Viator Web 67 En

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VIATOR WEB

No.67

June, 2015

The Year of Consecrated Life invites us not only to recognize Gods continuing

attentiveness toward his people, as attested through precious testimonies provided

by the great witnesses of the history of our faith, but especially Gods constant

presence. The Gospel story of the Good Shepherd reminds us of that presence: I

am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me, as the Father

knows me and as I know the Father; and I give my life for my sheep(John 10:14-

15). God loves us; God loves us and knows us; and so God acts through love for us

and with us!

The knowledge of which we are speaking is that which comes forth from a relationship

of attachment and of profound love. Without that, any kind of alliance would be

merely strategic; the alliance concluded in Gods name by Jesus is fundamentally

one of love. The biblical meaning of knowledge is very rich and indicates that peo-ple can know only through encounters: there is an experiential dimension that

characterizes knowledge. Associated therefore with the fact of knowing is knowledge,

of course, but also encounter, appreciation, choice, recognition, and creative ac-

tion. All of us understand that, biblically speaking, knowing also refers to sexual

relationships. Let us retain the logic of the knowledge of God for his sheep, incarnated

in Jesus, and that of his People toward their God and let us try to situate the reality

of the consecrated life in the movement of a God who speaks through his People

because he knows them, challenges them through love, and confirms them in their

creative action. So, situated in that perspective, what can the Year of Consecrated

Life inspire in us?

A God Who Speaks through His People

Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, knows his sheep. He loves them, knows them, and

assembles them so that they can bear witness to the reason for their being together.

The Church, the People of God, cultivates genuine communion in Jesus Christ in

Message from the Superior General


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order to become the increasingly incarnated voice of the One who, on the cross, lifted

up humanity to a renewed alliance with its God. The one and only reason: love!

The Church needs to strengthen its deep conviction that God speaks through his People.

All of us, by virtue of our baptism and no matter what ministry we offer in the Church,must cultivate the attitudes of being attentive and listening to the God whose word is

incarnate, true, active, and incisive, a word that draws us toward the boundaries of our

spiritual well-being and that sends us forth to those places where our spiritual well-

being speaks most clearly: to those who are not loved by our world and to those who are

trapped in our systems.

A God Who Challenges through Love

IWe must repeat it unequivocally: God never ceases to call people to follow Him precisely

because it is a question of love. And love is thus constituted. Come and follow me

comes from a fundamental movement generated through Trinitarian love. All biblicalcalls bear witness to that fact.

The God who calls through love asks for the allegiance of human persons in all of the

dimensions that define them: their personality, their history, their sensitivity, their

solidarity with the best and the worst aspects of their world, their intelligence, their

judgment, and their immense capacity for relationships. The faith of the human being is

thus woven. It is therefore a question of a come andfollow methat frees a person

from being encumbered by useless things (Luke 10:4). Freeing oneself so that the essential

becomes an irresistible passion: to be the bearer, in Jesus Christ, of the reality of ones

world. To be challenged by and to act through love!

We must repeat it unequivocally: God never ceases to call. It is of free and availablepeople that God asks a definite commitment in the name of the values of his Good

News. Are they better than others? No! But they are chosen to be disciples in a different

way.

A God Who Confirms His People in Their Creative Action

Why is there a Year of Consecrated Life? In order to celebrate the glorious history and

to pursue it in creative faithfulness, as Saint John Paul II challenged us to do in his post-

synodal exhortation, Vita Consecrata(No. 110). Look to the future,he implored us,

where the Spirit is sending us in order to do great things with you.

Pope Francis has launched a number of vibrant appeals to not enclose God in safe places:Examine the horizons of your life and of the present moment in vigilant watchfulness.

The person who keeps vigil is already living in the presence of the person whom he/she

awaits. To keep watch is to permit the universe of the other person to have a place in

ones own universe. And so opens up a new space for life, for relationships, for creation.

Keeping vigil in faith means breaking the bonds of solitude.1 Apostolic Letter to all consecrated men and women on the occasion of the Year of Consecrated Life.

