Formation_is_lifelong


Formation_is_lifelong

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2.2 FORMATION IS LIFELONG
Fr Ivo COELHO
General Councillor for Formation
GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 25
He shall drinh from the stream by the wayside
and therefore he shall lift up his head. (Ps 110,7)
A Salesian once gave a stirring conference about the impor-
tance of spiritual accompaniment. After his talk he overheard one
confrere saying to another: "Thank God I am now a priest. I don't
have to go to spiritual direction anymore".
Is formation something that "gets over" with perpetual
profession or with priestly ordination, or is it something quite
different, something that is lifelong? Taking inspiration and
encouragement from the recent document of the Congregation
for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life,
Per uino nuouo otri nuoui,' the present letter will go back to our
Constitutions and to that wonderful commentary on the Consti-
tutions that is The Project of Life, to remind us of the "adventure
in the Spirit"'that is formation, and to offer a few practical sug-
gestions.
The expression "ongoing formation" or "lifelong formation"
has become familiar in the last few decades, especially in the
context of the priesthood and religious life.' The reality to which
it refers, however, is something as old as humanity itself, even if
only recently it has become a focus of reflection.
' Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies ofApostolic Life, Per
uino nuouo otri nuoui: Dal concilioVatican II la uita consatrata e le sfide ancora aperte:
Orientamenti (6 January 2017), see esp. Nos. 16 and 35.
' See Angel Fern6ndez Artime, Strenna 2016: "With Jesus, let usjourney together
in the adventure ofthe Spirit!"
' CongTegation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life,
Identity and Mission of the Religious Brother in the Church (2015) uses the expression
"lifelong formation" at No. 35 of the English version.

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26 ACTS oF THE GENERAL C)UNCIL
It was the merit of existentialism to have emphasized the
historicity of the human being as the space of his realization, in
contrast to an essentialism that tended to consider the human
being as somehow "already constituted". No doubt there were
exaggerations, like the famous phrase of Jean-Paul Sartre, "exis-
tence precedes essence"; but in its very exaggeration this was a
salutary correction to a static way of conceiving human life. A
more balanced way of speaking would be to consider the identity
of the human being as constituted in a major way by his concrete
life experiences, by his projects and choices.
In this context, the concept of experience is fundamental, with
all its etymological connotations, especially those of risk and
danger: ex-perior, ex-perto, periculum, etc. Without entering into
the complexity of this concept and what it indicates, I would like
to note two elements that it would be convenient to distinguish:
the happening as such (euento, acontecimiento, 6udnement), and
its impact on the person - what one learns from it. Here the
German language makes possible a useful distinction between
Erlebnis andErfahrung,between "experiences" on the one hand,
and "experience" in the sense of what one learns from the many
"experiences". It is quite possible, in fact, to have plenty of ex-
periences without learning anything. As one Salesian said of
another who was boasting of his 25 years of experience: "He has
really had only one year of experience repeated 25 times". Turn-
ing life into a formatiue space does not consist in going through
("experiencing") many things, but rather in learning from uthat
one has gone through ("becoming experienced"). This will be im-
portant when we look at what our Constitutions have to say.
1. "Lifelong formation": the expression
In the light of the above we could ask: what does the term
"lifelong formation" mean? Clearly, it does not refer to the set of
actiuities organized by an institution (whether religious or pro-
fessional or whatever) for the updating, qualification or aggior-

