Proposals

With the aim of more clearly expressing the Beatitudes of the Kingdom in line with Salesian spirituality, the provinces have offered various proposals.

Quality of relationships

23.  In reference to the style of relationships, they hold it indispensable to revitalize the family spirit in which it is possible to experience humanizing relationships and to free new energies for the mission.  However, at the same time, they ask for the commitment to a personal journey of ascesis to contribute to and nourish it.  In this perspective, they consider it to be important  to give quality of life to every Sister so that she can offer the best of herself and, in particular, so that the elderly Sisters may find new ways of evangelical fruitfulness.

In the view of an anthropological solidarity, they see the urgency of assuming pluralism and co-existence, of differences as opportunities to be themselves, expressing their own gift and accepting those of others.  They hold it to be their duty to handle the inevitable conflicts of life in a more evangelical manner, living the experience of pardon given and received.  They further bring out the need to empower the positive relationships that already exist as a premise and condition for feminine self-awareness, open to reciprocity. To this aim they propose a greater inner awareness, within the Salesian family, of our identity as consecrated women, so as to become ever more believable signs of God’s tenderness.  They emphasize, at the same time, the desire to translate the resources of our femininity  into prayer, the serene integration of limitations, into the art of caring and also into the use of language.

Style of life

24.  Relative to the style of life, some provinces bring out the importance of re-reading the evangelical counsels as a way of active citizenship and as a response to the needs of humanizing today’s society.  The greater part of these, however, speak of the need to study the relational dimension of the vow of poverty as an expression of the gift of self and of solidarity with regard to the poor.  This implies the assumption of a lifestyle that is simple, sober, essential, austere, and transparent, which foresees the acceptance of uncertainty and the renunciation of privileges and guarantees.

Starting from the vision of economic solidarity, the communities propose the promotion of an effective circulation of goods on all levels and the reinforcement of a sense of belonging to the province and to the world-wide community, overcoming every form of individualism.  They propose the exercise of co-responsibility in the administration of goods so as to live solidarity and sharing with the people of the locale, favoring those experiences that could activate micro-economies and local production.

Regarding the circular style of animation, the proposals were articulated around a few nuclei.

Planning mentality

25.  First of all, a planning mentality.  In this regard, it was suggested that there be the development of organizational attitudes, to formulate on the province level guidelines for  the way of planning and living active citizenship, keeping present the problems and actual poverty and making use of local resources.  The need for organization of community life in fidelity to the preventive education typical of the Institute and starting from the urgencies of the mission was brought out.

Beyond the commitment of developing projects, it is hoped that we would be able to review, re-launch and re-asess those already in act so as to be able to better respond to the new poverty of the young people.

Sharing and participation

26.  The urgency of promoting a circular style of animation was perceived in order to reinforce vocational growth and the commitment to evangelization and to insure the continuity of the charism.  This style is given by co-responsibility and reciprocity ,by networking and by a practice of inclusion through which each person can make his/her voice heard.  It gives preference to a participativemode, where sharing the charismatic project and  the methods of carrying it out, interdependence of knowledge and respect for diversity favor relationships and promote the sharing of community decisions in a line of subsidiarity.

Coordination

27.  Regarding the coordination, some communities desire that this be realized in a more systematic form, in particular for the oratory, volunteer groups and associations for leisure time.

Organization of the works and of community life

28.  In merit of the work and community life, it was suggested that we start from the family spirit and the planning mentality as criteria that will help to free the communities from a rigid institutionalization to render them more open, welcoming, flexible and diversified, in accord with the variety of journeys and tasks. This favors personal responsibility in the administration of the house and in more  realistic planning in the work that offers conditions of greater depth in personal, relational and apostolic life.

Starting from the needs of the mission

29.  There is a felt need to deepen the study of Salesian identity proper to a community of women consecrated for a mission, reviving the charismatic memory in response to today’s challenges.  There emerges the need to assume with a new awareness for oratorian criteria as a foundation for educational action and to work together for the good of the young people.

The provinces suggest sustaining a mentality of change so as to be able to be open to the signs of the times and to assure the significance of the works in view of a more efficacious educational mission.  They hold the carrying out of periodic evaluations of the journey of community life and the mission to be fundamental in this proposal.

Restructuring

30.  Based on community research that takes into account the challenges and urgencies of the context, the provinces intend to proceed courageously in the restructuring of the works, promoting  collaboration with the laity, starting with a sharing of the charism in order to be, together, more meaningful in giving a response to the needs of the poor, of women and young people.

Furthermore, they propose the permanent exercise of discernment in the light of the Word to render themselves flexible, capable of allowing themselves to be challenged by the reality and to seek alternative responses.  They suggest some criteria for the community reviewing of the works: the charism, the requests of the Church, the needs of the territory and available resources.

Educating ourselves and others to evangelical citizenship

31.  The syntheses of the Province Chapters  bring to light a great vivacity of  initiatives and actions that insert themselves in a pertinent manner into the socio- culture fabric and respond to concrete educational needs.

Many educating communities are allowing themselves to be challenged by the problems inherent in the globalization that characterizes our society, always becoming more aware of the injustice that is at the root of the unequal distribution of goods, the exclusion of the weakest, of the violation of human rights and they become a provocation in the context in which they are inserted.

Sometimes, however, they experience the lack of interpretive keys to read the complexity and adequate criteria to evaluate the importance and implications of the laws of the State or of other Institutions.

In the following paragraphs there is a synthesis of the responses that regard the educational co-responsibility of the mission and in the administration of the works, the concrete actions  that would be advantageous for the poor and the relative proposals.