Guide lines for a Merician formation
At a certain age the human person reaches a complete physical formation, but from a spiritual point of view the formation is continuous until the end of one’s life, because the final goal, as indicated by Jesus, is the perfection of the Father: “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt. 5, 48)
In this walk towards perfection… that we reach in the limits of our condition as creatures– we are not alone: with us there is our mother, who has promised to be always in the midst of us. (cfr. last Legacy 20) who guides us, sustains us, and helps our prayers.
In the writings of Saint Angela presented in our Constitutions we find the fundamental guide of our life and the way for carrying out the purpose of the Institute – “striving for the perfection of charity, honouring Jesus Christ, serving God and His Reign, and collaborating for the salvation of the world.” (1.5)
Among the possible approaches to the theme which has been entrusted to me, I prefer to stick to the texts of Saint Angela and the Constitutions, because we can compare ourselves with them without too much meditation, and see to what extent our way of life can be considered truly “Merician”. Among the writings my preference goes to the Prologue, which is like an enlightened fountain, to which light, according to me, are reflected in all the chapters of the Rule.
Like all stories there is always a beginning; we can make ours begin with the call for life and for consecration – two aspects of one only vocation: “God has granted you the grace of setting you apart from the darkness of this miserable world … you have to thank Him infinitely that, to you especially, He has granted such a singular gift.” (Prologue, 4-5)
With the conviction that the call is a grace from God springs up the attitude of praise, thanksgiving, and that of joy, and it makes us conscious that with His call, God makes it possible for communion with oneself a marvellous reality, but which demands all our commitments for a continuous and steady relationship. “For it is not enough to begin, if one does not also persevere” (Prologue 11) Saint Angela points this out so well and so timely too.
We have been chosen to be “true and virginal spouses of the Son of God” and it is indispensable to know what such an election implies; it is a necessary thing to remain “according to the call received by God.” (Prologue, 7-9)
Regarding this, how encouraging for us the certitude that the mother says: “Undoubtedly, only that person will be able to remain faithful, who is also willing to embrace the ways and means necessary to this end.” (v. 13)
Fr Colin Tan S.J. shared with us last year on 2 February 2009 at St Ignatius Church. There we were – some priests, many religious and a few lay consecrated persons, all gathered for that special Mass once a year on the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord.
The Holy Spirit has raised up holy people through the ages. Christ, the Light of the world, enlightens all nations, and reveals the glory of the Father. Christ illumines the darkness.
The Consecrated Life, deeply rooted in the example and teaching of Christ the Lord, is a gift of God the Father to his Church through the Holy Spirit. By the profession of the evangelical counsels the characteristic features of Jesus — the chaste, poor and obedient one — are made constantly “visible” in the midst of the world and the eyes of the faithful are directed towards the mystery of the Kingdom of God already at work in history, even as it awaits its full realization in heaven.
Our vows – taken as witnesses and disciples of the Lord. Chaste. Obedient. Poor. Initials: COP. Once a little boy expressed his wish to be a policeman. Fr Colin asked him if he wished to be a Christian. He said that he would be a full time policeman and so would not have time to be a Christian. Finally the little boy agreed that he would be a full time policeman and only a part time Christian. In the same way, we are all called to be full time Christians and part time ………whatever our profession may be.
Gift of the Spirit: to renew the Church. Gift to Simeon, a servant waiting on the Lord. He had entrusted his whole life to the Lord. He would not see death till he saw the Saviour. How do we see the salvation that is ours?
Challenges: death, darkness, the devil like a roaring lion prowling and waiting for its prey. Financial crisis: people laid off from jobs. No future for investment bankers. Join the religious then!
Another reality is to stand against the pleasures of hedonism. Vow of obedience to counter what is wilful and the thought that one can determine one’s own life. Vow of poverty to counter the excesses of greed, possessions and wealth – an underlying cause in today’s financial crisis.
Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Vita Consecrata – 1996. Everyone’s challenge. Be the Good News. Most powerful conversion – our presence, self discipline, the work of the Spirit in us. We influence more by example than by preaching.
Fr Colin himself was influenced by the late Fr Berthold at St Anne’s Church. Taught him home spun wisdom and humility. As a priest Fr Colin said that he was responsible not only for his own soul but for the souls of all others as well. Don’t take offence. Don’t despise others. Don’t expect reward. This was the model given to Fr Colin by the late Fr Berthold who lived what he preached. He was simple, humble and generous. He turned no one away.
We need to work at interior renewal. Prayer and penance. Be sympathetic. Be welcoming. Hospitality to all. Called to be Christ to others. Not easy but God has a good sense of humour. A little boy once said to Fr Colin, “Hi Jesus!”
