Reviewing ourselves in the spirit of Champagnat? here and now
“Reviewing ourselves in the spirit of Champagnat… here and now” was the motto which inspired us during the holding of the XIX National Meeting of the Marist Fraternities of 2013, organized by the “Ntro. Señor de la Misericordia” Fraternity of Tepatitlán, in the city of San Juan de los Lagos, Jalisco, from 1 to 3 November..
After an interesting tour of the town of Tepatitlán by the various fraternities, the Meeting commenced on Friday 1 November in the rooms of the “Juan Pablo II” House, with words from Brs Oscar Domínguez and Horacio Hernández and the couple responsible for co-ordinating this event, encouraging us to take part with the vision of being “Brothers and Lay in mission towards 2017”
Once again, thanks to the enthusiasm and efforts of all, we were able to assemble 150 persons from 19 Fraternities. The two Brother Provincials of México Occidental and Centro provided support by their presence, as well as members of their Councils, making a total of 20 brothers.
From distant places such as Tijuana, Mérida, Monterrey, Cd. Juárez and Los Mochis and closer communities such as Guadalajara, Irapuato, Tepic, Mexico, Toluca, Aguascalientes, we all felt welcomed fraternally by our hosts.
The first conference, “The lay person in becoming aware of his Marist mission since the General Chapter,” was given by Br Eduardo Navarro, Provincial of México Occidental, who urged us to be active participators in the new relationship between brothers and laity.
On Saturday 2 November, All Souls Day, we began activities with a Eucharist honouring the memory of our deceased faithful. Then we listened to three more conferences which animated us to recognize the importance of building a Church with a lay face (given by the lawyer Jesús García Razcón); with a Marian face (by Br Guillermo Villarreal), founded in a life experience (by the architect Ernesto Muñoz González).
The same day, we had the opportunity to hear about the progress of the Process of Revitalization of the CHMMF, and recognize the importance of taking part in the second stage. To complete the working day, there was a presentation of videos of each Fraternity previously requested and prepared in their places of origin in order to compare styles of organization, histories, types of work and apostolate.
The day terminated with an animated “Noche Mexicana”, when in addition to sampling Mexican tidbits, we were able to appreciate dances from our Mexican folklore, closing with an exhibition of the typical cockfight.
On Sunday 3, we performed a very interesting work for the life of the Marist Family. This consisted in bringing, first in teams made up of persons from different places, and then in plenary sessions, very concrete proposals to give life to the fraternities, in accord with the experience and journey of each community. An important place was given to a meeting of all the Animators of the fraternities, in February 2014, for studying and reflecting on these proposals.
We terminated our activities with the Sunday Eucharist, at which we received a message from Monsignor José María de la Torre, exhorting all present to continue forward on this path of Marist apostolic spirituality.
The Sunday meal was time for farewells, embraces, and good wishes for continuing towards the next Meeting. After thanking all the members of the Fraternity of “Nuestro Señor de la Misericordia” we began the return to our communities, feeling reanimated and spiritually nourished from the experiences lived and shared, so that with faith and joy we go in haste to a new land to be messengers of hope.