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GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 27
nam,ento of its members, many of which take place outside the
context of ordinary life and work. Much less does it refer to a
phase that begins after the so-called "initial formation". In fact,
General Chapter 22 examined several other expressions in an
effort to avoid ambiguity - continuous formation, post-initial
formation, etc. -, none of which was considered adequate.
To get to the heart of these expressions, we could ask our-
selves: are we using the term "lifelong" or "permanent" as an ad-
jectiue or as apredicate? More simply, we could ask which of these
two expressions would be more correct for our purposes:
Lifelong formation is... (adjective)
Formation is lifelong (predicate)
Obviously it is the second expression that we want. It is within
formation understood as lifelong that the so-called "initial forma-
tion" takes its place. In this regard, the remarks of the Ratio on
"formation at the service of Salesian identity" are remarkably
lucid: evidently, formation here does not refer only to the initial
phases.n Permanent or ongoing formation, in other words, is not a
natural continuation of initial formation. It is the habitual form of
liuing out our uocation. It is a new way of understanding conse-
crated life, as participation in the action of the Father who, through
the Spirit, forms and shapes in the heart the inner attitudes of the
Son.'Formation, in other words, is lifelong - until the hour comes
when our consecrated life is brought "to its highest fulfilment".u
2. Lifelong formation in the Salesian Constitutions:
analysis
As we have said already, the concept of "lifelong formation"
is relatively new. In our Congregation it was first considered ex-
o Fonnation of Salesians of Don Bosco: Principles and Norms: Ratio Fundamentalis
Institutionis et Studiorum (FSDB), 4'h ed. (online, 2016) chapter, section 2: Formation at
the service of Salesian identity. See http:i/www.sdb.org/en/formation.html (28.01.2017).
5 Vita Consecrata 66.
6C54.

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28 ACTS oF THE GENERAL )oL]NCIL
plicitly during GC22 (1984), in the context of the elaboration of
the definitive text of the Constitutions. The commission drafting
the articles concerning formation was the only one that did not
begin from the earlier text (the ad experimentum one of l97l-72),
precisely because this way of understanding formation was so
new. We must not be misled by the presence of two articles in
chapter 9 dedicated exclusively to lifelong formation (C 118 and
119). As The Project of Life of the Salesians of Don Bosco (1986)
notes, the whole of Part III of the new text has been organized
with lifelong formation in mind.' Lifelong formation, in other
words, is the rnother-idea and the organizing principle of all that
our Constitutions haue to say on formation.
a) Formation is, first of all, a response to a call: "Jesus called
his Apostles to be with him" (C 96). It is very important to
distinguish call fromchoice.In our age, choice has become one
of our most important ways of framing reality, including the
religious dimension of our existence. Positively, this word
encourages personal responsibility and intentionality, moving
people beyond blind acceptance and passive membership. Its
principal weakness as a framework for the spiritual life, how-
ever, is the way it puts the individual at the centre. Call, in-
stead, presupposes that we stand before Someone who Calls.
To speak of call is to acknowledge a Caller, to see that God's
gracious initiative precedes all our projects and plans. Clearly,
consecrated life is not a choice that we make. It is a response
to a call.
b) Formation is our response to the call of God. Art. 96 says:
"We respond to this call by committing ourselves to an ade-
quate ongoing formation, for which the Lord daily gives us
his grace".t From this statement we can draw two points:
' The Project of Life of the Salesians of Don Bosco: A Guide to the Salesian Consti-
tutions (Rome, 1986) 731-733. We will not hold ourselves bound to repeat here all that
these key texts have to say on the topic of formation understood as lifelong.
' "To respond to God's call means to live in an attitude of 'formation"'. The Project
of Life 743. "Formation is thejoyful acceptance of the gift of one's vocation and its actu-
alization at every moment of one's life and in every situation". (FSDB 1)