Yes, we are to be Christ to others, to reveal a glimpse of the kingdom of God. So let us follow the Lord, the Master, the One who called us to follow Him!
Look deep within your heart. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Have you, my dear sisters
- Love of God that manifests itself in a desire to give one’s life as a witness to the immensity of God’s love for all people
- Desire to live simply
- Ability to relate with a variety of people, to be happy alone or in a group
- Joy in serving others in any outreach or parish involvement
- Generosity
- Ability to listen to others and accept direction when needed
- Desire to love expansively rather than needing an intimate relationship with one person
- Desire to grow in union with God through prayer and service of the needy
It is still time for sowing, flourishing… Spring time. The initial formation very much resembles Spring with its liveliness of its flowers and with a dream of an abundant reaping. It is always worth seeing, that in life there is always room for census for dreams. (Cat. Giov)
How should the daughter of St. Angela be? Virtuous, temperate, humble, friendly, patient, loving, honest, prudent modest, wise, harmonious, happy…They must please Jesus Christ, the mutual Lover…remain virgins in body and soul.
How should the leaders be? As carers, mothers, shepherds, attentive, prompt, pleasant at all times.
Your Path to Holiness:
1. Your offering
2. What life has in store and your acceptance of it
3. The gift of accepting God’s will, in all the events that take place in the world.
Your Mission as a lay person:
1. Human virtues of justice , peace and joy.
2. The moral life you lead, being a light in the world, so God will be praised when others see your good works
3. To build a society where all are treated with dignity and respect, where there are sound moral values in politics, economics, education, health, scientific research.
4. To be a loving testimony to the graces of the Holy Spirit, to live your vocation fully.
5. To willingly and submissively commit yourself to God’s plan, revealed through Jesus who called you together.
Secular Consecration
- Relationship with God
- Relationship with others
Influence of others
How do you behave in daily situations? How do you show examples of sound moral values?
Obedience with the help of the Holy Spirit:
- A steady spiritual life
- Prayers
- Sacraments
- Justice ( God’s mercy shown in redemption, reconciling us to Him and giving us peace) , peace (this reigns in us because of God’s justice shown to us) and joy (related to justice and peace)
- Justice, peace and joy are all inter-related and make one component
Virtues in one’s life
They are gifts of the Holy Spirit
- You are urged to do good deeds
- With faith, you let God’s justice lead you
- You do good deeds because His justice offers freedom, forgiveness and holiness.
Thanks to the Holy Spirit, we can be saints, children of God, temples of the Holy Spirit, new beings, new creations, and we are capable of doing good.
We are not stable in our life as Christians when we struggle to allow the Spirit to lead us to do good, and when we withdraw from the Spirit’s guidance and we give in to the “weaknesses of the flesh”.
Hence, it is important for one to understand the importance of receiving grace from God, and to understand the importance of prayer for it is through prayer that one receives grace. Then your faith is strengthened. You submit more and more to the will of the Spirit. You are more capable of leading a life of sound moral values. You become a “new man” and you lead a real mature Christian life, rooted in your intelligence and freedom of will.
Faith is the acceptance of God’s will to change oneself. It is the grace to understand, discover, contemplate the mystery of God’ plan
Prayer for those who are called…
O God, do not scorn any age, do not consider any condition to be unworthy. Shelter these servants of yours with the shield of your protection. As a good shepherd, you deigned to choose them from every class of your fold. Let them preserve the crown of perpetual virginity; prepare them for every virtuous work and of glory so that they would merit the permanent union with your Son and Our Lord Jesus Christ. Let them be embellished, armed together with integral faith, sure hope, and sincere charity. Make them happily fulfill the course of Virginity. Let it be.
(Old Ritual of the final blessing)
The sixth counsel puts us concretely in crises as leaders because it`s not enough to say but it is necessary to be. Seeing it positively, it is a counsel that wants us to be truly responsible, of good example, models in behaviour. We must be of good example…We must be witnesses.
To live and behave
1.” As for you, live and behave in such a way that your daughters may see in you a model”
Which responsibility….this seems to echo other words in the Bible…”I have given you the example what I have done you do as well.” (John 13, 14) “Imitate me as I have imitated Christ.” (1 Cor. 15, 1)
Live and behave . . . that is to say: you must live well in your heart, in your mind, intimately in your sentiments . . . but then you must also behave well . . . by living well one must see that you are of the Lord.
The leader is a “daughter” to whom a responsibility has been given and becomes such as to render the sisters responsible. Authority implicates the life, a life which becomes a model, a life to be shared, a life of conversion.
The leader is not responsible only of a duty to carry out, certainly in the best of ways, but she is responsible of a consecrated life which becomes example for the sisters. No one can become an example except through that one who lives. And nothing is transmitted through words. We are not called to be perfect in efficiency but rather in being faithful to the Lover.
