Javier Aguirregabiria Aguirre

Passion for the Fraternity

www.edicionescalasancias.org

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Passion for the Fraternity

Author: Javier Aguirregabiria Aguirre

Publicaciones ICCE

(Instituto Calasanz de Ciencias de la Educación)

Conde de Vilches, 4 - 28028 Madrid

www.icceciberaula.es

In charge of the team of translators: P. José Pascual Burgués

publicaciones@scolopi.net

Copyright is reserved.

Reproduction, publication and distribution, whether total or partial, of all the original material contained in this book is expressly forbidden unless written authorization has been given.

For further information contact: www.icce.es

Passion for the Fraternity

Presentation of the book from P. General

Passion for the Fraternity, more than just a book…

Joy, gratitude and commitment. These are my feelings as I write this brief presentation of the book PASSION FOR FRATERNITY, by Fr Javier Aguirregabiria, the current provincial of Brazil and Bolivia. I have the impression that all of you who read it will be able to understand and share them.

JOY, because this is a book that not only presents or describes the rich reality of the Fraternity of the Pious Schools, but, above all, shares a history built up by many people over the years. It is a book “full of life”, which exudes life and proposes life. For all of us who are and feel ourselves children of Calasanz, it is a great joy to see how the charism of Calasanz, which is the charism of the People of God, is incarnated in so many people and communities throughout the Piarist world.

GRATITUDE to Javier for his work, but also to all the people who have contributed and contribute to consolidate, little by little, this rich community and apostolic reality that is the Fraternity. We thank God on behalf of the children and young people, especially the poor, because the charism of Calasanz continues to grow and to generate new responses of life and mission.

COMMITMENT, because I believe that this is what all Piarists should feel, live and grow when we talk about the Piarist Schools Fraternity. We are facing a reality that is still very young, which needs to be cared for as well as challenged. I invite everyone to grow in this mentality.

“Passion for the Fraternity” is an enjoyable book, which combines very well the theoretical reflection with the experience contrasted over the years. Reading it can help us not only to understand, but also to love the Fraternity.

I think it is a book that will help the Fraternity and the Order a lot. It will be possible to work in the communities, to use it for formation and for the discernment of new options. But above all, it will help this precious charismatic reality to grow and consolidate little by little, in fidelity to Calasanz and in response to the challenges of the little ones, of the Pious Schools and of the Church. Enjoy your reading.

Fr. Pedro Aguado Sch. P.

Father General of the Pious Schools

Presentation of the book from the General Council of the Fraternity

Passion for the Fraternity, as well as being, in the first place, the result of the long experience and precise reflection of the author, is also a network of vocations, experiences, testimonies and dreams of a multitude of people who, in one way or another, have chosen to live their lives linked to the Fraternity of the Pious Schools.

The long list of names with which the book ends is reminiscent of the biblical genealogies which try to convey that the story told is the story of a community, which, with its successes and infidelities, tries to make its way together, in this case, following Jesus of Nazareth along the path opened by Joseph of Calasanz. This list can also be read as an invitation to those who, after reading this book, feel that this story can also be their own story.

As stated in some of the attached reference documents, the identity of a human group is like the tapestry woven with the innumerable vocational and identity threads of each person who makes up the group. Threads of different qualities, thicknesses and colours that make up a singular whole linked to a history that is lived together and that reinforces the sometimes very fine weave that is precisely this common identity.

To recognise the importance of each strand that makes up our identity is to recognise our own capacity to take on newness and to respond to the challenges that history brings us.

The Piarist Fraternity humbly aspires to be a part of the Piarist identity and to contribute its own colours, its own experiences, to the precious fabric that Calasanz began to weave more than 400 years ago. Here there will be some who, not without reason, remember the evangelical warning not to mend a noble and old cloth with scraps of new cloth, which make it impossible to mend. But the Piarist Fraternity, although new, does not intend to mend or mend what does not need to be mended, but to incorporate into the experience of the Piarist charism people who, from their lay vocation, want to travel their own vocational path with the Piarist religious.

In this sense, the Piarist Fraternity is a gift of the Holy Spirit, since it highlights the significance of so many Piarist religious, whose vocation, like all Religious Life, has served to attract believers to a more intense following of Jesus and to a stronger bond with the Church. It is to be hoped, therefore, that, in this joint journey, the Piarist Fraternity can also contribute something of significance to the Piarist history and mission. For this, it is essential that all of us realise the transcendence of this vocation. We are clay pots, but we share a treasure that transcends us and that requires from us the maximum commitment and fidelity: to bring to the children and young people entrusted to us the Good News of Jesus, which, we are convinced, is a source of freedom and happiness, of salvation for all of them.

This book is a small contribution to the path of clarification and awareness that all of us, religious, lay men and women, are following. We can only thank Fr Javier Aguirregabiria for his dedication and commitment to this work and the experience he has accumulated. If after reading it, praying it and working on it we manage to strengthen our own Piarist vocation, it will have been worth the effort.

Presentation

Within the Pious Schools today there are several Piarist Fraternities, which… are an extraordinary gift to the Pious Schools and for the mission we are called to advance in the heart of the Church and at the service of society.

Fr. General, Pedro Aguado, in the presentation of “The Fraternity of the Pious Schools”, (2011)

Situating this book

This book aims to spread the passion that the Fraternity awakens when it is discovered as a gift and a challenge that calls for responsibility. That is our wish and we would like it to be yours as you go through these pages. Month

The Fraternity makes us fall in love and commits us. It wins our hearts… and steals them! It is not in vain that it is the other face of mission, which also attracts and complicates our lives. And in the midst of this wonder and daily struggle we meet Jesus Christ, who is always alive and at work in the community and in the mission.

It is a publication that can be read personally and also collectively, as it could not be otherwise when its content is precisely the community. It is offered as a possible formation and also as a resource to start or continue to advance in Fraternity in the different Piarist presences.

It is a book to be read in common, in fraternity, in family. At least, between you, dear reader, and us. And always with the One who makes us brothers, who is the same God whom we call our Father. And, if you want the family to be wider, we will include, as Calasanz would like, our mother Mary, who is the protector of the Pious Schools. And hopefully we will also include other brothers of the religious community, or of the Fraternity, or of the Calasanz Movement… or of those who want to take steps towards the community.

It is necessary to share this gift of the Fraternity, because it is not ours, but of the One who has made us brothers. And it is always a collective gift, to be discovered and enjoyed together, because no one can keep it as if it were his sole property.

The Fraternity of the Pious Schools began in 1988. In this time there have been many experiences, many initiatives, many reflections, and much life. And today we continue to make our way, too often thinking that we are the first, that we are inventing… and we have to avoid common mistakes, not to waste time and effort (sometimes also people) on decisions that have already been made. We need to write down what we have lived, collect what we have already experienced, share our discoveries and our mistakes, not to take away the necessary protagonism in each place, but to enrich each other and to move with more Piarist styles… because the Fraternity is always sharing. We assume this task from the Council of the General Fraternity as a service to the present Fraternities, to those that will emerge and to the Pious Schools.

In these pages we want to gather together various reflections, documents, materials, proposals that can be useful for those who want to know more about the Fraternity, for those who want to set it in motion, for those who are already living in Fraternity and wish to learn about the experience in other places, for those who see the need to go deeper into this exciting world of the Fraternity of the Pious Schools.

It is aimed at religious and lay people who want to improve their community life, who feel that the Fraternity is a treasure to be cared for, to keep alive, to make it bear fruit and enjoyment. It can be used both for the religious community and for the Fraternity community, or for the group of people who want to share faith and life in a Christian group. Evidently they are very different communities, but with a common element: to be a sign and living sacrament of the presence of Jesus in the midst of the brothers and sisters: “By this they will know that you are my disciples” (Jn 13:35).

It is written for the Piarists, religious and lay, because they have the same blood, they are of the same family. It is necessary to realise that one of the most precious fruits of the Order of the Pious Schools is to have given birth to the Fraternity. It is a precious daughter, a gift from God, who is called to have a life of her own while maintaining the DNA of the Piarist charism. It is a daughter perhaps not sought and desired by all, but a daughter who fills the mother with tenderness and makes her feel the greatness of being an instrument of God to create new Piarist life.

The Fraternity makes the Order a mother (it was already the mother of thousands of children, adolescents, young people, the poor that it has been raising and accompanying): now it is also the mother of a community that carries its own genes by the grace of God. As a mother she has to be an example and make an effort to educate her daughter when she is young, to give her the best so that she can grow up, to let her grow and be herself, to always keep the door of the house open, to keep the gift of motherhood always in her heart…

The Order has given life to the Fraternity. And the Fraternity has to recognize in the Order its mother and love her always, and respect her, and let itself be guided as it grows and takes its own identity… and discover itself every day more Piarist family and more co-responsible. And to become aware that the Fraternity is also called to be the mother of many children and young people, of many people in need, of the Calasanz Movement which is a child shared with the Order, and of all those whom the Lord places under our care.

This is what this book aims to convey, to share with you, with you… in the presence of the Lord who calls us together, makes us brothers and sisters, gives us his Spirit and accompanies us.

The book has a logical presentation, as can be seen in the table of contents. But it can also be read in the chapters that are of most interest at any given moment, because each of these sections makes complete sense in itself.

It is important to read these pages with an open mind, knowing that we are entering a sacred space. Because the Christian community is always a sacrament of the presence of Jesus, who calls us together as brothers of the same Father and gives us his Spirit to discover the most appropriate way to follow him at every moment. It is a sacred space because the Fraternity is a commitment of those who form it and, at the same time, it is a gift from the One who has called each member. It is a sacred space because it gathers a lot of Piarist life that has tried, and continues trying, to update today and here the charism of Calasanz. It is a sacred space because it is an opportunity for the Spirit to help each reader to discern what the Lord wants to ask today.

And, at the same time, it wants to be a book that helps the fraternal life of the Piarist religious communities. The Fraternity is a daughter of the Pious Schools and is a call to refresh the community life of the religious which is, together with the mission, the great challenge of those of us who want to follow Jesus and know that it is only possible with the brothers that He gives us.

Many people have collaborated: Father General, the Council of the General Fraternity, more than thirty people who have sent their testimonies, some who read the first draft and sent their contributions (Pablo, Alberto). Thank you. It is always necessary to write about community as a group.

It is written in short chapters that are thought-provoking, that allow for personal and group reflection, that encourage community dialogue, that help change hearts and encourage action.

At the end of each chapter there is a testimony, a text, a prayer, that can serve to deepen, to pray, to verify that this is not paper, but the life of many people, that it gives much life to others and that it reveals the One who is the Author of Life.

Testimony from Governadores Valadares - Brazil

Talking about the joy of having chosen this wonderful way of life renews my expectations and hopes as a person, professional and missionary that I have been since the first sacrament, baptism.

Belonging to the Fraternity is for my state of mind, pleasant food, which nourishes my needs, because living every moment with the brothers of the Fraternity, makes me feel a better person and makes me more aware of the importance of serving the Church and the Lord God.

Today, the ancient desire to engage in Christian work and to walk with Jesus Christ, enjoying the Calasanctian charism, is already permeating in me. I have St. Joseph Calasanz as an idol in my professional life and, of course, also in my personal life, experiencing the joy of working in the Pious School. To share with colleagues the beauty of being a Piarist is a privilege. I try not to measure the results achieved with the teachings of the Calasanctian pedagogy, because I am a person who receives a lot and I always want to make my oblation an act of detachment, because that is what God wants and what the brothers need.

I started with the Piarists several years ago, enrolling my children in the Ibituruna School. At the first parents’ meeting, they informed us that they would start the Catechesis in the school and asked for help from the families for the voluntary work of catechist: I made myself available, “it was love at the first meeting”, until now we are together and I hope it will be forever.

I have worked as a pastoral agent, I went through the Pastoral of Minors in Carapina, I continue in the Catechesis of the Ibituruna School coordinating (two friends and I) a team of 53 catechists and almost 400 catechists. We live together the depth of evangelisation according to the guidelines of the Calasanz Movement.

