INITIAL AND ONGOING RELIGIOUS FORMATION

 

 

Consecrated life like other aspects of the Church life, is trapped in the wave of worldliness that challenges us today. According to Pope Benedict XVI, consecrated life has become too settled in this world, adapting itself to worldly standards. It is a vocation to prophetic openness has been abandoned in favor if greater weight and attention paid to self – preoccupation, self-centeredness and self-preservation, rather than total self-preoccupation, self-centeredness and self-preservation rather than total self-giving to God, love for Christ the teacher, Lord and bridegroom of the Church who is intimately followed and served above everything and decision to live according to the Spirit. (Vita Consecrata). Signs of the times emerge in today’s world that needs prophetic dialogue and voices. First of all, it is a call to perseverance on the path of holiness in the midst of the material and spiritual difficulties. Preparing people for the total consecration of themselves to God in the following of Christ, at the service of the church’s mission. Ongoing formation is a personal responsibility for maturing in one’s vocation, it is an inescapable duty of all who have been called. Attainment of this unit component requires training in self-denial and persevering efforts towards purity of intention in action.

An ongoing formation is an intrinsic requirement of religious consecration. Not limited to the initial phase. In every circumstances of life, reflects the very mind of Christ. The initial formation should be closely connected with continuing formation, thereby creating a readiness on everyone’s part to let themselves be formed every day of their lives. The community has to nurture this process. The concerning issues that threaten to cripple religious communities and the challenges of social and political realities of our environment. These issues have to be addressed by developing formation curriculum that is contextualized and appropriate, in developing skills and attitudes to address global questions.

a) Formation in contemplative prayer

b)      b) Formation authentically rooted in detachment,

c)       c) Formation in awareness of social justice/involvement,

df    d) Formation in contemplative dialogue.

e)        e) Formation in cultural competence.

        f) Formation in the spirituality of servant-leadership style and 

         g) formation in the knowledge of self.

Contemplative in action, not just the recitation of the breviary, but authentic union with God in prayer, where every word and action becomes a prayer. We need to live lives which question whether we are human beings or human doing. It is the state of quiet that we experience the power of God calling deep in our souls to be aware of who we are, whose we are and which route we want to take on our journey. The question of busyness in our apostolate can become an obsession where we set out to save the world, but we also need to realize that unless we can be spirituality transformed, we cannot be part of others’ transformation.

We will experience burn outs and lack spiritual upliftment to become our best selves. Jesus was a busy person. Great crowds followed him, pushing and shoving to get closer to him (Mt 5:24,31), hoping for healing or wards of wisdom. And yet Jesus would try to get away to a quiet place to rest awhile. He adhered to his need for silence and solitude. He withdrew for forty days and forty nights and to which he went early in the morning to pray (Mk 1:35). According to Luke, he went to the mountains with the twelve and spent the night in prayer (Luke 6:12). If we want to follow Jesus, we need to follow him first and foremost into the desert. We cannot accomplish any task let alone get to know who we are without creating some space in our lives for prayer and communion with God. In this we are energized for mission.

We are called to him, to leave our ordinary lives behind and enter into a close relationship to him. This special grace of intimacy which, in the consecrated life, makes possible and even demands the total gift of self in the profession of the evangelical counsels. Jesus calls for total commitment, one which involves leaving everything behind (Mt 19:27) in order to live at his side and to follow him wherever he goes (Rev 14:4). This is all rooted in the dialogue of detachment that may help religious men and women to be less materialistic, but ask for that which is needed for mission.

Formation in awareness of social justice

We have to unmask and deconstruct the structures of today. As we gather in faith community to be nurtured and revitalized for prophetic action in and for the world. The faith community always gathers around God’s Word; they find grace to articulate their mission in harmony with the gospel of Christ they preach. Prophetic mission is directly connected with the praxis of justice. Liturgy expresses and fosters faith that does justice in missionary praxis. No prophetic mission is isolated from the efforts to restructure the social- political-economic order. A struggle for a just social-political-economic order parallels the struggle for the dignity of the whole human being. The theological foundation for a Christian praxis of justice is God’s saving work through grace.

The God who continues to call men and women who will be able to adapt themselves to the changing times. Men and women who are fearless, courageous, selfless, committed and prayerful listening to the promptings of their spirit to embrace the struggle for justice. If we do not listen to news, how can we understand the obstacles militating against our efforts to announce the reign of God. Then religious men and women would be like the kid who came to school but fell asleep. When the teachers asked, junior, what is the answer to the question I just asked. Junior replied: sorry teacher, in the first place, I did not hear the question.