“It`s no longer I that live but it is Christ who lives in me.” (Gal. 2, 20)
I praise and thank God for the gift of literacy and for the use of the English Language. I guess I must have used many words in both my speech and my writing, and while I delight in this marvellous gift, I wish to share with you some notes that I made while on a retreat with Fr Iker. Specifically they are focussed on vocations, consecration and the evangelical counsels. I shall share mostly on the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Thank God for Fr Iker!
We can know about Christ. But we can be filled with His Spirit, to be transformed, moved spontaneously in a subconscious way, to live according to His values and ultimately learning to live according to the new commandment of Christ. Love one another as I have loved you. This Spirit of Christ should fill us. We are to act according to the principles and the values of Christ in our ordinary lives spontaneously. This Spirit of Christ is contained, concentrated, and incarnated in three basic Christian attitudes. They are POVERTY, CHASTITY and OBEDIENCE.
The Spirit of POVERTY is the first attitude in the Spirit of Christ. Christ spoke about being poor and rich, about the relationship of being poor, rich, with the kingdom etc. Christ Himself was not materially poor, neither were the disciples materially poor. Jesus had good rich friends like Joseph, Nicodemus etc. He talks about Himself as the Good Shepherd who has lots of sheep; as the Good Samaritan with lots of money and going on a business trip. The poverty Christ talks about does not directly refer to riches, money or possessions. It seems to refer to what we may call values.
The important thing is value. Poverty is indirect and consequential or even inconsequential. I can have millions of dollars and still be poor because I do not give a damn to the millions I have. If I lose them tomorrow, I will not care. It is not a value. All the rich people in Christ’s life did not value what they had. They lived as rich people. (Only the rich young man valued it.) Lazarus was rich but he was a good friend of Christ. These rich people did not value their riches.
A value is whatever becomes important for a person so that the mind focuses on it; the person becomes interested in it, the person considers it important. When the person possesses it, it makes the person happy. It may be money, fame, name. It may be popularity. It may be friends, affection, whatever. When something becomes a value, other things are not important. The person becomes unhappy when he does not possess it. E.g. rich but not popular. His riches is popularity. This value is not only important but creates a certain amount of anxiety of losing it. It becomes a need. A person needs to become a clown and then he becomes famous.
In the gospels what is a value for Christ?
John 4:34 My food is to do the will of the one who sent Me, and to complete His work.
John 5:30 By myself I can do nothing; I can judge only as I am told to judge, and My judging is just, because I seek to do not My own will but the will of Him who sent Me.
John 6:38 because I have come from heaven, not to do My own will, but to do the will of Him who sent Me.
John 8:26 about you I have much to say and much to judge; but the one who sent Me is true, and what I declare to the world I have learnt from Him.
John 9:4 ‘As long as day lasts we must carry out the work of the one who sent Me; the night will soon be here when no one can work…
John 10:18 no one takes it from Me; I lay it down of My own free will, and as I have power to lay it down, so I have power to take it up again; and this is the command I have received from My Father.
John 12:49 For I have not spoken of My own accord; but the Father who sent Me commanded Me what to say and what to speak,
John 19:30 After Jesus had taken the wine He said, “It is fulfilled’; and bowing His head He gave up His spirit.
An extract I made from a talk by Bishop Paul Tan SJ in 2008
Religious identity is precisely in having no identity. Our identity is rooted in God alone. We have symbols like habits, Roman collars etc and these speak to youths. Today most of these are almost gone. You are the best exhibit. Strive to be icons of consecrated life. Fr Timothy Radcliff OP says that we have largely lost our visibility, icons and symbols. We have thrown out our symbols of religious life. We are to depend for material things in the religious community, on common prayer, recreation and simple living. This does not mean that we go back to putting on our old habits and live the pre-Vatican II lifestyle. No, it must be that people automatically know that we are living the consecrated life just by looking at our life style.
One famous Roman poet wrote that we all live in a state of ambitious poverty. ‘Poverty’ has become a dirty word. Governments etc. all want to eradicate poverty. Sacrifice, self-denial, suffering and penance all go against modern life styles and attitudes. A profit alone is the fulcrum that spins the world. Bad Protestant charismatic teaching speaks of financial blessings causing confusion among Catholics and even consecrated people. For us good Christian Catholics, poverty is a noble and biblical virtue. We must testify to what we profess. The evangelical counsels have been given to us so we can imitate Jesus Christ. He became man and he was the son of a carpenter.
Matthew 8:20 says: “Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has no where to lay his head.”
God defends the poor. We are to do likewise. The vows are to free us of all to achieve the impossible.
