Rome (Italy). At the end of the summer meeting of the Plenum, Mother and the General Council of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians reach the FMA to share the various visits and formative meetings lived together, as well as the relevant events of the Church and of the Institute for which we are preparing.
Introducing the Choral Circular, they first of all express praise and gratitude to the Lord for having been able to grasp the vivacity of the Charism and the missionary commitment of all the Educating Communities; for the life given with passion that continues to be ‘generative’; and for the dedication of every Sister and every Province, encouraging them to “continue to give vitality to the Program of the six-year term, especially in difficult situations in which it is hard to walk together and to fully live the shared mission”.
They then dwell on two particular experiences lived during the time of the Plenum: the visit to Sicily, with the Spiritual Exercises, and the visit to the places of Blessed Mother Maddalena Morano, “a gift to renew the enthusiasm of our vocation at the service of the Institute”, in which they experienced “the ‘volcanic’ welcome and the festive family spirit of the educating communities.” The encounter with the twelve Provincials who came from five continents to Castel Gandolfo (Rome) for the Course, whose sharing of different experiences made them feel “their desire to walk and live the call received as a gift with love.”
They also share some events for which we prepare “with joy”:
World Youth Day XXXVII, from 1 to 6 August in Lisbon, Portugal, on the theme “Mary arose and went with haste” (Lk 1, 39). During the days, on August 2, SYM Day is scheduled, the Day of the Salesian Youth Movement in which about 200 young people from different countries will meet “to dialogue with the Rector Major, the Mother General, and with each other on how to make their presence at a global level more significant.” On the same day, over 8,000 young people will participate in a moment of celebration on the theme “Come, see, and celebrate”, which will culminate with Eucharistic adoration and the “Goodnight” of the Rector Major, Fr. Ángel Fernández Artime, and Mother Chiara Cazzuola.
The inter-sector Seminar for the Interprovincial Conferences entitled “For a service of generative authority”, will take place in the years 2023-2024, as a response to the Program of the six-year period, elaborated in the light of the three priority choices of GC XXIV which invites us to be a Presence that listens, walks together, outgoing, and networked. It will be a space for formation and a way to implement some of the action guidelines.
The Seminar, which will take place with a “workshop method in the style of discernment to create an atmosphere of mutual sharing, fraternity, and prayer” has the purpose of “accompanying the Provincials, the Provincial Councils, and the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians who are Sector Referents, in their service of animation and governance in the perspective of the Preventive System, in the light of GC XXIV, in the synodal journey of the Church”.
The Conferences that will live the experience first in the coming months will be the Interprovincial Conference Africa – Madagascar (CIAM) and the Interprovincial Conference Middle East and Europe (CIME).
The online formation course «“I will give you the teacher”. Mary, Mother and Educator in the Salesian Family» is organized in response to the call of General Chapter XXIV to be with Mary, a presence that generates life, by the Salesian Family Sector in collaboration with the Pontifical Faculty of Educational Sciences Auxilium. It is aimed at the FMA and the various Groups of the Salesian Family present throughout the world and will take place in different languages: the first, in Italian, will begin in September 2023. The first session of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops will be held in the Vatican from 4 to 29 October 2023. Sr. Yvonne Reungoat, Mother General Emerita of the FMA Institute, is on the list of participants among the Experts and Facilitators:
“We feel represented by Mother Yvonne Reungoat and we thank Pope Francis who, by inviting her, wanted once again to bear witness to his esteem for our charism,” Mother and the General Councilors affirm with gratitude.
They also suggest that the FMA communities confront themselves “with the fundamental characteristics of a synodal Church enucleated in section A of the Working Document and with the priorities expressed in the form of a question that emerged from the work of all the continents and collected in section B of the same document. On this journey, we feel invited to make our educating communities places increasingly characterized by the family spirit and by dialogue which make communion and participation visible in view of the mission.”
At the end of the Circular, they also express their gratitude for the Holy Father’s recent announcement: “With the whole Salesian Family, we give thanks to God for the appointment of the Rector Major, Fr. Ángel Fernández Artime, as Cardinal in the consistory on 30 September. We assure him of our prayers that will accompany him in the delicate commitments that await him.”
They conclude by recalling the forthcoming celebrations of August 5, the anniversary of the foundation of the FMA Institute, “We feel united in celebrating once again our gratitude to Mary Help of Christians who supports us in ever more joyful fidelity to the Lord’s call for the salvation of the young men and women”.