Pope Francis, 2014.

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Speaking specifically to young people but we can believe that this challenge is addressed

to all of us in our desire to maintain the youthfulness of heart that is specific to those

who follow Christ Pope Francis presents a real challenge to us:

This year you will be participants in a dialogue with the generation that stands

before you. In fraternal communion, you will be able to enrich yourselves through

their experience and their wisdom; and, at the same time, you will be able to once

again propose to that generation the ideal that it experienced at the beginning, to

offer the strength and the vigor of your enthusiasm, as well as to work out together

new ways of living the Gospel and new responses that are more and more adapted

to the need to bear witness to and to announce the Gospel.

What does all of that mean? That some people are right and that others are wrong? No!

Dialogue, which is required by the Gospel in order to recognize a God who speaks to his

People, who calls those persons through love, and who confirms them in their creative

action, guides them towards inevitable crossroads. And it is there that a fundamental

question awaits us: Do we love ourselves enough to let ourselves be transformed by the

love that alone dissipates the desire to be winners and frees us from the trap of losers

in order to make place for truth alone, Gods gift offered by his Spirit in action?

Thank you to all of those who collaborated in this edition of VIATOR WEB and spoke to

us about our challenging world of the consecrated life.

Alain Ambeault, C.S.V.


2Idem.


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A Ministry of Accompaniment

In 1865, three Canadian Viatorians immigrated to Bourbonnais Grove in Kankakee Countyto minister to and with French-speaking Canadian immigrants. Today, 150 years later,

Viatorians in the Arlington Heights/Chicago region (and beyond) have continued this

Michael Gosch, C.S.V.

on behalf of all Viatoriansinvolved in this ministry

ministry by accompanying immigrants, both detained and

released from U.S. federal authorities, by partnering with the

Interfaith Committee for Detained Immigrants.

Embracing both the Viatorian Charterby devoting themselves

to proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ, especially among

the young and the abandoned in todays world, and to working

in favor of peace and social justice, well over 35 Viatorians

have become involved in a ministry that expands beyond ourtraditional roles in innovative, unique, and distinctive ways

(Viatorian Vision Statement of the Province of Chicago).

Viatorians in the region, both lay and consecrated, have

welcomed immigrants, many of whom have fled persecution in

their countries of origin, as their brothers and sisters. They

bear witness to the dignity of those seeking security in the

United States by

establishing relationships based on mutual trust and respect;

assisting with food, clothing, hygiene products, and transportation upon their

release from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; praying on buses with those about to be deported;

offering pastoral care to children and adults detained in four detention centers;

providing emotional and spiritual support to those living at the Marie Joseph

Houses of Hospitality, which are in large part financially supported by the

Congregation;

teaching language classes and directing informational sessions on immigration

policy through the Pastoral Migratoria Programat St. Viator parish;

offering short-term and long-term hospitality at four Viatorian residences;

donating clothing, furniture, household items, and funds;

lobbying members of Congress at the state and federal level for immigrationreform;

praying for the needs of immigrants at daily prayer and Mass;

monitoring legal proceedings in Chicago Immigration Court;

providing driving lessons;

filling out income tax forms.


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The anti-immigrant sentiment that is so prevalent in todays society, both at home and

abroad, adds to the insecurity and fear that many immigrants feel upon their arrival.

Ensuring that they feel accepted is key to this ministry

For many years, professed Viatorians have ministered in schools, parishes, hospitals,

retreat centers, and the Armed Services. Today, qualified and gifted laity has assumed

many of these roles, including many Viatorian associates. Thus, as consecrated

Viatorians, we must ask how we can become more attentive to those beckoning from

the margins of society. While many individual Viatorians in the Province have put

themselves at the service of the marginalized over the years, we must ask how we can

continue to build on this legacy of service.

Pope Francis writes forcefully when he states: I prefer a Church that is bruised, hurting,

and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church that is unhealthy

from being confined and from clinging to its own security (Evangelii Gaudium). In arecent interview, he encourages the Church to be a church that finds new roads, that is

able to step outside itself (America, September 30, 2013).

