Growing Together in Living the Community of Life Sister Maria Lúcia Barbosa de Oliveira, SFP On April 17-21 the Brazilian Area Assembly was held in Goiânia on the theme – How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! (Psalm 133). Once more, we gathered at Casa São José to revitalize our energies, to share about our lives and to build together the goals to further our common journey. Indeed, how pleasant are these moments when we share and how welcoming is the Community of our Area House, always open to all our Sisters. We are eager to make every guest feel at home.
In the evening of our arrival, directed by Sister Maria Helena, we gathered at the Chapel for a special prayer service to set us in tune with our entire Congregation on the occasion of the official opening of the canonization process of our dear Foundress, Blessed Frances Schervier. God willing we will soon be seeing her image on many altars! Our Assembly was coordinated by Sisters Maria Helena, Helena Paula and Thalyta, who led the agenda in a very dynamic way. Each local community had already taken as homework from the previous Assembly the study of the expression: “The Community of Life” at both personal and communal levels. At this Assembly the Sisters creatively elaborated upon and deepened the contents of the Chapter theme.
The Ipameri and the Pires do Rio communities presented a video they created themselves. The Emmaus Community did the same by means of puppetry. Jataí held an oral explanation on the contents and Goiânia brought us to experience the community of life in a more concrete way, proposing that we take off our shoes and walk outside to feel mother earth under our feet, surrounded by the picturesque environment with its plants, animals, water sources and the terrestrial globe. The study was very useful to all of us as we became more aware of how our actions can interfere with the whole of creation and what we can do to stop our planet’s agony. With the intention of improving growth in our communities, we were asked to revise our annual planning by looking at our Constitutions and our Congregational Policies. The goal is to complement what we may have missed and to learn from this experience by involving all the Sisters. We started in small groups and then shared in plenary session. We all felt we learned so much through this experience.
Our Temporary Professed Sisters then presented in succinct form the contents of the formation meetings, which they attended this year. How gratifying it was that they were able to assimilate the theoretical learning and apply it to their daily lives. All the other Sisters, feeling inspired by them, were motivated to share their own experiences as well. On the second day, Dom Joaquim Carlos Carvalho, OSB, talked to us about relationships. He complemented his enriching presentation by engaging the group. He began with the premise that “Every improvement in our human relationships will resound in our connections with all creatures." On the eve of the last day, the Temporary Professed Sisters presented their life projects, symbolized by a tree. They compared their lives to the growth of a plant. They began with our Franciscan spirituality and compared this with the Word of God, our healing charism and with our identity as consecrated religious. Last, but not least, the Sisters were asked to contribute more often to the accomplishment of our Area’s project to work in Youth Ministry. The input we gathered from them was very valuable and enriching to us all. It will certainly be useful to the Area group appointed to coordinate that task. May God give us the enthusiasm and health necessary to make it succeed!
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