
Tomorrow for today
After morning prayer (17 September), Br Emili introduced the next session of the General Conference with the question: How would you like the Marist Institute in the world to be seen in the local communities in 2020?
The dynamic followed was first personal reflection, then group work and the choosing and defining of five important statements about how they would like the Institute to be seen in 2020. The statements were then placed together in terms of similarity and there was time for all to be able to read all the statements. Finally, one person from each group was free to present an echo to the whole assembly. The echos expressed convergences, divergences, surprises and possible omissions, whatever drew the attention.
In the afternoon, Br Emili gave some news about the Brothers in Aleppo: they were well, planning the next school year, although without Internet communication.
To continue the work being done, he presented the participants with another question: Are we operating as an international Institute? He asked them to indicate what they thought was being done and what could be improved.
The questions served as the basis for the next day’s work.
On 18 September, morning prayer was centred on the wedding feast of Cana and directed by Br Josep Maria Soteras CG, who helped study the biblical text and gave time for personal reflection.
Then Br Emili briefly reviewed the work up to then. From the previous day’s work, they managed to define 6 areas, which could be summed up as follows: the most vulnerable, global availability, international Marist communities (brothers and lay), meaningful life, evangelization and government. The Superior General invited them to study and give concrete expression to these themes. Six groups were formed, one per area, and the participants were free to choose the area which interested them.
Before moving on to the group work, Br Emili recommended them not to lose sight of the global focus of the Institute, as an international institution; with a mission arising from the Montagne experience and directed towards the “Montagnes” of today; in a Church with a Marian face, with religious life moving to the “margins” to evangelize.