Through our accompaniment with immigrants, both lay and consecrated Viatorians have

taken Pope Francis message to heart. Their stories of migration and their reasons for

leaving family and home are nothing short of humbling experiences that motivate and

nourish us to continue to move out of our comfort zone and to find God in those accounted

of little importance in our world.


A rejected immigrant waves to his family through a window!


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Animating the Spiritual Life

The Barrentasun Etxea (House of the Interior Life) Viatorian Community came into

existence during the 2003-2004 year with the task of animating the spirituality of the

Viatorian Community of Spain. Today that community is composed of two religious and

four secular Viatorians, plus one other person who, without having any juridical

relationship with the community, lives and works with and assumes all of the activities

of the community. Several persons who are interested in our project also have unofficial

ties with the community.

. What is and what do we

understand by spirituality?

Spirituality is not a part of life, but

the entire life of each person, that

which is deepest and most

intimate in each person, that

which unites the person to the

universal force of LIFE (which we

call God) that affects all of ones

sensations, sentiments, and

thoughts and that impels a person

to work in favor of goodness and

love in whatever situation that

arises.

We are convinced that speaking today about spirituality-interiority is necessary so as to

remain true to oneself when faced with superficiality and dispersion, since interiority

has much to do with personal recognition and with the discovery of ones most intimate

being. People today need a new experience of interiority, need to begin with recollection

and silence and continue moving forward until such time as they attain a deep life ofinteriority.

The interior person is the one who overcomes superficiality and arrives at the deepest

part of himself or herself. For that reason, educating for interiority has much to do with

educating for silence, admiration, freedom. Educating for interiority means educating

in order to learn TO BE.

The consecrated life at the service of the world.What are the needs of our world? The Barrentasun

Etxea community of Vitoria (Spain) directs he

house of the interior life. In light of their

explanation of their misssion, let us dicover the

needs to which they are responding.


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Based upon these convictions, we aspire to make our house into a Viatorian community

where spirituality-interiority is the moving force behind and the goal of our journey, in

which is lived, is deepened, and is celebrated faith in Jesus in a way that is open,

simple, welcoming, service-oriented, joyful, attractive, creative, alive, and hope-filled.

We want our community to be a house of the interior life, a place where the Word of

God is shared and where it is possible to have an experience of the fact that He shares

our individual and group lives. It is for this reason that:

In our community, we invite in and welcome all those persons who wish to have an

experience of sharing faith, spirituality, community, mission, and formation with us,

for a definite or indefinite period of time, without regard to the persons civil, religious,

or social status, age, or other circumstances. The one and only norm is the individuals

intention to grow as a person.

We wish to help one another, and to help others as well, to have a more intense

experience of the divine in the ecumenical sense, making it possible for those who

are being accompanied to become aware of their own identity. Guided by a God who loves us, having confidence in his Providence, we attempt to

build on rock by living in freedom of love, service, availability, welcome, and mutual

demands among ourselves, looking always towards the good of our brother or sister,

respecting the personal rhythms, styles, and situations of each person. And all the

while knowing that pardon and reconciliation, the premises of love, must provide

daily nourishment.

Our objective is to live as a mission in all circumstances, and according to the state

of life that each one is called upon to live, with a burning and disinterested zeal,

as Father Querbes wished. We feel that the lives of lay people are also lives

consecrated to God, through their baptismal consecration, even though they do not

profess public or solemn vows.

We wish to show the world why we are hopeful by being, with our style of life, those

who promote peace and joyfulness.

We feel that our mission is to promote, facilitate, animate, orient, and accompany

people on the road to the interior life that all of us have to follow. In that way, we

hope to help people to experience God in every circumstance and breath of our

existence.

We know and we accept the fact that our option for this community will presuppose

that we are constantly in an attitude of on-going conversion, formation, risk-taking,

and service. But we are convinced that this is the path along which God wants us to

travel and we have no doubt that his love will be with us always.