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GL]IDELINES ANO DIRECTIVES 29
- We can understand formation as lifelong only if we under-
stand vocation also in the same way, as ongoing, which is to
say: the Lord continues to call me day after day: "Every
morning, the Lord wakens my ear" (Is 50,4). The Protes-
tant martyr D. Bonhoeffer notes beautifully that the first
and last words of Jesus to Peter are the same: "Follow me!"
(cf Jn 21,22).n
- Life is not formatiue if it is not seen from the point of
view of vocational growth. Blessed J.H. Newman used to
say: "Don't be afraid that your life will end. Be afraid
that it has never begun". When it comes to formation,
the real risk is that for some of us formation has never
really begun.'o It is possible that much of our discern-
ment is inadequate and even wrong because it does
not take as its point of reference growth in vocation,
understood as a response to the Lord who colls. And, on
the contrary, many negative experiences and crises can
be paradoxically formative, if only the person knows how
to confront them from the point of view of growth in
vocation.
c) Our call is to follow Jesus in a particular way - as conse-
crated persons in the spirit of Don Bosco. To follow Jesus
is to become like him, sons in the Son, allowing the Father to
form in us his heart and his mind, so that we experience and
feel, think and understand, evaluate and judge, decide, love
and act like him, so that we can say with St PauI: "I live, no not
I, but Christ who lives in me" (Gal 2,20). To follow Jesus as
consecrated persons is to be living memorials of him, following
him even in his concrete choices ofcelibacy, poverty and obedi-
o But the apostle to whom these words are addressed is far from being "the same":
in the second case he is less cocksure, but far more centred, because his centre is now
Christ and his merciful love. Peter's ongoing transformation up to the point of martyr-
dom provides theolory with a starting point for a reflection on grace and freedom that
begins in Augustine and that comes down through Aquinas to our own times, a reflec-
tion that has everything to do with formation as lifelong.
'0 See A. Cencini, Forrnazione permanente: Ci crediamo dauuero? (Bologna: Edizioni
Dehoniane, 2011) 131.

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30 ACTS OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL
ence for the sake of the kingdom, anticipating already now
what we all one day hope to be.
d) The call is never "for oneself": the Lord calls in order to
send. So the mission is the way of living the election. The for-
mation of the Salesian is oriented and motivated by mission
(C 97)." "Immersed in the world and in the cares of pastoral
life, the Salesian learns to meet God through those to whom
he is sent". (C 95) The goal is to meet God in the midst of our
Iife and work; the journey is the formation process. So we do
not have to jump out of life in order to be formed; the point is
to get into it properly. The point is to be able to make the shift
from simply liuing our liues to learning from experience inthe
way indicated in our Constitutions. In this way we will live in
a "permanent state of mission" that is also a perm.anent state
of formation."
e) Formation is not a phase or a part of Salesian life, but rather
a dimension that embraces the whole of life, in such a
way that prayer, fraternal life, apostolic commitment and the
living out of the evangelical counsels all become formatiue,
which is to say: response to the Lord who calls us (at every
moment, the whole of our life)."
fl Article 119 indicates to us the nature of our life understood as
formation: "Living in the midst of the young and in constant
contact with working-class surroundings, the Salesian tries to
discern the uoice of the Spirit in the euents of each day, and so
acquires the ability to learn from life's experiences".l4
" "Ongoing formation must take its direction from the ecclesial identity of conse-
crated life. It is not a question merely of updating oneself about the new theologies,
ecclesial norms or studies about the history and charism of the Institute. The task is to
consolidate, or often even to rediscover, one's place within the Church at the service of
humanity". (Per uino nuouo 35)
" See EG 25 echoed in GC27 74.1.
" See VC 65, and Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of
Apostolic Life, Starting Afresh From Christ: A Renewed Commitment to Consecrated Life
in the Third Millennium. Instruction, Rome, 19 May 2002, 15.
" The Italian original speaks simply of "la capaciti di imparare dalla vita".

