#558

The following comments, extracted from Tom Dunne's assessment of where the Chapter is presently leading to, is, I think, quite masterful.  I have omitted the preliminary and final chit-chat sections.

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DIRECTION AT GC25

While reading the documents and listening to the comments, one comes to an idea on the direction where this chapter may be leading us. At its most basic level, the chapter is calling our communities to a more fervent observance of our constitutions and regulations. In this, there is not much new: daily Eucharist, community prayer, examine of conscience, visits to the Blessed Sacrament, confession, devotion to Our Lady, spiritual reading, weekly community day, house council and community meetings, monthly day of recollection, rosary, annual retreat. (If you are wondering where meditation is in the above list, you are right. It was missing from the first version of the document!) On the next level, there is a call to implement the elements of our lives that have more recently come into effect. In this, there may be some things that are new: a personal plan of life, a program of community development, a personal spiritual director, and the lectio divina.

FOUR NEW ELEMENTS EMERGE (THEY ARE THERE IN THE NEW RATIO)

To be honest with you, these ideas were new to me. (I have spent the past eleven years out of the center of this thinking.)

After some investigating, I discovered that the new Ratio calls each Salesian to draw up a personal plan of life in conjunction with his director and spiritual director. "The Program of Community Development" is the plan that the community develops to promote human, spiritual, and professional growth among its members through living in communion. The "personal spiritual director" would be taken up in addition to the direction Salesians already receive through the "friendly chat." The lectio divina (part of the spirituality of St. Benedict) found its way to our attention through the Holy Father's "Novo Millennio Ineunte" (#39) in which he invites us to listen to the Word of God ("which draws from the biblical text the living word which questions, directs and shapes our lives.") In his strenna statement of 2002, Fr. Vecchi included the Lectio Divina as a way for Salesian Communities to enter the deep. At its most basic, Lectio Divina consists in four movements: read (the word of God); reflect; pray; contemplate. In community-centered approaches to the Lectio Divina, the steps of sharing and action could be added.

These four newer elements are found in nearly every document of this General Chapter.

THREE OBSERVATIONS

The situation to which all of this work is responding has to do with three observations that describe the communities we represent in provinces throughout the world:

1) There seems to be no doubt that our communities throughout the world are suffering from a certain spiritual malaise. In part, this is due to the way we have structured the relationship between our work and community life. Many of us are stretched to the limit in performing the tasks of our ministry. Many of us are somewhat distant from the young we serve because of the administrative tasks we have assumed. Most of us live and work in open communities where we are constantly called to offer some service to the local community. All of this makes it very difficult to establish the regular rhythm that is required to grow spiritually through life spent in community.

2) Many of our Salesians live a rather isolated life within the community we share. The demands of our complex apostolates, attractions of life outside the Salesian community, the implications of our own individualism (in terms of personal apostolates and schedule), and the supportive relationships outside the community have the effect of drawing our Salesians to interests and priorities other than sharing life and faith with the community.

3) Many of Salesians in our communities are so wrapped up in administrative tasks, that they have little or no contact with the young. They are unaware of their needs, their culture, and their unique spiritual richness. These Salesians experience a void in their spiritual and communal lives. To live the Salesian life separated from the young threatens the progress of our own spiritual journey that, by vow, is tied to accompanying the young on their journey of faith.

FROM TRADITIONAL MODES OF SPIRITUAL LIFE TO SOMETHING CREATIVE

The General Chapter realizes that the traditional modes of spiritual life (inherited from the time of Don Bosco), will not, in themselves, help us to get out of the stagnation of the present day. The General Chapter seems to be building a series of creative responses to these symptoms of our spiritual and communal malaise. Each response is directly related to the symptom identified.

Where we have been found to be spiritually superficial, the chapter is calling for a radical renewal based on our Baptismal vows. The means identified to bring forth this renewal is based on the traditional practices that have been part of our Salesian life since Don Bosco. However, the "novel" practices of Lectio Divina, Personal Project of Life, and the Community Project have been identified as the means to bring forth a new "fire" among our confreres. The means to this renewal are less important that the ultimate end. We clearly intend to bring about a deep internal renewal to faithfulness among our brothers in the Salesian family.

Where we have been somewhat isolated from one another, the chapter is looking to the community day every week as a means to foster personal knowledge, relationships, and community among our members. For many of us, this seems artificial. However, in the overall project of making our Communities centers of evangelical friendship, these moments of sharing faith experiences are essential to the further growth of our communities. I am struck by the fact that every commission has put these moments for faith sharing experiences in the lines of action section of their documents. This unanimity is a reality that we cannot escape or excuse with personal preferences or empty arguments.

Where we have been separated from our young, the chapter is advocating including young people in nearly every phase of our Salesian life. In these documents, the young (prepared through opportunities such as our leadership programs) are invited to participate in planning our ministerial project (as members of the EPC), in our ministry, in our prayer life, in our spiritual sharing, in our meals, in our community celebrations