The Lay Claretian movement celebrated during the second weekend of November its formative encounter of the Northern Region of Spain. The encounter was under the motto “Make it better, make it urgent, make it heart” and hosted by the community of missionaries of Gijón and the parish of the Heart of Mary. A large group of lay people who wish to live under the style and from the spirit of our founder himself, had their annual meeting to continue discerning how to cooperate as lay people in the construction of the local Church as a community of faith.
The meeting took place over two days of work, which was also combined with moments of personal prayer and a shared experience of faith. This year’s theme was based directly on the proposal that the Church is making to all Christians with the synod, where “we were indeed able to reflect on this theme; in this case, focusing on the conclusions of the diocesan phase of the synod on the synodality of the Spanish Church”.
Carmen Alonso, director of the Higher Institute of Religious Sciences of Oviedo and delegate of the secular apostolate of the diocese of Oviedo shared her impressions on the development of the preparation of the synod and on the meaning of synodality, and helped us to illuminate the subsequent work that we carried out in groups. Under the title ‘Synodality: the group reflected on what did the synod say about lay life’, “discernment for an inclusive Church”, highlighting attitudes such as “openness to novelty and change or awareness of our vocation”.
The encounter also opened times for sharing with the host Claretian community, and thus “with them, we toured some points of the city and celebrated a careful moment of prayer in the hermitage of Contrueces”. On the last day, after the morning prayer, “we reflected on the process of constituting ourselves as a legal association recognized by the Ministry of the Interior. Thus, after reviewing our statutes, we unanimously approved to become an association SECLA NORTE”. “The objective is to have public recognition and to increase our operational capacities in the future” said the group members.
