Meeting of the International Center of Precious Blood Spirituality January 18-19, 2010 Present: Elsie Auzier Vinhote ASC, Dennis Chriszt CPPS , Barry Fischer CPPS, Ramón Rodríguez CPPS, Arockia Raja CPPS, and Dawid Wróblewski CPPS Absent: Willi Klein CPPS, Gregory Mkhotya CPPS, Johanna Rubin ASC, and Tullio Veglianti CPPS Guests: Raimondo da Silva CPPS (Brazil) and Hilton Rodríguez CPPS (Peru) Introductions: Everyone was welcomed to Casa Guillermo and our guests from the Latin American spirituality center were introduced. Copies of the agreements from the previous meeting were distributed and reviewed, and a basic agenda was agreed to. Report from Latin America: The coordinating team met last week, January 8-9, before the symposium. Each country has its own retreats and workshops. The coordinating team generally meets once a year. The third meeting of the larger group will meet February 1-5, 2011 in Brazil. This larger group meets once each four years. The coordinating team has one representative from each country in Latin America where members of the five Precious Blood congregations serve. Each representative will be responsible for one area of animation of our spirituality. Elsie will coordinate the work with youth. These representatives will meet in Chile in May 2010 to coordinate the larger gathering in Brazil in February 2011. They also discussed how to fund this ministry – in each country a collection would be taken up on July 1 to support the ministry of the Latin American center. They will soon be publishing a small guide for praying the chaplet of the Precious Blood. They will also publish a booklet about the histories of each of the five congregations in Latin America, their founders, and some prayers that are common to these communities. They are also planning a website for the Latin American Center of Spirituality – hopefully by the middle of February. They will be paying Mario Córdova to put it together and maintain it. Responsibilities for the team were divided among the various members. At previous meetings, they decided to gather resources from the various communities in order to share them with one another. They are hoping to unify the way in which they speak about the spirituality. All of these materials will be available on the website. The symposium was the work of the Peruvian Center of Spirituality, with the help of the Latin American Center of Spirituality. They also have some statutes for the Latin American Center, that will be submitted to the assembly in Brazil. Barry mentioned that working with youth might be the theme of a future workshop sponsored by the International Center in Salzburg – perhaps in 2012. Report from the Iberian Province: Since our last meeting, nothing has happened. There is some skepticism about the need for the international center – especially from several of the European provinces. It is unclear what the role of the representative is, as well as the role of the center. It is important to be more clear about what is the actual function of this group. As coordinator of the spirituality in the province, he is trying to keep the spirituality before the community and to form a group of laity in Cáceras. Every October, there is a gathering for several days focused on the spirituality. In the future, they are hoping that each day of the gathering will be coordinated by a different part of the province so that more people will be involved. Next October’s gathering might be focused on the environment, building on the experience here in Lima at the Symposium II. Having the information from this symposium on the website will be of some help in this. In Madrid, there is now an international CPPS community with an Italian and German working with a Spaniard, and hoping for a member from Poland. Their primary ministry is working with immigrants – especially those who are in legal trouble. International Center Website: The website for the International Center is being worked on. It will be linked to the generalate website. It is taking more time that originally anticipated to get things up and running. It will have many resources available in multiple languages. It will also be possible to have videos, podcasts, music downloads, and resources. However, doing this in multiple languages will be difficult. Getting things translated will take time and effort, especially since there are few financial resources available to pay translators. Report from Brazil: Every year there is a study week for CPPS, ASC and laity to reflect on the spirituality. They are beginning to promote the spirituality within our spirituality. It is hoped that one day it will lead to establishing a program of lay associates. They are also hoping to bring the youth from the various parishes in Brazil together. They are also sharing some of our spirituality with elders and prisoners. Some of the specific projects of the Latin American center are inspiring and helping to do some new things to spread the spirituality. There are three different groups in parishes in Brazil – Focolare, charismatic and liberation theology. Every month about 170 young people gather. They do not focus explicitly on our spirituality. Normally they focus on animating the youth and keeping them active in the parishes. The ASC’s in Brazil had a gathering for themselves and some laity led by someone from the international center of their community from Rome. The international center and the Latin American center are trying to coordinate some of their work together. Report from North America: The website on our spirituality is not yet up and running, but is in the works and should be up soon. The Precious Blood Leadership Conference is sponsoring its fourth North American gathering of men and women dedicated to the Precious Blood – members and associates from the five member communities. We are expecting about 400 participations, July 26-29, 2010. The title of the gathering is Who will speak a word to rouse them? I can, I must, I will. Will You? They also published a prayer book that has been in