Life Project in Fraternity

The Champagnat Movement of the Marist Family in the Province of Central America has more than 350 members distributed in 30 fraternities, present in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Puerto Rico.

In order to grow together, to communicate and to be formed, the Champagnat Movement of the province organizes retreats for the fraternities, formation workshops for animators, meetings every two years of all the fraternities of the Province, celebration of Saint Marcellin's Day with the communities of brothers, walks and moments of relaxation with the whole family.

Since last year – after receiving the Life Project in Fraternity document – all the fraternities have entered into a process of renewal.

As part of this improvement, 13 cards have been elaborated, with the objective of promoting the deepening of the spirit of the Project, and at the same time, new parameters have been introduced for the renewal of the Movement, in tune with the process of four years.

And these are some of the achievements:

• To have a significant number of fraternities and in them lay men and women who wish to live their lay vocation as Marists.
• To count on the perseverance and fidelity of the fraternities (some for 30 years).
• To achieve growth, through formative processes, in the awareness of the lay vocation, of spirituality and of the Marist charism.
• To follow a path of growth and communion with the brothers.
• To live a positive process where one becomes aware of the responsibility of leading the Movement with more determination on the part of the laity, but at the same time with a new vision, that of promoting communion with the brothers, in a way of mutual vocational enrichment and of a joint look towards the future of the Marist charism.

Among the challenges, the following stand out:

• To offer formative processes that respond to the new vision and dynamics of the life of the Church, of the Institute and of the world.
• To enable the animation of fraternities where responsibility, autonomy and lay maturity grow.
• To Seek ways to connect and enter into relationship with the new generations.
• To continue with formative experiences that reaffirm the three dimensions of the charism, in a vocational key and of charismatic attachment, in harmony with the documents of reference of the Institute: Around the same table, Being Marist lay and the new Life Project in Fraternity.
• To strengthen the formative dimension as a deep and systematic process, both on a personal and community level.
• To become aware of the international sense of the Movement and, therefore, of the need for an organizational form that favours this collective lay Marist identity and gives it institutional consistency.
• To seek new presences and forms of mission for lay Marists in the world.