MISSIONARY FORMATION (training, forming criteria-character, surrender to mission, a true missionary, missionary instruction…)
- After what we spoke about missionary spirit in the community yesterday, I felt it’s important and I stress some basic points from our apostolic training in the meeting today. The missions are a work of the Spirit and, therefore, of prayer. The Kingdom of Christ in the world is the only mission of the Church. Understanding it like this, and assuring ourselves that we are living members of the body the Church, is a very special gift from God. It’s a calling to a full and perfect inner life. Our desire from the Kingdom of God is that it brings us to continuously pray for the missionaries and to ask for them the same flame that the Holy Spirit lit in the Apostles in the beginning of the Church. Together with the spirit of prayer, nothing seems as important to me as the witness of life of the missionaries. Happiness, dedication, faithfulness to the Father, and trust. Missions need nuns who have inner life, who have demonstrated self-sacrifice, are level-headed, and have had the greatest possible preparation. (p. 181)
- I’ve set out to train missionaries who know how to live in God. Detached and humble. They are dedicated to Christ with a happy and trusting heart. They are missionaries that live for God, the Church, and all of our brothers and sisters. They wait for the Holy Spirit, who is sour guide, truth, inspiration and strength. (p. 221)
- I’ve attempted to train missionaries who are totally dedicated to their mission. They are capable of easily accepting discomforts and sacrifices, without thinking they are too big. They are missionaries who neither envy nor look down on other missions because they are all part and parcel of the one mission of Christ. They are missionaries that take on what’s small as well as what’s big because, with their sights on Christ the Redeemer, sacrifice disappears and is erased. As Christ gave His life for our redemption, the missionary should give her life for her brothers and sisters. I want missionaries who are united in love and are harmonious. They must be generous in forgiving and able to forget trivial things. They should be sincere, loyal, and have a greatness of soul. They must be even-tempered, open, and have good judgement. The life of a missionary should be a life of prayer, personal union with Christ, and unconditional dedication to our brothers and sisters – uniting active and contemplative life as much as possible. (p.221)
- I had a meeting with the young sisters who are preparing to make a life commitment. I intend to make these meetings not only about spiritual direction, but also the instruction of judgement, character, and attitude. (p.226)
- I met with the young sisters today about “Shaping our views” … Christ is the sole stand of our lives… We need to accelerate our inner knowledge of Christ the Redeemer in order to integrate ourselves into His being… (p.235)
- I met with the young sisters about the “Necessity of shaping our character”. Our motivation for doing so is for our sense of peace and for the happiness of others. The qualities of good character are simplicity, serenity, and finesse. We should be able to understand the weaknesses of others. We should be natural and not stand out, avoiding what bothers others. We can perfect our character by getting to know ourselves well. We should discover our peculiarities since we all tend to have one or another. We should avoid these peculiarities whenever possible. We must fight against inequality, frigidity, pretenses, and thoughtlessness. We should unite kindness and energy with the evangelical spirit. Kindness is compassion and springs from the heart. We should suffer with those who are suffering. We should not be able to stand seeing other suffer. We must fight against injustice. We remedy what we can and we always involve our heart. We always forgive and forget. (p. 236)
- I’ve begun work on “Our Spirit”. I made the outline some time ago with Father Zameza. It is intended as a complement to missionary training that we will start sifting through during a series of talks with the community. (p.245)
- Today I presented the general plan for missionary instruction to the community. Everyone received it with enthusiasm. During this first meeting, we focused on what I desire for the Institute in order to fulfill its redemptive missionary charism. I want this newly born Institute to be big, gigantic in spirit, full of the life of Christ, and completely permeated by its redeeming missionary spirit. I don’t wat us to be Mercedarian Missionaries in name only. I want us to understand what this name means. I want us to be enamored with our vocation, and that we fix our eyes on the sublime ideal that it brings forth within us. I want us to not stop in our persistence until we have completely brought this all about. Each one can do so commensurate with the gifts that the Lord wants to give us. Our Institute is a composite of times past and of the present at the same time. It has its origin in the ancient and aged Mercedarian trunk, born in the thirteenth century in the most clearly heroic manner that had ever seen in the course of centuries. It carries a redeeming yearning deep within its core, which is the sap of this tree and the sole reason for its existence. It appears to me that those ancient fathers, when fulfilling their forth vow of dying by giving their lives for the captives, wanted to bequeath the same spirit to us. In a hidden and quiet manner, they planted the fertile seed of their redeeming zeal into our hearts that, with the passage of time would induce us to follow in their footsteps. And where did this missionary flame begin if not in this remote cloistered convent in 1919 that was so isolated from everyone? How else could the swiftness with which it grew throughout the school and the convent be explained, enflaming our hearts with the desire to work for the Church with such a sense of urgency? …redeeming missionary spirit. (pp. 246-248)
- I conferred with the young sisters and with the community. I have inner joy for our resolved to delve into the redeeming mystery and into “Our Spirit” ... and without a lack of understanding that reveals a lack of basic missionary formation. (pp. 248-249)
- Before anything else, I wanted to dispel the belief that some have… and one that achieves the expansion of the great family of fraternity and love. (pp. 251-253)