The love of Christ has gathered
us together.
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G
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ratitude is the
attitude of heart! I am grateful to the Almighty God for calling me to this
congregation and giving me the opportunity to have such wonderful experience.
Indeed I am also glad to express my gratitude to the congregation for providing
me such opportunity to encounter the event and deepen the experience of the
Spirit of our founder as well as deepen the knowledge of the congregation and
the Claretion Family.
The
Claretian family gathering has enlarged my knowledge of the Claretian family. It
was the golden opportunity for me to part take in this gathering. I was
surprised to have such a rich experience. As I participated in this gathering along
with my community members, I was deeply moved and enriched by the experience
being with the Claretian Family. It was the very first time for me to gathered
three
congregations as family.
There
was a Quiz completion; it was all about the three congregations
CMF, MC and RMI. This
helped us and me to know about each other in a better way.
I am delightful for the Missionary sisters of
Anthony Mary Claret for introducing their congregation and that made me to know
their congregation as well as the identity. I was amazed and glad to know them.
There were three congregations but from
different countries as follows: - China. Africa, Kenya, Philippines, Indonesia,
Srilanka and India. It was really the intercultural gathering. I could
experience deep down in my heart the Spirit of unity in the diversity.
On 17th July 2018 in the morning
we had Eucharistic celebration presided by the
Apostolic Nuncio of Sri Lanka Archbishop Pierre Nguyen Van Tot. In his sermon
he delivered the message on interculturality, by the various
means and the examples. It was the great insights for each one of us, and same
time encouraged us to move forward with the same motive of our founder St
Antony Mary claret, who worked day and night to save the Church by saving the
souls without any discrimination.
We also had the talk on intercultural
communication by Bro. Rod Thomson. It made us to understand the meaning of
Mission. Being in the community itself is the Mission.
This session helped us to personalize the
value of each one in the community. To be in the community is always Challenge but
it is possible.
There are new insights which will help us to
build True international communities:
v Everyone should self-monitor and understand
that disruptive behavior in community needs to be challenged.
v The conventions of any and every culture are
not above appropriate criticism, and no culture models the Gospel call to
discipleship in a perfect way. It is not that easy but desirable. God desire
it.
v If one culture is not to dominate, everyone
is called to conversion, and it requires hard work, compromise, real dialogue,
and a clear and common vision. Intercultural living is a revolution and future
of international Religious life.
v If
not, they will not survive. A true international community, built over a period
of time , needs mechanisms to facilitate community building, faith sharing,
time when a safe space is structured so that vulnerabilities and fears can be shared,
with strategic planning, sharing leisure and socializing.
The mystery of the incarnation is a process
of inculturation. God became man in Jesus who was incarnated in a Culture. In
order to enrich all, He gradually opened Him self to other culture, thus
creating a path of inculturation and acceptance of all culture. The first
communicaties of the Church continued this task of inculturation of the
Christian message. Dialogue with culture belongs to the deepest mission of the
Church and of our congregation.
As a result of inculturation throughout
history, The Religious Congregations have become multicultural. But it is not
enough to accept the diversity of culture within our communities: it must be
lived as an opportunity for rich exchange between cultures, thus contributing
to greater social justice, fraternity, and peace on Earth.
Interculturality calls us to practice an
OPENENSS in everything we live and situates us in the reality in a new way.
Today we have the opportunity to live this even in our county as well as in the
community. This opportunity provides us an open mind to know and learn from
other cultures, while being able to critique one’s own from the perspective of
the Gospel.
Interculturality will lead us to revise from
the perspective of openness to diversity our practices in Religious life.