We have decided that, each day, we will be more austere and simple in our personal

and community lives, in order to be brothers and sisters who are closer to the most

disadvantaged people around us. We want to be aware of the difficulties and

discriminations that people suffer because of their gender, race, color, and political

or religious ideas. We support their complaints and demands and collaborate in

doing what we can to alleviate the difficulties of people who are suffering.


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Over the course of these past twelve years, we have prepared and conducted two one-

week annual retreats for the Viatorian Community and some forty or so other retreats

or meditation sessions. Our retreats are directed both to Viatorians and to other persons

or groups. During this last year, we slightly changed the style and the frequency of

those meditative prayer sessions, responding to the needs and the requests that came

to us. We try to sponsor one such session each month. Rather than prioritizing reflection

and discussion, we opt more for quiet, silence, interiority, admiration, astonishment,

adoration, and thanksgiving.

In addition to the retreats that we direct, some eighty people come through this house

twice a week (for three hours) to assist with sessions that, employing oriental techniques,

lead people toward reflection, self-knowledge, and interiorization. Three times per year,

we organize meditation sessions, lasting three or four hours, that are available to all

those persons who wish to participate. We are accompanying a group of persons who

come together each week in our house to meditate. A free psychological counseling

service is available to those who are in need of such.The people who come to us are asking us to listen to them, not in order to give them

advice, but rather to provide orientations based upon the experiences of our own lives.

They approach us so that we can accompany them as they advance in their interior

lives.

For this reason, spirituality, for us, means making room for God in our lives and translating

that in our human relations. All of that requires that we be very attentive to discovering

how our brothers and sisters are living, what is happening in their lives, how we can

help them, and what we can learn from them. Living based upon our interior lives makes

it possible for us, as Thomas Merton used to say, to be aware of the love that, in spite

of real differences and emotional frictions, brings us together. Superficial things arenothing; what is real is what is found deep within ourselves. We are creatures of love.

Oh God, we are one with you. You have made us one with you. You have taught us that,

if we remain open to one another, you dwell within us. Help us to maintain that openness

and to strive to attain it with all our heart. Help us to understand that, if there is rejection,

there can be no mutual understanding. Love has conquered. Love is victorious. Amen1

1 Prayer with which Thomas Merton closed the First Spiritual Encounter of Eastern and Western Monksin Calcutta in 1968


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Daring to live life in total communion!

Living in the footsteps of Father LouisQuerbes is, for each and every one of us,

a constant call to live as educators at the

service of life. Our common mission

leads us, wherever we may be, to defend

peoples rights and freedoms in order to

restore to each person his or her full

dignity as a son or daughter of God.

We respond to that challenge in all

simplicity by being constantly present to

the young and the impoverished, inefforts to bring greater happiness to

people, in actions marked by the values

of tenderness and justice that are alive

within us. For some time now, we have

recognized that, in order to succeed in

living together, it is necessary not only

to support one another, but also to love

one another and to recognize ourselves

in what we are and in what beautiful,good, and marvelous contributions we make to building up a happy community.

Our loving communion, inspired by the communion lived by the first Christians (Acts

2:42-47), manifests itself through a sustained relationship with the creating Father, the

liberating Son, and the sanctifying Spirit. That faith in a Trinitarian God motivates our

ideal of living together. Our community thus develops bonds between and among its

members and the entire network of

people who are journeying with one or

another of us. Our community tries to

be feast and hope, joy and a searching

for the better, simplicity of life and

sharing of what we have and are. It is

good, then, to celebrate life in thebreaking of the bread and in pardon, but

also in the sharing of a meal, a festive

evening, a picnic day in a word, celebra-

ting what life has reserved for us of what

is beautiful and what is difficult to live

in full confidence that Christ is present.

Who are we?

The community of Viatorians of the Sacred Heart

Residence (Canada) is composed of twenty-eight

persons: twenty-one Viatorians and seven other

members in a process of community and spiritual

life. We are involved in three schools, two hospitals,a center for senior citizens, two parishes, different

grass-roots organizations, the Service of Preparation

for Life (youths), Camps of the Future, scientific

research, prison ministry, and food services. Besides

meeting three times a month on Tuesday evening,

we also have other activities together.

