SUMMARY OF THE DEEPENING OF THE KEY WORDS ON THE THEME – FIRST PHASE

Attached 01

29° General Chapter

“CALLED and  SENT to ‘announce the  words of life’Cf Act 5,20.”

 

SUMMARY OF THE DEEPENING OF THE KEY WORDS ON THE THEME – FIRST PHASE

We have perceived, also in the consensus that has been created around this theme, how the Spirit is guiding us towards common journey and showing us horizons in view of an incarnation ever more responsive to today in fidelity to the Charism and the Church.  We desire every Sister and every community to let themselves be involved in the process of preparation and celebration, so that the Chapter is awaited and lived by all as their own responsibility, just as, with love for the Congregation and commitment, each one has offered her own contribution to reach the definition and deepening of the theme. (Cf. Letter of indication, 28/06/2019)

1. CALL

Our vocation is a masterpiece of the hands of God. It is a mystery of love, because it is God who called us, chose us and sent us. As women called and consecrated, we can no longer live for ourselves, our vocation must be at service. The Lord God seduced us: “You have seduced me Lord … and in my heart there is like a burning fire” (cf.Jer.20.7-9). We are consecrated women, called to bring hope in our communities, in our works and in our mission.

The call is the Word of life that nourishes us, which gives joy to the heart and courage in the difficult situations of our coexistence and in our apostolate. It is a daily learning that invites us to to be guided and abandon ourselves to the will of God, doing His will in our life. Our hearts burn for Jesus who chose us and loves us. In times of difficulty it is He who supports us, guides and gives meaning to our life.

It is not only at the beginning of consecrated religious life that the call takes place, but at all times and in all situations of life, it must be lived with responsibility, coherence and passion. Without the witness of joy, ardor, donation, our religious life becomes sterile, insignificant and invisible. This is the reason why we need to renew our “yes” every day and sometimes leave so many ideas and personal projects. God has a plan made for us, his Daughters. Therefore, we must be open to God’s plan for a life long.

The face of the CALLED Daughter is joyful, happy, full of life. It is a humble, confident face, capable of forgiving and being at the service of the mission. The invitation is to be with the Lord, to be faithful and responsible. To be an “instrument and testimony” of his love along our way. We want to look at the first love and revisit our vocational history, remembering the call. And this ransom strengthens and encourages us, because it was the love of God that called us.

The call is the charism of the meeting. We are seeders of hope, called to build communion. We are consecrated and prophetic women committed to witnessing Christ today. Feelings of praise, gratitude and above all of fidelity to the Lord arise in us. However, we recognize that sometimes we experience doubts, temptations to giving up, disappointments, crises, tiredness and spiritual dryness that become obstacles to progress and growth.

It is necessary to help the sisters to live peacefully, especially in old age and in the lack of physical strength, when they can no longer be a concrete presence in the mission. This often causes feelings of sadness and suffering. The challenge is to face the feelings of frustration, because people see and feel a certain discomfort in us for the decrease in the number of vocations, and this can help to think that religious life has no more space in today’s world. These are the feelings that emerge and that must be addressed in personal and community life so that each sister can truly share her personal problems and the existential burden she carries in silence. In this case, it is necessary to integrate the human and spiritual dimensions into an itinerary of faith that integrates life in all phases.

As for the possibilities highlighted by the Organisms, we discover that it is necessary first of all to revitalize the whole call to be Daughter of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, helping communities and each sister to keep alive the flame of vocation and passion for Jesus, living intensely brotherhood , service, hope and charity. We are stimulated to interact, to dialogue with the world and above all to strengthen our life of prayer and faith.

Another challenge is to strengthen and nourish the prayerful reading as the foundation of our being together in faith, sharing the Word and life, above all the sense that motivates us to be in community as women called and sent. Furthermore, constant formation is necessary by using, together with the Word of God, the Documents of the Church, the writings of the Founders and the Testimonies of the Congregation, the current documents  of the Church and the Conferences of the Religious. To deepen the Word of God to have a solid spirituality, rooted in the charity of the Heart of Jesus and of our Founders.

It is necessary at this moment to carry out our most open and gospel-centered educational activity, humanizing our proclamation to testify to the love of God that brings comfort and hope in today’s world. With the pedagogical thought of our founder Teresa Verzeri we can offer our teachers, students and families more humanized and evangelical training tools. We must go where no one has gone yet, accepting the challenge of being the living presence of God in new communities. We must intensify human and spiritual formation from the beginning of the formative process, placing the emphasis on welcoming attitudes, respectful relationships, self and other knowledge, a life of faith and obedience to God’s plan.

We need a systematic rereading of our consecration as Daughters and religious vows starting from the writings of St. Teresa Verzeri and Giuseppe Benaglio. Looking at our Congregational history, deepening what our Founders would do today, to be a visible sign of the presence of the Love of the Heart of Jesus in the world.