preparations for five years – hard bound and several hundred pages long. The candidates in formation, the associate leaders, and the formators continue to meet annually. There are over 400 Companions (associates) who are generally involved in some form of ministry. They participate in a two year formation program, before making covenant with the community, using almost identical words as those in the act of incorporation. They participate in monthly meetings, and have their own newsletter and annual retreat. They also are invited to participate in provincial assemblies and serve on committees of the province. Report from India: Precious Blood spirituality is just at its beginning. There are many spiritualities – especially those that come from Hinduism – and our spirituality is something new for many. Since our last meeting, Raja has begun working with our seminarians in order to help them to understand our spirituality. He has also visited many of our parishes to share the spirituality with them, and has asked the members to begin establishing some groups of the Union of the Blood of Christ. He has been trying to help members to see how the spirituality calls them beyond the walls of the church. They are preparing a prayer book that contains both basic prayers and prayers from our tradition. They also prepare calendars that share some of our spirituality with lay people. There are about 30-40 people in four of our parishes who are interested in learning more about our spirituality and forming groups of the USC. He has encouraged our preachers to speak about our spirituality from time to time. Report from the Polish Province: They have annual retreats, work with youth, and are preparing a book of prayer and a translation of the new normative texts. They are preparing national gathering for youth, using a new model. They continue to form lay leaders who animate others in our spirituality. These animators bring the spirituality to many places where there are no members. There is only one parish, but there are many people who share our spirituality. There are 27 members, but over 1,000 laity with whom they minister. Some of them live and minister with our members – others have varying levels of commitment. Many people come to the Sanctuary of the Precious Blood on their pilgrimages to Chestahova. Report from the International Center: The website should be open soon. It is not always easy to define the relationship between the international center and the regional centers. The new director of the house, Fr. Georg Wiedemann, wants to bring more life to the place, bring more people from the area to the center, including some of the other members of the province from time to time. Some of the members there and elsewhere in the community will be preaching some retreats. Sr. Johanna Rubin, ASC, of the coordinating team of the Center, will also be giving a retreat in 2010. Fr. Barry will sponsor two reflection days – in Italian and Spanish – on the hospitality of God. During the month of June, Sr. Johanna and Fr. Barry will offer a retreat on everyday living and sponsor a workshop on film and theology. Bro. Ton Sison, CPPS from Chicago will also conduct a weekend retreat on the theology of cinema in June at the Center in Salzburg. Other groups have also used the center to reflect on other spiritualities, as well. The congress on Mission was held there, this past year, and we are hoping to host a workshop on preaching next year. The center is working on publishing some things in German – the sayings of Gaspar is being published in German (365 sayings over a year), as well as a small prayer book. The center continues to publish the Cup of the New Covenant for the community, and is involved in speaking around the world – this coming year in Guatemala and Colombia. The general council asked him to write to all the units of the community to offer his availability to preach retreats and conduct workshops on the spirituality. However, retreats around the world and at the center need to be financially self-sufficient. There was a passionate discussion of what is the role of the international center and how does it animate the rest of the Precious Blood family. For some, an annual workshop in Salzburg did not seem to be enough. Barry explained that he was involved in other activities to spread the spirituality in different parts of the world. The physical location of the center is not as important as the work of the center. The ASC have had a center for 15 years and are still struggling to define its role. In a conversation with Fr. Francesco, he indicated that the center could offer courses of formation in the spirituality of the Precious Blood, for the members and for the laity. Maybe the workshop for next year could not simply be about preaching, but about forming preachers who could conduct retreats, missions or workshops that focus on the spirituality of the Precious Blood. Each region could be asked to send five people who would be willing to give one week a year to this ministry in the future. The workshop could help to put together a general outline for such a retreat, mission or workshop with reflections on various aspects of our spirituality. There might be some other ways that the center can form people in our spirituality. A group of people from the center might go from country to country to help form our members and interested lay people in our spirituality. The center might also prepare some resources which others parts of the community might use. All of this means that the various units of the community would need to contribute personnel and money to do these things. The personnel need not be full time, but would need to be free for some time work on this, as well as funding for these people to travel to meetings, wherever they happen to be. At this time, Fr. Barry is the only full time and Sr. Johanna is available for two months a year to do this. Time is needed to make plans and prepare for some of these kinds of events. Barry could be available to do some work in particular