On this October 2nd, 2024, as we remember the return to God of our first Founder Claude François Poullart des Places, the General Council is pleased to officially launch the third phase of our animation plan.
After evaluating the mission and then renewing our spirituality at the sources of our founders, we are launching today our third phase of the animation plan on the theme “Intercultural Community Life” for the next two years and beyond.
For our founders, the community is the beating heart of the mission and our primary tool of witness. As Father François-Marie-Paul Libermann reminded us: “One cannot be an apostolic man without being a man of community”.
Today, our communities have changed a lot. They are now intercultural, international, and intergenerational. This diversity is a richness for our Congregation. Pope Francis reaffirmed this to us during the audience he granted us in 2023 in these words: “Your charism, open and respectful, is a prophetic and urgent response to the challenges of inclusion for our world and for our Church”.
However, this living together is a demanding art. Racism, tribalism, or the political trap of “us” versus “them” sometimes threaten our congregational unity. The mandate of Bagamoyo II calls us to a deep conversion. It asks us to overcome prejudices and acquire anthropological skills to build a common culture, the Spiritan culture.
The objective is clear: to ensure that every confrere, regardless of their origin, feels at home, accepted, respected, and recognized.
To accompany you throughout this third phase of the animation plan, the General Council will deploy, starting this month of October, tools, liturgical guides, and training in methodologies of listening and shared discernment. All of this will be accessible on our new online platform, the Spiritan Academy.
The success of this step depends on the commitment of each individual on the path of fraternal conversion. Together, let us build communities that are havens of peace, respect, and joy.
Safe intercultural journey to all. Cor unum et anima una. Thank you
Prayer for Intercultural Spiritan Communities
God of our founders and our ancestors in the faith,
we pray to you thank you for granting us
the opportunity to live in intercultural Spiritan communities.
Give us new eyes,
so that we may see in every culture a reflection of the beauty of your face.
Give us new ears,
so that we may hear your Word, which resounds in every tradition
and invites us to build a more fraternal world.
Give us new words,
May our words and our lives bear witness to your universal love
and your mercy toward all people and all nations.
Breathe into our communities
and into each one of us your life-giving Spirit of renewal.
May it break down our barriers and purify our prejudices.
Make our shared lives an intercultural Pentecost.
May our diversity not only be tolerated, but welcomed and celebrated,
so that together we may proclaim your wonders
in the universal language of love.
We make this prayer through Jesus Christ,
Who accompanies us on our pilgrim path,
in the Spirit that binds us together.
Amen.
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