We can think of a more itinerant mission to respond to the cries of migrants and excluded populations, revisiting the experience of the first communities and the first nuns called and sent on mission in the world in different contexts. To continue the experience of international communities to make visible the charismatic and apostolic spirit of our founders.

Joy in service should be our motivation to do good to those who go through the life of the Congregation, as Pope Francis says: “Let the cry of the poor question you, seeing in it the cry of God”.

PERSONAL AND COMMUNITY REFLECTION:

• What makes my heart burn when I remember my call to be FSCJ?
• What prevents me from living my FSCJ call with joy and ardor today

– How can we revive the gift of God that has been given to me to reinvigorate my faithful response as the Daughter of the Sacred Heart of Jesus?

 

2. SENDING

The theme of sending makes us feel the strength of baptism, as well as the religious consecration of the Daughter of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which only makes sense if accompanied by being sent by Jesus. Sending makes us responsible for people and the mission to whom we have been sent and we are aware that our vocation is in order to send, to go out of itself, to meet others. If we are sent, we will be able to proclaim the Word of God through our lives.The joy of serving comes from fidelity to listening to the Word, from the personal encounter with Jesus who makes himself salvation for us and for others. It is important not to let events or tasks overlap with the Passion for the Lord, listening to God’s desire for us.We must be careful and concerned with “doing the mission”, but also vigilant and strong in safeguarding the relationship with the Lord so as not to fall into spiritual emptiness and lose the meaning of life.

Sending requires obedience, renunciation, detachment, humility and prophecy. Being sent requires us to maintain the essentiality and perseverance of our call. It is necessary to revive the gift of God in us, to appreciate life. Remain on the road capable of facing the joys and wounds of religious life consecrated with maturity and faith. Considering crises as an opportunity for growth and perception of the guidance of God. The center is charity, love-Agape. We need to grow in this love, to live the experience of being loved and welcomed by the Lord and sisters.

Since the initial formation, it is necessary to cultivate the sense of being sent, beyond the limits of the province, region and country, because we are an international Congregation. We feel and live the joy of being sent, open to the new, even outside the country of birth. Welcome the transfer with availability, with docility because it is God who sends us to the itinerancy of the mission. It makes us feel challenged, but always safe and supported by Him. There is the awareness of being guided by God. The awareness of the gift received arouses in us the desire to transmit it to others with joy, hope, motivation and trust in the future .

The Lord calls us strongly, in this time, to be grateful for the grace of the sending, of being sent with passion, courage, creativity, gratitude, amazement, admiration, mercy, compassion. the Lord causes us to LIVE AND BE MISSION IN THE WORLD.

 

PERSONAL AND COMMUNITY REFLECTION:

–           What are the needs, the needs that the man of today lives to whom we are sent and how can we respond to them? What are the difficulties we encounter?

–           How do I live my apostolic religious consecration, what are the essential elements for me to reinvigorate, consolidate so that they are life for us and for our brothers and sisters?

–           What feelings are born in my heart through this perspective?

 

3. ANNOUNCEMENT

The announcement comes from the Word of God listened to and received in an open, compassionate and full of loving heart. Just as it was for the prophet Jeremiah who says “you have seduced me Lord, and in my heart there is like a burning fire” we, Daughters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, are invited to share the experience of God’s love within the reality where we are inserted.

The announcement of the Father’s merciful love is the project of the life of Jesus and we as Daughters are called to live this project by recovering the centrality of Christ so as not to announce ourselves.

The announcement is not made only of beautiful words, but is expressed in a life of service, of renunciations of many things and situations; the announcement is an opening to get out of ourselves and our comforts. Even if we are few, we can be light in our “suburbs”. Our announcement takes shape first of all in the example of life and in the testimony of faith and love.

The announcement is openness and docility to the Spirit of God, it is the awakening of the passion for Jesus Christ, it is hope and renewal, it is a heart capable of tenderness, humble and full of joy; it requires great witness of fraternal love to arouse in young people the desire for consecrated life. The authenticity of our announcement is guaranteed by the authenticity of our living together, of communities that experience the love of God, of people who live together know how to welcome each other in their fragility and in their being a gift.

For this reason it is necessary to build real communities, perhaps the presence of only two sisters or in some cases a single sister does not guarantee community life with all that it entails and the support necessary for the announcement to be possible, true and effective.

Another important aspect that emerges from the various reflections made in the Organisms is the need to take care of formation at various levels: human, spiritual, professional, because the announcement is capable of bringing prophecy and hope. The whole life of Jesus, his way of treating the poor, his gestures, his generosity and his dedication, everything is precious and speaks to our personal life calling us to be in deep union with him and be faithful to the announcement. We must develop in ourselves a missionary spirit that leads us to be attentive to the needs of the world.

