Which Formation?

103.  The responses from the provinces continually bring us back to the need for formation, an indispensable process for the renewal of religious life in dialogue with history.  Our formation is connected to the vocational experience and sustains it.  It is the way to integral maturity and the progressive configuration to Christ.

It is urgent to re-center our formation journey on  Christ and on His message that we have particularly contemplated in the evangelical beatitudes.  It is a need solicited also  by the actual complexity characterized by a multiplicity of life projects, religious beliefs, of socio-cultural models and of behavior.

Self-formation

104. It is important to focus on the responsibility of one’s own formation, or self-formation which, resting on a solid human basis, is open to the evangelical dimension, accepted ever more profoundly and lived in an ecclesial community of which one feels to be an active member.

The study of the Plan of Formation convinces us ever more of the need to assume a formative model that can bring us to a wisdom-filled reading of our life and of the reality surrounding us in the light of the Word of God.

Accompaniment

105 - From what has been said, we see the need for emphasizing an accompaniment, which is a fundamental experience of the personal and communal journey toward maturity because it is an aid to self-knowledge and direction. The accompaniment is achieved in a relationship of reciprocity that demands respect, care for the growth of the other person, availability to recognize and support in her the workings of the Spirit. The style is simple and family-like, the same as that experienced in Mornese by Maria Domenica and the other Sisters.

From the viewpoint of evangelical citizenship

106 Formation to evangelical citizenship must be included in the whole formation journey. The question of formation is, in fact, a question of maturing in freedom and responsibility toward others.  This formation begins from an awareness of the irreplaceable contribution each person can make in the context of her own city or neighborhood. . It proceeds in knowing about the life of the territory in which one lives, in analyzing the problems, and in planning commitment choices in line with the Salesian educational project. It is actualized by keeping present the ecclesial horizon, in collaboration with the laity and other religious institutes, in particular, those dedicated to education or those working in some way in the social and work force situation .