RETREAT IN ASSIS

In three days from 3rd until 6th of September, the capitular sisters went to Assisi for a spritual retreat as a preparation for the official opening of the XXI General Chapter. Fr. Ignacio Calle the General Father of the Capuchin Tertiary Fathers ( Amigonians) led the retreat.

Do we live from God?

It is the question posted by the Retreat Master to the capitular sisters, now that many times it seems that we have found our true treasure but our attitudes shows in reality differently from what we believe in.

The Christian Church can fall on the same errors of the old Israel. It can deteriorate and be transformed in a system of laws of faith, in a system of works under the disguise of the Holy Spirit. Therefore instead of being in the church on the hands of God we fall in the hands of the administrators, on a doctrine of the doctors of the laws or of the cults like the priests of the temple, or of the administrators of the formal holiness shown consistently from the external works, like the Pharisees. The living out of the true faith is lacking, Christianity becomes not a direct joyful experience of the Living Jesus.

We can conclude that the majority of the members of our communities have perceived that the truth about salvation is found in the register of informative knowledge and only minorities draw it from the spiritual experience.

Some points that can help us to understand better and live coherently our faith and  arrive to a true experience of God.

• Starting Point: God is within us, we are temples of the Holy  Spirit

Our human body is not only a temple that contains God like a sacred vessel, but rather it is also where God lives transforming it and making it grow continually.

•   We are all from God like Jesus.

As believers it is impossible to dissociate God in the definition of creatures and it is still less understood to be a rival with the one who creates and gives the creature the maximum autonomy.

To live from God is possible through a specific spirituality, but what is Spirituality and how did each one of us have assumed it? Where do we find its origin?

The Spirituality from above and its fundamental questions are: How do we become Christian? What should we do? What type of conduct should we follow?

The Spirituality from above: we put our sight to the ideals that must give us enthusiasm so that we can realize it at the end. Young people specially need ideals for their life. Without ideals one would be limited in thinking about oneself without developing the possibilities that is hidden within. Without the force that these ideals provoke one would be living at the margin of his or her possibilities without even noticing it.

We cannot, however, avoid the spirituality from above. It functions positively to awaken active life in us. It works negatively producing sickness when the ideals lose its contact with our reality. There are person who proposes to themselves some ideals that are so elevated that results to discouragement.

Spirituality from below: it is principally presented in the parables of Jesus. He, for example, speaks to us about the hidden treasure in a field (Mt 13, 44…) We have to work hard with our hands to dig deeply and if we wish to discover the treasures hidden in the field of our heart.

The models from the bible that are offered to us are not always those of perfect men and women, on the contrary those are persons who are seeking God and those who recognize that they have to start from the bottom. Abraham for example, in Egypt he negated Sarah who was his wife and presented her as his sister to avoid conflict. Moses an assassin. Overruled by anger killed an Egyptian. Faced by his unworthiness at burning bush, recognized that he was a failure in the service of God before accepting what God has entrusted to him. David carries in his conscience the grave sin of taking the wife of Uria and when he discovered that she was pregnant ordered to put Uria in the most dangerous part of the battle in order to be killed easily. Peter in the New Testament ended in denying Jesus in his time of arrest after having been assured  before the way to the garden of olives that: ¨Even if necessary to die for you, I will never deny you¨(Mt. 26,35). The weaknes of Peter was converted to courage and strength. In this, it was proven that the solid rock was not  from himself  but it was from to the faith where he should hold on to in order to be faithful to Jesus in the middle of adversities.

•  The life of penance and gratitude: Faced in the reality of our weakness and limitation but also in the love and mercy of God, it is unavoidable to take the life testimony of St. Francis of Assisi, who oriented us to a penitential life lived  along with  the life  in gratitude.

The starting point of ¨penitential life¨ is a  life in endless gratitude that goes beyond heaven and earth, for the marvels of His true holy love, for the Father of Mercy who  saved us through His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

The ¨life in penance¨ is consequently, as for all the Christian life, is the thankful response  to the call and the saving work of God. In the measure that the person opens up to the redeeming action of Christ and allowing Him  to penetrate in himself/herself, the more person forgets himself/herself and walks towards Him. And it is far more better if one responds to the call to conversion, to a ¨life of penance¨, and much more the denial of oneself , because it will be consumed by the love of God.

 These are some of the points of reflection given during the retreat. It was also a great opportunity for the sisters to visit some Franciscan places such as Porciúncula, the tomb of St. Francis St. Damián and the Santuary of Greccio.

We thank God for everything that helped all the sisters to rediscover and renew in their hearts for this great event of our Congregation.