The announcement is to share the experience of God’s love with everyone we meet to help everyone recognize His ways.

PERSONAL AND COMMUNITY REFLECTION:

What animates my life at DSHJ to be an announcer of hope?

– What are the major difficulties we encounter in experiencing the proclamation in today’s post-Christian society?

– What are the conditions for a beautiful, strong and meaningful community life in the experience of God and in fraternity, capable of allowing us to announce and live the mission?

4.WORDS OF LIFE

The compass that guides Consecrated Religious Life is the Gospel and to announce this good news of the Kingdom, we are called to be open, to embrace the newness of the Spirit “who blows where he wishes” (Jn. 3,8) and generates life and hope. . As consecrated women we are invited to cultivate and embrace the world with hope, love, compassion and creativity. As Daughters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we are called to live charity with all people and in various situations. The Word of God is performative and, therefore, can transform our being since it is the Word of Life.

The Word of Life calls us to be prophecy and, like Daughters, this prophecy is expressed in making our own the sentiments  that belonged to Jesus: charity, compassion, mercy, hospitality. Our life must be a testimony of consecrated women who take care of humanity, sow words and gestures of tenderness, joyfully aware that we have been chosen to express communion and the love of God in the world.

The Word of Life occurs in the personal encounter with the Lord through an intense moment of prayer. The word of God listened with faith and in silence makes the heart burn, we too with Jeremiah can say: “You have seduced me Lord … and in my heart there is like a burning fire”. Being bearers of the Word of Life means being generative women, who humanize and live free and authentic relationships, spiritual sentinels who know how to keep alive the search for meaning and for God in the humanity they encounter.

Only the Word of God is true and effective. It is a word that in the encounter with the Lord becomes a life experience to be shared with the brothers entrusted to us. It is a word that reaches the heart of everyone who, on the way, searches for authentic meanings for their own life, which supports and guides life and choices in identifying the good that makes them grow, the fraternity to be rebuilt, the dignity of each to be recognized, hope to be revitalized, justice and peace to be shared that is no longer so certain and granted.

The Word of God is credible and effective, it is thanks to her that we find the vitality necessary to live the daily effort and overcome the difficulties.

Only the words of Life speak to our spirit, today more than ever we are called to listen in faith and silence to the cry of the Spirit who reaches us in various ways. Words of life generate a sense of commitment and commitment to the announcement. The Word of God calls, provokes, does not leave the person indifferent, completes, illuminates, supports and supports even in doubts and difficulties. The Word of God gives us the opportunity to grasp, renew, grow in faith and love in our commitment to be and serve the Lord wherever He manifests himself and calls us.

It is necessary to revive the gift of God, to revive the memory of what we are called to be because the passage of time can lead to forgetting what has brought us to religious life. We need to go back to the sources, to have an ever more radical experience of the Gospel that shapes our thinking and our feeling to be seeds of hope in fraternal life, in apostolic life, guided by the charisma that the Spirit has given us. The daily encounter with the Word of God, the curated, in-depth experience of the lectio divina must become the fire around which we gather to draw strength and love, to be enlightened, regenerated to hope and enabled to read reality with the look of God and have an authentic word to announce to the brothers.

The world, the society in which we live today, where everything is changing very fast, where orientations are confused and individualism taken to the extreme, we still feel the thirst for authentic meanings, of solitude filled with real presences, of concrete mercy , of testimony that knows how to awaken the deepest desires of the heart, of humanity capable of taking care and of responding to what is essential in man of all times.

The call to generate life to bring words of life, translates into an existence given and full of compassion, mercy, trust, the ability to be next to each other from sisters who share the same search for life, hope and of patience next to the pain of the other.

We need to form a critical conscience in the historical context of post-Christian societies where consecrated life is still called to be prophecy, to keep alive the seed of the Gospel, capable of opening sacred spaces, middle lands where sharing means making the other less and less foreign, where respect for cultures becomes acceptance and enhancement of the different, where communion and hope are daily reality.

We feel that it is necessary and urgent to make our relationships ever more fraternal, evangelical, welcoming, supportive of each sister, free from power games and devious manipulations. Growing and improving our community relationships, accepting and not fleeing the limits of our human condition, growing in the patience and esteem of each sister is a word of authentic and effective life, an evangelical witness for all, in our time.

PERSONAL AND COMMUNITY REFLECTION:

• – What are the aspects of our life that still need to be evangelized, areas of shadow that need to convert and open up to the word that generates life?
• – How do we live in the community the word of life that constitutes and identifies us?
• – In our apostolic and missionary reality, how does giving witness to the word of life that makes us live and save?