AN OUTLINE (Part 1)

INTRODUCTION

The last General Chapter of our Institute developed a renewed understanding of the ad gentes, in keeping with the most recent contexts of society, of the church, and the Post Vatican II Theology of mission. The efforts of those who wrote the basic text, before and during the Chapter itself, paid off abundantly. The Acts of the Chapter have left an indelible mark on the future life and on the new dynamics of the missionary work of our Institute.

In the light of that renewed concept of ad gentes, the Acts of the Chapter call all the members of the Institute to renewed and/or new attitudes in their lives and missionary work. It invites all the missionaries to accept a new vision which would give vigor to mission itself and to those who perform it. It proposes a most vigorous ongoing formation so that the gap which exists at the moment between the contexts of mission and its performance may not reappear in the future.

In one of its less conspicuous, and yet most important desires, the Chapter invites the Institute to engage in a dialogue among its members to develop a spirituality of the “being called” and the “being sent”. The Chapter feels that these efforts are so important that it makes a proposal for the development of such spirituality for both the missionaries in the field, and the students in formation: “The Provinces should help their missionaries to grow in the spirituality of those ‘called and sent’”; “During their formative journey and in the Regional Directory of Formation, concrete means must be proposed that will clarify and develop the spirituality of the sending and of the return, and help students evaluate its interiorization. This must be a criterion for the acceptance in our Institute”.

This search of an authentic and strong missionary spirituality has always been in the mind of missionaries, formators and superiors. How to combine a spirituality which can truly sustain the difficult missionary life? How to help missionaries to “remain” in the frontiers of the Church and of the world, without being burnt, without becoming sterile? How to keep the enthusiasm and the commitment of the missionaries, so as they may not falter or slow down in its implementation?

In this article, I will try to initiate a dialogue with our missionaries on this topic. The invitation of the Chapter cannot be turned down, or left unheeded. We should engage in some efforts to put together some principles, some outlines, some sketches in order to start the ball rolling, and the dialogue going. Is it possible to construct a spirituality based on the two realities of missionary life: being called and being sent? And if it is, what would be the relationship with the spirituality of our Institute, inspired by the Founder and dear to our missionaries?

I am not new at this exercise. I have been fussing with it all my life, because I have always desired for myself a spirituality which was a source of life for me, and of meaningful missionary activities. But my interest grew even further since the 70s, when I was in charge of the U. S. Catholic Mission Council, and many missionary congregations would call on me to help them reflect on the need of an authentic spirituality for mission.
Then, in the early 90s, Orbis Books published my book by the title: Mission and Ministry in the Global Church. In it I developed more or less the same type of spirituality as in the preceding years, but on a wider vision of the identity and role of the missionary.
Right after the publication of the encyclical letter of Pope John Paul II Redemptoris Missio, I published a short commentary and I developed a totally different spirituality for mission, not only following the leads of the 8th chapter of that Encyclical, which deals with this topic, but by joining together all the elements of that encyclical which I felt would blend into a creative and dynamic spirituality.

Now I am challenged again by the Chapter to see if our missionaries and candidates in formation can be helped in the development of a spirituality based on these two concepts: being called – being sent. I will try my best to respond to the challenge. But I am aware that my attempts will fall short of the target. And so I invite missionaries, formators, candidates, anyone who wishes to participate in this exercise, to join with me for its success.

This article will then be composed of the following parts: a view of spirituality which is fairly common among spiritual writers; a short synthesis of the spirituality which we are discussing (in order to have a general glimpse of what the article is all about); finally I will develop every element of that synthesis and confront it with the teachings of Allamano to see whether they are parallel, complementary or irreconcilable.


AN OPERATIVE DEFINITION OF SPIRITUALITY

To define spirituality is almost as impossible a task as to count the stars in the firmament. There are spiritualities according to the categories of people present in the church: for the married and the singles, for the celibate and the widowed, for the diocesan and religious priests, for men and women, for children and adults, for lay and consecrated, etc. There are spiritualities according to the cultures of people, like African Spirituality, Asian Spirituality, Latin American Spirituality, post Christian Spirituality. There are spiritualities according to the religions which give birth to them: Christian Spirituality, Buddhist Spirituality, Indo Spirituality, etc. In Christianity there are spiritualities developed by the founders of the Great Religious Orders and Institutes: the Benedictine Spirituality, the Jesuit Spirituality, the Carmelite Spirituality, the Franciscan Spirituality, the Spirituality of De Foucould. Lately the new movements in the Church have developed new spiritualities, like the Opus Dei, Comunione e Liberazione, Focolarini, Neo Catecumenali. There are also spiritualities grounded on the Word (Biblical Spirituality), the Liturgy (Liturgical Spirituality), the sacraments (Sacramental Spirituality), Mary (Marian Spirituality), etc.