Formation in contemplative dialogue

To master ways to relate to God’s people on the missions. My conviction is that religious are first missioned self., to each other and then we can gain better skills to give what we possess. Jesus washes the feet of his disciples inspiring humanity to take up the basin and the towel. The tenderness of the towel and willingness of the water inspires us. The call is to community, the impoverished power that set the soul free and the humility to take the basin and the towel. Men and women to take the basin and the towel in humility. We become the change we want to see. Once we understand that our reality is just our projections, instead of blaming others we can begin to take responsibility for what we have created with our thoughts. When we change our perception and drop our illusion and attachments to our belief that what appears on the screen represents reality, we experience Radical Forgiveness.  (Tipping, 2009). Radical forgiveness sets our hearts ready for mission, with no stress, no baggage, no chip on our shoulders; we can go with great enthusiasm to be authentic prophets.

Formation in cultural competence

The need to learn to take off their sandals when they meet each other or are missioned in other areas other than their; as where they are sent to is a Holy ground. If the consecrated life maintains its prophetic impact, it serves as a Gospel leaven within a culture, purifying and perfecting it. The interior freedom of consecrated persons, their affective maturity, their ability to communicate with others, especially in their serenity of spirit, their compassion for those who are suffering, their serenity of spirit, their compassion for those who are suffering, their love for the truth, and a correspondence between their actions and their words.

Formation of the spirituality of servant-leadership

The call to servant leadership is a call to invite people and educate them on how to engage themselves at the table of dialogue, peace, justice, fairness, brotherhood. Mutual accountability and freedom to be who you are created to be while mutually seeking transformation of the soul of the leader and the one being led. (Arnold J.H., Discipleship (1994). A call to be a companion on the journey is a call to offer the power of love and not love of power. A model servant leadership; that liberates and affirms the giftedness of community members and the people we are called to serve as companions on the journey.

The spirituality of leadership means service, so it is absurd and un-Christ-like to use it as a position of power over others to humiliate intimidate and strip them of their dignity and deprive them of a just hearing. It is not to be used against those who are not in the clique we call rojo chafu. When such abuse of leadership takes place in religious community, it becomes unhealthy. The outstanding leaders who have modeled servant-leadership; who led their people through the path into the light of the day.

Pope Francis models this type of leadership and is accessible and approachable, though he may not agree with people on the all fronts. Mandela had to say: As a leader, I have always led from behind. I would listen to what each person had to say in a discussion before venturing my own opinion.

Formation in the knowledge of self

The truth about ourselves and others is ego. What can be blindness to ego, is the ego itself. Our egos make hypocrites of us all. We have tools to unlock our personality types as we begin serious journey of self-knowledge. The Enneagram explains why we behave the way we do and helps to point out specific directions for individual and spiritual growth thus improving relationships with other companions on the journey. (Baron, R. & Wagele, E, The Enneagram made Easy, 1994). Self-knowledge is therefore the growing awareness of our ego and all its work; without judging or blaming or making excuses for ourselves. We need to form religious men and women to begin to observe their behavior in different circumstances, of recognizing obsessions and compulsions; in this way we can become effective prophets and are able to again more freedom in the knowledge that we are not wearing the mask of perfection and projection.

Prophecy, is not a luxury. Prophets are not people who sit around theologizing out of some kind of airy-fairy transcendent overview of somebody else’s idea of what the world is. These are people who, out of immersion in the mind of God’s speak about what the society is now and what the society should be. If consecrated people are silent now, if they fail to articulate the real questions now, it will take another fifty years just to legitimate the questions again. The questionwe have to answer is why should one want to a prophet. Separating ourselves from the evil root of self-interest, greed and injustice.

We need to separate ourselves from all that is loveless in the present world order. (corruption, nepotism, man-made unemployment, reckless administration of the political elites. This world order not to complacency and to maintain culture of silence, to glory in the status of being religious and walk the streets of dazzling religious regalia, attaining final vows and obtaining a ring. It is not that which makes us authentic religious and clearly not what makes us consecrated people. The essence of our commitment to vocation to religious life and our vows is to build the city of God where the spirit alone rules, to build the city on the hilltop which cannot be hidden but shines into the world. It is our deeds that will shine out for others to have life to the fullest.

Prophetic stance ultimately calls for risk taking in daring to expand the kingdom and the reign of God for the hopeless. Sometimes the road may be foggy, the thunderstorm scares us as heavy rain blurs our vision. The rivers and oceans may overflow their banks. Dead bodies will be found in prisons and on street sidewalks. Those who dare to speak up against injustice can be a license for martyrdom, silenced, abducted and disappeared, can you dare to still be a prophet in the modern world?