XVI PROVINCIAL CHAPTER

December 10

CLOSING OF THE DISCOVERY PHASE

We began the morning with the pleasant visit of the Superior General, Fr. Mathew Vattamattam cmf and Fr. Gonzalo Fernández, cmf, who participated in the moment of prayer. The fraternal atmosphere developed throughout the day, allowed us to advance with precision in the achievement of the objectives proposed for the phase of Discovery. The different groups that carried out the conversations around the transformation processes, allowed us to recognize the seeds of life, the darnels and the clarifications that each of the prefectures and the government had to provide for the phase in question. The richness of the province was evident and the clarity of the responses to the concerns of the capitulars facilitated the progress and conclusion of this stage.

Then Fr. Mathew greeted all the members of the Provincial Chapter, reminding us of the exhortation ‘Querida Congregación.’ He thanked the province for the contributions we make to the congregation. He commented on what we worked on at the meeting of Superiors General, he reminded us that we are in a time of great changes and society is secularized. There is a call to the Church to be more credible in the midst of the great difficulties it has had. It is a moment where we are invited to be audacious and credible. We must live rooted in Christ and only in this way can we live synodal conversion. We have to feel the province as ours, we have to have an appreciative look, through generative conversations. Leadership formation is important, our contribution is evangelization from religious life, therefore, our respective institutes.

Father Mathew also mentioned the meeting of the Claretian family made up of 8 branches. He emphasized the importance of working together with all the branches of this family. He invited us to take care of vocations, starting with our own and helping others so that they can respond with gratitude to God’s call. We must transcend and work together. He mentioned the processes of transformation that we have as a congregation. The universal mission must be taken care of. This is the availability that we profess – we are volunteers. It is the missionary duty that we receive with consecration, we are called and sent.

He further congratulated the work in shared mission that has been carried out in the province and reminded us of the importance of initial and ongoing formation. We must be responsible and co-responsible with our vocation; the dignity of the person is very important. Therefore, we must be transparent in our actions. It is very necessary that we create healthy and safe environment always. We have a great charismatic heritage, such as the many Claretians working in different peripheries and the many seeds of life, which will help us to overcome the darnels and diseases and thus co-create the future with the Holy Spirit.

OPENING OF THE DREAM PHASE

The introduction to the phase was made by Fr. Enrique Aponte cmf, who in the light of the dreamy song of Claret and the biblical text of St. Matthew 1:19-21, began by telling us that in the history of salvation God has taken advantage of dreams to reveal Himself. In them he has shown his will and human beings have been able to intuit what his project was.

In this second phase, we are invited to perceive what God’s dream of the Province could be today, the capitulars will dedicate time to try to glimpse that future: which Province would we like to find at the end of this period, when the next Provincial Chapter is celebrated? Everything discovered in the previous phase will help define the dream.

It is about looking at the seeds of life detected. Which Province could be born from them? Why not imagine a future in which all this force would be harmonized by supporting grace in a common project? The intuitions of each one must be shared and dialogued by all capitulars. We have the time to answer these questions: what features would the Province that we dream of have? Each group then formulated what it believes to be God’s dream about the Province.

This work was enriched with the explanation of the steps to work that Fr. Henry Omonisaye, cmf, gave us, namely:
1. Contemplate the Dream of the Congregation, take personal time to read and reread the dream, pray with it and internalize it
2. In the light of the Dream of the Congregation and the conversations carried out: Write the dream that you believe God has for the province, keep in mind that we do it according to the process in which we were in the previous stage: Apostolate, Government, Economy, Formation, Spirituality
3. Return to the group worked in and share the Dream elaborately.
4. Elaborate a single dream as a group for the province, which will be shared in plenary.

At the end of the afternoon the different dreams that we consider to be those that God desires for our province were shared, in total 7 dreams came out, which were meditated on, reflected and improved.
At the end of the day, a fruitful dialogue was held with the special affairs commission, which helped us to continue thinking of ourselves as a province and to work for the well-being of the provincial community. We thank Fr. Henry Omonisaye, cmf, for his closeness, commitment and testimony of life.

We concluded our day with the celebration of the Eucharist, placing in the hands of God, each of the dreams that have been worked, we will continue with the phase tomorrow.