Would it be possible to find in all these types of spirituality some elements which run through them and which could become like the common denominators for all spiritualities? We assume that a spirituality is a way of life stemming out of some principles which reflect the identity of an individual, or group, and which give rise to attitudes and to actions to express that particular style of living, of relating and working. Here are the common denominators: identity – principles, which call for some attitudes which, in turn, inspire activities to make it possible for a person and a group to live in a certain way, to operate with a certain style, to develop certain methods of prayer and action.

The Chapter gives us the two parameters of the missionaries’ identity, the principles: to be called and to be sent cross-culturally. These principles give rise to attitudes which are directly related to them, and which have been listed below. In turn these attitudes will call for certain actions proper in keeping with the identity of the missionary, and which will manifest the identity in practice, in the life of the missionary. A person who is called must remain close to the caller, listen to him, be shaped more and more in his image, act more and more like him, be an agent of salvation in his hands at all time (vertical dimension of spirituality). And a person who is sent cross- culturally, must be able to admire God wherever God is, to walk with all sorts of people who are guided by God even if they belong to other religions, races, continents, to be a witness, wherever he/she is, to the teachings and the examples of his/her caller, to announce in dialogue the marvels of his/her beliefs, to provide directions in the difficult situations in which people live, to be always ready to move with the Spirit to other places, ministries, and situations (horizontal dimension of spirituality).

Fr. Antonio Magnante, imc, has written a book on the Spiritualità Missionaria nel Nuovo Testamento e nei Salmi. In a very brief summary he points out the two dimensions of this spirituality (vertical and horizontal, being called and sent) and he states: “The missionary spirituality, to our opinion, must model itself on the words and actions of Jesus. … It has to develop a solid Christological basis because Christ and his Gospel are the object of the proclamation of the apostle. As I have mentioned already, the missionary does not have his own message to deliver (letter to the Galatians); and so he cannot assume the role of a teacher delivering his own message, because he is only sent to deliver a message which he has received. … The missionary has to express a perennial tension towards Christ in order to assimilate his values, principles and truth, and even his personality. Once the life of Christ has permeated the deepest fibers of the life of the missionary, the latter is able to ‘be for’ the kingdom, to donate himself for it and become ‘all for all’. This self-giving of the missionary will be expressed in terms of a total and continuous love, of an irrevocable commitment to the others, and the ability to accept innumerable hardships for the sake of the Gospel and of Christ. … The urgency of the announcement will move the missionary towards an unbreakable unity both with the message itself, and those who receive it even to the shedding of one’s life. … The message and the receivers constitute the fundamental elements for a missionary spirituality. This has to oscillate constantly between these two poles: on the one hand a constant immersion in the pure waters of the Word of God who is Christ (vertical dimension), and on the other hand a selfless oblation without reservation for the receivers (horizontal dimension)”.



“TO BE CALLED”
A SKETCH OF OUR SPIRITUALITY


ATTITUDES ACTIVITIES
- To remain, to be with, to stay close to - Direct contemplation: to be with God alone
- To see, to admire, to be touched by - Indirect contemplation: to be with God through others, nature, events
- To hear, to be taught, to be instructed - The Word of God as the normal food for our spirituality, for our journey
- To dialogue, to share with God and others - Community prayers, meetings, PCL revision of life, dialogue with superiors, formators, spiritual directors, friends, sharing our faith journey
- To be transformed, to be reshaped, re-modeled - The role of the Spirit to shape us, mold us, change us in a continuous action over us
- To minister at any time of our journey - The never-ending ministry of a missionary
- To discover, to see more clearly, to become better aware of - The God who comes, who walks with all, who is present everywhere, whose action touches all
- To witness, to become signs and sacraments - Of Christ to the others, of the Gospel values, of the teachings and examples of Jesus to all
- To announce, to proclaim, to share - A fresh message, discovered in the Bible with the help of all, especially the poor
- To guide, to be leaders, to be ministers - With a spirit of communion, in harmony with the local church and the Institute, to promote leadership of the laity
- To be open periodically to changes of ministry, of place - Spirit of detachment of ourselves, of our familiar places, ministries, people. Spirit of itinerancy, being at the disposal of the needs of mission and of our superiors. Spirit of openness to the new, the different, challenging


SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE SPIRITUALITY PROPOSED BY THIS ARTICLE

I. BEING CALLED

Under this heading I intend to include what spiritual writers call the journey inward, the vertical dimension, the relationship with God, or, in one word, that part of the spirituality inspired by the principle “being called” and all the attitudes and spiritual means which help develop it. This is that aspect of spirituality which the missionaries in the past found very difficult to accept, because they considered it a cop out of reality, or a waste of time which could be used to help people solve their problems, or a naval gazing activity which borders to narcissism. But at present they have come to understand its importance not only for a well-balanced spirituality, but also for the fruitfulness of their work. And as a consequence they have accepted it and they feel comfortable with it, and they look for ways and means to develop it.

a. Being called to be with God, to be close to Him, to be in communion with Him, to be at home with Him, to be eager to communicate with Him. The thirst for the living God is deeply rooted in humans, the quest for a personal and mystical relationship with God is so strong in creatures that they feel compelled to spend time with Him in a face-to-face, and heart to heart relationship. This desire gives rise to what is called: direct contemplation.


DIRECT CONTEMPLATION

It is the activity which puts us in direct relationship with God who wishes to communicate with us with His being. Direct contemplation is the manifestation of God to us. Our God is a personal God, who is capable of relating with other in an I-Thou relationship. But God is also a loving person who desires to communicate with others, and ardently wishes to share with them. This communication of the Absolute is non-concrete and beyond categories. In direct contemplation God shares with the others with no means. It is a person-to-person communication, heart-to-heart manifestation. In it, God is the major actor. He takes the initiative in the whole process, He chooses how to conduct each session, and the degree and effects of such activity. God remains absolutely free in the whole process. Humans can desire to receive that communication, and can be open to it by offering time and creating a certain atmosphere. But they do not cause it.

Ways to cooperate with God in direct contemplation

Direct contemplation is the immediate manifestation of God to humans. There are many methods used by the spiritualists, which help them to receive that sharing of God, like jogger, transcendental meditation, Zen, Centering Prayer, the Jesus Prayer. I prefer the Centering Prayer to all the others methods for the reasons which I will mention later in the article.

The first thing we ought to do when we open ourselves to direct contemplation is to dispose ourselves. If direct contemplation is the manifestation of God to us, then we ought to dispose ourselves to it. How can a person dispose her (him) self to such a manifestation? The Centering Prayer offers very simple guidelines, which can be adopted by anybody, in whatever walk of life. These are very flexible guidelines. If they are possible, we should try to adopt them: if not, then we should remember that God is the only author in the process of contemplation, and God can do away with them and yet provide the mystical experience.

Whenever possible a person should choose a place, which is quiet, where silence reigns.
Apartness, being away from everything and everybody, is an important aid to direct contemplation. This step offers us the chance to create a kind of vacuum which can be filled by God’s presence and sharing. But if this is not possible, then one should not panic – any place can be transformed into a sanctuary for communication with God.

A person should then adopt a posture, which will help her/him to relax, feel comfortable, so that the body is not an impediment to, but a supporter of, the exercise. One could sit in an armchair and stretch his/her legs on a stool, or one could sit on the floor and lean against the wall or a support. The important thing here is that the position adopted is relaxing for the individual.

The next step is to close one’s eyes so that one is totally concentrated on God and only on God, and leaves aside all creatures which could distract the person from attending to God who wishes to flood the person with His divine presence.
A short prayer should be recited, in which one recognizes the presence of God at the center of one’s being, acknowledges the desire of God to share and the desire of the person to receive the sharing. One then asks God to keep all faculties centered on God alone through the power of the Spirit. This prayer serves as a reminder that God alone can make direct contemplation happen, that we are powerless, and that we depend totally on God and the Spirit for its occurrence.

