Listen to the Spirit of God, listening to each other
Each year the Dehonian community of the Generalate dedicates a long period of time to prayer and community planning. A brief report on the path that the community is taking this year.
On the feast of Blessed Juan Maria de la Cruz (September 22), invoking his company and intercession, the Generalate community resumed its community journey, after a summer that had “exits” for language study, pastoral ministry or family gatherings. On August 3, Br. Roberto Garcia left for Spain, having concluded his service as local treasurer; Fr. Alessandro Ravaglioli left our community and returned to his diocese of Forlì-Cesena on 13 September. The planned presence of the new confreres have found limitations, due to the pandemic. The following were able to arrive in Rome: Fr. Parfait-Brice Mongo from Cameroun for a Dehonian Studies scholarship; Fr. Basile Guy Fouomene from Cameroun for a doctorate in Canon Law; Fr. Roman Gorincioi from Moldavia for pastoral studies; Fr. Emerson Marcelo Ruiz from Brazil for a Dehonian Studies scholarship.
We began the period of planning of the year by listening to the words that the Pope addressed to the diocese of Rome, and we want to live a journey together around the theme: “Towards a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, Mission”.
Then, taking up the reflections that arose in the review of the year just gone, in small groups we tried to identify some objectives to be achieved in ‘our community way of proceeding’.
From September 24-27, we were guests of the Augustinian Fathers in Cascia for a three-day retreat in the company of St. Rita and St. Augustine: a beautiful experience of getting to know the charisms in the Church and, for all, a renewed call to holiness!
In the meantime (September 23-26), the European bishops, gathered in Rome for the 50th Anniversary of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE), an organization that St. Paul VI wanted after the Vatican Council, and then the Italian bishops (the permanent council of the CEI, September 27-29) were praying in our chapel. We are still breathing this presence that puts us in communion with the Church in Europe, as we pray for the meeting in Poland (October 11-15) of the SCJ Major Superiors of Europe.
On Saturday, 2 October, we came to approve the project of community life for the new year, which takes up what the Pope told us: Listen to the Spirit of God, listening to each other.
We want to ‘pay attention to how we listen’ and become ‘home and school of fraternity’ in the search for communion, participation and mission, three pillars of the synodal journey.
