Holiness of Life (XI General Chapter, 53-55): Two Years of Study and Discussion

(October 7, 2006 – June 20, 2008)

CONSOLATA MISSIONARIES ON THE PATH TO HOLINESS

My Dear Missionaries,

“I exhort you to behave in a manner worthy of the vocation you have received…” (Ephesians 4,1).

As laid out earlier in the General Directorate Program the next two years (October 7, 2006 to June 20, 2008) will be devoted to a study of subjects related to “holiness of life.” This will carry out the guidelines and proposals put forth in the XI General Chapter and will concentrate all our efforts on reaffirming the primacy of the spiritual life.

We have conducted a survey on the best way to accomplish this and are determined to launch the project on the very day that the sanctity of our Blessed Father Founder is officially recognized and held up to the whole Church. The Pope has confirmed that Joseph Allamano was faithful to the resolution he made as a young seminarian: “I want to devote myself to one thing only: to become a saint, to act and not procrastinate.” Elsewhere “I want to embrace no matter what the cost anything that can help me become a saint and reject anything that might deflect me from this goal.”

He sought this with determination and saw it as the necessary pre-condition of fulfilling his priestly vocation. In this way he laid the foundation of his mission as Founder and Mentor of the Congregation. Charism is an experience of the Spirit transmitted to a person. It is the firm conviction of our Chapter documents and Constitutions that Blessed Allamano’s charism was born and developed “from his intense spiritual life and burning apostolic zeal” (Cf. Const. no. 2). Our Founder’s holiness is a key to the historical understanding and diffusion of his charism and spirit in our own time.

Holiness and the Missions

The goal of these two years devoted to holiness is to re-discover and revitalize the characteristics of that spirituality the Founder wanted the Congregation to cultivate: quest for God, centrality of the Eucharist, the Word of God as our “primary text”, the presence of Mary, liturgical and personal prayer, family spirit and love of the Church. These elements are all directed towards the missions; the missions give them form and inspiration.

The drive to holiness must be our primary concern. The expression “prima santi poi missionari [first saints then missionaries]” comes up so frequently in our Founder’s conversation that it must be considered a dimension of his charism. In his eyes everything is subordinate to holiness and everything flows from holiness. Those who strive for holiness are authentic Consolata Missionaries. It is only by being a saint that one can be a missionary: “This is the vocation,” he said “of those who love the Lord very much indeed and are willing to make any sacrifice to make Him known and loved. One goes to the missions only through love of God which is inseparable from love our neighbor.”

We have heard some of our Founder’s expressions so often that we run the risk of taking them for granted. We must ask ourselves if we do not also run the risk of being missionaries who look “more like entrepreneurs than mystics”. This would be in direct contrast to what Allamano wanted for his missionaries: “I want you to be saints and first-class missionaries” (Cf. VS 127). “I want to see in you the constant determination to live as holy a life as possible without fear of exaggeration … this has always been my ideal,” because “you will only succeed to the extent that you are holy” (Conf. III, 719; 711).

The dynamics of the mission serve as a model for the ordinary ministry: “To be an apostle there must be fire. If you are neither hot nor cold but tepid you are apostles only in name and not in reality.”

For us as Consolata Missionaries to rediscover the ways of the mission we must follow the path to holiness. There is one and only one road that leads to both. The relationship between sanctity and the missions is clear. Not every missionary endeavor is an act of evangelization – only those endeavors that reflect Christ’s being, acting and living and share in His work of salvation. We become holy always and only through our mission – bearing witness and proclaiming the Gospel to all people.

This teaching is directly linked to our charism. It is moreover a teaching the Church in its official documents addresses to all Christians especially Evangelii Nuntiandi and Redemptoris Missio. These documents depict the missions as a way of life, the joy of faith and the magnetic force unleashed by a burning love of the Lord. It is the proclamation of a “known and familiar God” that we have experienced; it is the visible witness of what is “invisible.” For this reason the call to holiness and the call to the missions are inseparable.

The Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte considers holiness and learning to pray the “foundation” and “key-point of all pastoral planning” because “despite the widespread secularization” we see in today’s world “a widespread demand for spirituality, a demand which expresses itself in large part as a renewed need for prayer?” (33-34)

The Apostolic Letter reaffirms the need for renewed effort and commitment to the missions as a response to all those who – consciously or unconsciously – are still asking today “to see the Lord.” “We have seen him and we proclaim him to you” (Cf. NMI 59). The renewed impulse to carry out the missio ad gentes demands holy missionaries … We need the encouragement of a new "ardor for holiness" among missionaries and throughout the Christian community” (Redemptoris Missio 90).

From all this it is clear that the General Chapter’s directive is profoundly insightful and directly linked to our credibility as “authentic missionaries”; it involves us in the Church’s program for our times.

Holiness and Communion with Christ

Holiness is born of a profound communion with Christ. “We cannot understand or carry out the mission unless we refer it to Christ as the one who was sent to evangelize” (R M 88). Our life must be taken over entirely by Him, we must “be touched by His hand, hear His voice, be supported by His grace” (VC 40).

The vitality of our missionary endeavor depends on the strength of our faith in Christ; any weakness in this faith will diminish our commitment to the missions. This is why Church documents insist: “contemplate the face of Christ”, “Christ is our point of departure”, “we must know, love and imitate Him” (NMI 16). The missionary impulse springs from our own personal encounter with Christ. This has been the case from the very beginning for those who encountered the Risen Lord. The first missionaries, the apostles, carried in their hearts and in their eyes the face of the Risen Lord. Contemplating his face leads us to assume his form of life – the life of God who lowers himself choosing the path of weakness, becoming a servant, sharing completely even the extreme consequences of being human.

