An assignment for communities: foster the quality of life and work

"Cultural and pastoral quality" finds a stimulus, a setting and almost a school in the style of life of the community. Experience shows that after some time in a community of a certain type we have grown in the vision of the youth field and of youth problems, in the relationship with the laity, in the ability for sharing, and in discernment; while in other communities we are more tempted to waste time, we seem to live in a perpetual hurry, from one emergency to another; we become accustomed to an excessively individual way of life, we give way to routine and become mentally isolated.

The pattern of life and work of the local community is therefore a determining factor, as also that of the provincial community since we live today against a background of ample communication. In both cases the level of interest, the quality of information, communication of experiences, type of relationship with the young, the laity and the local context, are not a matter of indifference.

Our communities have undergone changes in their composition and in their life. Modifications have been introduced in the relationship with educative work and the tasks in it assigned to the confreres, linkage with the external social and ecclesial environment, and the working model for the accomplishment of our mission. On the other hand, the insistence of recent years has led to positive results in respect of the assumption of new demands; there has been a big increase in moments of exchange of views and processes which foster reflection, sharing, prayer and working as a team.

It seems clear today that if we want to avoid stress, activism and superficiality, we must necessarily impose a daily and weekly rhythm, which fosters recovery of strengths and a relaunching of the quality of life, also from a cultural standpoint, by establishing conditions for offering the confreres an updated content for reflection. The quality of life and work find support and nourishment in the annual program which can provide particular opportunities for the qualification of individuals and communities.

This is the line of thought which led to the establishment of the day of the community, a valid means for communal growth, the meetings of Councils and teams, the participation of the community in formative experiences with lay collaborators and other groups of persons (ecclesial and educative environments and those of the religious life), the elaboration and verification of the PEPS to be assessed from the formative standpoint.

The Rector, opportunely prepared and supported by his Council and community, is called upon to cultivate an environment and a form of internal and external relationships which "qualify" the confreres. His is the duty in the first place to circulate and exploit some particular incentives, such as the guidelines of the Bishops and especially of the Pope, the documents of General Chapters and letters of the Rector Major; and he can profit by the intelligent use of other simpler occasions like "good nights", spiritual reading, and salesian and ecclesial information.

An indispensable location for every local community is the library and the corresponding reading room. Their care and the material available in them are indicative: they have a real utility and, as in the case of the chapel, also a symbolic value in the overall physiognomy of the house.

The use made of it by the community has changed. Personal sources of information have multiplied (Books, reviews, CD, internet). But it has a function which is still relevant and necessary for providing, not least for lay collaborators and externs, our specific heritage of history, pedagogy and spirituality, as also the fundamental thought of the Church and the classics of Christian reflection. It should never be lacking, in due proportion, even in missionary residences, in which one should be able to count on sufficient support for pastoral updating and the collecting together of what serves for a good knowledge of local culture.

The initiative should also be encouraged of having in the Province one or more libraries which are as complete as possible with respect to the charism and salesian work at Provincil and local level, and writings which can provide an idea of the social and political context in which the works of the Province began and have developed.