The General Commission of the Spirituality Congress, eight months after the celebration of the Congress, met at the General Curia in Rome from April 7 to 11, 2025. Participants included Carlos Sanchez, General Prefect of Spirituality and Community Life, Anthony Igbokwe, Edgardo Guzman, Gonzalo Fernandez, Juan Carlos Martos and Efren Limpo. At the beginning of the meeting, Carlos Sanchez, on behalf of the General Government, expressed his gratitude to everyone for the work done during the preparation and celebration of the Spirituality Congress and for accepting the service of drafting the final document of the Congress. The most significant moments of the Congress were recalled and news about the positive reception of the Major Organisms of the Congregation and the Claretian communities were shared. In addition, all the documents compiled from the period of preparation to the closing of the Congress were made available to the members of the commission.
The objectives of the meeting were twofold: to draft the final document of the Spirituality Congress and a guide for spiritual conversation in community. After five days of work, the commission produced a practical instrument that gathers the fruits of the Congress. This instrument includes significant elements in three sections that correspond to the three parts of the Congress: I. Where do we come from? II. Where are we?; and III. Where are we going? It is hoped that this instrument will serve to recall with gratitude our spiritual heritage enriched throughout our 175 years of history; to become aware of the spiritual health of the Congregation, identifying what weakens us and what nourishes us; and to revitalize our synodal and missionary spirituality. In this regard, the document offers five practices taken from our rich spiritual heritage and reinterpreted in the light of the spiritual experience of the Congregation in recent decades. Finally, a spiritual conversation in community is offered with the purpose of helping to take on more deeply the fruits of the Congress. The encounter ended with the satisfaction of the work accomplished and with the hope that this document will help all Claretians to live more and more as missionary mystics, in the style of Claret.
