On-going formation in Manziana
In the house of Manziana (An International Center for Marist Formation) a course for middle-aged Brothers ("Senderos" Mid-life) is taking place, from March 21 to June 8, 2019, with 18 participants, from 10 Administrative Units.
The program is meant for the Brothers of mid-age "mid-life", to enable them to reread their personal life history and be in tune with the calls of the Spirit, to grow in the different dimensions of their existence and to continue responding to the deepest desires of their hearts and that of the Marist mission today.
The theme is “journeying together as a global family". This is the first group of participants in a training in Manziana, since the rebuilding and restructuring into a permanent formation community, designed for the whole Institute. For the first time within this environment “we are feeling and living as a global family". This course was done in the past in two houses but today we have brothers of different languages who are together at the same time. Past experiences were divided into Spanish-Portuguese speaking, in San Lorenzo del Escorial; and the English speaking, in Manziana.
The course is structured into ten "parts":
• Contemplation: Sacredness of my story
• Ecology and consecrated life
• Fraternity experience
• The spiritual itinerary
• Self-care and integrated life
• Affectivity and sexuality in the CL
• Global family and intercultural life
• In the footsteps of Marcellin
• Constitutions and Rule of life
• Accomplices of the Spirit and Misio Dei (Gods Mission)
Within the program, the Manziana team will also be offering six themes for meditation:
1. Contemplative prayer and internalization times
2. Fraternal life
3. Domestic services and work on the farm
4. Accompaniment
5. Workshops
6. Silence and solitude
In addition, six possibilities of experiences are presented to the group:
1. Pilgrimage to Marist places
2. Camino de Santiago
3. Pilgrimage of fraternity
4. Meeting with the community of Taizè
5. Inter-congregational experience
6. Global family
The Manziana training team is made up of five brothers: Joe Walton (Southern Africa); Antonio Peralta (Santa Maria de los Andes); Angel Medina (Cruz del Sur); Joaquim Sperandio (Brasil Centro Sul) and Teófilo Minga (Compostela). The Chaplain is Father Joseph Pilla, from Nigeria.