Frank Neil omi

Looking back over the congress it is not difficult to see how instrumental the first day was in realizing the spirit of joy and enthusiasm that was far beyond all expectation. The life of the congress began as the young people gathered in the auditorium: there were friendly greetings and introductions, and the theme song’s rhythm found immediate resonance and response as we danced and waved our scarves. Of course there was some apprehension as to what flavor the congress was to take and how it was to proceed. But already the setting of the auditorium - with its round tables as if we were to sit down to a meal - suggested something different.

It was into this atmosphere that Fr Cencini delivered his talk. The talk helped to draw out and cement the joy in us and in so doing produced something far bigger than a collective affirmation of our vocation to the religious life. I would like to look briefly at what happened in this process in which I found myself a willing participant along with all the others.

A particular relationship or dynamic was established between the speaker (Fr. Cencini), the text, and us who listened. This dynamic allowed each participant to relive his or her experience of being called to the religious life, to identify with the text or part of it, to find a new way to articulate this experience and even a new will to share this experience with others. The talk drew out of us the inherent love we have for our vocation and motivated us to live it more fully.

The heart of Fr. Cencini’s address presented vocation as a dialogue between two freedoms, in which a succession of calls and responses occur. Fr. Cencini presented us with a framework - perhaps, I could say, a world view of religious life - within which we could re-think our journeys, rediscover the freedom given to us and understand that God makes us obedient to his call, if we turn to him in the freedom of faith.

The text itself was long, perhaps too long. It was impossible to assimilate the entire text ... to give equal attention to all its parts. Despite this we were kept engaged in the talk because of its stimulating content and because of appropriate pictorial representations in the use of the audiovisuals. Some participants expressed how the audiovisuals helped to capture Fr Cencini’s thought when they were tired of listening to his words or when the translators stumbled to keep up with him. But no one was left untouched: at least one aspect of the talk spoke personally to each participant, as was evident from the fervent sharing around the tables and in the constellations. This suggests another reason why it was not possible to follow the whole discourse. When part of the talk spoke personally to me, I had to reflect in myself and make a note of the point. And so I missed the points that followed. (The talk was a meditation!)

And if it was not possible to hear everything we had a copy of the text thanks to the efficient work of the secretariat. A number of people have said that they are in the process of reflecting on the text; that it is so rich there are always new things to discover in it; that it can’t be read in one sitting. We thank Fr. Cencini and his collaborators for giving us this gift. I do not wish to give a summary of the talk, rather I would like to highlight a few aspects that touched us ... aspects that stoked the fire of our zeal and augmented the certainty of our hope in the vocation to consecrated life.

Fr. Cencini spoke to us as young people, who in faith have responded to God’s call, and he appealed to our youthful sensibilities. He presented religious life as something beautiful - a category which appeals to us intensely. Beauty and youthfulness go together, making religious life the eternally young soul of the church. This kind of talk excites us young religious. Further, Fr. Cencini undermined sociological surveys which criticize young people in the world today as being worse than previous generations and having a low capacity to sacrifice. Obviously we responded with loud applause for this criticism. Yes we want to tell you that we are ready to commit our whole beings in following Christ and that we wish to attract many other young people by sharing our joy with them. This is so because we yearn to have the heart of our Founders and to adapt this to our times and to dream of the future when we will help young religious to do the same. We need the help, trust, encouragement and openness of our older brothers - knowing full well that in the future this will be asked of us, too.

Fr. Cencini called us to struggle with God and to be prepared to lose, rather than to struggle with ourselves - a psychological struggle in which no one wins. (In my simplification: how can I let one part of me win and the other lose… so I keep the struggle going). The goal of formation must be to teach us to struggle with God. This aspect appealed to many of us and gave us much hope. We need well trained spiritual directors who are unafraid to call us to deeper conversion in the spirit of fraternal charity. We need formators who themselves have been well formed, to help us bring our vocations to fulfillment.

He called us to abandon the model of personal perfection and to seek community models of evangelical perfection - gratefully finding the beauty, joy and life in togetherness, so that one day whole communities, that lived their charisms fully, would be canonized. And of course we responded enthusiastically with loud applause. This expresses the true desire we young religious have of fraternal communion.

I have spent much time highlighting same aspects of Fr. Cencini’s address. It certainly raised the love and enthusiasm we have for our vocation and helped us find the courage to express it in our sharing.

The constellation meetings were the real highlight of the day. It is here that strangers became friends. We shared our visions for the congress and our vocation stories. We were touched, burnt by the fire burning in each other. This was the real heart of the congress. Young people who had stories to tell, who struggle in their communities and in their personal lives, who desire to discover ever more fully their true identity as children of God in Jesus the Son, who want to proclaim him today.

A deep level of trust and intimacy soon took root in my little group of 10 people, such that we decided to stay together for most of the sharing of the conference. This was the experience of many other groups. There was a lot of interest in the different cultures, in vocations in the first world and third world - to use these inadequate categories. A question from the USA to Africa concerned the luxury of religious life. The response of an African was: "Comfort destroys my vocation which was born in struggle - the poverty of my family and country - and then, because of comfort, ceases to struggle. Yes we need discernment in Africa - just as anywhere else." From Africa to the USA: Why are there few vocations. One response was: We have too many commodities, too much affluence and individualism. Young people don’t see why they should leave the luxury to join religious life which apparently also has the same commodities. In fact the young do not commit themselves to anything. We need to help young people make a definitive, concrete choice for their lives.

A number of concerns were expressed in the constellations, concerns which were echoed, perhaps more clearly on the other days. These included the following, as I heard them expressed around me:

For some there are problems regarding sharing between young and older members: a challenge to community life. Our enthusiasm and desire is seen to be risky: the fears of superiors stop our daring. We need new models of leadership and formation: the people of God should help us to define who we will be. Religious life needs to be more human, have its feet on the ground. We need more creativity and to be given space for this. We don’t want simply to photocopy the past. We are not just the future; we are the present, we need to use the language of present. And a call to superiors: encourage and do not weigh the problems of the congregation on the young.

The experience of the first day moved me deeply. I was struck by the fact that we were all there because we love Christ - Christ who is in love with us, first. My vocation is not simply something personal, I’m called to give witness with others who have had seen the same Lord. The 850 other young religious men and women in love with Christ made me realize this. And that faithful love for Christ made us all brothers and sisters. The first day was really a gathering as a family around the banquet table of the Lord - an image helped by the setting of the auditorium. It was really a life-giving, renewing experience.