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GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 31
Towards the end, the article states: "[The Salesian] feels it his
task to make the best formative use of any situation, and to
see it as a favourable opportunity for growing in his vocation".
No experience is irrelevant or useless if we are able to learn
from it. Obviously, it is not merely a question of human effort,
intelligence or shrewdness, but of faith: "[he] tries to discern
the voice of the Spirit in the events of each day".
g) This brings us to an important question: what is the role of
initial formation? The first thing to be said is that initial
formation is not the princeps analogatum of formation (as we
tend to think even now). It gets its identity from what "comes
after" (otherwise it would not be initial). It is part of "forma-
tion as lifelong", but it has its own peculiar characteristics. It
is like what university study is for a professional: not an end
in itself, but a time for picking up the indispensable tools and
instruments for what comes after. Thus, for example, "spiri-
tual direction," far from being reserved to initial formation, is
something that lays the foundations for a spiritual acconxpo,-
nirnent that ought to last all through life. With the text of
article 119 in mind, we could say, simply, that the aim of the
initial part of life understood as formation is learning how
to learn.'u And when in the "rest of life" the learning contin-
ues, life becomes formation, an ongoing response to the love of
the Lord who, miserando atque eligendo,'u never ceases to call
and never ceases to love.
15 Initial formation "cannot be satisfied with formation to docility and to the sane
customs and traditions of a group, but must make the young consecrated person truly
docibilis. This means forming a heart that is free to learn from the events of every day
for all one's life in the footsteps ofChrist in order to put oneselfat the service ofall".
(Per uino nuouo 35)
'u Coat of Arms of Pope Francis, taken from the homilies of Bede the Venerable on
the call of Matthew (CCL 122, 149-151).

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32 ACTS oF THE GENERAL COUNCIL
3. Lifelong formation in the Salesian Constitutions:
synthesis
Having tried to list some features of lifelong formation as it
appears in our Constitutions, I think we could conclude with an
extraordinary synthesis, which we find in article 98: the forma'
tion e>rperienee.
Enlightened by the person of Christ and by his Gospel, Iived
according to Don Bosco's spirit, the Salesian commits himself to
a formation process which will last all his life and will keep pace
with his maturing in other ways. He learns by experience the
meaning of the Salesian vocation at the various moments of his
life and accepts the ascetical demands it makes on him.
With the help of Mary his Mother and Teacher, he gradually
becomes a pastor and educator of the young in the lay or priest-
ly state which he has embraced.
We find here, first of all, formation understood as a process:
"the experience of the meaning and values of vocation". During
the initial phases of formation we come to know these fundamen-
tal values, but "knowing" is not the same thing as "learning from
experience". To make the perpetual profession it is not enough to
merely know the Constitutions by heart; one needs an experience
of Salesian life, one needs to have learnt from life.
Further, the article highlights thelifelong character of forma-
tion: "a process which will last all his life". When formation is un-
derstood as response, and when mission is understood as revela-
tion, the excitement never ends, for even in old age the dialogue
of love between God and us continues, and the Salesian becomes,
more clearly than ever, sign and bearer of his love, uultus miseri'
cordiae.
Moreover, one cannot ignore the ascesis involved in our life
understood as formation. The roses of Salesian values also have
thorns, as Don Bosco tried to teach us in his dream of the Pergo-
la of roses.

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GUIDELINES AND DIBECTIVES 33
And then, it bears insisting that formation takes place essen-
tially in a context of faith, lived within the Salesian charism: "-En-
lightened by the person of Christ and by his Gospel - liued accord-
ing to Don Bosco's spirit". To be like Don Bosco is to be always with
Jesus, in an adventure ofthe Spirit - and to be a consecrated son of
Don Bosco is unthinkable without a personal, passionate, splendid
relationship with Christ.
Finally, we must take into account the concluding words: the
Salesian, every Salesian, is essentially an educator-pastor. He is
educator-pastor before being brother, deacon or priest. A Salesian
brother who is not apastor is not a Salesian; a Salesian priest or
deacon who is not an educator is not a Salesian. And our effec-
tiveness stems, in the final analysis, from our relationship with
the Lord, from our being con-formed to the heart of Christ. For
we educate by what we are, by what we love. Out of the fullness
of our heart we speak, and act, and are. Cor ad cor loquitor, as
Francis de Sales used to say.
And all this, "with the help of Mary, his Mother and Teacher"
who leads us to the fullness of our offering to the Lord". (C 92)
We are invited to be sons in the Son, allowing Mary to give each
of us a body and heart like that of Christ, allowing her to teach us
to love as she taught Don Bosco (C 84), or better still, as she
taught Jesus himself.
4. How to be in formation all our life
So far we have been talking mainly about the "what". But it is
necessary to indicate also the "how" based on the Constitutions
themselves and the Ratio - while also recalling that a good
"what" is already a "how"."
'1 Per uino nuouo 35 reminds us that we do not yet have a culture of ongoing for-
mation, and that at the pedagogical level we have not yet been able to create concrete
processes, whether individual or communitarian, that would make ongoing formation ef-
fective. The document also calls for a reflection on the structural-institutional dimension

