2006-12-21 BRAZIL

?United in one heart?

The brothers of the Marist Province of Brasil Centro-Norte gathered at Mendes, RJ, from the 1st to the 10th December 2006 with this slogan: ?United in one heart?, on the occasion of four Provincial events of notable importance.
1 ? The Provincial Assembly included the participation of some invited laypeople, both men and women, and the majority of the brothers. After the analysis of the Report of the realisations of the last three years, various propositions were made for the Provincial Chapter. This rich, fruitful and fraternal moment allowed us to be aware of the enormous advances and realities acquired during this period, and also the weaknesses we have as an institution. We also faced the evidence that restructuring is an irreversible and positive fact.

2 ? After the Assembly, the Province entered a climate of prayer. These were days of personal interiorisation and of desert, during which the Jesuit priest, Father AntĂ´nio Netto, preacher of the retreat, invited us to make an evaluation of the quality of our religious consecration and to take up with ardour our personal relationship with Jesus.

3 ? The 8th December, feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, was marked by the festive meeting of the Marist family around the altar. Brothers Joilson de Souza Toledo and Wesley Adenilton Ribeiro made their first vows; Brothers Natalino, Renato and Carlos renewed their promises of perpetual vows; Brother Joaquim Juraci dOliveira made the vow of stability; twenty young brothers renewed their vows. During the same Eucharist we celebrated the fidelity of the Brother Jubilarians.
During the afternoon of this day, the Provincial Chapter started its works with the installation of Brother Claudino Falchetto as Provincial for a second mandate.

4 ? The Provincial Chapter, after having listened to Brother Claudino in his opening speech, and after having reread the propositions of the Assembly and the reflection of Brother Seán Sammon in the letter addressed to the Province on the occasion of the nomination of the Brother Provincial, developed and adopted the following three priorities for the period 2006-09:
a) To revive in the heart of the brothers the sense of consecration and of commitment in a religious life that is persevering, prophetic and consistent in the footsteps of Jesus.
b) To revive the evangelical ideal of the brothers and the laypeople of making Jesus Christ known and loved, according to our charism, in order to respond to the calls of children and young people.
c) To implant and accompany the Strategic Plan, by encouraging a prophetic nature, the value of the human being and the evangelical use of goods.

From these three priorities appropriate strategies germinated which considered the anxieties and the concerns of the brothers, already manifested in the previous circumstances. The final work of the Chapter was the election of the Council, composed of the following brothers: Afonso Tadeu Murad, Joaci Pinheiro de Sousa, Joaquim Juraci Farias dOliveira, José Nilton Dourado da Silva, Lúcio Gomes Dantas, and Vicente Falqueto, Vice Provincial.

In closing these events, the evaluation that was carried out and the oral testimonies of the brothers confirmed the general satisfaction with these days of blessing and of grace for the Province.
The phrase ?Together in the same direction?, which oriented the spirit and the actions of the first three years of the new Province of Brasil Centro-Norte, had its full, obvious and final realisation in these experiences of December. For the brothers and the other companions and friends in the mission this agreeable observation crowned the efforts and the ideals of all Marist hearts. For the Province, it is a certainty: even though the horizon is still a long way off, we are advancing on a true pathway and we can already see the sun which is going to be born. We will arrive there, ?United in one heart?.

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