Rome, Italy. The “communitarian” nature of our missionary following of Jesus is a constitutive feature of our vocation. We are “missionaries in community, from the beginning.” The “style of the Apostles and the first Christian community” is our way of being disciples of Jesus and proclaimers of His Good News in the world. The XXV General Chapter document “Witnesses and Messengers of the Joy of the Gospel,” highlights this when it shows that the Claretian Missionaries are recognized as sons and brothers who are envoys of God; and sons of Mary “in the community.”
The same Chapter Document points out that our community “is a gift of the Holy Spirit, which we must welcome and care for” and that, in its present configuration, “intergenerational and intercultural” it is called to be a “parable of communion, an eschatological sign and an evangelizing word in today’s world.” And, in the context of the challenges of the Church that urges us to be a “Congregation going forth,” the community discernment of the peripheries in the territories in which we live, as well as the evangelizing projects that we carry out as an apostolic body, shape our communities.
The Chapter wanted us to aim at five points: 1) Shape our communities to be an eschatological sign of unity, peace, and reconciliation; 2) Build, among ourselves, a missionary community in a spirit of dialogue, acceptance, and mutual appreciation, discerning together its ministries and services; 3) Reinforce the sense of belonging and community co-responsibility; 4) Value and accept as indispensable the ministry of intercessory prayer and suffering of our elderly, sick and impaired brothers; 5) Appreciate and integrate the creative energies of the younger generation.
It is in this context that this project of interdisciplinary reflection for the Congregation on the community entitled “The Claretian Community: House and School of Communion,” was prepared and will be presented to the whole Congregation on September 8, 2020, Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Aside from its intention to fulfill one of the mandates of the XXV General Chapter to the General Government, the objective of the project is to “animate in the whole Congregation, under the responsibility of the General Government, an interdisciplinary reflection regarding community life as experienced at all levels (Local, Province/Delegation, and worldwide).” The project contains 12 articles about the Claretian community whose source of inspiration is the Word of God and the Constitutions, on the one hand, and the challenges posed by the XXV General Chapter and the members of the Congregation, on the other.
