2014-03-17 BRAZIL

Province of Brasil Centro-Sul

On 22 February 2014, the Province of Brésil Centre-Sud held its 2nd Forum on Laity and Shared Life. 30 lay persons, 12 Brothers and 1 Marist Father took part. During the first session, the young people forming part of the Provincial Commission of Marist Youth were also present.

In the prayer, we remembered Brother Joaquim Panini, recently deceased, who was a great promotor of the lay movement in the Province. At the beginning, there was a presentation of the perspectives of the  Secretariat of the Laity and the provincial experiences for the promotion of the lay Marist vocation : the CHMMF, the communities of welcome, the joint formation meeting, the Ad gentes volunteer service and the group of lay life. The young people also spoke of their relation with the Marist charism and challenges of their reflection on the continuity within the charism of Champagnat.

In the group activities – tables of consensus – the participants discussed the possible approaches of the lay movement in the Province, the priorities and situations of urgency which call out to us. In the afternoon, Rafael Rosado, a Jesuit Brother, presented the structure and the life of the Christian Life Community (CVX) associated with Ignatian spirituality, which helped in the subsequent study of the proposal of the Groups of Marist Laity, men and women, for which the process of invitation and constitution commences in March 2014.

It was a time rich in discussion and study, in particular on the lay Marist vocation and its various manifestations. Pollyana Nabarro, of the Volunteer Service Section and a member of a group of Marist laity, manifested precisely the sentiment of the participants : «I am happy to be with the Brothers and the laity sharing the life and the new ways of living the Marist charism, for as the Superior General of the Marist Institute, Br Emili Turú says, we are all Marists of Champagnat ».

Br Bene Oliveira

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