I started my professional life at the school as a monitor in Early Childhood Education, I was a teacher of the 2 year old nursery, 1st and 2nd years, and since November 2013, I have been working as an Educational Counsellor in Fundamental Education I.

I am an animator of the Prayer Community, I am on the District Council and I participate in the Presence team of Governador Valadares. And naturally, I am also a daughter, sister, wife, mother, friend… Of all that I do, what I find most satisfying is being with people. To feel, care and watch over them. I always ask Calasanz for inspiration to take care of my mission and God for perseverance and wisdom. I fulfil myself by working as a volunteer and professionally in the Piarist works. I feel proud to be in the Pious School and I perceive that I grow in knowledge and grace in every step I take in this beautiful journey.

The Piarist Fathers are for me a reference in prayerful spirituality and also in the transforming action of our society. I feel useful, a true missionary, aware of the attitudes that I must continue to sow among all those with whom I live and work, in the family, in the church, in the world. I am very grateful, my dear Fathers, religious brothers of the fraternity! All of you are a differential in my life! We are together in this noble cause which is the building of the KINGDOM!

Riselha Dantas Santos Amorim, Fraternidade de Valadares - Brazil

To start a meeting

Here we are, Lord, gathered together for you.

We need your presence.

Come and join us.

Teach us what we must do, show us the way.

Be the inspirer of our decisions.

Do not allow us to be disrespectful or unjust.

Let not ignorance lose us nor affection deceive us.

Unite us to You so that we may be one and walk in the truth.

Passion for the mission… with passion for the Fraternity

In 2015 the book “Passion for the mission” was published[1] which, based on the chapter of the Piarist mission in the Constitutions, developed how to carry out the mission in our time.

1 It can be found at https://www.escolapios21.org/recursos-escolapios/libros-y- articulos/

Now we want to complement it with another fundamental aspect, the passion for the Fraternity, taking advantage of the double meaning of this word (the generic one that alludes to the experience of brothers in the community and the one applied concretely to the Fraternity of the Pious Schools).

Sometimes the question arises as to which comes first, the mission or the community. There are those who think that mission comes first, the need to serve others, the sending out to build the Kingdom… and they are right… and they are not. Others argue that it is necessary to start with the community that carries the mission forward, that it is the most central part of the mission and its raison d’être… and they are right and wrong. When a woman has her first child, simultaneously there is the miracle that she becomes a mother and the baby becomes a child: the mother makes the child and the child makes the mother. So it is with mission and community: mission creates community and community creates mission.

Because mission and fraternity are two sides of the same coin, they are inseparable.

It is the community that carries out the mission: mission is not possible with only one person. The Fraternity is always the agent of the Christian and Piarist mission. And, at the same time, the Fraternity is the point of reference of the mission, the horizon, the offer of the educational, evangelising and transforming task.

The Fraternity is for the mission, it is not for itself, nor for the satisfaction of its members. The Christian community is called by Jesus, one by one, to be the people who accompany him and to be sent to preach the Good News with words and miracles (Mk 3, 13-19).

We must repeat it over and over again: mission and community are intrinsically linked. Without community there is no mission and without mission there is no community.

Calasanz began with the work of educating children, looking for people to accompany him. And so he spent twenty years seeing how that work did not achieve the necessary consistency to be sustained over time. Only when he constituted the first community of life did that task begin to be a mission (sending), recognised by the Church and with lasting fruits.

We must insist without tiring: those who work a lot for others while going alone do not do mission, those who want to have a community only inwardly to feel at ease and without discovering that they are sent on mission do not do community.

Community and mission are never opposed to each other. Sometimes we hear that too much activism damages the community and it is true, because the activity of each member has to be wanted, accepted, assumed and referred to the whole community. And if this is not the case, this action is whim, pride, personal interest, but not mission. And the same could be said in the opposite sense: being too dedicated to the internal life of the community, if it impedes the full development of the mission to which it is called, is not fulfilling its raison d’être.

Knowing how to live these two aspects in harmony is a challenge and a marvel, which we have to make possible every day in Fraternity.

We can use as an example the challenge of the family, which has to devote time to its children, while at the same time providing the means for family life and for the social and ecclesial life so necessary for children to grow up in a healthy environment.

In these pages we are going to focus on the community aspect and not so much on the mission. But, from the beginning, we must be very aware that to form community, to care for it, to live it, is already to do mission and it must lead us to do a lot of mission outside the community group as well.

We will accompany each page with the experiences lived in the Order and in the Fraternity (especially gathered in the Constitutions, in documents and in experience).

Testimony from Belo Horizonte (Brazil)

“Welcome to the Pious Schools to those who, in their hearts, already felt like Piarists” (Fr. Balcells).

How honoured and happy I am to participate in the “Piarist mission”! With the arrival of the Piarist Fathers Jesús and José Félix to the Parish of San Marcos, in 1984, the work that was already being done to catechise the children, gained a new impulse. I, who am almost celebrating my silver jubilee as a catechist, since at the age of 14 I began this journey that I consider the most important and the one that most fulfils me as an evangeliser: preparing children for the life of faith, I felt renewed with the accompaniment of these joyful and committed religious. How many challenges and joys to see many of those children, who one day came by the hand of their parents, now participating in the same mission as catechists and coordinators of the Calasanz Movement. Others who passed through our catechesis, now bring their children and even their grandchildren to follow in their footsteps. We also have disappointments, seeing many young people who stray from the path of good, but we are not discouraged.

Some years passed, and I committed myself to a new task as a follower of Calasanz: the PASTORAL OF THE MINOR, collaborating with the Public Schools of our Parish. Our mission was to “educate for life” our little students, taking as a basis the words of Fr. José Carlos, a Piarist religious: “we know that the person is structured from the values that are sown in childhood and adolescence”. We started in two schools in 1995. The experiences of this work were consolidated and extended to other schools. It was necessary to produce materials in order to have a programme to be put into practice and to standardise our work. A commission of five educators met for a year and, after researching topics, planning each meeting, creating dynamics to work with third and fourth year students, we edited a small book: EDUCATION IN HUMAN VALUES. Some time later it was published, and to this day it is used in Piarist Schools and Educational Centres.

We overcome great challenges in the work of education for a dignified and happy life, understanding that what is most necessary is love for the little ones, availability of time and constant concern for training. I am never ready. I build myself up with each encounter. It is in the relationship with the Piarist religious, with the companions in the mission, in the Piarist Fraternity, in prayer and in the Eucharistic celebrations, that I find the strength and enthusiasm to remain firm in my objectives and not to move away from this very worthy mission.

In 2009, Fr. Carlos Aguerrea made me a new proposal: to start in Brazil, in the presences of Belo Horizonte and Governador Valadares, the Piarist Fraternity. After the period of Discernment, on December 10, 2011, my birthday (65 years old), I made the Piarist Lay Promise with other brothers. The charism of Calasanz is like a fire that fuels my mission and documented commitment to the Pious Schools. I always thank God for all his calls in the face of my littleness: Catechesis, Pastoral do Menor, Piarist Fraternity, and Misionera da Arquidiócesis de Belo Horizonte that sends me to many different places to talk about the infinite love of God for all of us.

Altair Ribeiro dos Santos, Belo Horizonte Fraternity - Brazil

Our father

Our brothers, who are in the first world:

so that his name will not be blasphemed,

that his Kingdom may come and his will be done,

not only in heaven but also on earth,

respect our daily bread,

by renouncing daily exploitation;

don’t insist on charging us for the debt we didn’t incur

and you are being paid by our children, our hungry, our dead;

do not give in to the temptation of profit, racism, war;

We will be careful not to give in to the temptation of hatred or submission,

and let us deliver one another from every evil.

Only then can we pray together

the family prayer that Brother Jesus taught us.

Our Father, Our Mother,

who art in heaven and who art on earth

(Dom Pedro Casaldáliga)

A brief history of the Fraternity

Every story is a particular narration of many personal and collective stories and is therefore always partial. Knowing this, it is useful to present some features of these years of Fraternity in order to be able to frame the moment in which we find ourselves.

The official start

On 25th June 1988, the document “The Fraternity of the Pious Schools” was published[2] where Father General, José Mª Balcels, “officially constituted the Fraternity of the Pious Schools”.

2 It can be found at http://www.escolapios21.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/La-Fraternidad-de-las-EEPP-1988.pdf e

In the foreword it said

- We have the right to “re-found” the Pious Schools in our present and in our future, which belongs to God. Calasanz said: “Give the habit only to persons who are very suitable for founders” (letter 4.031).

- We become wholeheartedly welcoming and we open our homes, spirituality and charism to those who identify with them. And we feel a fraternity that has not yet begun and is trembling, which is opening up like an undreamt-of springtime. They are brothers and sisters filled with the Spirit.

- Welcome to your home, all of you who feel at home in the Pious Schools, welcome to the Pious Schools, all of you who feel at home in your heart as Piarists!

- This “Fraternity of the Pious Schools” was born from the heart of Calasanz. There are many who, through the path lived by Calasanz, try to follow a similar path, which will lead them to the very heart of Christ, Master and Shepherd.

- Thus, I officially constituted the “Fraternity of the Pious Schools”, while auguring a revival of the ecclesial ministry of Christian education among parents, teachers, former pupils, pupils and friends in full communion with the Calasanctian charism.

From that date onwards, the first experiences of fraternity began to emerge which, although they did not come to fruition over time, opened up a path and a sensitivity towards them.

The “prehistory” of the Fraternity

The closeness of the laity is a path that has always been present, since Calasanz himself created the Congregation and continues to count, even in the same religious community, with some very close lay people. Some lay teachers will participate in this community life, the most famous of whom is the draughtsman and calligrapher Ventura Sarafellini.

A path which, with various initiatives (the figure of the attaché, the charters of brotherhood, experiences in some Districts), had already been travelled a long way.

The Second Vatican Council brings an important renewal in the vision of the Church and the complementary role of the different vocations. Since this ecclesial event of the Council, the Order has included reflection on the place of the laity in the Pious Schools, both in the special General Chapter of 1967 and in all subsequent General Chapters up to the present day.

The letter of Fr. General, Ángel Ruiz, on the “Comunidades Eclesiales Calasancias” (Fr. Ángel Ruiz: “Comunidades Eclesiales Calasancias”. Salamanca, 1983) is also a milestone of great importance in creating the breeding ground for the first fraternities and the appearance of the first official document of the Fraternity.

Some notes on the history up to the present day

After the birth of the Fraternity in 1988, the first fraternities and other experiences around the model of the Calasanctian ecclesial communities began to emerge. These were important attempts which, although they did not come to fruition, left a seed that is bearing much fruit today.

The General Chapter of 1991 re-approved “ad experimentum” the Fraternity document of 1988. This meant a strengthening of the pastoral approach and the birth of community nuclei that would give rise to the first Fraternities as we now understand them.

All of this also helped in the planning of various forms of participation in the Schools, which was set out in the “Institutional Project of the Laity: “The Laity in the Pious Schools[3] “ approved by the General Chapter of 1997.

3 The Laity in the Pious Schools, 1997: http://www.escolapios21.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/El-laicado-en-las-EEPP-PIL-del-Cap%C3%ADtulo-1997.pdf

In 2001, the first “Directory for the Laity” was published, later modified in 2004, still “ad experimentum”, and approved in a more stable form at the General Chapter of 2015 under the name of “Directory for Participation in the Pious Schools[4] “.

4 Directory of participation in the Pious Schools, General Chapter 2015: http://www.escolapios21.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/La-participaci%C3%B3n-en-las-Escuelas-P%C3%ADas.pdf

During this time, initiatives of great interest were launched which are still present today: joint communities of religious and members of the Fraternity (1995), sending people from the Fraternity to other countries to share Piarist life and mission (1995), the beginning of the Piarist ministries entrusted to lay men and women (2000), the birth of the Itaka - Piarist Foundation (2001) grouping entities that were already functioning, the first lay Piarists with legal integration (2002), the birth of the Piarist Christian Communities and the functioning in the key of Piarist presence… and, above all, much Piarist Christian life, shared in different ways by religious and lay Piarists.

