1.1– The idea in general

OF is that journey of progressive and daily education-formation-accompaniment carried forward in one’s own habitual life context, with the instruments and “tools” of everyday existence, thanks to the persons who are with me (whom I did not choose and who did not choose me). It is they, strictly speaking, who are my “formation directors”, or the formation mediations through whom the Father forms in me the sentiments of the Son. Or the community is the place where God has placed me and makes me grow, where he continues to reach me with his gifts and even with his provocations.  We are speaking first of all of a religious community; but then, even though at a further level, but still real, of the civic and Church community, where I am working in the apostolate (45). Therefore, it implies that constant openness to learn (=docibilitas) which is expressed in the whole of ordinary activities, and then also extraordinary ones, of vigilance and discernment, of ascetics and prayer, of study and apostolate, of personal and community evaluation, etc, which daily help one develop,  in a believing identity and in creative fidelity to one’s vocation in the different circumstances and phases of life.  Until the last day.

OF is exactly this human-divine process in progress: it is the subject who actually lets himself be stimulated and formed by his everyday living, not simply on special occasions or through exceptional interventions, but through that which can be called the “daily instruments” (or agents) of OF itself, by the most humble and ordinary mediations and those most intrinsically and explicitly formative: the relationship with God and brothers, the Word-of-the-day and everyday words, the parish and the work environment, the religious community and any people whatever, the events and even the accidents, the superiors and the humble people, the signs of the times and the institute’s charism, the more ordinary daily life and also the unexpected events, etc. ²

But then, OF

-                                                                    is not what comes after, but what comes before,

it is womb, mother-idea(25); it begins while the subject learns that openness to take lessons from life and from others.

-                                                                    it is not a human project (more or less undergone), but work of the Father,

therefore grace, which in life and through consecrated life forms the heart of the Son-Servant (27.14), grace already in progress in the vocation which is a daily call (“morning”), in the Word-of-the-day, in the Eucharist-of-the-day, in the Liturgy and in the liturgical year, in something that the Father-God already continually puts into action for me.

For this reason initial formation prepares for consecration but it is OF which forms the consecrated person (29-30);

-                                                                    it is not an extraordinary and occasional reality, but ordinary and daily

administered through the things and persons that live alongside me, holy and less holy (cf 87 note 9), and which still are mediation, however mysterious, of the formative action of the Father, through the usual schedule and occupations and ruptures.  OF is gift already given (37-38). “All is grace” because all is OF!

-                                                                    it is not a universal and automatic reality, but fruit of the individual’s decision

formation is ongoing only if and when the person has given a definite or accomplished perspective to his life, and from that moment on; not necessarily when the so-called initial phase is finished nor because it is concluded. When the consecrated persons makes a decision in his heart to follow the Lord, already at that moment and only from that moment does OF begin and become a reality. For this reason, for some, OF began very early; for others it never began. 

-                                                                    it is never terminated, because there is always a part in us that is less educable

In fact, no one is entirely and interiorly free to let himself be formed all his life. There is in each of us a part, an aspect, some dimension of the ego, an instinctive tendency or impulse, an unconscious attitude or expectation…which remains or risks remaining outside this journey, where we are rigid, closed. We do not accept stimulation, and it makes us deaf and dumb and insensitive in face of the external reality (and to the very Word of God), like a type of anesthetized or paralyzed area which no longer responds. Sometimes, unfortunately, it is not circumscribed to itself, but like a cancerous cell, tends to expand and infect the rest of our internal world. A lot of attention and vigilance is required in this sense. OF is above all a care of this area. This “wild zone”

-                                                                    is normally less known, less knowable in its consequences (in that sense it is not e-ducated),

-                                                                    has not received and is not open to assume as life norm the form of the Son’s sentiments (in that sense it is not formed),

-                                                                    does not know how to profit from the various mediations of life, is not free to let itself be conditioned, instructed and led by them (in that sense it does not let itself be accompanied).