Intercommunity Meeting on Marist Vocations in Central America

The Marist communities of El Salvador and Guatemala, of the Central America Province, held the second intercommunity meeting on August 27 and 28, respectively, under the theme of the Year of Marist Vocations, “Caring for and generating Marist life.”.

At the request of the Provincial Brothers’ Life Commission, the event was animated by Brother Omar Peña, provincial coordinator of vocation and youth ministry.

Three community dialogues were considered as a proposal, with the objective of “Developing a community dialogue on our effective involvement in vocation ministry, both in a broad and specific sense, through a community configuration that accurately reflects the Gospel values around which every Christian life project is configured and proposes ways to accompany its development”.

The meeting of Marist communities took place in an atmosphere of fraternity, joy, and dialogue. There were moments of reflection, sharing, and prayer. The three dialogues on vocation ministry were developed as follows: 

• The first dialogue was an approach to the experience of Marist community life as a privileged environment for the proclamation of the Gospel, which allowed each community to identify in its dynamics “the best” to offer to children, and young people.
• The second dialogue was an approach to the emerging youth sensitivity through the community experience as a privileged pedagogy for the development of the vocational sense, through listening to the young people of the Marist Youth Ministry in Mejicanos (El Salvador), the young postulants and scholastic brothers, and a recent study on the new experiences of community life with young people.
• The third dialogue addressed the problem of language and communication with children and young people when we talk about our vocation as brothers. A communitarian proposal was made to take concrete actions aimed at solving the problem.

To conclude, Brother Omar invited all those present to participate in the next colloquium on vocation ministry to be held in March 2023.