One will then focus oneself at the center of the self, not by thinking, visualizing, discoursing with God present in the self, but by pulling all one’s faculties inside and keeping them under control. In direct contemplation we are passive, we are receivers, we do not make it happen. Only God does. But we make ourselves available as best as we can. “To simply be to that wonderful Presence. It is simple, it is full, it is total. …. It is there we wish to stay, in a state of loving attention. ... To move in faith to God dwelling in our depth”.

To facilitate this ‘being with’ one can choose a mantra, a word which one whispers to oneself when one’s faculties wander away from God and God alone. This word can be: Jesus, God, Lord, Spirit, Father. It acts as a breaker of the distractions which remove one’s faculties from the center of the self where God is manifested to the person. We use it to help ourselves come back to the center where we wish to share with God.

God may choose to take over all our faculties, and to permeate them with the divine presence. If that happens, then one feels absorbed by someone else into a spaceless and timeless existence. One never completely loses the awareness of one’s presence in a place, but one finds oneself in a kind of a twilight situation where one is totally absorbed and yet never totally absent. If that happens, contemplation is a wonderful experience and this religious practice is enhanced and facilitated by it. Or God may choose to let one struggle between concentration and distractions, between presence and wandering away, between ‘being with’ and ‘moving out of’ the subject of contemplation. The mantra can help in this struggle, but it does not eliminate it altogether. If that happens, we should not panic, or think that our prayer is not good, or that we are wasting time. We should remember that contemplation is God’s work, that God does not fail and the fruits of contemplation are always granted every time we make ourselves available to it. The fruits are equally good whether we are absorbed by God or we are distracted. Remembering all this will help us to keep going and not to abandon the practice of contemplation.

The time for practicing contemplative prayer is up to the individual. Any time is good, as long as it helps the individual to concentrate and to be recollected. Sometimes the time goes so fast that one hardly realizes how much time has been engaged in contemplation. Sometimes it goes so slowly that one wishes it would be over quickly.

The frequency of contemplative prayer is also related to time. It seems that the minimum we can offer is a twenty-minute session a day. But as a person practices this type of prayer, especially when very busy, she/he may feel the need to contemplate for the same amount of time twice a day. The thirst and hunger for God increases to the degree of one’s faithfulness to this type of prayer, and of God’s sharing with us. And the busier a person is, the greater is the need felt to use this centering prayer.

At the end of the prayer, one is advised to stop for a few moments, recite a prayer of thanksgiving to God, and to allow some transition between contemplation and action.

A method of prayer adequate for missionaries

I was saying above, that personally I prefer this type of contemplative prayer, since I consider it particularly adequate for missionaries. The reasons are very clear to me.

First of all this centering prayer is not so sophisticated as to become almost impossible for persons who are not professional contemplative. It is among the simplest of all forms of prayer which attempt to help people contemplate God directly.

Secondly, centering prayer is based on a solid traditional Christian approach to contemplation. Its roots are deep and sink into the Eastern as well as the Western tradition of contemplation. The theological principles of contemplation, especially the indwelling of God in us, our incorporation in the Mystical Body of Christ, and the fact that we are temples of the Holy Spirit, are much more accentuated in centering prayer than in Christian adaptations of other forms of contemplative prayers, such as Zen, yoga, and transcendental meditation. The idea that contemplation is a gift of God to us, and God remains the only actor in the process, while we are the receivers, whose task is primarily to open up to God, is very dear to me as a missionary. We missionaries are often tired and overburdened. Prayer often does not come easy. But this prayer does not require a lot of effort. It is an abandonment which soothes the body and the soul, while opening us to the Infinite in us.

Thirdly, centering prayer presupposes human freedom. It does not impose anything. It suggests a certain procedure, it insists that certain things are very useful, but beyond that there is freedom to operate as the Spirit inspires, and as the individual feels called, following the prompting of inner desires. This is good for ourselves as individuals, because we can apply even the simplest dynamics to our own character and personality, but it is extremely helpful to missionaries, because they can practice contemplation anywhere in the world, in contact with all sorts of people and traditions of meditation, even accepting some of the dynamics observed by other traditions.

Fourthly, the demand of our time by centering prayer is very reasonable. Missionaries do not have much time at their disposal. They have to be available to others who come any time, from distant places, with urgent needs, and who deserve to be served. The volume and diversity of activities in most of the places where cross-cultural personnel operate seems to be increasing. Time is a rarity for missionaries. This type of prayer does not call for much time, or long periods of absence from the tasks at hand. The short time we can set aside for it becomes a great source of strength, of comfort, and of intense spiritual riches.

