Accepting the request of many sisters of the Congregation that like to continue deepening in our Father Founder person of and in our charismatic sources, the Congregational Formation Team organized an online formation course in four sessions, that took place in the months of October (on the 9th and 23rd) and November 2021 (on the 6th and 20th). The presentation, in charge of our Sr. Isabel Valdizán Valledor, developed the theme: “Our Father Luis in his Letters”.
In the first session, Sr. Isabel helped us to consider the Letters within the Luis Amigó’s Complete Works (OCLA) and then she explained that, in the course we had not carry out a critical, historical and much less curious reading of the Letters, but, through them, we had rather got closer to the person of Father Luis listening especially to what he told us, the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family. She then presented some general aspects, the theme and distribution, the letters addressed to the Sisters and some important messages we can pick up in them and she concluded that, an increased knowledge of Father Luis leads us to deepen more and more in our own form of life and charisma.
In the session of October 23rd, Sr. Isabel presented Father Luis Amigó putting into evidence some nucleus that, since the beginning, attracted our attention: his dedicated life. He was a young friar loving his Capuchin vocation, an upright and transparent person, free and able to express his reality; a man charged with troubles and responsibilities but sure that God is “before and above all else”; a person available and obedient, seeking out God’s will at all times; a Capuchin Provincial, brother of his brothers to the core.
Moving forward in the course, the third session began by underlining what «Our Father Luis» was demanding from us and which ones were his advice and clarifications and criteria about our life. Then Sr. Isabel reminded that among all the letters of Father Luis, only 33 are addressed to the Sisters and mainly to the Sisters that were in America, since he was never able to travel there. Father Luis is interested in each sister, in the good of all of them, in the fraternal and congregational communion, in the formation of the young women … and also in promoting that the Sisters seat themselves in settlements and places favorable for the Congregation growth … Other letters are addressed to various people, but their matters is referring to the Sisters. Sr. Isabel put into evidence also some important issues that Father Luis repeats over and over again, issues that worried him and that she took up again referring them to some concrete situations of life. That is also a call to live in fidelity, in «growth and transformation», following the model that the Lord presents to us in Francis of Assisi.
The last session on November 20th, was about “The daily life” and it was developed in two questions: «The good government of the communities» and «The resuscitating cross». Sr. Isabel talked about that with an agile and motivating language: the strong threads through which Father Luis “weaves life”, the organization of his communities when he was Provincial Minister, the orientations and advices to the Sisters, orientating them to get out from complicated situations and to face difficulties; all that is something more than a good «psychology» or an «opportunity»: it helps to discover the meaning of suffering and of the cross, and to get sure that we are in God’s hands.
The course has been widely accepted and highly valued by all the sisters and has left a desire” to want something more”… That is why, in response again to the suggestions received, it has been decided to offer a second part of this charismatic course for the month of February 2022 and its topic will be: «Our Father Luis in his Pastoral Exhortations».