I like to think of life as a road that we walk along in time and in a determined space; a road that takes us through different terrains; where there are other intersecting roads with places to rest and recoup energy, to take decisions and risks; a road where one can make friends and share dreams, projects and challenges; a road where one meets God who walks along with us.
For the Sisters of the Holy Family, this road in Latin America started 100 years ago when the Sisters arrived in Brazil and then in the 1960s they came to Paraguay and later to Argentina and
Peru. They were realising the Founder’s dream to extend and strengthen the faith in all milieus, in all countries, living as did Jesus Mary and Joseph with generous commitment and keeping their eyes fixed on God Alone.
Throughout these 100 years, society has changed a great deal. The Church and Religious Life have changed also and the Sisters of the Holy Family have naturally been affected by these changes. We have been affected in the way we interpret our Charism, the way we live community life, in our apostolic and missionary work and in our structures of government. The most recent change is the one that has just taken place – replacing the structure of Province and Delegations with a new organisation “Holy Family Latin American Network”.
We all know that changes in mentality do not take place overnight; rather it is a process. To my mind, this process began some twenty-five years ago when the councils and the formation teams of the different entities began to work together. Then we had a common novitiate and joint international meetings of the junior professed. In these meetings we shared our dreams, ideals and thoughts.
Given these events and in union with the general orientations of the congregation, there arose the need to form a different structure of government for the animation of the life of the Sisters and the communities. This process meant that we expressed our wishes to one another, asked one another for our personal opinions, asked the opinions of the communities and the Provincial and Delegation Assemblies, representatives of the communities and the councils of the four countries. Margaret and the General Council also gave their views and all this resulted in the present structure: “Holy Family Latin American Network”.
Then came the consultation for the Network’s Council and the nomination of the council in
Resistencia, Argentina.
From then on the new Council began its task of restructuring the method of participation and how we were to carry out our mission implementing the orientations of the General Chapter of 2008. Consultations, proposals, easy and difficult decisions to be taken, demand the participation of everyone and the setting up of different teams.
All these changes require renunciations, deaths to much loved ways of doing things that have given us security in the past. But, to quote the Gospel: “unless the grain of wheat dies ….if it dies it will yield much fruit”. One of the deaths required is to give up our individual, Province or Delegation – based news bulletins and have one for the whole network. And this is how the REDINFO SFB was born. In this bulletin we gather together all the contributions that are sent to us; in each one we can see great life and experience, events that give us joy and encourage us and sad events that cause us suffering and challenge us to defend life in all its forms because we believe and we dream of a “new world where we can live the spirit of Family in communion with Trinitarian Love”.
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