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34 AcTs oF THE GENEFAL COUNCIL
Article 119, cited above, contains some words that we deliber-
ately ignored: "the Salesian tries to discern... and so acquires the
ability to learn from life". This learning and effort takes place all
through life, even though it has a special place in "initial forma-
tion".
Articles 118 and 119 both indicate €reas to be developed if our
Salesian life is truly to become aformatiue space: "We try to grow
in our human qualities, to conform ourselves more closely to
Christ, and to renew our fidelity to Don Bosco, so that we can
respond to the ever new demands arising from the situation of
the young and the poor" (C 118). "Even when he is fully occupied
he finds opportunities for renewing the religious and pastoral
meaning of his life, and of learning to carry out his work with
greater competence" (C 119). Two aspects typical of formation
show up here very clearly: process and personal responsibility.
In line with this, I list some methodological points that refer
especially to the phase of initial formation.
a) The qualitative dimension must prevail over the quantitatiue:
the point is to learn from experience rather than to merely
have many experiences.
b) We need to develop the ability to learn from our e>rperi-
ences, even those that could be considered "negative".
c) Even before insisting on learning from our experiences, with
Pope Francis we could learn to dwell before the mystery of
life, the beauty of nature, the mystery of the other, whether it
is a young person or our confrere or one who shares with us
the mission. We take to heart the pope's repeated insistence
on the "pastoral look" and "serene attentiveness".tt So let us
not neglect our liued experience, if we would truly "learn
of ongoing formation: 'Just as, after the Council of Trent, seminaries and novitiates
were created to take care of initial formation, so now we are called to give rise to forms
and structures that can sustain the journey of each consecrated person towards ever
greater conformity to the sentiments of the Son (cf. Phil 2,5). This would be an ex-
tremely eloquent institutional sigxal". (ibid.)
o Cf. EG 51, and also 125, 141, 169; and LS 225-226.

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GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 35
from," we need to first learn to dwell, remain, stay before the
mystery. Dwelling there we know we are on holy ground and
before the burning bush.
d) In our learning and discernment, the Word of God is the
hermeneutical criterion. The Word gives light and strength,
and is our nourishment for the way (C 87). Salesian life makes
place for prolonged exposure to the Word of God'e through per-
sonal reading as well as lectio diuina in community.
e) Formation also includes constant access to the Constitutions
that are for us the concretization of the Word of God, and to
the Salesian Sources that encapsulate the adventure of the
Spirit lived by Don Bosco and so many Salesians after him.
We can and must think of initial formation also as an initia-
tion to the sources: learning to go regularly to our sources, so
as to dwell in them and draw life from them.
f) Such learning calls for accompaniment. There is no learn-
ing without a master, without, indeed, an expert (we might
recall that this word comes from ex-perior, which is the root
also of experience). We might insist here again that, like voca-
tion and formation, personal spiritual accompaniment is also
ongoing and lifelong.'o
" Congregation for Religious and for Secular Institutes, "The Contemplative
Dimension of Religious Life" (March 1980) 20: http://www.vatican.valroman_curia/
congregations/ccscrlife/documents/rc_con_ccscrlife_doc_1208 1980_the-contemplative-
dimension-of-religious-Iife_en.html (28.01.20 1 7).
'o While our Constitutions speak of entrusting oneself with simplicity to a spiritual
director as one ofthe attitudes and means for growing in chastity (C 84), and the Regu-
lations encourage each confrere to "maintain his openness to... personal and communi-
ty spiritual direction" (R 99), the FSDB notes that "the methodical direction proper to
the first period offormation is ordinarily not necessary in the adult age" (n. 267).Vita
Consecrata (1996) had restricted itselfto saying that "Confrdent and humble recourse
to spiritual direction is of great help on the path of frdelity to the Gospel, especially in
the period of formation and at certain other times in life" (VC 95). Our recent General
Chapters, however, call for a modification in the direction of ongoing accompaniment,
given that the goal of formation is conformity to Christ (see GC26 62 arld GC27 67.2).
The Directory for the Ministry and Life of Priests (new edition, 2013, No. 73) speaks of
spiritual direction as a necessity for priests: "In order to contribute to the improvement
of their spirituality it is necessary for priests to practice spiritual direction with respect
to themselves". The new Ratio ofthe Church (2016) presents personal accompaniment