Our residence is also a place that extends a

welcome to various persons (Viatorians and others)

who gather for meetings, formation and updating

sessions, moments of peace and quiet or, very

simply, moments for living in communion.


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Our faith in Christ, enlivened by a hope for eternity, is nourished through the re-reading

of the Word and leads us towards all of those who are accounted of little or no importance

in our world today those children, those women, and those men who await a taste of

Matthews Gospel (25). Yes, our heart was on fire when it came into contact with the

little ones, those loved by God, for, like the disciples of Emmaus, we recognized therein

our Lord, who waves to us on our daily travels. Our action tries to be a delicate presence

to those persons having difficulty, feeling rejected, excluded, diminished. But it is also

an action that is committed and dedicated to demanding living conditions that are human

and socially acceptable for

everyone. All members are

deeply involved in those places

where they live and work.

Several times each year, as a

community, we welcome persons

who are alone and in need to

share in a meal. We are also

present to serve at the Camps

of the Future (at Lake Ouimet)

and we support the activities of

the Service of Preparation for

Life. Through those two orga-nizations, we are also in contact

with many people, including

Viatorians, in those countries

where the Service of Preparation

for Life is present: Haiti, Peru, Madagascar, and Africa (Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast,

Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Togo).

the freshness of Gospel values,

of the values of respect, freedom,

and mercy. Blessed, says the

Evangelist Saint Matthew. Joy,

affirms the new translation of the

Bible. Yes, that joy of the

Beatitudes nourishes our way of

being and of living. Our witness

of life becomes an unconditional

welcome, a journey with ordinary

people, a struggle for life.

That joy of the Beatitudes iscolored by our commitment to

serve the poor, those men and

women recognized in Saint


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As a result of what we have just said in complete truth, we believe that our community

experience bears witness to our willingness to live our mission and the Viatorian

Community. To go even further, we owe it to ourselves to keep our windows and our

doors open to the wind of the Spirit, to the cry of the little ones, to the clamor of our

people.

We owe it to ourselves to believe deeply that the future of the Gospel takes place

through the creation of community places wherein all women and men participate in

maintaining and developing a truly loving communion. It then becomes no longer a

question of associates or of religious, of brothers or of priests, but of loving women and

men, committed Christians, persons who invest the best of themselves in the journey

towards a land that reflects the Gospel of peace, joy, and tenderness desired by the

Father, announced by the Son, vitalized by the Spirit. It is there that many women and

men who are excluded from communion, who have lost hope in life, who have been

impoverished by our political and economic systems will find reasons to hope, to believe,

and to love.

Our baptism, the foundation of our unity, is also the guarantee of our desire to live

uprightly and to dare to be joyful. With patience and tolerance, in a quest for peace, we

continue to cultivate communion in the ordinary circumstances of our daily lives. See

how they love one another! That is the urgent challenge for our times!


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How does the reality of our world challenge

the consecrated life today?

Our Reality:

The house of formation of the Province of Chile, which serves as the present location of

the C.L.A.C. novitiate, is found in the town of Puente Alto, which, with its 800,000

inhabitants, has the largest population of all the towns in Chile. We are situated in a

zone that, some years back, was dedicated to farming. Today, such rural areas are being

replaced by condominiums for middle-class families, the majority of which are younger.

Puente Alto Community

First Row: Erick Gaona, Eduardo Milln, Toms Villalobos.

Second Row: Jorge Arancibia, Gabriela Ibarra, Vctor Arnguiz, Gloria

Arriagada, Ivn Azolas

Our original plot is one of the

few remaining in our sector.

Over the course of recent years,

the Chilean Church has suffered

scandals because of certain

bishops and priests, some of

whom are well known. This si-

tuation, besides giving rise to

questions and criticisms about

the way in which a small number

of members of the hierarchyproceeded in facing this

problem, has also produced a

lack of confidence in the Church,

which, as an institution, has lost

a great deal of credibility. The

charism, the goodness, the

simplicity, and the transparency

of Pope Francis are helping to

overcome those difficulties.