In 2011 the General Congregation officially constituted the General Fraternity, approved a new document, “The Fraternity of the Pious Schools[5] “ and appointed a provisional Council to accompany the existing fraternities, to intervene in the process of creating new ones and to prepare the first General Assembly of the Fraternity[6] which was held in Peralta de la Sal in July 2014 and appointed the Council of the General Fraternity until the next Assembly in 2020.

5 The Fraternity of the Pious Schools, 2011: http://www.escolapios21.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/2011-La-Fraternidad-y-m%C3%A1s.pdf

6 First General Fraternity Assembly, 2014: http://www.escolapios21.org/fraternidades/i-asamblea-de-la-fraternidad-general-y-encuentro-ic-mc/

At present we have the following Fraternities[7] , initiated in Demarcations that sometimes have seen their composition modified by the process of new structuring of the Order, in which we indicate the year of birth: Chile (1989), Emmaus (1996), Betania (2006), Bolivia (2008), Venezuela (2009), Dominican Republic (2010), Brazil (2011), Argentina (2012), Mexico (2013), Poland (2013), Nazareth (2014), Slovakia (2016), Hungary (2017).

7 At times, other “fraternities” have functioned as initiatives of some religious, but they were not recognised by the Province itself and do not continue today.

Thank God the history of the Fraternity is very much alive and we can expect the emergence of new Fraternities in other latitudes. It will therefore be necessary to complement this very brief history with the events that are taking place at any given time.

We have a page where, from the General Fraternity Council, we try to keep always updated the census of Fraternities with some data of its members[8] as well as the information and documents of interest and actuality.

8 https://www.escolapios21.org/fraternidades/panoramica-de-la-fraternidad-hoy/

Testimony from Belo Horizonte - Brazil

When I arrived at St Michael the Archangel School, I knew nothing about the Piarist Mission. I had just gone through a transformative experience: two years teaching in a prison complex. It was a fantastic experience that contributed a lot to my formation. Coming out of something so different, to enter a public school, was challenging.

At the first meeting, when Father Carmelo, the director at that time, started talking about “a certain” Calasanz and his work, my curiosity was aroused and, as at that time (1988) we did not have so much digital access, I went straight to the library to see what I could find about the founder of that school I had just entered.

I read everything I could find and, after that study, I took courage and asked to speak to the director. We talked for hours about Calasanz and I was passionate.

My story was a bit similar to that of those children and young people in Rome, who awakened in Calasanz the desire to transform reality through education. I was born into a very humble family of five daughters, mother and father with no education. My mother was a housewife and my father was a worker. It was a difficult life. I studied in public school and, at the age of 11, because I was an excellent student, I won a scholarship to a public school. This was the great opportunity of my life!

Being able to have access to a quality education, being in a school that demanded a lot from me, made me feel like I needed to want more. That “scholarship” was the great transformation of my life. Of the five daughters, I was the only one who managed to do a higher education at that time.

Hearing about Calasanz, I realised how we can transform the lives of others through education. Thinking like this, I did not limit myself to just teaching at St. Michael’s School, I took a step forward. I approached the Piarists and, as a volunteer, I offered to help in the formation of Catechists. Whenever I was called, I went to the parish to help in the catechesis. There were many Sunday mornings teaching pedagogical, artistic, dynamic, etc. activities.

Years later, I saw the need to help students entering the school through social assistance. Many came from public schools and found it difficult to keep up with the pace of classes at school. I started tutoring after school hours. The news spread and the pupils kept coming. The solution was to invite (or rather, seduce) other female colleagues to do the same. I got three female teachers who started to help me. The only requirement was that they had to be students who could not pay.

Later, in 2009, Father Carlos Aguerrea called me to participate in a discernment group to form the Piarist Fraternity. When he explained to me what it was all about, my eyes sparkled once again. I had no doubts!

My career at the school was marked by challenges and proposals. As a teacher, I was asked to become a supervisor, and then I was offered the position of head teacher. This frightened me and I had a lot of doubts, because I had a public position and I would have to ask for my resignation. I talked a lot with God and, in the silence of my heart, I placed my life in his hands. In this way my YES was consolidated.

Today, in the pedagogical direction and as a member of the fraternity, I feel that my commitment to the Piarist mission is increasing. Every day, I ask for discernment to know how to act justly in all situations. Wisdom to improve and to act better. In every decision I have to make, I ask myself: What would Calasanz do? In this way, I try to remain firm in the main proposal of transforming lives through education.

Jacqueline Caixeta Figueiredo, Belo Horizonte Fraternity - Brazil

Fraternity… in the same direction

An engaged couple asked the teacher, “What must we do to make our love last forever?”

“To love other things together,” the teacher replied.

Friends do not look into each other’s eyes, but both look in the same direction.

(Bruno Ferrero. “El canto del grillo”, p. 54).

Community, our identity

“A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”.

(John 13, 34-35)

Our identity as human beings, Christians, Piarists, is given to us by belonging to a collective where we have been given life, faith, charism and it is there where we have to find our place, our vocation, our identity. What defines us, beyond the always necessary and important particularities of each person, is belonging to the community.

People of God from the beginning of time

Throughout the Old Testament there is a God who wants to make a covenant with the people. “God wants to save people, not in isolation, without any connection with others, but by constituting a people”, the Second Vatican Council tells us (Lumen Gentium 9).

God does not speak directly to his people, but through specific individuals whom he calls to speak and act on his behalf to the people.

So it is with Abraham and God’s first words to him: “The Lord said to Abraham: Go from your land (…) to the land that I will show you. From you I will make a great people, and I will bless you” (Gen 12:1-2). This promise was later confirmed by a covenant (Gen 15:18; 17:1-14) and solemnly proclaimed after the sacrifice of Isaac (Gen 22:16,17). Indeed, Abraham was destined to become “the father of all believers” (cf. Gen 15:6; Gal 3:6-7; Rom 4:16-17).

Faithful to his covenant with Abraham, God called Moses and said to him: “I have seen the affliction of my people in Egypt and I have heard their cry (…). I have come down to deliver them from Egypt” (Ex 3:7-10). Moses is an instrument, a messenger of God to manifest God’s love to his people. “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son”, we read in the book of the prophet Hosea (11:1). God loves us “not because you are the most numerous of all peoples… for you are the least numerous of all peoples, but because of the love he has for you and because you have kept the oath you swore to your fathers” (Deut 7:7,8).

This divine initiative takes the form of a covenant. So it was with Abraham. And also after Israel’s liberation from Egyptian slavery. The mediator of this covenant established at the foot of Mount Sinai is Moses: “So Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all his statutes. And all the people answered with one voice: ‘We will do all the words that the Lord has spoken… He then took the book of the covenant and read it before the people, after which he received once more from those present the promise of obedience to the words of God’ (Ex 24:3,8).

Thus Israel becomes “a people consecrated to the Lord their God” (cf. Deut 26:19), and this means a special belonging to God: “I will be your God and you shall be my people” (Jer 7:23). God commits himself in the covenant. All the infidelities of the people, in the various stages of their history, do not alter God’s fidelity to that covenant, but open the way to the New Covenant, already announced in the book of the prophet Jeremiah: “This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days… I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts” (Jer 31:33).

God never ceases to address the chosen people with his word. He speaks to them many times through the judges and the prophets. The main commandment always remains that of love for God above all things: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deut 6, 5). This commandment is linked to the commandment to love one’s neighbour (Lev 19,13.18).

The biblical texts also show God’s desire to be present in the midst of his people: in the desert, in the cloud, in the tent of meeting (Ex 33:8,11). Later it will be in the temple that King Solomon builds in Jerusalem.

And there will always be the desire for the coming of the Messiah who will make this People of God more visible.

Thus we see that our God is a God of the People, of history, of the desire to continue walking until we build a People of God, a Kingdom of God. God gives us a particular identity based on his unconditional love, on the offer of a covenant, on the history shared collectively with him, on the commandments that lead us to live as the People of God.

It is very rich to analyse the different moments in which God makes a covenant with his people:

- The covenant with Adam and Eve: he gives them Paradise, everything desirable… on condition that they do not taste of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2, 17). It is a matter of always using freedom well so as not to unleash evil.

- The covenant with Noah (Gen 9, 1-17), a new opportunity for humanity.

- The covenant with Abraham (Gen 15,18), as a covenant of full trust in God.

- The covenant with Moses (Ex 19, 25) with commandments to live together as the People of God.

- The covenant with Israel upon arrival in the Promised Land and thereafter, with the need to be continually renewed because of the constant unfaithfulness of the people.

- The covenant with David (2 Samuel 7, 8-17) promising a definitive Kingdom

- The new covenant with Jesus at the Last Supper and sealed in death and resurrection (1 Cor 11, 23-26).

- The covenant which the Lord always wants to renew (Heb 8:8) and which he continues to make today to each one of us, to the Church and to the whole of humanity.

Israel’s identity is to be the People of God, to put God as sole Lord, to fulfil the covenant reflected in the commandments and in the tradition of its history. This identity is a gift that comes from God, that enables mutual coexistence and that receives all blessings.

God is not a God made to measure for each individual, he is not for the exclusively particular experience. God makes us part of a community and that is where he manifests himself. Without community, God is blurred and we lose our deepest identity, the identity that comes from being loved even before we are born.

Jesus lives in this culture and thinking… and maintains it by always showing us a Father of us, of all. He presents us with a God who loves us personally and always within the community. Following Jesus today means following him in a group, in a community, in the Church. Whoever tries to live a filial relationship with God without his brothers and sisters is like the elder son in the parable who has never been a son and has never known God’s will (Lk 15, 28f).

We follow Jesus in small community, in Fraternity, in Pious Schools, in the local and universal Church, because it is not possible to do otherwise. We are the People of God, sinful too often, far from the ideal we would wish for. But we must never forget that we are not the People of God because of our merits, but because God chose us and because He wants it that way.

Testimony from Governador Valadares - Brazil

I am Cláudia Lópes, educator at Ibituruna School, member of the Piarist Fraternity of the Presence of Governador Valadares, participant of the Calasanz Movement and pastoral agent in some activities of the Piarist mission. For me it is a great joy to be able to translate the feeling of belonging to the Pious Schools, because they are part of my history in such a way that to speak of my life is also to speak of this belonging.

Since 2003 I have been part of the school’s team of educators, as a Portuguese teacher. However, it was only in 2008 that I was able to get involved in the pastoral activities, being a catechist and helping at the Sunday Eucharist. In this way I got to know more intimately the charism and mysticism of St. Joseph Calasanz and understood the importance of the Piarist mission.

Catechesis became like a second home for me. And the group of catechists, another family. With the accompaniment of a Piarist religious, we worked together with the Parish Catechesis, advancing in formation and attending the course of Theology for the Laity in the Parish of Our Lady of Grace. We shared the catechetical activities and tried to attend the catechists’ meetings. But I still felt that something was missing, there seemed to me to be an existential void to be filled. When in 2009 I was invited to the Piarist Fraternity, I responded positively and joyfully and I began to perceive that being in a group sharing prayer, life, mission and formation was the complement of my vocation. I already felt a sense of belonging to the Church, which I love and which I try to care for. However, being a member of the Fraternity proved to be a return to the Kingdom, from which I seemed to have been separated. I am thrilled to realise that I have regained something that I was not aware I had lost. Thus, I am now impregnated by the Calasanctian which is concretised in my life, in a complete and passionate way. And the love that I already experienced for the saint of the children and young people, grew and encouraged me to know more about Calasanz, his mysticism, his charisma, his way of living and his dedication to God and to the others.