Why direct contemplation for the missionaries…

The first reason lies in the importance of God in our lives. If God really means what we say it does – our all, our only desire, our purpose for life – then we need to be in direct contact with that God. For this to happen, we need to give time to God, and to God alone, to let that God flood our inner being and make it as much as possible like God’s very being. We cannot claim that God is all for us, that we depend on God in everything, and then disregard Him, or just pay lip services to Him. If the cry of the psalmist – ‘O God you are my God, for you I long, my soul is thirsting for you, my flesh is longing for you like a dry, weary land without water’ (Ps.63) – is truly our cry, then we must open our soul to God and let God penetrate it with the benefits of water over parched land. Direct contemplation gives us the chance to open to God, and to be permeated by God to the very core of our being.
The Chapter insists very much on the necessity of holding God as our absolute. “The insistence of the Founder on God’s primacy over all and on holiness, makes us attentive to the contemplative dimension of the Mission. It requires of us all to have a strong perception of God, of His presence in us and in the others, and a disposition to always search for Him and His will. Concentrating on God will render us capable of loving the world with His own heart”.

Another reason is derived from the essential subject of our mission. If God is the ultimate subject of our mission, regardless of the model of mission we may embrace, then it stands to reason that we must know God in the best and most intimate way possible. If we really intend to deepen, through our mission and in contact with others, our relationship with God, and help others to do the same, we must know God well, not through bookish knowledge only, but through personal contact, through immediate participation in God’s being, through the interpenetrating of God in our soul and our life. Ultimately mission is a discourse on God, a discovery of God, a way to discern God’s will for humanity and align ourselves in that direction. But only missionaries who are in direct contact with God will be able to penetrate into God’s very being, and perceive His directions in the world.

A third reason comes from the need to become experts in indirect contemplation. To see God in and through others is facilitated by seeing God directly. But to perceive God in an indirect way will not be easy, or even possible, unless we are able to perceive God directly. Direct contemplation makes possible for us, or, at least, makes it easier for us the other type of contemplation, in which we ought to be experts.

The fourth reason is more of a psychological nature. Missionaries live a hectic life; we are constantly under pressure; we face difficult situations, which need a solution; and we are alone, or we do not have access to consultants and experts. How are we going to cope with all that, and not risk cracking up? How are we going to remain calm, and yet enter into those situations with all our heart and mind? How are we going to grow in our faith and holiness, despite all that, or even because of that?

Cross-cultural ministers may have their own way to cope with what I have just described, and missionary congregations may develop their own policies to help their members, such as shortening the time of service, lengthening the time of rest at home, giving more time for annual vacation, and offering more frequent programs of ongoing formation. But my missionary experience and my contact with missionaries all over the globe suggest that more missionaries benefit from the prayer of contemplation than from any other means mentioned above. This type of prayer truly soothes people under stress and pressure, prepares them for the most difficult situations, and sustains them in the most demanding conditions of life. Realizing the presence of God in them revitalizes their strength, renews their energies, reconfirms their determination, and gives them peace of mind and soul, and a sense of tranquillity which is difficult to describe.
Direct contemplation puts missionaries in touch with the God who is the present, the real in their lives, and it reminds them of the God who comes transcendentally into their lives. God as manifested to the missionaries through contemplation is the same God perceived historically, existentially, and yet the ever-new and ever-changing God of the beyond. Contemplation enables missionaries always to be in touch with what is in front of their eyes, to perceive it the way God perceives it, and it pushes them to the transcendence that rests in the immanent presence of the divine.

To conclude, then, this section, we can say that this type of contemplation is possible for missionaries because it does not require extensive use of time and difficult dynamics. It is easy because it can be done anywhere, and involves no strict rules imposed on those who practice it. But also it is necessary for missionaries to use it, because it makes them much better ministers in cross-cultural situations, and it provides them the chance to perform in a much better and more Christian way in their ministries. And, most of all, this type of contemplation is in keeping with the identity of the cross-cultural ministers. But missionaries, despite their efforts and fidelity to this type of prayer, may sometimes remain amateurs, and may never become true experts in it. In fact, what they are called to be true experts in, is indirect contemplation.

b. Being called to see, to admire, to be touched by the God who lives in the whole of the universe and all its creatures. It means to practice indirect contemplation.