In Chile, just as in other parts of the world, corporate directors, political parties, and

those who are leaders have lost much credibility.

Insofar as our community dimensin is concerned, we are very much aware that we are

part of aformationcommunity. We believe that the best service that we can render to

the Congregation, to the Church, and to society is to acquire a solid integral formation


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that will promote communion with the Lord and that will help us to encounter those for

whom our mission is intended.

A Needy Word is waiting for us

In this social and ecclesial setting, we Viatorians strive to live out our vocation with joy

and to be credible witnesses to Jesus of Nazareth.

We must be experts in the art of looking for signs of God in the realities of our world and

of finding in those signs the challenges being addressed to us by the Lord of history. It

is there that we find life!

Before writing these lines, we spent time reflecting as a community. On the occasion of

our vocation week, we asked the adults and young people who attend Mass in our

chapel to tell us how they see us and what they expect of us. There were many similiar

responses. They ask of us:

Openness, closeness, and an ability to listen.They want us to accompany different

pastoral and community groups and to help them in their reflections. They need

us to listen to their problems. They want us to learn to look at things with the heart

of God, which will make us more human. They ask that we be open, welcoming,

and communicative and that we become familiar with the reality of people who

need a friendly hand. They tell us in many different ways, some of which are

rather direct, that they not only want us to be seen in church, but also to come

closer to the community, to their homes. They want us to get out of our particular

environment and to draw closer to those whom we have alienated and those who

feel excluded from the Church.

Faithfulness, coherency, and transparency.People want us to do what we have

promised, to be faithful to our vows, and to give them good example by living out

Gospel values. They ask that we be authentic and that we always promote the

truth. People want us to be credible!

Humility and simplicity.We are no different from the rest of the brothers and

sisters who make up the Church. People want us to dedcate ourselves to serving

the community in a humble and total way.And people remind us that, like Jesus,

we must have a preference for the very poor and must continue being committed

to the most disadvantaged.

Accompaniment in the path of faith.Very much along the lines of our mission,

people ask us to accompany everyone children, young people, and adults in

their lives of faith and to help them to get to know Jesus in order to love him more

and to follow him more closely. People want us to teach them how to read the

Word and how to pray. People ask that we guidetheir children along the right

path.People need to have us continue educating them in their faith so that they

can better serve God and their neighbor. People also desire that we help them to


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form communities where Gospel values are lived out and eventually shared by

them with those around them.

In order to respond adequately to those requirements, we need to live deeply rootedinJesusand to have a solid formation. The Aparecida document goes into specifics by

saying that, in order to be good missionary disciples,we must:

give absolute primacy to God and his Kingdom, be attentive to the Word of the

Master, and participate with devotion in the Eucharist (219);

live in profound intimacy with Jesus, who has called us, and become experts in

communion (218);

attain a high degree of pastoral charity and live out the radicalness of the Gospel

in our apostolic mission (360).

All of that is a demanding, but exciting, task. In order to accomplish it, we are counting

on the strength of the Holy Spirit. With the Holy Spirit, all things are posible!


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Begin with needs

Go forth to other places.Fear.

Build a new ones life and the life of ones family.

We must fo beyond our compfort zones and dare to find God in other places!

Consecratedmen and women, conviced of Gods roaming presence.

The depth of your well.

Beings with interior lives, whose homes must remain open,

since they need others to meet and to speak with God.We desire that spirituality-interiority be the means to - -and the

end of - our common journey..

Consecrated men and women, persons who know

where Gods heaven is for everyone.

The Gospel. Jesus and people.

Community, Gospel men and women who are orientatedtoward the world.

A Gospel that creates community bonds that proclaim Gods project foreveryone: Hope is born!

Consecrated, persons whom faith brings together

in the name of beauty, goodness, and truth.

Openness, closeness, capacity for listening.

Faithfulness, coherency, and transparency.

Humility and simplicity.Accompanying them in their journey of faith.

Consecrated, people who believe thateverything is possible with the Spirit.


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