Little by little, I was entering the Piarist universe, remaking my personal, professional and spiritual trajectory. The dormant desire to commit myself more deeply to a cause was kindled within me and became part of me. Together with other brothers, catechesis and work colleagues, I was entering into the Piarist mission, starting from the Fraternity. The interaction with the other mission platforms was a natural consequence, so that the Social Centre and the Parish are already part of my life. As a Piarist, I feel responsible for the works and committed to the actions related to the various aspects of the mission. As a Piarist, I discover that I am a member of a big family, and a daring feeling of universality that launches me to be a protagonist and to take action.

I perceive that my fraternal brothers and I are going through a continuous process of conversion and change of attitude. We re-dimension our weaknesses and, together, we strengthen the spirit and the desire to transform reality, according to the Gospel values. We perceive that the following of Christ, in the perspective of the Piarist proposal, makes us feel more mature, reflective and committed people. We can affirm, with conviction, that the Fraternity has given us more dignity to our “being” Church. And it has helped us to be better Christians every day.

Claudia Lópes, Fraternidade de Valadares Brazil

We are necessary

If the stone said “a stone cannot build a house”, there would be no house. If the drop said “a drop cannot form a river”, there would be no ocean. If the grain said “one grain cannot sow a field”, there would be no harvest. If the human being were to say “a gesture of love cannot save humanity”, there would never be justice, peace, dignity or happiness on earth.

(Raúl Berzosa, “Parables for a new evangelisation”, p. 194).

The community of Jesus… until today

Jesus feels the God of heaven as the God of the people, as his Father and our Father, of all. He knows that he needs the community at all times. First in the group of followers of John the Baptist and soon in the community that he calls together.

The first community

Jesus calls a group:

“He went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he wanted. They came to him, and Jesus ordained twelve to be with him, and to send them out to preach with the power to cast out demons. Thus he instituted the Twelve: Simon, to whom he gave the nickname Peter; James, son of Zebedee, and John, brother of James, to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, sons of thunder; then Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon, the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, the same who betrayed him (Mk 3:13f ).

Here we have the fundamental elements of the Fraternity: to be personally called by Jesus, to respond to that call, to be with Jesus, to announce the Good News and to cast out evil by building the Kingdom of God. So simple and so great. In this way Jesus changes our name, our former identity, makes us other people. And, at the same time, in this way, he institutes the community, which is not an informal, variable, undefined group, but the entity of “the Twelve”. We could say the Fraternity.

This community serves as a reference point for us. Nor do we choose our brothers in community: it is the Lord who gives them to us. Community is a gift… and a task. Each companion is a brother and a mission: the mission to make him a brother, to make us brothers. We must aspire to the ideal of community with great realism! Living together is not easy. God does not ask us to change our brother, but to love him, to listen to him and to value him. We must not be like the elder son in the parable of the prodigal son (Lk 15:11f). There will always be difficult moments, difficult brothers… and I can be one of them. Discovering that it is God who gives me these brothers, learning from each other, sharing, communicating, always putting Jesus at the centre and not myself, are attitudes that bring us closer to that first community of Jesus.

Jesus has chosen me personally. And he has also chosen this brother whom I find hard to accept, whom I find difficult to understand. I have to be grateful for this call that he has made to me, even if it complicates my life. And I must give thanks for each brother, because he is always a gift.

Jesus changes our lives, gives us a new identity as blessed. I must allow myself to be moulded by Jesus and by my brothers and sisters. And I must help the Lord to mould each of my brothers and sisters.

The choice of that first community is curious: some were brothers, others friends, some very different from the others: Matthew was a tax collector, Judas was a zealot and extremist, others fishermen… Discussions arose: some asked for the first places and the others would not like that (Mt 20, 21), Peter saying in front of everyone that he would not deny even if the others did (Mt 26, 33)…

Jesus’ community was not ideal, its members were not too brave or faithful… but Jesus was the one who united them. It was not a community of the perfect, not even after the resurrection. And yet this community is our reference point. With that community the Good News has reached the whole world. That community, with its failures, was and continues to be a sign of the Kingdom and a reference for those who want to form a Christian community.

It is not only a group of disciples who must learn, but this community is already a sign of the presence of the Kingdom in the world. It is not only a relationship of disciple to teacher, but also a relationship of brothers who must love each other, forgive each other, go two by two to preach the Gospel, wash each other’s feet. It is a fraternity, where whoever wants to be first must be at the service of the others.

The community’s mission is threefold:

- to be with Jesus, to accompany him, to let him accompany us, to be his friends, to celebrate his presence in the Eucharist, in personal and community prayer, in listening to his Word, in the believing reading of reality?

- to announce the Good News, with words and with the sign of the Fraternity, with the educational, evangelising and transforming work that defines us Piarists, with the testimony of personal and above all community life…

- casting out the demons of injustice, lack of solidarity, violence… within ourselves and collaborating in the construction of a society as God intended…

The community of Jesus maintained levels of belonging. There was the well-defined group of the Twelve, and there were also some women present. This was the nucleus, but there were more disciples, up to 72, as the Gospel tells us, whom Jesus sent out two by two (Lk 10, 1f). There were collaborators who helped him, who welcomed him into their homes…

That community was not a group of friends who had chosen each other. They discovered that they were friends and brothers among themselves because Jesus had called them to be friends and brothers with him. Jesus is going to be a friend, brother, teacher, shepherd… who teaches each one and the whole community to be friends, brothers, teachers, shepherds of others.

And this is what they will understand after the death and resurrection of Jesus: “Go and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28,19). And this is not a mission that each one can do on his own, but all together. That is why they must be one (Jn 17,20), because it is by working together that the world will believe in him (Jn 17,21).

Jesus did not found the Church as we have it, with each of the decisions that have shaped it over the centuries, but he did set in motion a community that went beyond his earthly life, that gives continuity to his presence and message, that becomes the fundamental sign of the Reign of God that is to come. And he gave it, and continues to give it, a series of features that make it continue to be “the community of Jesus”, when the centrality of Jesus and the Gospel, fraternal service, mission, community, fraternal sharing, missionary sending, work for the most needy, the celebration of Baptism and the Eucharist as well as the other sacraments, the ministries in the community… predominates.

That community, with its weaknesses, will ensure that almost everyone will be able to discover that Jesus is still alive after his death on the cross and that they will give their lives for the Gospel and the mission.

The ecclesial community, always diverse

After the death of Jesus, this community of apostles is transformed into an ecclesial community and the Church is born. It was the Risen Christ who called it together through his Spirit at Pentecost. The book of Acts insists on community life: they had everything in common, they had the same spirit, they went together… It seems that this communion is precisely what attracts the sympathy and praise of the people. More than Peter’s words or the miraculous healings. The common life is a more visible sign than an exceptional healing, because it lasts in time, extends in space and is open to all.

The Jerusalem community is presented as a model of Christians who love each other: they live together, have everything in common, attend prayer and celebrations together (Acts 2, 42f; 4, 32f; 5, 12f). Soon fraud (Acts 5, 1-11) and dissensions (Acts 6, 1) appear. The economic situation becomes difficult, given the radical nature of this expectation of the Lord. And the community disperses in the year 70.

The Pauline communities are different. They come together to listen to the Word and to celebrate the Eucharist, but they do not put it all together (1 Cor 11, 17-22), but only a part of it to help the Church of Jerusalem (2 Cor 8, 9) or Paul himself (Phil 4, 10-20). Paul tries to create a link between them. At the end of the first century there was already an awareness of a universal Church, made up of numerous local communities, very diverse, but united in faith and accepting apostolic authority.

The community evolves with history and the places where it arrives, always with the nostalgia of the first ideal community.

In spite of the difficulties, those initial communities were a model and a point of reference, which were infectious and invited people to become part of them by the witness of their lives. Some, like Paul, “fall off the horse” and make a complete turnaround in their lives, always going through the catechumenate, accompanied by the catechists and the community (Acts 9). Others are invited to be initiated into the life of the community on a journey of recognising the living Jesus at their side. The community is always necessary to accompany them and to show them the Gospel (Acts 8, 31).

The Acts of the Apostles and the letters of Paul show us how the Spirit guides the birth and growth of communities, which are very diverse in different places. To read these pages is to enter into the action of the Spirit leading his people… then and now.

The situations are difficult (persecutions by the Jews themselves and also by the Romans, expulsion from the synagogue, dispersion in many countries…) and the community continues to walk with the strength of Jesus and the effort of those first Christians. The book by Carlos Mester, “Vivir y anunciar la Palabra; las primeras comunidades” (Living and proclaiming the Word; the first communities) is very interesting and could be useful for the formation of the Fraternity. Verbo Divino, 2001. In it he delves into the Acts of the Apostles and some of the letters to see how decisions were taken that shaped that first church.

When Christianity ceased to be persecuted and gained citizenship, those lively and missionary communities gave way to a more institutional way of life where faith became social, official and sometimes more comfortable and muted. A more structured territorial organisation took shape, including the parish, which made it possible to reach everyone, to offer all the services and perhaps to be too much influenced by the mentality and society of the time.

Then, whenever there has been a crisis in the Church, community experiences appear that try to live the Gospel more radically and become a prophetic sign that reminds the whole Church and the world of the value of fraternity.

We could cite the anchorites around the teacher Pachomius, the rules of community life of Augustine, Basil and Benedict which create the first structure of a regulated community life. The evangelical counsels become vows. The monks became custodians of culture and of political and ecclesiastical intervention. At the end of the Middle Ages, the mendicants (friars, brothers) appeared, then the different types of congregations, responding to concrete needs and trying to live the Gospel more radically, the secular institutes, the basic communities that fostered the communion of communities, etc.

Today, too, the Church continues to recreate itself in different ways according to the circumstances in which it finds itself: persecuted in many places, dormant in others, searching for new paths…

To approach the history of the Church, the diversity of models, the action of the Spirit in different contexts, helps us to feel very free and at the same time very attentive to the signs of the times and to the voice of the Spirit who is guiding his people.

The central element of the community will always be to keep Jesus at the centre, to advance in fraternity with our brothers and sisters, and to launch ourselves into the mission of announcing the Gospel and collaborating in the building of the Kingdom of God. Then we will be able to invite like Jesus to approach the community and discover in it the Risen One: “Come and see” (Jn 1, 35-42).

Testimony from Zaragoza (Spain)

Paya rabuda! Many, many years have passed since I first heard those words, but they still bring a smile to my face and take me back to my beginnings in volunteering. It came to me without looking for it, in a conversation over a coffee, on a terrace, during a relaxed summer with a passed university entrance exam, where they tell you that there is a shortage of people for a Caritas children’s project, coordinated at the time by the sister of a friend. So, although I’m not a very decisive person, when you hear that something is missing, your feet itch and you want to go there, something was calling me.

I found what I had not imagined. I discovered other ways of looking at children. Children who do not have it easy, but above all I found smiles, lots of smiles, lots of will to live. It was a GIFT, a gift that for me will be the word I associate most with volunteering.

The gift was double, triple, it was immense because it gave me the gift of life as a person, but it also brought me the gift of a life companion who would accompany me on my journey and who would bring me the discovery of the Pious School.

For me, volunteering is a gift when, after a hard setback in life (an illness that fortunately I overcame), it gives you life again, courage.

I might even say it is a selfish stance, but it gives you back much more than you give.

Volunteering in Chino Chano is special. I started it after that hard and different stage of life reset, emerging as a light. It was and still is an exciting call, after having enjoyed motherhood, being in the struggle for each precious dawn,… and for feeling the good that my faith brings me, my belonging to the fraternity. I could share and transmit the dream of Calasanz to the little ones, with the same illusion that we transmitted it to our son.

It is a joy to wait every week to be able to experience the Chino Chano session with the children, to see how their faces light up and wait for the game to begin or to try to blow out the candle while praying or when they write a drawing or text in their notebooks…

To be able to enjoy a weekend or camp with my “taitantos” again with the children is like a MasterCard advert, it’s what I keep repeating, tripping and never tire of: a gift.

It may seem different to the kids, as many of them know me as the “mum” and the fact that I am spending my time with them instead of doing other things that dads do, but for me I think it is the most graphic example and the best way to show them that things can be done and a living example that is close to them. As parents, it also seems to us that it is the best way for our children to get to know the reality, and for them to be “hooked”, just as they experience our belonging to the Fraternity from their child’s point of view and prism.

