Paths of personal and Marist growth

For the sixth consecutive year, a group of 55 participants comprising teachers, non- teachers, fraternities and brothers of the five countries of our Province, have lived through the experience of Formar (a course in Marist formation). Designed to deepen fundamental elements of Marist spirituality, it is an important occasion for getting to know Champagnat and the Marist charism. The community formed spends 16 days following a boarding school regime, an experiences which goes beyond the theoretical. FORMAR endeavours to be a shared space for laymen, laywomen and brothers to reflect on the paths of personal and Marist growth. The coming together of several nationalities and different individual characteristics, of different ages and backgrounds, has offered the occasion for rich and diverse exchanges among the participants. The welcome by the educational communities of El Salvador and Guatemala helped us to identify the diversity of Marist life and its mission. On finishing this session, the participants felt themselves to be encouraged by the meeting and enriched in their vocation. At this time, the experience has been lived by 38% of the total of the teachers in our centres and we are at the stage of beginning level II.

H. Luis Carlos Gutiérrez, fms