SPANISH LANGUAGE CONSTELLATION

Schedule B

Challenges:

The predominance of the emotional to the detriment of strong thought open up positive horizons

Considerations

1. We live in the complex world of the post-modern age, in which information is circulated at an ever faster pace; the tentacles of the Internet are reaching out increasingly throughout the universe.

In former times stability and self-denial were the common currency; today the insecurity caused by rapid change, and ready access to development is making the Self a very large place. Thus there is a risk of moving towards individualism and of losing that missionary daring.
2. It is astounding to note that statistics show that the number of those who have left religious life has now surpassed the number of the religious who have died during the same period. There is a lot more involved here than the sphere of emotions.
3. Be careful not to make facile negative judgments. The new context of the post-modern age is not necessarily "less deep". Religious want liturgy that is more warm and participative.
It should be noted that during the congress the "western" young people liked the liturgies with African and Asian stamps.
One notes among the young people a capacity for communal forgiveness that we do not have. For example, after some tension or the sacrament of reconciliation they do not hesitate to go and admit their faults to those with whom there was this tension.
4. Find the means to help these young religious; accompanying them in their formation is a new challenge. It seems that it is contact with daily living, community life, the poor, which allows the emotional aspect to grow and be harmonized in the person.

New horizons:

The congress of young religious confirms the urgency of developing a pedagogy which begins with the lived experience, raises it to the level of well-structured thought and then brings it back to the personal.

This means that we are to accept the young people as they are, that we help them to put their emotional side at Christ’s service, and that we educate the emotional so it can be situated in the long-term.

Toward New Horizons - Education and Formation

Schedule D

Considerations:

1. The young religious want to participate, have a say, be together, in an atmosphere of joyous celebration.
This demands to be consulted and that others not speak for them is witness of a new culture.
2. They seem to be accustomed to strong sensations. When they are exposed to ordinary, daily living, this deprivation stifles them, and this threatens their ability to endure.
3. It is necessary to be genuine with them when we speak about lasting commitments. Statistics show that in the long term the religious who leave out outnumber those who die during the same period.
4. How to grow from individualism to shared projects. There are often interesting apostolic projects, but it is difficult to effect the transition from individual projects to communal ones.

Toward new horizons

We should find the means to teach them to live in freedom with a return to the joy of an indwelling God and the joy of a true community life:

·This should help to make the young religious a person of communion rather than a person of consumption;
·This should help develop a sense of responsibility and lasting commitment.