It is curious to see how people around you question you for the time you waste, when you could be in a zumba class, or having a few beers,… but volunteering is something you have to know and above all, you have to live it. And just as it is shocking for the children to see their mum “de”, it is also useful for the parents to see that you can be generous, you can share.

Volunteering is more than helping people. It is a way of understanding life where generous, free action is an important pillar.

It is a way of understanding life together with others, beyond what one person can do alone.

It is a way of looking at life in which one realises that one gives very little in comparison to what one receives day by day, allowing oneself to be challenged by what one receives.

Volunteering, the generous action in a way of making a journey, without being sure where it will take you, because what is truly fulfilling is to walk alongside other people.

Irene Buelta. Bethany of Emmaus Fraternity.

We count on you

As the sun went down behind the mountains, he asked:

- Is there anyone who wants to replace me?

- What can be done, answered the oil lamp.

(R. Tagore)

A synodal, missionary and communitarian Church

Our Church, especially since Vatican II, has been strengthened by being a Church of communion, of greater updating and dialogue with the world, of renewed functioning with greater transparency and communication, of insistence on evangelisation with the Word and with the witness of its commitment.

There are aspects that have special significance today: to be a synodal Church (in constant joint discernment), to be on the way out of its natural spaces in order to be more present to the whole of humanity by reviving its missionary action and to be more communitarian by seeking greater communion.

These are calls that especially involve all of us Piarists, religious and lay, who assume the responsibility of collaborating with our Church along the lines that it is pointing out to us.

We have to achieve a more participatory Piarist environment, a Piarist Christian Community where the religious and the members of the Fraternity are agents of convocation and invitation to co-responsibility in the Piarist life and mission. And we also have the responsibility to set out from our communities, works and presences to transmit the treasure of Calasanz that we have found and that we want to share and make it reach wherever it is necessary.

It is worthwhile to take a look at the Synods, moments of reflection and ecclesial discernment, from the end of the Second Vatican Council, with many excellent documents that are still very relevant today, to know the approaches of our Church, to appreciate them and to assume them in our Piarist life.

A brief history of the Synods from Paul VI to Francis[9]

9 Xabier Pikaza in Religión Digital: https://www.religiondigital.org/el_blog_de_x-_pikaza/Pablo-VII-Francisco-anos-Sinodos_7_2165553438.html

The Synod of Bishops was instituted by St. Paul VI on 15 September 1965 through the Motu Proprio Apostolica Sollicitudo. Its creation took place in the context of the Second Vatican Council calling for a greater participation of the Bishops cum et sub Petro (under the authority of the Pope), in questions of concern to the Universal Church.

Paul VI

1. 1967. On matters arising from the Second Vatican Council: proposed the establishment of an International Theological Commission, which has continued to operate to the present day.

2. 1969. On Bishops’ Conferences and their collaboration with the Holy See, where the importance of the theology of communion was highlighted.

3. 1971. On priestly ministry and justice in the world.

4. 1974. On the mission of the Church in the world. The Synod declined to produce a document of its own and handed over the material studied to Pope Paul VI, who promulgated his Post-Synodal Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, on Evangelisation in the Modern World (1976), one of the most lucid and influential documents of the Church in modern times, focusing on the theme of evangelisation, justice and liberation.
John Paul II

5. 1977. On catechesis. The synod was held under the presidency of Paul VI; but the post-synodal exhortation was already promulgated by John Paul II, under the title Catechesi tradendae (Catechesis in our time, 1978).

6. 1980. On the family. The post-synodal exhortation was entitled The Christian Family in the Modern World. As a fruit of this synod, the International Institute for Marriage and Family Studies was established.

7. 1983. On sacramental and social reconciliation, with an exhortation on Reconciliation and penance in the mission of the Church today.

8. 1985. This synod studied the four constitutions of Vatican II (LG, DV, SC and BS), calling for the drafting of a Universal Catechism, which was done in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC, 1992).

9. 1987. On the laity, with the guidelines contained in the exhortation Christifideles laici (The Laity in the Church and in the World).

10. 1990. On priests, with the subsequent exhortation: Pastores dabo vobis (The formation of priests in the circumstances of today’s Church).

11. 1994. On consecrated life with his exhortation Vita Consecrata (Consecrated life and its mission in the Church and in the world).

12. 2000. In preparation for the Jubilee 2000, special Synods have been held for the four great continents: Africa (1994), America (1997), Asia (1998) and Europe (1999), with corresponding post-synodal exhortations (Ecclesia in Africa, in America etc.).

13. 2001. On Bishops; exhortation: Pastores Gregis (Shepherds of the Flock).
Benedict XVI

14. 2005. On the Eucharist: Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church. Synod held under John Paul II. Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, prepared and signed by Benedict XVI (2007).

15. 2007. On the Word of God, with the exhortation of Benedict XVI: Verbum Domini (On the Word of God, 2010).
Francisco

16. 2012. The new Synod on the New Evangelisation (Post-Synodal Document Evangelii Gaudium signed by Pope Francis, 2013) has been convened and celebrated.

17. 2015. Synod on the family with the final exhortation Amoris laetiti (The joy of love).

18. 2018. Synod on young people, faith and vocational discernment, with the exhortation Christus vivit” (Christ lives).

19. 2019. Amazon Synod.

The frequency of these Synods and the topics addressed allow us to see the importance of collegiality and the constant search and discernment to live the Gospel more faithfully at every moment. We should add to these ecclesial events many other meetings, encounters, pastoral letters, which allow our Church to continue to move forward with synodality, fidelity and creativity.

The co-responsibility of every adult Christian and of every community is to know, as far as possible, this ecclesial richness, to appreciate it, to make it known to others and, above all, to live it. This is the challenge of approaching this reality.

As well as synodal, community and outgoing

This synodal dimension is of great importance and must be complemented by the community and missionary dimension.

There is room for different positions in the Church in terms of the way it is organised, its action with the most needy, its dialogue with the world, the way it makes itself present in society, the way it combines the different fundamental aspects of our faith…

Our Piarist life, because it is always communitarian, because we are on the frontier (in schools, parishes, social works and other works) where dialogue between faith and culture is always necessary, our closeness to those who need it most, the urgency of extending our work to other places and countries, the constant updating of our mission, the collaboration of religious with many lay men and women, places us in a great contribution of our own to the Church and to society.

What we are most adept at is what we offer: educational and pastoral processes that foster adults, formed, caring, in communion with our Church and with all people of good will.

This presupposes a community Church, which assumes responsibility for the mission and offers itself as a possible outlet for ecclesial and social insertion. It is also a broad community, with diverse forms of participation, promoting charisms and ministries. It is a community committed to society and to the world, with special dedication to those most in need. It is a co-responsible community, available for the new calls of the environment, missionary to go where it is needed. It is a community where the laity, religious life and the ordained ministry complement and enrich each other, without prevalence or undervaluation of any of these vocations. It is a community where children, young people, adults and older people have their prominent place; where men and women, people from different backgrounds or ways of living the faith can find their own space (Gal 3, 28). It is a community on a journey, always discovering new paths. It is a community that is open, inviting, flexible and in dialogue, where the centre is in Jesus and the Piarist mission to which he sends us.

In the Pious Schools we are fortunate to have what are called “the three great Christian vocations”: the priesthood or ordained ministry, the consecrated life and the laity. This brings with it a mentality of integration, of complementarity, of mutual need, which enriches our action and our ability to call people together.

We can internalise these options of our Catholic Church and of our Pious Schools by each one of us elaborating, and then sharing in the community, “the Church that I want”. In this sharing we could complement it by thinking about what “the Church that Jesus wants” could be like… and, finally, “the Church that we are doing”.

Testimony from Medellín (Colombia)

My name is José Antonio Becerra Medina, I am a child of God, a being of light, whom God enlightens every day and feeds me with his love. I am enlightened by both knowledge and faith. My conversion has been from the mind to the heart; the Lord has diverted me from the path I was on, which I traced out for myself, with a good end, but not with the best means, because I was unconsciously making use of the tools or crutches of my wounds. He took me from working in the clinical and research laboratory, examining biological samples to accompany the health process of people, to working in the internal laboratory of people, where the source of everything is, the best of each person (their inner inclination).

That is why I evangelise through formal and non-formal education, both with the same purpose, and that is that, as a co-operator of the truth, like St. Joseph Calasanz, I may fulfil the call that the Lord entrusts to me, to help renew his church and assist in the transformation of society, for the greater glory of God and the benefit of my neighbour, starting with myself first of all.

To get to where I am, I have had to travel a long road, first of all 26 years in Venezuela, my country of origin, where my family, my parents and my sisters raised me and taught me. Where I studied my profession as a bacteriologist, where I have beautiful special memories of my grandparents, my uncles and aunts, my cousins… always in search of the truth, always accompanied by Jesus, but also in search of knowledge, in the Gnostics, the Masons, the new age, the white lodge and the Christian brothers and sisters. All to find that truth is a person, not a thought, not an idea, not a thing. A person who was always with me but whom I did not recognise. In Colombia in 2012, where I studied my postgraduate studies, my wife and I arrived in the community of Calasanz, we began to congregate in the parish of San José de Calasanz, a small, simple church, we thought it was the chapel of the school. While we were at the Eucharist, another call from God, to begin training to be catechists and to share the gifts we had; my wife accepted and I was forced to accompany her, as she was afraid, since we didn’t know anyone in the city.

How ironic that after 5 years since that moment, I now recognise that, in my life, non-formal education has contributed more to me than all the formal academic education I have received. For it is through the non-formal education received by the Piarists, the Jesuits, the Archdiocese of Medellín and other institutions of our Church, that God has used to teach me to know myself first, my relationship with Him, to know Him better and to take care of my relationships with others. To bring my knowledge down from the mind to the heart, and how to put my gifts at the service of others for the greater good of my neighbour.

All of the above, always with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, as Calasanz says: “The voice of God is the voice of the spirit that comes and goes, touches the heart and passes; one does not know where it comes from or when it blows; from where it is very important to be always vigilant so that it does not come suddenly and pass without fruit”. This path has led me to be today a member of the fraternity of the Pious Schools, to be coordinator of formation in the parish, to be participating in various councils such as the Calasanctian identity council of Medellín, parish pastoral council, to be a lay Piarist committed to the same mission of my church, disciple of the Master, working in a Salesian school in the area of science, having as an example and community path the life of St. Joseph Calasanz and his spirituality. Today I discover something that Father Diego taught me, responsibilities are earned with fidelity, effort, but, above all, due to the commitment and identity with the charism.

Today, doing this exercise, looking back and observing God’s work in me, in my conversion and the transformation that the Lord has done in me, makes me wonder: What else will God be able to do in me in the next 5 years? That is definitely something worth looking at for me, it calls me to constant discernment. The question that remains is: What has been God’s work in your life? What has been the transformation that the Lord has done in you?

Lord enlighten me, show me the way and use me to serve where you need me most, Amen.

José Antonio Becerra Medina. Lay Piarist - Fraternity of the Nazareth Pious Schools (Medellín).

We are ambassadors of christ

“We are ambassadors for Christ and it is as if God is exhorting through us. Through Christ I beg you, let yourselves be reconciled to God… We urge you, therefore, not to cast this grace of God into the dust… We never give anyone cause for scandal, so that they may not blame us for our service; on the contrary, we continually prove that we are God’s servants by all that we endure: struggles, misfortunes, anguish, beatings, imprisonments, riots, fatigues, sleepless nights and days without food; we proceed with cleanliness, knowledge, patience and kindness, with gifts of the Spirit and sincere love, carrying the message of the truth and the power of God. With the right and with the left we wield the weapons of honesty, through honour and dishonour, through evil and good repute. We are imposters who speak the truth, strangers who are well known, the dying who are alive and well, the punished who are never executed, the afflicted who are always rejoicing, the poor who make many rich, the needy who possess everything.