INDIRECT CONTEMPLATION

We can describe it as the manifestation of God, of the Trinity, in and through creatures, events, concrete situations of our life. The God whose essence we receive through direct contemplation, is also the God who lives in the universe, who continues the work of creation, of redemption, and of the advancement of the kingdom on earth, and who communicates to us through the situations in which we live. It seems to me that this type of contemplation offers missionaries the possibility of perceiving and sharing a historical God, a universal God, and yet a God who is always revealed anew. The Jesuit Rodrigo Mejia, writing about “seeking and finding God in all things” as the phrase which best describes the charism of St. Ignatius of Loyola, comments: “This contemplation is more than an exercise, it is a whole program of spiritual life.”

The channels of God’s communication in indirect contemplation

Here I am not talking of means to be used, but of some of the channels in which we can perceive and receive God in and through others. These channels are primarily and directly related to cross-cultural personnel, so that they may see the importance of this type of contemplation, and practice it.

God the creator communicates primarily through the universe, the cosmos. The wonders of creation are beyond any description, any imagination. Both the microcosm and the macrocosm can reveal the power, the magnificence, the beauty of God. New inventions and discoveries made by modern technology have amplified this revelation of God to us in myriad of ways. How much more right do we have to say with the psalmist:

Yahweh, our Lord, how great your name throughout the earth. Above the heavens is your majesty chanted ……I look up at your heavens, made by your fingers, at the moon ad stars you set in place – ah, what is man that you should spare a thought for him, the son of man that you should care for him? (Ps. 8)

Missionaries very often live in places where the original beauty of the universe in all its flora and fauna is still visible, where the magnificence of the universe in not yet totally obscured by the pollution and the destruction perpetrated by the self-appointed lords of the earth. How can a person in Africa fail to be enchanted by the sky at night, by the enormous amount and variety of flowers and of animals of that land, and not be open to receiving the Creator God who communicates through those creatures?
But missionaries have to go further. They must be able to discover the God who is universal, who lives and operates in all peoples, in all cultures, in all religions, in all events of people’s lives. More than contemplating God in essence, they ought to contemplate God being manifested; more than contemplating God’s inner life, they ought to contemplate God being revealed to them. And, as missionaries do contemplate in this way, through what they see, touch, are exposed to, they ought to remember that these manifestations will continuously vary, not only from one person to another, one culture to another, one people to another, but within the same culture and people. The concreteness, historicity, universality, and “not-yetness” of these revelations are what should constitute the essence of the missionaries’ contemplation, the specific field of this contemplation.

The Word of God will also be revealed to personnel in cross-cultural situations, more than to anybody else. These people, like anybody else, will perceive this Word in the Scriptures of the Jews and of the Christians, they will confess Him in the person of Jesus, the incarnate Word. But they will also have an ampler opportunity to marvel at that Word consciously expressed in cosmic events and in the multifaceted values of humans all over the globe. Missionaries who are in contact with other religions should be able to see pre-figurations of the Word in them, as the early Christians were able to see them in the Judaic religion. They should be able to discover that Word wherever there are gospel-like values, relationships, and fruits. They should perceive a revelation of that Word where they see a true religious leader who is able to awaken in the people a love for the kingdom or some of its aspects. Missionaries should be able to see the incarnating Word in each community which is gathered to deepen its sense of the divine and to promote the kingdom in the world.
But most of all, missionaries ought to see the incarnate Word of God in the poor who struggle to eliminate poverty, in those who suffer for justice’s sake, in the oppressed who claim their rights, in the powerless who ask for their rightful place in life, in the voiceless who try desperately to be heard, in the marginalized who refuse to accept their situation as final, in the exploited who cry out for equity, and in the downtrodden who seek to rise. The mystery of the Word is repeated in them – in their lives, deaths and resurrections. They are the living and the incarnating, the suffering and the resurrecting Word, as Rahner professes: “Christ appears to us more surely in the poor and the suffering”.