units of the community, but the leadership and members of those units would need to also be committed to working with him (and possibly another member of the center) during the time he is there. It is essential that we communicate with the various units of the community so that they are aware what services are available from the center. The units also have to be financially committed to pay for the services of the center. The center might also bring together people from one unit of the community to share their experience with other units of the community, helping them to discover how they might develop. A Workshop on Preaching and the Precious Blood – May 22-28, 2011 In Salzburg, it is possible to have up to thirty-five or so people come to a workshop. It might begin with sharing some of our experiences and continue with the development of a schema for a retreat that could be done in various different places around the world. We would begin with people who have experience in this ministry as well as some people who are interested in learning more about it. They would then return home to share what is planned with their communities back home. Different people with experience might demonstrate some of the methods and the content of what they are already doing. Several preachers or groups might each have half a day to share from their experience. International preaching teams in various languages might develop out of this workshop, especially English and Spanish. Though people from all units would be welcome, translation would be available only in English and Spanish – this costs about €250 per day. Participants would be limited by nations/regions – a total of 39. Europe – 9 (2 each from Italian, Teutonic, Iberian, and Polish Provinces; 1 from Croatia) North America – 8 Latin America – 6 Asia – 2 Africa – 2 Center Coordinating Team – 10 General Administration – 1 Translator – 1 Proclaiming the Good News from Precious Blood Spirituality (English) Proclamando la Buena Nueva desde la Espiritualidad de la Sangre (Español) Proclamando a Boa Nova apartir da Espiritualidade do Sangue (Portuguesa) Target Audience/Destinatarios: Missionaries (Religious and Lay) dedicated to the ministry of preaching the Word (retreats, parish missions and catechesis) Misionarios/as (Religiosos/as y laicos/as) dedicados/as al ministerio de la predicación de la Palabra (retiros y misiones populares, y educación de la fe) Possible focus of some sessions: How did Jesus preach? Let us imagine how Maria and Gaspar might preach today? – How do we preach the Good News out of our spirituality today? – How might we do so in the future? Directions for the Workshop 1. Facilitated discussion, not lectures or presentations, where participants share from their experience and knowledge is preferred. 2. We might do this in groups such as retreat preachers, mission preachers, and religious educators/catechists. 3. We might focus on specific themes from our spirituality – e.g. life/vida, covenant/alianza, cross/cruz, reconciliation/reconciliación, cup, etc. 4. We also need to share an experience of how people in one place actually preach on the various topics – each day a different person or group would actually demonstrate what they do and how. 5. Every day, we would have a morning session of about three hours, an afternoon session of about two hours, and an experience of how one particular group actually does this in the evening for one hour or so. 6. Morning and afternoon sessions would include time for group work and for plenary sessions. 7. Wednesday evening would be a time to go into town to experience some of the local culture. 8. Friday evening would also be a time to celebrate our final night together. General Schedule: 7:15 a.m. 8:00 a.m. Breakfast/ Desayuno 8:00 a.m. 8:45 a.m. Mass/Misa 9:00 a.m. 12:00 p.m. Work Sessions/Sesiones de Trabajo 12:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. Lunch/Almuerzo 3:00 p.m. 5:00 pm. Work Sessions/Sesiones de Trabajo 5:30 p.m. 6:30 p.m. Experience or Presentation/ Experiencia o Presentación 6:30 p.m. 7:30 p.m. Dinner Experiences or Presentations David: PowerPoint or Video of how they share the spirituality with young people in Poland Dennis: An experience from Parish Missions in North America Elsie: An experience from Latin America Possibly some sharing of experience from India or Tanzania, maybe something about how they are forming lay people in our spirituality Mass Each day a different continent will be responsible for planning the Mass. Efforts to include everyone will be made by using readings and songs in the two major languages, so that no one feels left out of the experience. Songs that can easily be sung should be used, even when in a language not spoken by everyone. Proposals for the Future: 1. The coordinating team will meet after the preaching workshop in Salzburg, May 30-31. 2. The International Center could be of more support in assisting regional spirituality centers as they are being established. 3. Websites of the various centers should get up and running as soon as possible, even if they are not yet perfect. 4. The director of the center should write to each unit of the congregation to mention his availability to help animate the community concerning our spirituality. Of course, any unit that would invite him to do so would also be responsible for funding the visit. Some of the members of the coordinating team might also make themselves available to help the director with retreats or workshops in various regions on occasion. 5. Somehow, we need to get word out about the work of the Center. Some of this will be available at the website. Each of us should also write something about the work of the center for the publications in our region. 6. One possibility for a next workshop in 2012/13would be something on how to share our spirituality with young people. 7. The International Center wishes to express their thanks to the center in Peru and in Latin America for all their work in preparing for the symposium last week and for hosting us. Back to Home