From 5 to 9 December 2021, the first meeting of the new six-year period of the members of the CESC Team with the Prefect of Spirituality and Community Life was held in our community of Colmenar Viejo (Madrid, Spain).
We attended the meeting, together with Carlos E. Sánchez, all the members of the teams of the CESC and Fragua, Juan Carlos Martos, Josep Rovira and Sebin Mundackal; from the Madrid-Ferraz community, Frs Salvador León and Félix K. Ketoglo; from the Madrid-Buen Suceso community, Fr Rohan Peires and from Colmenar Viejo, Fr Paulson Veliyannoor.
The aim of this meeting was to get together again, after two years without having been able to have face-to-face meetings due to the problems of the pandemic, to share the road travelled, to rethink the new situation of the teams and to outline the lines of action for the future in the light of the XXVI General Chapter.
We had the opportunity to deal with all the matters on the agenda, in an atmosphere of fraternity and of prayer amidst the Advent liturgy, in particular the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. We would like to highlight a number of topics of particular interest:
– The two teams were definitively integrated into a single team to be called CESC, whose task will be to animate the spirituality of the whole Congregation.
– The three areas that have been taken care of up to now will be maintained: research of our heritage, its diffusion and the spiritual animation of the Congregation. The services of the Forge – which have been recognised and re-launched by our last Chapter – are integrated into the service of spiritual animation.
– We reviewed what the General Chapter determined on the area of Spirituality and Community Life and made our contributions and comments on the draft of the General Government’s Action Plan on this specific area.
The meeting, in addition to being evaluated as very positive for the knowledge and integration of the members of the new CESC, helped us to clarify and orientate the service that the Congregation asks of us.
