In the Encounter of Prefects of Formation in Guatemala, in continuations of the theme ‘Inter-culturality and Formation’ Fr. Joseph Callistus, explained ‘the aspects of inter cultural encounter and Cultural shocks’. He recalled from various congregational sources and and re-emphasized that in our diversity what unites is our charism. All the sessions and group exercises gave a lot of practical inputs to the participants the wide notions of interculturality, to carry to their own organisms and apply in formation process and in our own communities. The sessions were very interactive through group activities so that all could assimilate the contents with intensity and dynamism.

The session on ‘cultural shock’ was really edifying as it helped the formation in charge to motivate the students in formation on such realities to be faced as a missionary. He explained that cultural shock is a feeling of anxiety that a person can experience after he moves into an entirely new environment (generally surface within a few weeks of arriving at a new place). He also invited the groups to go into another group works on ‘Preparing our missionaries for intercultural living’, with a question, How do we prepare our Students to accept intercultural living and how do we prepare our communities to receive missionaries from other culture? The participants had a very lively discussions and proposals.

In the afternoon Fr. Royestan Jerajh from Sri Lanka, dealt with a theme, ‘Learning interculturality from our Founder St. Claret’. The participants in groups discussed and reflected on the question, how can we read interculturality in the life of our Founder in his attitude and lifestyles?

In the evening the groups engaged themselves into discussing and assimilating chapters 8 and 9 of the draft of the new GPF.