This is the fundamental nucleus of Allamano’s view of holiness. From his earliest youth he sought to make Jesus “the object of my thought and action.” He could urge with conviction “Live with Jesus your whole life.” This leads him to affirm with Paul “It is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me.” Allamano believed that if this goal is reached one can say “I have Christ imprinted in me.”

It is interesting to note the connection between this beautiful expression and the other well known saying : the mission must be “in your head, your mouth and your heart.” Only a great love of Christ and the conviction that Christ’s Gospel is indeed the Good News that must be proclaimed can lead one to devote his life to the missions. This is what leads one “to love others more than one’s own life” and to spend our life for these others. Without this conviction one is a “missionary only in name and not in reality.”

In this regard the beautiful words of St. Augustine on seeking God make us pause to reflect: “you find Him only to seek Him more.” If one does not feel this constant need to seek God it can only mean that one has not yet found Him.

Holiness and Community

Holiness is not an exclusively personal activity nor is it a solitary journey. It is a community commitment, an undertaking of communion, a journey among people. From this perspective we see the necessity and importance of building holiness and the missions as a community – in charity. Both (holiness and mission) are testimonials of love and they require those who give witness to love. Through a life of communion we prove the credibility of our choices and the authenticity of our striving for holiness. In a life of communion we do not choose our fellow travelers rather we discern the light of Christ in the faces of the brothers who share our journey. A life of communion gives rise to a dynamic in which each member assumes his own responsibility. One cannot really live communion without an authentic striving for holiness – without this, communion will not exist. “The Church will build the community of all mankind to the extent that she is herself a community” (RC). What do we lack to be “Eucharistic” sons of Our Lady, the Consolata? What do we need to feel we are a family, to celebrate thanksgiving in fullness, to be men of consolation in our missio ad gentes?

The Constitutions remind us: “The aim which characterizes our Congregation within the Church is the evangelization of peoples … This aim should permeate our spirituality, influence our options, determine our formation and apostolic activities, and orientate our whole life” (no. 5). How can we develop this orientation to unify our life and to encourage “non-believers”?

Conclusion

With these brief thoughts, my dear confrères, we invite you to reflect as individuals, communities and circumscriptions on the quality of our life. We invite you to study and discuss what holiness involves and to examine the witness of our family. To stimulate discussion and elicit working proposals we will distribute your contributions through the internet. All the material gathered during the first year (along with material from retreats, days of recollection, spiritual conferences) will be assembled and distributed to the whole Congregation.

During the second year we will hold a continental convention on the subject of holiness and will draw up a document that will serve as a guide on our journey towards holiness – it will create a “unity of intention.” We believe it is important to stress the importance of certain dates for our family in our efforts to achieve holiness of life. October 7, February 16, August 18 and June 20 are special days of prayer and reflection so we can grow and make progress together towards the goals of our life and our mission.

We greet you with affection and entrust you to our saints: the Blessed Founder and the many men and women missionaries whose life example and devotion will enlighten our journey towards conversion and holiness.

The Two-Year Plan: Some Suggestions

Phase 1: October 7, 2006 – October 7, 2007

- October 7, 2006: Beginning the Two-Year Project with a “special” Prayer service,

- recitation of the Prayer for the gift of holiness,

- sharing thoughts and projects on the subject of holiness of life through the internet

- learning about Consolata Missionary “saints”.

- presentation and study of missionary saints: Thérèse of Lisieux, Francis Xavier, Charles de Foucauld …

Phase 2: October 7, 2007 – June 20, 2008

- drawing up a synthesis of contributions from our missionaries and from other experts on the various continents,

- exchange of thoughts and insights on significant individuals,

- organization of a continental convention for study and celebration,

- closing celebration on the Feast of Our Lady, the Consolata

PRAYER:

THE GIFT OF HOLINESS

O Father, source of all good things

pour down your spirit upon us

that we may advance along the path of missionary holiness

in accordance with the charism of Blessed Joseph Allamano.

Enlighten our minds

to discern the ways of the Spirit

that lead to the new man

who pays heed to the signs of the times

and is quick to answer with love.

Let zeal for the missions burn within us

to carry into all parts of the world

the message of the Gospel and the bread of charity

in perfect communion with You and with our brothers.

Make us poor, humble and chaste,

witnesses of hope and consolation,

dutiful servants of the brothers

we encounter on our journey.

Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.

Holy Mary, the Consolata, our Mother

Help us to be holy missionaries.

LOGO

Blessed Allamano shows the way to holiness which includes the dimension of the Cross and leads us to experience God who is light, joy and fullness of life. In the background are two great hands reaching upwards – they represent all of us, his spiritual sons committed to pursue the sanctity our Founder proposes: “The missions require great sanctity.” The difference in shading of the two hands outlines a chalice, representing the gift of his life that a missionary makes to God and to his brothers, the fundamental pre-condition for pursuing holiness. The burst of light above the chalice assumes the shape of a Sacred Host: the Eucharist is the nourishment that energizes our pursuit of holiness.

Fraternally in the name of the Consolata and Allamano,

Fr Aquiléo Fiorentini, IMC

Fr Stefano Camerlengo, IMC

Fr Francisco López Vásquez, IMC

Fr Antonio Fernandes, IMC

Fr Matthew Ouma Opiyo, IMC