(2 Corinthians 5, 20 - 6, 10)

The laity in the Church

Let us begin by clarifying two terms: “lay” (people) today has a double meaning: in civil language it refers to independence from any religious creed (a lay society is independent of any faith), while in the ecclesial sphere it refers to those who are “people” and not the hierarchy of the Church. Sometimes the word “secular” is used in a similar way, referring to those who are not part of religious life. Let us look at the history of these concepts in the Church.

Jesus, at the beginning of his public life, begins by choosing the companions of his community (Mk 3:13f) with whom he will live and whom he will form to be his followers and collaborators in his mission. In addition to this group of the Twelve, there were other people: some women, other disciples (Lk 10:1f), collaborators who welcomed him… but we hardly know their names or what they did in particular.

In the first community, after the death and resurrection of Jesus, also the apostles with Peter at the head have a special role (Acts 2, 42), they elect seven “deacons” to wait on the tables (Acts 6, 1-6), in the Pauline communities there are many leaders (1 Thess 5, 12-13): envoys, prophets, doctors, priests (Titus 1, 5)… as we can see in many moments of the Acts of the Apostles.

A simple and good summary can be found in 1 Cor 12, 5-28:

There are diverse ministries, but one Lord. There is diversity of activities, but it is the same God who accomplishes all in all. In each one, the Spirit is manifested for the common good. The Spirit gives to one the wisdom to speak; to another the knowledge to teach, according to the same Spirit; to another the faith, also according to the same Spirit. To this one is given the gift of healing, always in that one Spirit; to that one, the gift of working miracles; to one, the gift of prophecy; to another, the gift of judging on the value of the gifts of the Spirit; to this one, the gift of tongues; to that one, the gift of interpreting them. But in all this, it is the one and only Spirit who acts, distributing his gifts to each one in particular as he wills… In the Church, there are some who have been established by God, firstly, as apostles; secondly, as prophets; thirdly, as teachers. Then come those who have received the gift of working miracles, the gift of healing, the gift of succouring the needy, the gift of rulership and the gift of tongues.

It is interesting to note that the gift of governance is cited in second to last place, far behind others.

These differences, charisms and ministries, do not make us forget that we all form the same body. And that the church as a whole is the People of God, a royal priesthood, a chosen race, a consecrated nation, a people for God’s own possession (1Pet 2, 9). Other global designations are “the called” or “chosen ones”, “the saints”, “the believers”, and above all, “the brethren”. The followers of Jesus are those consecrated to God by baptism and full members of the people of God (laos). In this sense “laos” is used not in contrast to the rulers, but to the unbelievers, the unbaptised. The profane-sacred dividing line does not pass through the community but segregates it from the unbelieving world.

Nor do the ministries set terms that distinguish sacred ministers and non-ministers with differentiated collective names (clergy - laity): priest is Christ alone or the whole community (Heb 4, 14ff and 1 Pet), not the holders of ministries.

In Christian literature “laity” is used for the first time in the letter of Clement 95-96 in reference to the Jewish way of organising the liturgy. “Laikos” is a profane person separated from the religious.

In the third century Clement of Alexandria speaks of presbyters, deacons and laity having to have only one woman. For the first time in Christian language, a layman is one who is not a bishop, priest or deacon. These groups have no significant effect on the delimitation of fields and functions of community governance.

The word lay begins to take on consistency when the term “klerós” appears, designating a small group: the subjects of the ministry. But neither does it imply more holiness, nor a special quality, but rather a function within the People of God. Gradually, the term “lay” became generalised as “non-minister”, “non-ordained”. Ordos” (states of life, orders) are being created, similar to the Roman Empire, which divides society into social classes or states: groups closed in on themselves and separated from others.

The matter is complicated by linking the idea of “states of life” with neo-Platonic ideas that distinguish immutable truths and the world of changing ideas (spirit - matter; soul - body). The hierarchy becomes a reflection of the divine order and the ministers are a representation of God and Christ: the ordained ministry as mediator and administrator of grace becomes sacralised. The world (in a negative sense) becomes associated with the laity.

The Edict of Milan (313) put an end to the age of martyrs and the Church was no longer persecuted. It also marked the beginning of an understanding between Church and empire which culminated in the Constantinian turn (381). Until then the martyrs gave a very positive view of many lay people who opted for the Gospel. With Constantine, the Church acquired the status of a public society of divine right and its public representatives acquired a place of social honour, privileges and governmental tasks also of the state.

The faithful and the clergy stop looking together in the same direction and instead look at each other and discuss their relationship, which weakens the mission and the spirit of evangelisation. The contrast between people and “non-people” changed to that between people and leaders, and the laity began to define themselves as “non-clergy”. From then on, the way of defining the laity and their identity will depend on the concept of clergy.

The term “brother” for the relationship between the members of the church disappears and only the ministers (bishops and clerics) and the members of the monastic community will call each other “brother”. Both groups are to become the representatives of the life of the church. The concept of the People of God ceased to have a biblical theological content and no longer expressed the totality of the Church in unity and brotherhood, but had a sociological meaning for the simple people. The hierarchy was not a people. Instead of brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters appeared.

St. Augustine will put forward his theory of the three opposing “orders” or states of ecclesial life: pastors, monks and laity. In addition to the negative definition of the layman (“he who is neither a cleric nor a monk”), this would mean a rupture of essential communion. Logically, the lay person ceases to assume responsibilities, to participate actively in the church. In addition to this, theological formation is concentrated in the clergy and the monk (they are the literate “who know Latin”). The laity are configured as unlearned and unlettered. From the 5th century onwards, the dynamic of negative affirmation was repeated: if clerics wore their own clothes and from the end of the 6th century celibacy was affirmed, it was the laity who did not live this.

The reaction movements that would give shape to religious life were largely secular in their beginnings (3rd century St. Anthony withdrew to the Egyptian desert to lead a hermit’s life). They were a reaction against clericalisation and against the mass conversions after the Edict of Milan, which led to a relaxation of the Christian way of life. There is a clear intention of a full lay vocation. They gathered in community to practise the counsels of life that Jesus gave to the disciples (evangelical counsels) and to consecrate their lives to God. In contrast to the ministers linked to ecclesiastical functions, the monk found his identity in a way of life: to go out of the world and live for the Kingdom, which is not of this world. Clergy and monk were clearly distinguished: one consecrated for sacred service and the other by personal renunciation of the world.

For the ecclesial communion and the communities it had great consequences that monasticism left the communities in which they usually participated together with all the faithful. This choice of the monks is a great richness and significance for the Church, but on the other hand, the laity defined themselves in contrast to the monks and, belonging to the world, had to take care of worldly business, which was seen in a negative sense. In addition to this, monks became increasingly involved in ecclesiastical ministry. The monastic life attracted the clergy. The idea that the subjects of the ministry should have the virtue of monks and devote themselves to God was coined. Monks and priests merged. Monasticism loses its character as a lay movement. The requirements of the ministry gradually coincided with the monastic ideal.

The Middle Ages saw the consolidation of the “fuga mundi” (flight from the world) spirituality based on contempt for earthly things. Clerics and monks were the authentic Christians and perfection was related to a greater detachment from earthly goods. The lay state remains a concession to human weakness: they deal with the things of the world that are worthless and dirty (not holiness). Marriage is sacred but, since the celibacy law of Gregory VII, it is an “imperfection”, for the fullness is the cleric.

Despite all this, a clear theological and political opposition between the clergy (subject) and the laity (object) only came about with the Gregorian reform of the 11th century. The lay protagonists were the nobles, princes and kings who sought to emancipate themselves from the tutelage of the clergy and to occupy important positions in the Church. These laymen exercised great influence through “proper ecclesiastical law”: this powerful laity had full directive power over their clergy. The temples were the property of the lords and the priests celebrated for him. The king came to have decisive power in the appointment of bishops (he gave them ring and crosier as a sign of jurisdiction and received an oath of allegiance). This was a time of a “Christian and confessional world”. The Germanic emperors came to appoint and depose popes. The king is the anointed one, the representative of God, the “Vicar of Christ” on earth.

Gregory VII (1073-1085) was a monk of the reformed monastery of Cluny, whose refoundation (909) consisted of an ascription to Rome: no king, no bishop, no secular prince was to have any influence on the community of monks. Gregory transferred this programme to the whole church: freedom of the monasteries from civil power and from non-papal influences. The direct consequence of this was the dependence of the local churches on Rome alone and their absolute attachment to it.

Among his struggles, the one that interests us here is his opposition to the “investiture of the laity”: the practice of bishops and priests being appointed by emperors, kings and lords. The aim is to eliminate any influence of these laymen in the church. This implies an absolute power of jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome over the whole Church. It is extended that the Church does not belong to the laity but only to the ecclesiastics. Boniface VIII (1294-1303) developed the “theory of the two swords”: Christ gave the Pope the spiritual and the temporal sword: the first is held by the Pope and the second is lent or delegated to the princes who exercise their power on behalf of the Pope and who can take it away and dispose of it at any time. In his words, “submission to the Roman Pope is for all men absolutely necessary for salvation”. A kind of theocracy is produced which prevents the autonomy of the temporal reality, of the state and its proper secularity and neutrality in religious matters.

And as if that were not enough, in 1296 he issued the bull “Clerecis laicos” in which he explicitly stated that the laity were hostile to the clergy. This important step for the freedom of the Church from civil power would result in a concentration of clerical power. The concept of communion between clergy and people has not only disappeared but a kind of opposition is postulated. It is important to know that “lay ministries” were the governmental tasks of the princes, the politico-social responsibilities in the feudal framework. They were therefore dangerous and were to be avoided at all costs.

There were lay movements understood as attempts to emerge from the inferiority and passive indifference they experienced. They arose continuously from purely religious concerns and not, in principle, in opposition to the clergy, but the structure led them either to become clericalised or to confront the clergy. Some joined the emancipation movements, also social, cultural, professional… There was a boom and an appreciation of the professions as the realisation of the vocation to the Kingdom of God; work from the key of self-realisation in God. For the first time, the term “religious layperson” began to be accepted for those who sought to harmonise their professional and family life with the demands of the Gospel.

A new idea was also taking shape: it was not “order” or “state of life” that counted, but personal righteousness and holiness. From the 11th and 12th centuries onwards, lay poverty movements arose. But history repeats itself once again: either they came into radical conflict with the hierarchy and broke away from it, or they joined the religious life.

One example is the Cathars (“the pure ones”) who understood apostolic succession as a succession of lifestyle, not in a sacramental, let alone juridical, sense. The clergy considered that they did things that did not belong to the laity, or without ecclesial mandate (such as preaching), or that they questioned the authority to preach authentically of those who were not poor and spiritual like themselves. From the conflict arises the idea of the layman as a “prisoner of the world” who cannot preach because he lives according to the flesh and does not possess the spirit (only the ordained members). It should also be noted that many of these groups lacked sufficient theological training to carry out these functions. Those who did not break ecclesial communion became mendicant orders, friars.

Other serious attempts to emerge from marginality in the Middle Ages were the confraternities and later confraternities. The interesting experience of the “Beguines” is worth mentioning: wealthy women who came together to live together, practising chastity and poverty, to devote themselves to the care of the sick, but without wishing to become nuns. They tried to develop their lay vocation as an alternative way of life, but this was frowned upon and they had to join the Franciscan and Dominican third orders.

In the Middle Ages, there was also a lay voluntary service: care for poor pilgrims passing through Europe, lay people grouped in fraternities… Hospices, hospitals, and homes for the poor, the elderly, the sick, and the marginalised multiplied. Unfortunately, they obtained an infinite number of donations and power, and were placed on the fringes of the local churches and the jurisdiction of the bishop. There is talk of “parallel churches” which broke communion and died of success. They repeated mistakes in their relations with the clerical world.

