THE WORK OF THE FOUR CONSTELLATIONS

ENGLISH LANGUAGE CONSTELLATION

Schedule B

1. Community

1.1 Sharing is the key concept in community: sharing experience of faith and doubt, personal experiences of joy and sorrow, sharing of material goods, the experience of following Christ, sharing in the paschal mystery.

1.2 Sharing leads to communion with one’s brothers, which is expressed in various forms of community; sharing also leads to communion with many other individuals and circles of people outside of religious community. Religious community in turn sustains us in all these forms of communion with people, in all forms of inventing new ways of relating to others, with creativity.

1.3 Help young people to discover and deal with their expectations of community. Are the expectations real? Or do they rather come from a fractured background? Help them to assume their difficult past and to be concerned for mission. Community must not turn into navel-gazing!

1.4 The search for community is probably stronger today than it was in the founding charisms. These are living realities, open to organic development, while preserving their originality as critical of society.

2. Dialogue

2.1 It is dialogue that creates community, opening people to share at all levels. We need to take time to talk and to listen to young people. They need to be trusted. It is our business as Superiors General to respond to this need, to involve young people in dialogue and discernment of what God is asking of a particular community.

2.2 Dialogue enables people to vision the future with creativity. It helps us in our leadership which is directed at enabling new things to unfold.

2.3 It is sometimes clear that we are not being truthful with one another. What is the nature of truthfulness between us? What are true words? It is only in patient dialogue that we can discover when "yes" means "yes" and not "no".

3. Formation

3.1 Formation becomes ever more important in the pursuit of these ideals. Can we help one another to improve the formation of formators?

3.2 The formators should be trained to deal with the expectations of young people, with their doubts and problems, so that the latter are not suppressed and bottled up. The young people need to be challenged to grow in openness and transparency, in mature adulthood, rather than perpetuating their adolescence. Only then will they achieve consistency and perseverance, even when eventually stripped of their formation community.

Schedule D

1. Formation

1.1 It seems good that the formation team include a lay person; perhaps a psychologist who can individuate weak and strong parent, and help young people reach decisions; or a woman, who accompanies the formation team in a permanent capacity, for example as spiritual director. A lay person’s views are often illuminating.

1.2 Pastoral placements that are well prepared (with time to get and to know local language and culture) and carried out for a good length of time (some have a two-year stage) are very important in vocation discernment. Many factors combine in this: the young person’s age, after philosophy and before theology, the work experience, the relationship with confreres and with the laity.

1.3 First appointments are very important. Young people should not be used to fill holes. The local superior needs to accompany them, for they are still young and inexperienced. An annual meeting of those in their first five to seven years of ministry, along with a "mentor", has proved to be very beneficial.

2. Experiences in mixed community

2.1 Religious families composed of men, women and lay associates are learning to develop bonds of deeper relationship, mutual enrichment and help in the apostolate.

2.2 Formation courses for men and women formators have been organized with good effect to help the formators know themselves and one another.

2.3 There are many examples of apostolic communities, which incorporate religious, married couples. Problems may arise when all are involved in decision-making in everything to do with the community, so certain distinctions seem to be called for.