Opening of the Meeting for the Pastoral Care of Vocations Martillac, 15 - 19 July, 2015

First of all, I would like to welcome you and express my gratitude to each one of you for having accepted the invitation to come and take part in this meeting. We hope that, during these days, we will have an experience of being Family and rekindle together the Gift we have been given.   We are here in the very place of our origins beneath the gaze of Our Lady of All Graces, the Founder and the first members of our Family.  The setting itself is on our side.

We have some objectives for our time here:

  • To evaluate what we have done since 2013 
  • To have some time to reflect on the way we live the Gift (the Charism).
  • To become aware of our responsibility as members of the Family.
  • To become sensitive to, and spur ourselves on with regard to the urgency of passing on our Charism.

I want to comment on the last objective: To become sensitive to, and spur ourselves on with regard to the urgency of passing on our Charism.

 “I think the movement of this sensitization and spurring on has to be one that begins within each one of us and then goes outwards.  Otherwise, even during this meeting, we could be like “consumers” or “onlookers” with regard to what the Team has prepared for us.  If we can become “active participants” rather than “onlookers” it will change everything.  When things affect us directly, when they touch our story, our deep desires, the values which give meaning to our life, the future of many people, not just ours… of the planet..…then our way of taking part in the meeting will be very different.

With regard to the Holy Family Charism, I can ask myself from the very beginning,  “Am I personally affected  by the Charism?  Do I feel responsible for this Gift?”

I think, at some time or other, we will all have had the experience of moving from being spectators to playing a leading role.  When we take this leap, everything changes.  We move from theorizing to being involved because something affects us directly. Something similar can happen to us with the Charism.   I can stay at a safe distance where I am neither too far away nor very involved – accepting suggestions without going into them deeply;  I choose whatever I find interesting, thought-provoking or practical… This stance is not enough, nor it is satisfying, because the Charism is our specific way of living the Gospel; it is the Good News that changes and transforms our lives and gives meaning to our Mission in the world by determining our identity as individuals and as a Family.

At this point we can ask ourselves if our Charism – our vocation – is just one more thing among the many which occupy us on a daily basis or if it is our point of reference which colours and gives meaning to everything.

The Holy Family came into being in order to give new responses to a changing society, to open up a new path, to respond in a flexible way to unexpected needs.  The promptness with which the Founder and the first members of the Family responded to the needs of their time was remarkable.  Do we feel the same urgency to respond to the needs of our particular society?  Have we the same apostolic enthusiasm, the same availability, the same involvement as they had in their time?  What kind of desire do we have to share the Gift of the Charism? It does not belong to us alone.  We must always remember that the Charism is a gift to be shared with others.

This does not mean that we have to proselytise.  We who have the grace of being called to live this gift and share it must do this, above all, by “infecting” others with it through the quality of our lives, presence and action wherever we are. We must be “embers” which radiate their fire and warmth around them from underneath the ashes.  We know the social context we are living in and that is where we are called to be “embers”.

It is not a question of numbers.  What matters is that the lives of those who are here and of those who will come in the future are as consistent as possible with who we say we are,  i.e. with the gospel values  that inspire our spirituality as we contemplate the Holy Family – the lovely image of the Trinity – and the first Christian communities. “Being and creating Family” as we understand it today – embracing the whole of creation – is inescapable when we take on the Mission we have received and listen to the cries of Humanity and of the Planet.

Revitalization will result from a sense of belonging, from the personal and collective owning of the Gift, the common call to be ONE “Family” which embraces all of creation.  Vitality will also result from sharing the Gift with others who feel called.

Am I passionate about what I live and share with the other members of the Family of PBN? Am I committed to and involved in the common project? Have I hopes, dreams, plans for this Family?

If we live what we are with passion, we will be able to transmit and spread the Gift we have received.

It is not our task to create the Family of God.  God will do that.  It is our responsibility to make it visible.

Ana Maria Alcalde