Madrid, Spain. The Theological Institute of Religious Life (ITVR) in Madrid invited again consecrated men and women to participate in the traditional National Week for Institutes of Consecrated Life during the octave of Easter, April 20-23, 2022. Given the pandemic situation, the 51st National Week for Institutes of Consecrated Life was offered in two modalities: face-to-face and online.
The celebration revolved around the concept of “relationship,” an idea that constitutes religious men and women (a relationship), that builds them (in a relationship) and provides them with a fundamental key to exexpressing Christian identity and that of consecrated life in today’s circumstances. The history of salvation is a relational history, and, understandably, everything that is Christian is also relational.
RELATIONSHIP – a concept that constitutes us “we are relationship” and builds us “we are in a relationship.”
At this moment in history, the Church is making a serious effort to answer the question of what her relationships ‘ad intra’ and ‘ad extra’ should be like. Clear proof of this effort is the current synod on synodality.
Consecrated men and women are actively taking part in this ecclesial commitment, feeling urged to review and reread how we should express today the five constitutive relationships of the person: with oneself (filiation), with others (fraternity), with time (pilgrimage), with space (care) and with God (adoration).
The participants in this hybrid event were enriched by the conferences given by:
- Cardinal Aquilino Bocos, CMF – “Why is the theme of relationship important?” (Opening Session of the 51st Week).
- Prof. Lic. Gonzalo Fernández Sanz, CMF – “Jesus, the man of relationships” (April 20).
- Prof. Dr. Santiago Guijarro Oporto – “The relationship of Jesus with the Father. Filiation” (April 20)
- Prof. Luis Mª García Domínguez, SJ – “The complex interweaving of personal, interpersonal and community communication” (April 20)
- Cardinal Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot, MCCJ – “The ” we inter-religious”. Interreligious dialogue as a space for encounter and a commitment to the future” (April 21).
- Prof. Dr. Maria del Carmen Massé Garcia – “A fabric of “new relationships” that disconcert and challenge consecrated life. Equality, family models, gender relations”. (April 21)
- Prof. Dr. Marta Lopez – “A Christian reading of the ethics of care: Application to consecrated life”. (April 21)
- Prof. Dr. Ricardo de Luis Carballada, OP – “Pilgrimage”. A category for understanding and living the mission of consecrated life. (April 22)
- Dr. José Carlos Bermejo, MI – “Listening to man, listening to time, listening to being”. (April 22)
- Prof. Dr. Birgit Weiler, MMS – The proposal of the “common house” applied to consecrated life. (April 22)
“How much we have yet to reflect, how much we have yet to learn! But, at the same time, allow me to use a small metaphor, we are taking with us a seed of light, the internal ferment of renewed awareness of the transversality of the relationship. It is as if in the center of this hall a mirror had been broken and each one of us took with us a sliver of the light of that relational truth that is the whole mirror, and that we, only by walking together, in a deepened and enriched relationship, continuing the reflection, can contribute to recompose to look at ourselves in it again” said Fr. Antonio Bellella, CMF, the Director of the ITVR at the end of the 51st National Week for Institutes of Consecrated Life.
