Report General Chapter Denekamp

Saturday, 11 August 2018

The theme of the morning prayer today was "We take the vow of poverty to be witnesses of God's love", led by the Indonesia delegation. The readings were carefully chosen to reflect the purpose of the prayer, that is an invitation to reflect deeply on our vow of poverty. Therefore articles on "Intention of the vow" (89), "moderation" (90) and "solidarity" (91) were chosen for this prayer service. This day also marked the 48th birthday of Bro. Agustinos Giwal Santoso. He was therefore given special attention during this morning prayer.

After the usual breakfast, we convened in the conference hall to continue the exercise of the previous day, namely the recollection. This recollection was done in a silent atmosphere to allow the Holy Spirit to reveal to us how we can be true witnesses of God's love in the present time. The theme of the recollection was that of the General Chapter: “We consecrate ourselves to be witnesses of God’s love”. Father Mardiatmadja invited us to focus more on the outside of us, to widen our horizon and to discover our witnessing within the congregation at large. For instance, since the foundation of the congregation, FIC has been practical witnesses of God's love through establishment of schools and other educational institutions. The founder of the congregation was a true human being who witnessed God's love for others, and demonstrated that he was a true believer in Jesus Christ. We are therefore invited to recollect this spirit of our founder and apply it to our own situation as it is now.

After the input which he gave in PowerPoint, Fr. Mardiatmadja invited us to go into another period of personal reflection after which we could share with a partner what we discovered or what was revealed to us. We re-convened after this for a sharing in plenary. The sharing was a variety of experiences but time did not allow all to give this personal contribution before our lunch time. This exercise actually ended the recollection which many saw as an adequate preparation for the following week's programme, namely discussion on proposals. The exercise was also experienced as an important aspect of our discernment process toward the policy making week.

The afternoon session of the day was left free for participants have their personal assignments. Some brothers used the opportunity to walk toward the centre of Denekamp while others decided to have a ride on bicycles around the farming neighbourhood. The celebration of the Eucharist ended the days programme. The liturgy for the 19th Sunday in ordinary time was celebrated at 19:00 h, amidst a number of Latin songs. In the prayers for the faithful, we remembered the victims of the earthquake in the Island of Lombok, Indonesia, the soul of the mother of Bro. Lucio Torres Martin who died a few days before, and further expressed our thanksgiving to God for the gift of life of Bro. Giwal.

Finally, before retiring to bed, we had our usual recreation. This ended the first full week of the General Chapter 2018. It was a satisfactory week due to the fact that one of the main issues of the chapter, to be precise the General Council report, was dealt with effectively.

Raphael Besigrinee