The Spirit of God is possibly the divine person closest to the missionaries. The Spirit manifests the unfathomable riches of God, the inexhaustible infinity of the Word in history and through cultures and religions, because the “Spirit’s presence and activity affects not only individuals, but also society and history, peoples, cultures and religions”. Rahner proposes that we prepare ourselves to experience the Spirit in daily events. After listing many daily situations in which the Spirit can be experienced, he concludes: “There we find what we Christians call the Holy Spirit of God…. There is the mysticism of everyday life, the discovery of God in all things; there is the sober intoxication of the Spirit, of which the Fathers and the liturgy speak, which we cannot reject or despise, because it is real”.
In this Spirit the beyond is normal, the unusual is regular, dreams become real, visions are concretized into reality, the impossible becomes possible, the unreachable becomes reachable. This Spirit is contemplated by the missionaries as giving life to dry bones, offering hope even amidst despair, opening avenues which were undreamed of, leading to paths which seemed inaccessible, and lifting people up to heights which appeared unattainable.

Why indirect contemplation for missionaries…

This type of contemplation will help the cross-cultural ministers to keep working in the same direction as God. Direct contemplation fills them with God, and helps them become more like God. Indirect contemplation helps them to see God’s manifestations in the here and now, and keeps their activities going in the same direction as the divine dynamic, liberating people from evil.

In the past, missionaries committed serious mistakes in their behavior, in their policies, and in their activities. How can one explain that people as dedicated as missionaries, who were ready to sacrifice even their lives for the sake of the people they had been sent to, could be blind to the worth of cultures, the importance of the local and world religions, or could destroy in the name of God what God had already built in them? It is important not to be judgmental, but I suspect that such missionaries never had, or had lost, the capability of perceiving God’s presence. And as a consequence, they were not able to insert themselves as agents of the love of God in the complexities of history. Instead their dogmatic blinders kept them from appreciating God’s multiple ways of being present. The tragic consequences of such inability are still evident in many countries. They haunt missionaries like a bad memory. But who can tell us that we are not committing the same blunders at present? Certainly, one of the means at our disposal to avoid such cramped visions of God’s presence is indirect contemplation.

My emphasis on contemplation stems out of the belief that many missionaries give too much attention to their deeds, or to the community prayers, and do not have a personal, deep relationship with God. The latter is the basis for everything else, and without it nothing can last or remain meaningful.
From now on I will mention and describe the remaining attitudes and activities of the other aspects of the spirituality of “being called”. I will do so in very brief terms, because they are pretty much part of our IMC spirituality.

c. Being called to listen, to be taught, to be instructed. The journey inward is paved with hearing, becoming more aware of the Guest of our soul, of the presence of God who resides in us and wishes to be discovered more deeply. This discovery though, is not the fruit of God’s manifestation in us, like in direct contemplation, but the development of our knowledge of God through listening, hearing, being instructed. This is done primarily through the Word of God contained in the Bible. The Bible has become the common book for spirituality. One of the most outstanding outcomes of Vatican II has been to promote the Bible as the basic book for people who wish to journey towards God, who wish to nurture their soul with solid food, who are hungry for God. This phenomenon has happened more among the laity than the religious, and also the missionaries. But anyone who is called to intimacy with God, cannot easily dispense himself from a frequent and deep meditation on the Word of God. Dietrich Bonhoeffer reminds us that Scriptures in their entirety are the Revelation of God. “Scripture is not the sum total of the verses, but something whole and complete, whose value rests exactly in its totality. Scripture in its entirety is Revelation of God. Only in the immense web of its internal relations, in the context of the Old and New Testament, of promise and fulfillment, of sacrifice and law, of law and gospel, of cross and resurrection, of faith and obedience, of love and hope, one is able to hear the testimony of Jesus Christ the Lord in its entirety”.
The Apostolic Letter of Pope John Paul II, Novo Millennio Ineunte, states: “There is no doubt that this primacy of holiness and prayer is inconceivable without a renewed listening to the Word of God. Even since the Second Vatican Council underlined the pre-eminent role of the word of God in the life of the Church, great progress has certainly being made in devout listening to the Sacred Scripture and attentive study of it. … Individuals and communities now make extensive use of the Bible, and among lay people there are many who devote themselves to Scriptures. ... It is especially necessary that listening to the word of God should become a life-giving encounter in the ancient and ever valid tradition of lectio divina, which draws from the biblical text the living word which questions, directs and shapes our lives.”

