge and appreciation of their culture, music and dance. In elegant Chilean traditional dressings, they provided variety of entertainment that amused all visitors. Taking this further, the children presented each visitor with a gift made by them. It was an exciting and memorable experience had with the staff and students. To wrap it up, we were treated to a delicious style of lunch served by the staff of the school.

The day was brought to a close with a Eucharistic celebration as usual.

By Bro. Seregeous Dery