Monday, Oct. 20
In the afternoon of Sunday, October 19 – World Mission Sunday – all the Consolata missionaries called to the Consulta, gathered at Fatima in an atmosphere of joyful expectation and glad to see each other, many among us after many years spent in different mission fields. At the Consulta we are 35 missionaries, with, among us, two brothers and two facilitators – one of them a layman. The actual beginning of the Consulta was on Monday, Oct. 20.
We started with a Mass in the parish church of Fátima, where the three little shepherds received their baptism and first communion, as we were told by the Claretian Father Rui Marto, responsible of the parish. After the Eucharist, presided over by the General Superior and celebrated by all of us in a spirit of profound listening, we headed to the cemetery of Fátima to pray together over the graves of the Consolata missionaries buried here. They are Confreres who were either born or worked here in Portugal. An atmosphere of respect and admiration surrounds us while we listen to the accounts of the lives of these missionaries who exercised their ministry with great self-giving.
After returning to the place that hosts the Consulta, the former minor seminary of Fátima, the General Superior gives official opening to the meeting. We proceed to choose the people who have the task to facilitate and make the work more effective: moderators, secretaries and a committee in charge of communications.
Our General Superior has told us the story of the ants to invite us to grasp the spirit of the Consulta. The story goes more or less like this:
We should observe the ants. They have a great wisdom that can be summarized in four points:
Ants never get discouraged. If they are going to a place and you try to stop them, they will find another path: they’ll climb above, they’ll dig below, they’ll go around the obstacle, always finding another way. What wisdom, so clear! So they never fail to find a way to reach the goal.
The second point of the ants’ philosophy is: During winter, ants always think of summer. This is very important. They always remind themselves: “Winter will not last forever,” we will soon leave from here. Therefore, when the weather outside turns warmer, they get out; if it turns cold again, they re-enter. However, they do not abandon the desire to leave. They keep thinking positively.
The third point of the ants’ philosophy is that, during summer, ants think about winter: they have their minds turned to the future! This is a very intelligent outlook as well! One cannot be so naive as to think that summer will last forever. So ants gather food in the summer for the winter.
And here is now the last point of the ants’ wisdom. At the question: “How much food do the ants pile up during the summer for the winter?” The answer one would receive is: “All that they can!” Amazing. All that is possible! What an awesome lesson we get from the ants! Therefore in a nutshell: Never be disheartened; Be positive; Think ahead and… do everything you can.
Tuesday, Oct. 21
Today has been characterized by the interesting statistical study presented by Dr. Carlos Liz. On the basis of the data given to him by the IMC from the year 1950 up to now, Dr. Liz has given numbers, graphics and visual representations of the past and of the future of our Society, particularly from the point of view of the origin and destination of the personnel. This study has astonished most of us. Based on the data in his hands (Yearbook IMC), Dr. Liz has made a probabilistic projection of the IMC personnel, under the point of view of number of members and their origin, up to the year 2030. Many surprising things stand out, some predictable, but all leading us in a forceful way to foresee a very different future from the present one. It is a study that is matter for thinking, as the reality it reveals is not an easy one, because of the decrease in the number of European personnel that will rapidly take place in Europe and also partly of the American one that will take place in the Americas, if the present strategies and actions are not changed.
Wednesday, Oct. 22
In this second day of this week, a week dedicated to the knowledge of our present reality by listening to each other, we retraced the path that from the Sagana Chapter in the year 1999, when the concept of continentality was first introduced, up to the present day.
The General Direction view of today’s situation of our Society is presented to us by the report of the General Direction for the Consulta, which is read to the assembly in its entirety. The report calls for a restructuring or a revitalization of our Society; that is to say, for an effort to rethink our organization at all levels, analyzing the validity and effectiveness of our commitments in the fields of Missionary Animation, Formation, Financial Administration and Pastoral Activity. As the world, the Church and missiology are changing, also the IMC way of doing its Mission has to change. In order to come forward with a proposal for a new paradigm of our mission and for the revitalization of our Society, room is given to the work already done by the Continents, i.e.: the two documents – Document on the Biennium on the Mission and the Continent Missionary Project – that the each Continent had prepared before the Consulta. Time is given to the Superiors of each Continent to read the two documents and to do an analysis in group of the headway made by the Continent, also in the light of the report of the GD.
Each Continent has also been asked to pin point the advantages and the difficulties already found and foreseen when invited to commit itself in the IMC program of restructuring or revitalizing the Institute presented by the GD.
More pictures
Fatima (October 2014)