d. Being called to dialogue with God and others in religious and community life. This aspect of the spirituality of “being called” deals with our religious commitment, community life and all the elements related to them. We are religious and as such we are called to live together, to pray together, to plan our yearly life as a group, to discover God’s will for the community in dialogue with one another, to share our faith journey, to forgive each other. It is in this religious background and this life as a community that we enrich ourselves, we become more, we respond in a fuller way to the invitation of “being called”, set aside, privileged with intimacy.
For our students this dialogue is extended to their formators who become the channels of God’s will for them and who are responsible for the numerical growth of the Institute. Amedeo Cencini expresses this reality with vivid words: “Today, more than ever, religious communities are called to be ‘signs of fraternity’: this is the universal destiny of humanity. ... Each religious, therefore, should not only preach, but export fraternity. Hence religious fraternity must be lived fully and in a radical way, but also in a visible and attractive way. Each religious community should be able to testify that it is possible to live united in diversity, to grow and become saints together; it should witness that it is not only possible but also beautiful to share work and housing, joys and preoccupations, feelings and friendships, prayer and Word, gifts of nature and gifts of the Spirit”.
The X General Chapter insists very much on the importance of this aspect of “being called” to religious and community life. “Mission is for us inseparable from consecrated life: ‘The Institute is a family of people consecrated for the ad gentes mission’ (Const.4). The intuition of the Allamano on the needs of holiness as condition for being a good missionary, brought him to see in religious consecration the best element of an authentic missionary life. It renders one apt for mission, and then becomes its source. Consecrated life … is the most radical witness to the choice of ‘God alone’, to the following of Christ as norm of life, to the opening up to the action of the Holy Spirit, who sends off to every part of the world, to announce the Kingdom of God, and to serve the brethren in complete charity. The radical nature of consecrated life, becomes for Allamano the basic form of being and action of the missionary, since it prepares him to a total abandonment to God’s will and salvific plan”.

e. Being called to be constantly transformed by the Spirit of the Lord. The inward journey is endless, the work for holiness is never completed. Missionaries need to be constantly and totally dedicated to it. The transformation of the person into another Christ is a life-long process and one which may involve eternity as well. The author of this transformation is the Spirit of the Lord. The pneumatic aspect of the “being called” has been rediscovered by all the members of the Church and by missionaries in particular. The Spirit has become the prime agent of conversion, of holiness, of community living, of mission and of all its works, of prayer, of justice. The renewal – re-foundation – of religious life, as well as of mission, is based solely in the primacy of the Spirit who breathes in the hearts of the individuals and of the institutions. Fabio Ciardi writes in his book In ascolto dello Spirito the following: “Today, the authentic creativity in living the charism comes from the Spirit, ‘who is Lord and gives life’. In fact we are not able to rediscover anew religious life or the charism of each institution. Religious life with all its charisma has been founded by the Spirit, and …its re-foundation will be a grace which the Spirit gives to individuals and groups. ... The Spirit poured out by the risen Christ on those who are united in His name, becomes source of creativity, because the Spirit by its very nature is always creative”.

f. Being called to remain missionaries all our life.
This “being called”, if properly understood and acted upon, will help us remain active missionary ministers all our life, from our seminary days, to our retirement time and finally to the supreme donation of our life for God’s Kingdom. One does not have to wait to be a missionary when one is in the field, active, dynamically involved in all sorts of activities which promote God’s mission on earth. On one end of the spectrum, one is a missionary while he prepares himself for his missionary work in the seminary, by studying diligently and making sure that the studies are all imbued with missionary content and spirit, by forming oneself to the spirit and the living traditions of the Institute, by developing a zeal for the missionary work and a commitment to it above all other commitments and works, by giving priority to the needs of mission served by the Institute above the personal and professional needs, by doing pastoral work in the parishes close to the seminary, during the summer and holidays. And on the other end of the spectrum one remains a true and very productive missionary by accepting the solitude of retirement, the forced inactivity, the pains of the older age, the anguish of loneliness, the threat of a fatal disease, and by developing a deeper spirituality, a more pervasive prayer life, a greater dedication to adoration, a true life of holiness.
Fr. Trabucco wrote a letter on the Missionary of the Third Age. In its conclusion he states: “It is possible to make this stage of life the crown of an existence vowed to God, to the missions, to good works. It is possible to live in serenity and in peace, in confident expectation of the great day, ‘so that God may be all in all’.”

(to be continued)