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36 ACIS oF THE GENERAL COUNCIL
g) This learning is far from being unidirectional, and always
takes place in the network of relationships that is the
community - the Salesian community (C 99) as well as the
larger educative-pastoral community." "It takes a village to
raise a child," goes an African proverb cited by Pope Francis"
fut. 101 of the Constitutions reminds us that it is the provin-
cial community that welcomes and accompanies the vocation
of each confrere, and that, in turn, each confrere, "through
prayer and personal witness, contributes to the sustaining
and renewal of the vocation of his brothers".
h) We acquire the ability to give formatiue quality to ordinary
life - and the creative formator will make use of all the means
at his disposal to encourage learning from experience, prayer-
ful reflection, and spiritual discernment as a form of life. Here
I would like to insist also on the importance of reading.23 Let
us not underestimate the power of good reading to change us,
in the first place the reading of the Word of God and of the
Constitutions, as we have said already."
i) We make place for the ascesis implied by our life and mis-
sion, not merely by accepting it but by learning from it. Once
again, here, the place of our daily meditation, our moments of
personal prayer, personal spiritual accompaniment, and even
the faith sharing to which our recent General Chapters invite
us.'u
as one of the most important dynamics of ongoing formation: "The priest must not iso-
Iate himself: he will need support and accompaniment in the spiritual and/or psycholog-
ical areas. In any case, it will be usefuI to intensify the relationship with the spiritual
Director so as to draw positive fruit from the difficulties, Iearning to accept the truth
about one's life and understanding it better in the light of the Gospel". (Congregation
for the Clerry, Il d.ono d,ella uocazione presbiterale: Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis
Sacerdotalis, No. 84)
,.FSDB 560,
" Address of Pope Francis to Students and Teachers from Schools across Italy,
Rome, 10 May 2014.
" See R 99: "Each one should cultivate the habit of reading...".
'o On the Word of God and the Constitutions as the two poles of our formative read-
ing, see The Project of Life 759.
% GC27 67.4.

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GIJIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 37
In our Constitutions and Regulations we find, in addition, a
whole series of instruments and means relevant to forma-
tion. We remind ourselves that every personal plan of life (R 99)
needs to be placed firmly within the optic of formation as re-
sponse to a call, and in view of the needs of the province (R 100).
The same holds for the ordinary and extraordinary initiatives
promoted by the province or groups of provinces, the church or
society (R 101), and obviously for periods of personal renewal
(R 102).
This note on lifelong formation cannot end without a word on
deuotion - which, for Francis de Sales, is the ability to find God in
everything, and to live life with freshness and joy, "running and
leaping in the way of God's commands".'u
We pray that the Lord assist us everyday to be faithful - to
"drink from the stream by the wayside" (Ps 110,7) so that our
hearts be constantly lifted up to him who is the fount of living
water, and that fountains of living water might burst forth in us
(Jn 7,88) to give life to many.
26 "Even as a manjust recovering from illness, walks only so far as he is obliged to
go, with a slow and weary step, so the converted sinner journeys along as far as God
commands him but slowly and wearily, until he attains a true spirit of devotion, and
then, like a sound man, he not only gets along, but he runs and leaps in the way of God's
Commands, and hastens gladly along the paths ofheavenly counsels and inspirations".
Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Deuout Life,Paft 1, chapter 1.