The Renaissance saw the emergence of the individual as an active subject of historical and political development. Luther was the first attempt to adapt to the times. The Reformation began as a reaction to the superiority of the clergy over the laity. The fundamental equality of all the baptised was to be emphasised and the Gospel was to be restored. But because of the confrontational dynamic, Luther again overstepped the boundary and broke communion by claiming that “Scripture alone” is binding (he questions tradition and the magisterium), by not recognising the ordained ministry (and sacramentality) and associating it only with functional differences… Curiously enough, it ended up in the hands of the princes, the very thing it sought to combat. The “ecclesial cold war” ends up giving more strength to what separates us from the Reformed brethren: reaffirmation of the hierarchy and the clergy.

In spite of everything, a certain humanist air was taking hold: an optimistic view of man and the world, the importance of transformation and social construction. Streams of spirituality for the laity (not lay spirituality) emerged, promoted by congregations, spiritual direction for the laity, a demanding Christianity was emphasised, expressions of popular religiosity and evangelisation were encouraged. These impulses hardly came to fruition due to the context of the counter-reformation.

In the 19th century, the processes of secularisation and secularism developed. The schism on this occasion was between faith and culture. Religion became a private matter that should not determine public life. Under the leadership of the Enlightenment and rationalism, there were anti-clerical currents that were not countered by the passivity and lack of prominence of the laity.

The first modern lay organisations were born on their own initiative and encouraged by the hierarchy. Their aim was to compete with socialist and liberal currents in order to restore the Christian republic. The dynamic is one of fronts (lay movements as the Church’s shield against enemy forces), of closed-mindedness and subculture (Catholicism as a self-sufficient social bloc).

The idea of the functional division of tasks also reached the Church: the world for the laity, the ecclesial for the clergy. This led to continuous conflicts with the hierarchy. Pope Leo XIII condemned the ideas of freedom, democracy, personal decisions of conscience and active organisation of the world.

When Pope Pius IX realised the ineffectiveness of his personal interventions, the isolation of the Holy See and the beginning of the collapse of the temporal power of the Church, he considered that the defence of the Church and the practical opposition to the evils of the century could only be achieved through the promotion of Catholic forces which, from within the new society, would act according to the values and guidelines proclaimed by the ecclesiastical hierarchy. Lay Catholics were the first and most immediate cooperators in the religious revival in the face of what was coming. The first steps of what was to be called Catholic Action were thus being sown. A body of organised lay people was emerging, supported by the Holy See, who would work in the most aggressive or distant milieus of the Church.

In the 20th century, with Pius X, the “social works” emerged from the key of preserving what remained of Christianity from the attacks of the world under the protection of the confessional institutions. Active lay people were urgently desired, but they always acted by being sent by and dependent on the clergy. Initiatives of lay works had to have a member of the hierarchy as president. Pius X demanded the incorporation of all Catholic associations into the nascent Catholic Action, including those working in non-ecclesiastical areas. It was essential to prepare priests consecrated to the study of social problems to take the lead in the works. Attempts at autonomy in the political, social and economic spheres led to permanent conflicts between the laity and the hierarchy.

It was Pius XI who gave statutes and ecclesial recognition to Catholic Action (1922), giving more room for action to the laity. This apostolate of the laity will be considered as “participation of the laity in the apostolate of the hierarchy” given that there is only one apostolate, which is the one given by Christ to the Bishops and the Pope: beyond this limit, they delegate to the laity the power given to them to Christianise the world on behalf of the pastors. Their action is not based on baptism, but on strict subordination to the hierarchy. The lay person is an “auxiliary” who comes and witnesses where the hierarchy cannot.

Catholic Action is consolidated as an arm of the hierarchy in the world. This is a key step for the full reincorporation of the laity in acquiring a fundamental mission in the church, even if they cannot take on internal ministerial tasks. Catholic Action developed into specialised movements JOC and HOAC (workers), JAC, JEC (students), JIC (independent professions), male and female, mainly youth and also adults. They promoted very valuable ideas and initiatives such as the “see - judge - act” method, lay presence and witness in the world, commitment to temporal realities, the need for greater collaboration between the laity and the clergy.

Pius XII will replace the term “participation” with “cooperation”, which deepens the distance between clergy and laity. This was challenged by the experiences of working priests who questioned the intended demarcation. The idea of “militant laity” (those of Catholic Action) was also introduced, as if the laity operated at two speeds (committed and sociological laity).

On 25 January 1959, John XXIII announced the intention to convene an ecumenical Council. In his own words, “the first announcement of the Council was like the small seed which we threw into the ground with courage and a trembling hand”. It is now, after the initial shock and confusion, that we are beginning to see the enormous fruits that this seed can bear if we encourage and develop its great intuitions in the development of the laity as a full Christian vocation.

In recent years, valuable orientations have been gaining strength: the recovery of the concept of the People of God, the universal call to holiness, the ministries entrusted to the laity, the experiences of other Christian churches, the contributions of civil society in terms of the participation of all people, the role of women, the revaluation of the laity, marriage as the main sign of God, the centrality of the Gospel and theological study also for the laity… Today it is urgent to continue awakening the laity and to recover fraternity.

Testimony from Mexico

The Piarist community, formed by religious and lay people, has encouraged me to live in a profound way my commitment as a baptized person, as a child of God. This small community allows me to be in communion with my fraternal brothers, both Piarist religious and lay members of the fraternity, where I share the experience of the Piarist mission, charism and spirituality.

This community experience has strengthened me with enthusiasm and conviction to share the mission of evangelising by educating the children and young people of the work in which I participate and in which I am in contact through the members of the fraternity. My testimony is that of a Christian convinced of the call that God has given me despite my personal limitations, but also in the enthusiasm to evangelise children and young people, knowing that God has the last word in loving them.

In the fraternal community that I have been coordinating for more than four years, we have analysed the spiritual needs that we must nourish, with the accompaniment of Piarist religious and making possible an encounter with God in life with the liturgy of the hours, continuous prayer, Eucharist with children and young people, visits to the Blessed Sacrament, all in community. Exercising the sacramental apostolate in children and young people for communion and confirmation.

This requires me to give testimony of fraternal life, which I assume in a simple way, convinced of God’s love, available to support the Piarist charism at different times. The human, Christian and Calasanctian formation received and shared in community, enriches me and helps me to be a better Christian, to qualify me as a person committed to the Calasanctian charism in the Piarist Province of Mexico.

Now as part of the Council of the Piarist Province of Mexico, it allows me to share and participate in different works and with different fraternities, sharing life, mission, charism and spirituality, all of them have embellished life, assuming responsibilities at provincial level and collaborating in it. This opportunity gives me the possibility to assume my conviction and enthusiasm in the Piarist Province.

I am very enthusiastic about the call of the Lord through the Calasanctian charism, to contribute as an instrument of the Lord to build the Kingdom of God among my brothers, to promote and be constant in collaborating with the Piarist and fraternal religious, so that together we are responsible for the education of children and young people, striving to give witness of God’s love to my person and community.

Alejandro Domínguez Zamora.

I am the vine and you are the branches

I am the true vine and my Father is the vinedresser…

Abide in me, as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

I am the vine, you are the branches He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. But he who does not abide in me is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; then it is gathered up, thrown into the fire and burned.

If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask for what you want and you shall have it…

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love…

This is my commandment: Love one another, as I have loved you.

There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

You are my friends if you do what I command you.

(Jn 15:1-14)

Religious life

Consecrated life has played a very important role in the history of the Church and society. In addition to the charisms of the individual entities and other contributions, it has been perhaps the greatest guardian and promoter of the following of Jesus in community.

As the Church gained recognition, as the martyrdoms came to an end and Christian identity created a social culture while at the same time assimilating into the environment, some Christians tried to live the Gospel more radically… and so religious life began to emerge.

The intention is to live with full intensity the same style of Jesus. It is not another type of Christian, nor is it someone separate. It is a way of living the following of Jesus by taking on some key features of his life that shape the person and the group of people who live their Christian faith in this way. They simply, and wonderfully despite their many weaknesses, try to “exaggerate” what are the traits of every Christian.

In this way, some options take shape that shape consecrated life over time. We can highlight the following:

The audacity of trying to be a sign in the midst of society

Every Christian is called to be salt and light in the midst of society. Religious try to do this in a public way, taking care of their personal and community life, in order to be a sign of Jesus and his Gospel in the place where they are.

That is why they have used and continue to use symbols of their consecrated vocation with some sign in their dress, in their way of presenting themselves, in their actions, in the institutions they have created, in their presence of community identity…

Religious life does not belong to the hierarchy of the Church, it is not called to organise the life and functioning of the ecclesial community but to be a sign of holiness, a sign that it is possible to live the Gospel radically, a sign that the proposal of the Gospel is for all people, a sign of beatitude incarnated in concrete persons and community…

This is why religious congregations have often become teachers of spirituality and community life for all, prophetic voices, admirable lives of dedication to others…

This claim to be a sign in the midst of the Church and society is very daring. Because it can fall into the Pharisaism of believing oneself to be better. Because religious are, like all people, weak at many times. Because the failures and sins in consecrated life become precisely the opposite of their identity: anti-signs of the Gospel.

And yet, the religious continue to respond with humility and much daring to what they understand as God’s call, knowing that they need the help of the Lord and the community to remain faithful to this way of life.

The forever option with a quasi-sacramental character

This sign of religious life has the trait of perseverance, of the option for ever, of the definitive and unwavering commitment to follow Jesus… as for every Christian!

But we know that in our society decisions are not made forever. That those who change their word and their commitment without further ado seem to be freer.

The religious, after a long process of formation and discernment shared with the formators and those in charge of the corresponding Institute, make their profession for this consecrated life forever, emphasising the value of the response to a call that is from God and that cannot change, that the community and the recipients of the mission can count on him forever, that he is ready to never look back in following Jesus (Luke 9, 62)…

This profession is not one of the official sacraments of the Church, but it has a similar character in that it is public, renewed during the first years before becoming perpetual, accepted by the authority of the Congregation itself, in the context of a celebration of the Eucharist.

Again, commitment for ever seems difficult and too daring. But the religious experiences it as liberation in surrendering himself to the One he discovers as master and Lord who knows better than he does what is right in his life.

Community life

Jesus formed a group with whom he lived the years of his missionary life. He shared with them the prayer, the mission, the worries, the life, the common money box, the destiny, the daily walk.

Every Christian lives his or her faith in the Church, in the parish, in a group or community… because it is essential to our faith. Religious also want to live under the same roof, forming a religious family, sharing faith, spirituality, life, mission, goods and daily life.

We know that living together is wonderful and, at the same time, has many challenges. And so it is in families, in groups, in all kinds of groupings.

The religious bring the sign of a living together based on the centrality of Jesus who has called them together, who makes them brothers and sisters, who sends them the breath of his Spirit. And so community life becomes an outstanding sign of the very presence of the living and risen Jesus.

We will not dwell on this central aspect because it is precisely what we will develop further in these pages.

The vow of chastity

One element of Jesus that is rarely spoken of is his celibacy, his life fully dedicated and focused on God the Father and the mission he received. Jesus, who had women in his group and had an even more open relationship with them than was usual in his time, remained celibate.

Marriage and the creation of the family is a fully Christian vocation and we must remember that it is the best sign of God the Creator and Creator, Father and Mother who gives us brothers and sisters with blood ties and forever.

The religious here also want to imitate Jesus by assuming their celibate condition, trying to put their greatest love for the Lord who called them and with whom they have a relationship of intimate friendship. It is not only a matter of being more available for mission, but also of being a sign that God can fully fill the heart. The traditional image of the religious marrying God, marrying Jesus… can also be valid today.

When we speak of chastity, we are not only speaking of the exercise of sexuality, but of centring one’s affectivity and the way we relate to all people on the basis of this vocation to put the heart first of all in the Lord.

This is also a call for every Christian (Mt 10, 37-39). The religious tries to make it more visible by not having a wife or husband, children, which obviously calls for a full love for them as well.

The vow of poverty

Jesus renounces his work and sets out to preach the Good News without any goods and urges his disciples to do the same (Lk 10, 4f ). In his group they also had a common purse (Jn 13, 29).

