Sharing identity and spirituality

?Fraternity reveals the magical aspect of being a Younger Brother?. This commentary which appeared in the final evaluation is a perfect corollary to sum up the lived experience of the last Meeting of Young Brothers of Cono Sur, held from 23rd to 27th January in the Villa Marista de Santa Eulalia (Chosica), Peru. Truly the experience of being together and living as Brothers is one of the most gratifying aspects that came out of those days spent together.

We all met, sixteen Brothers between the ages of 22 and 30 from the Provinces of Cruz del Sur and Santa Maria de los Andes : César Borja, Martien Flecha, Luis Vega and Máximo Benítez from Paraguay ; Maximiliano Berone, Carlos Urrutia, Juan Bernal, Diego Santiago, Pierre Chimeno, Jorge Arraztoa and Jorge Walder from Argentina ; Aldo Salvatierra of Bolivie ; Ronny Candela, Levi Vargas and Freddy Carreño from Peru; Álvaro Sepúlveda from Chili. Our coordinator was F. Juan José Cadillo from Peru while our superiors, Brothers Pedro Marcos, Demetrio Espinosa and Angel Medina accompanied us throughout the meeting.

Some of the objectives we outlined from the beginning were : to live fraternally, to become empassioned about our common vocation, to share our life, our apostolate and our personal progress and to foster creativity in community prayer. In fact we easily covered all these objectives because the serious part of the work as well as the informal moments combined for a great occasion to live as Brothers. Conversation and laughter are often spontaneous around maté or near a guitar, and these were reminiscent of the pleasant years of formation and the many experiences of community life, of work and studies. Given some time we will fashion one identity and a unique spirituality as we consecrate these youthful years as Marist Brothers. Without denying the difficulties that lie before us we nonethelees wish to match our vocation to the challenge our people face as we attend to children and young people especially the poorest of these.

We are especially grateful to the Brothers of Peru for all their kindness as they welcomed us prior to the meeting as well as during and after it. In spite of being very busy with their many activities they found time to see to all our needs and to make our stay as pleasant as possible, including visits to historic and touristic areas in and around Lima.

Now as we look to the possibilities modern technology offers we are thinking of creating a blog to share our similar views and perception of the world as it is shared in the sphere of Marist religious life. This is how we hope to go beyond the obstacle of miles and kilometres to live daily fraternity.

H. Alvaro Sepùlveda
Santa Maria de los Andes