Daily Report on FIC Journey to Spiritual Enrichment 2023

Day 2, 3^rd October 2023

The second day of the FIC Journey to Spiritual Enrichment began with beautiful cool weather and a serene environment suitable for the Journeyers in their reflection. At 07.30, all the Journeyers were summoned to the prayer room and began their morning prayer. Bro. Pascal, the animator of Malawian Journeyers, led the morning prayer, taking the theme: Being Human and Christian. Following a well-prepared prayer booklet, he guided all present to reflect on the meaning and challenges of being human and Christian, taking the inspiration from FIC Constitutions article 1 and the Philippians 2:1-5. He said, "As we embrace our humanity – a lifestyle of humility and servanthood, we will bring glory to our heavenly Father. This is probably what it requires to be human and Christian”.

After a delightful breakfast, the first session of the day was started at 09.00. It was the continuation of yesterday’s evening activities: "Sharing of who am I as a human and Christian”. According to the program, it would be done in three sessions: two in the morning and one in the afternoon sessions. Bro. Theodorus was the facilitator of the session. The participants, one by one, were given the opportunity to share his life story. Before sharing, they light a candle they received when commissioned. It was a profoundly personal sharing where the participants disclosed themselves up to the point that they shared their past experiences that were embarrassing, dark, or hurtful. They also shared their experience of being overturned by God through his love. The moment when the other participants were given opportunities to share their questions, impressions, or words of encouragement was also meaningful. At the end of the sharing, Bro. Theo asked them to present their symbol to the middle of the circle and choose a song to be sung together. 

The first-afternoon session was the conclusion of the sharing. After the last, participants were given the opportunity to share and wrap up their sharing with an inspirational song from their own choice, Bro. Theodorus asked all participants to spend some time in silence. Afterwards, he invited all of them to come to the middle of the meeting room, where while standing in the circle, they took their time to admire the richness of their group by looking at the collections of their symbols.  With the heart full of gratitude for each other, the participants wrote on a piece of paper one of the prominent characteristics or unique qualities of every participant and gave it to the person as a sign of encouragement and gratefulness. That was how Bro. Theo drew the curtains of the sessions. However, the session was not completely ended. It will continue when the Ghanaian Journeyer joins the group in due time.

After 30 30-minute breaks for coffee or tea, the Journeyer gathered again in the hall for communal exercise. Bro. Raphael Besigrinee came up to the floor to facilitate the last evening session. Start at 16.30, he led the Journeyer to reflect on their identity and mission in the Church as Religious Brother. Following a short introduction, he asked the participants to form two groups on language-based. He gave them two questions to be discussed. In 30 minutes, they should return to the plenary with the result of their discussion.   The questions were 1) Who am I as a brother or who are we as brothers? 2) What are some of the essential elements of our religious consecration? Each group spent their time effectively and after 30 minutes, they returned to the hall to have the plenary session. 

Before we end today's activity, we came together in the prayer room to withdraw inspiration and be refreshed spiritually by Jesus Christ through a Eucharistic Celebration. Fr. Raphael CM, who presided the mass, said that today's Gospel reading dealt with the experience of Jesus who became the victim of hostility and tribalism to some extent. How he responds to that defines his quality as a human and, at the same time, as the Son of God. Fr. Raphael emphasized that the expression we made after the sharing this afternoon, in which we shared words of encouragement and hugged each other despite our differences, was a clear sign that we are Jesus’ follower who prefer to walk in the path of peace, love, and unity when our world tend to be so familiar with hostility, dis-accordance, and war. 

He concluded that as brothers, it is our call to bear witness to universal brotherhood.