MIMA, Saturday – Discerning guidelines and strategies
Photos | Videos: Sr. Cristina, SMSM | Fr. Pedro GarcĂa | Sr. Anna Khady, SM | Video of the day | Other info
The penultimate day of the Marist International Mission Assembly was opened by Mark Elliott, from the Preparatory Commission, who led the morning prayer. Then the work of defining guidelines and strategies for the implementation of the priorities chosen continued.
On Friday, the participants dedicated themselves to indicating guidelines and strategies for the implementation of the priorities. Each group made several suggestions. The preparatory committee grouped all the proposed guidelines under the 6 priorities. And the strategies were grouped according to the guidelines. Many ideas emerged and Saturday morning was dedicated to identifying the most effective ones for the Marist mission, which will be taken up as Assembly and Institute-wide proposals.
The discernment process, following the methodology of the previous days, was marked by “conversation in the Spirit”: personal reflection, dialog at the tables and sharing in the plenary.
There was also an important change in the priorities. Priority number three had been defined as “Marist spirituality”. In this priority, a broader aspect was included, relating to the “meaning of life”, a theme that is very much felt in the school environment and which causes difficulties inherent in mental health, something that came up repeatedly in the conversations. The participants noted that “spirituality” might not reveal this reality in an obvious way. It was therefore decided to add “Mental Health” as the seventh priority.
At the end of the morning, Brother José Sánchez, from the Preparatory Commission, considering the large number of suggestions and contributions made by the participants, asked the participants to entrust the commission, which took on the task of drafting a proposal for the final document.
There were no other activities during the day. In the afternoon, while a group of participants worked on the draft document to be discussed on the last day of MIMA, most of the participants took the opportunity to visit the surroundings of the Assembly venue, especially the Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial.
Casa de Ejercicios San José
MIMA was held at the San José House of Exercises, a space that the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts makes available to anyone who needs it for retreats, spiritual exercises or congresses. The house is located in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, where there is also a well-known Marist formation center, not big enough to accommodate the 119 MIMA participants. The highlight of the city is the monastery and visiting it is a way of immersing yourself in the history of Spain, especially the reign of Philip II.
