General House Community: A Weekend of Retreat and Relaxation

The General House Community spent the last weekend (March 5-7) in Manziana for some days of retreat and relaxation.

In Rome, EUR, there are two communities living at the same house. One is the General Council Community which has 11 brothers now. Another one is the General House Community. It is composed of brothers who are at the service of the General Administration, i.e., those in the secretariats and the different offices and projects/initiatives, and those with special functions, as well as university students – 2 brothers and the 2 chaplains.  All in all, there are 17 brothers and 2 priests, representing 12 countries and 13 administrative units.

Below is the text of Brother Lindley Sionosa, Assistant Director of the Brothers Today Secretariat, about the days spent in Manziana.

Sharing our Story

In October last year, we went to the same house to develop our Community Life Project. While we were able to do just that, I remembered saying at one point that I missed the part where we should have introduced ourselves to each other. At that time, my argument was, if we were to build community, we should at least get to know each other first.

This reasoning, I admit, is a product of my years as formator – 5 in the pre-novitiate and 6 in the novitiate. The process of coming up with a Community Life Plan, as we call it in the Philippines, always took several days, three or four days, to be precise, depending on the number of formands. The first part, which could and should take time, is the telling of and listening to one another´s story. While we may not remember everything, more so get to know fully in one sitting our companions on the journey, there is great value in this first step in the sharing of life and in building a home.

We could only do this, though, in the formation houses, as we had the luxury of time. The apostolic communities, again speaking of the Philippines, is in an altogether different sphere. The quickest was to have everything “copy-pasted” (including the date and the names of the members from the previous year).

Now back to my present community. I am happy that we went to Manziana for this weekend. Thanks to our community leader, Antonio and the community council composed of Ángel, Chuchi and Javier. For me, it was redemption; the concern that I voiced out previously was addressed.

Our first session on the evening of Friday was a sharing of life stories. We listened to each one as he talked about his family and vocation journey and related how he “ended up” in Rome. For some brothers, as they themselves proclaimed, it was the first time that a sharing like this, in a community like ours, has ever taken place. For me, it was a wonderful opportunity to learn more and thus appreciate the men who are now family to me.

The first part of Saturday morning was the continuation of the sharing of stories. The rest was a dynamic of reflecting on our Community Life Project and finding ways to improve it.  The afternoon was reserved for personal use. We gathered again for the anticipated Sunday Mass at 6:45 and shared a nice dinner afterwards.

On Sunday, most of us went for outing, in different groups and to different places, two of which were Civitavecchia and the Necropoli di Cerveteri. Lunch was in celebration of the birthday of Joaquim Esperandio, one of the four brothers in Manziana community. We returned to the General House in the afternoon.

Thank you very much, Joe, Antonio, Teofilo and Joaquim, members of the Manziana’s community, for receiving us. The only regret I have is that two of our community members (we are all 19) were not able to be with us because of Covid-19 health protocols. I hope that the next time, we will be there 100%.

Br. Lindley Sionosa