Sharing goods with the needy, helping the poor, is a constant in Jesus’ preaching, as is the call not to have money as a god. Again we find ourselves with an invitation to all Christians.

The religious, with their vow of poverty, want to advance along this path and be a greater sign also in this sense. To this end, they renounce having anything as their own, since they have everything in common in the Congregation, living in dependence on the community.

The difficulty of personal and community poverty is often raised with the need for resources to carry out the mission, which usually requires significant financial resources. Although it is a delicate matter, it is quite easy to differentiate between the two areas, and even more so if we have the help of a well-prepared and identified laity who can take charge, with greater capacity and vocation, of these aspects of the management of the works.

To renounce owning anything of one’s own is a very important step and a challenge. And, therefore, it also becomes a sign of Jesus’ style.

The vow of obedience

Jesus calls all Christians to respond to whatever the Father calls us to, to pray that His will be done and not ours, to make ourselves available to God’s calls through the needs of others…

Religious want to respond to this call by means of one of the most Christian mediations: discernment in community. And to place in the hands of the person chosen by the community itself to discern the will of God. Impressive! It is obviously a matter of obedience shared in community, in communion with the governing team of the Congregation, in dialogue with the person, in an atmosphere of prayer?

In a society like ours, where individual freedom seems to prevail, the sign of obedience is very striking, as long as it is understood as an exercise of one’s own freedom that leaves the final word on decisions in the hands of the community and the superior.

And it is also a community sign of great value that accepts this mediation and asks some people to exercise for a time that difficult role of being the Lord’s instrument to discern the will for the community and its members.

This not only gives greater efficiency to community life and its mission, but above all helps to grow in availability, humility, community sharing…

The particular charisma with its components

Every congregation or entity of consecrated life also has some charism of its own, some approach to the Gospel which enriches the Church as a whole and which becomes the hallmark of that religious institute.

It is a call from the Lord to a group of religious, through their founder or initial group, which the Church recognises as a valuable charism for the Church and humanity.

Each person has his or her own talents, his or her own qualities, which must be placed at the service of others. In religious life, in addition to this personal sphere, the shared charism stands out as a gift and a commitment of all to the whole Church.

Among the Piarists, discovering the poor child, the young person in need, the one who lacks education and future, is the call that Calasanz received and that has infected all of us who follow in his footsteps. And so we live a spirituality where the child and the young person become the sacrament of Jesus in our environment. And so we assume the transforming Christian education as our contribution to the good of humanity and of the Church. And so, in the Piarist group, we discover the people that the Lord has placed on our path as brothers and companions in the mission of making a better world through this Piarist charism.

All Christians feel called, attracted by some charism, some style of community. Religious focus their lives on making this charism their vocation, their complete dedication.

Religious life wants to return to the first community, to be “a parable of the Kingdom and a prophecy of the new humanity” (Atilano Alaiz): “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a community of brothers who share their goods and their lives, who pray and celebrate the Eucharist together, who love each other and serve the world together, who discover happiness in the beatitudes…”. A dream that is becoming a reality.

The Church needs religious life to show the world its universal communion, which unites people from different countries, histories, cultures, ages… in a common charism, which is the identity document of that congregation.

Consecrated Life is today a reference and a teacher for the Christian life in community of all Christians and, therefore, of the Fraternity.

Testimony from Belo Horizonte - Brazil

I am Fernando Aguinaga, a Piarist religious and I had the opportunity to be a student of the Piarists in Estella and Tolosa (Basque Country). Since I was a child, I admired the Piarists for the joy of serving, for the proximity to children and young people and for the passion to evangelise and educate based on Christian values. I always liked the human and social vision: open to the world, in favour of the humble, in an attitude of service and respecting people’s dignity.

When I decided to become a Piarist religious, I thought it was a privilege to serve Jesus Christ in the way of Calasanz, whom I always admired very much for his dedication, simplicity, love for children and option for the poor. I was very lucky in the initial Piarist formation, because I had extraordinary teachers, trained in the school of the recently concluded Second Vatican Council. The young Piarists with whom I lived at that time were also very good and passionate about the mission. It was a formation in dialogue with the modern world, rooted in the passion for Jesus and his message, oriented to the service of an integral education of children and young people, whose centre is the Gospel.

Still very young, the Piarist mission was always present as a wonderful invitation, especially in catechesis, for which I was always passionate. I loved being a catechist in a group of children, adolescents or young people. Catechesis starts from the human person, is born from the Christian community and leads to it. Hence the need to articulate the Church starting from small Christian communities, in an attitude of service and integration with other levels of communion. Another challenge is the participation of the laity in the Church, especially women, who are still not recognised and valued as they should be.

The Piarist Fraternity emerged as a natural reality of pastoral and catechetical work, as an important and necessary step to strengthen the evangelising subject in an adult way, with maturity and justice. Thus, I dreamed of being able to contribute to its implementation in the reality of the Piarists in Brazil, where I was. In Brazil I was fortunate to find a Church open and committed to the poor, based on an ecclesiology of participation of the laity with dignity and recognition, with basic ecclesial communities that witness to the Gospel, announce it with works and words and show the face of a Church that is closer to Jesus and to the poor, more communitarian and servant. All this combines very well with the Piarist Fraternity, whose establishment in Brazil I consider to be extremely happy and fruitful.

Currently, the Piarist presence in Brazil is different with the active participation of the Fraternity. In every work, in every activity, in every Piarist dream to serve better, it is present. Today, thanks to the Fraternity, my experience as a Piarist religious is different, the mission is more meaningful, better oriented and accompanied. I feel that, in the midst of so many difficulties, our subject is stronger, more mystical and poetic. I feel an intense joy, a greater confidence, a service to the Gospel with a great deal of whimsy. I feel, in short, a better and happier religious.

P. Fernando Aguinaga, Fraternity of Belo Horizonte - Brazil

The first community in Jerusalem

They were constant in listening to the apostles’ teaching and in the fellowship of life, in the breaking of bread and in prayers. Everyone was impressed by the many wonders and signs that the apostles performed. The believers lived together and had everything in common; they sold their possessions and goods and divided them among themselves according to each one’s need. Every day they went to the temple together; they broke bread in their homes and ate their meals together, praising God with gladness and with all their hearts, and they were well regarded by all the people; and day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

(Acts 2:42-47)

Our Piarist community life

In the Piarist history, the first thing that emerges is educational action. Community life appears later, as a consequence and as a function of the schools. The mission precedes the community, at least historically, although theologically we know that it is the community that enables the mission[10] .

10 We take this information from the interesting book by José Pascual Burgués. “La experiencia comunitaria del escolapio… un largo camino por andar”. ICCE, 1993.

Even if only very briefly, it is worth taking some notes on this history, especially at the beginning.

In July 1604, in a meeting of the Operators of the Pious Schools (born at the end of 1597), it was decided that they should live in common. There were eighteen at that time, of whom only two would persevere: Calasanz himself and Ventura Sarafellini, always a layman[11]. Between that date and the definitive purchase of San Pantaleón (1612) there were 73 collaborators of whom only eleven entered the new house. After the ephemeral union with the Luquesans, it was not until the foundation of the Congregation of the Pious Schools (1617) that this common life was consolidated as a canonical religious life.

11 Josep Miró and Miguel Ángel Asiain, in “Vivir hoy el carisma de Calasanz”, ICCE, 2000, on page 97, say that the one who remained with Calasanz from the beginning was Dragonetti. In any case, the presence of the layman Ventura Sarafellini is very significant in order to see the importance of the laity in the birth of the Pious Schools.

During the first twenty years the schools functioned with remarkable success and began to be known and appreciated. What must not have worked so well was the community life, given the turnover of people in these years.

Calasanz was to write the first Constitutions at the end of 1620, after having entrusted Fr. Casani with the task and not liking the proposal he had drawn up. Calasanz withdrew for four months to Narni to write the Constitutions himself from his own experience and the models of other congregations.

It is striking, even though we know that these were different times and that it was a canonical document, how little is said about the community. Even so, it should be noted that it does speak of charity and of being of one heart and one soul, inspired by the community of Jerusalem. It also speaks of union, peace, prayer as the foundation of the community and of community meetings or “congregations” as well as very specific aspects of life in common (role of the superior, number of members, organisation, etc.).

The urgency of the mission and the constant calls to start new schools meant that the growth of the Pious Schools was very rapid and not always with great care for the formation of the new Piarists and community life. We can point out that to the eleven houses that existed in 1622, another 35 were added until 1646.

The concept of community has evolved over the centuries, depending also on the places and the specific trajectories in each place. In a very general view, we can say that the Piarist community has always been very centred on educational work and with a great deal of autonomy for each local community, which was almost sovereign in the works it carried out. The theology and ecclesiology of those years insisted on personal salvation, on hierarchical organisation and on other aspects that have also marked the style of the Piarist communities.

The Second Vatican Council also entailed a rethinking of community life by giving a new approach to ecclesiology and its various components.

From the end of the 1960s onwards, there was much reflection in the Church on community life, religious life, the community of communities… and many experiences began to emerge which have come down to us today with the fruits achieved in these years and also with problems and errors. We could cite some of these community developments:

- New institutes and entities of religious and also lay community life

- Apostolic movements flourish

- Emergence of different types of grassroots communities

- Experiences of diverse religious community life

- Renewal of the functioning of many parishes and dioceses

- Greater participation of the laity in all ecclesial spheres…

This has also reached the Piarist communities. And today we find quite a diversity: there are still relatively large and more “classic” communities, many are very small in number (three or four people… or less!), some are located inside the schools and works, others are inserted in popular areas, some are joint with lay people, some live in different places and share weekly moments…

Today we must also mention as Piarist communities those belonging to the Fraternity. They usually meet weekly to share prayer, life, mission and formation. They collaborate with great dedication in the Piarist works, as professionals and, above all, as volunteers. It is worth mentioning the economic sharing within the Fraternity itself and also for the Piarist mission, normally through the Itaka - Piarist Network. They can be more or less numerous, have a greater or lesser presence of Piarist religious, have a different trajectory in years and identity, be more or less stable…

Piarist community life, whether of the Order or of the Fraternity, becomes a fundamental element for the Pious Schools and their mission. Valuing shared life as the first mission and source of the Piarist mission becomes a priority today.

The style and characteristics of this community life are defined in the Constitutions[12] and also in the framework document of the Fraternity[13] and in the documents of each Fraternity. They become the concrete reference and the mirror in which to review our community life and to consider the corresponding improvements.

12 They can be found at http://www.escolapios21.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/ 2004-Constituciones-CC-C.pdf

13 It can be found at http://www.escolapios21.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/ 2011-La-Fraternidad-y-m%C3%A1s.pdf

The Lord does not send us to educate one child, thousands of children, so that each one may be happy and respond to God: he sends us to the whole of humanity to proclaim and build a Kingdom in which we are all in solidarity, all members of the same Christ, saving us together. The community is the background that gives substance to what is most visible, to the mission.

The community is the point where the vocation of each one meets, the similar response of several people to the same Piarist community, a history that began before us and we trust that it will continue after us, a mission and a project that comes from Calasanz and that are still very much alive in every time and place. Community life is the cornerstone of Piarist religious life… and of the Fraternity!

Our community life, Chapter III of the Constitutions

See how sweet, how delightful it is for brothers to live together in unity. Ps. 132, 1

Gathered together in a community of faith by the love the Father has given us and by our Calasanctian vocation, and imitating the way of life of Christ with his disciples and of the early Church with Mary, we are in a certain way ministers of the hope of the future Kingdom and of fraternal union among men.

26.- In our community life, chastity moves us to love our brothers fully; poverty, to share everything; obedience, to be closely united in order to fulfil God’s will with greater certainty. And we encourage one another to live faithfully the demands of our baptism and of our religious consecration in a spirit of interior conversion.

Called by the Word of God to a life of communion, we are in the Eucharist a sign of unity, making present in ourselves the death and resurrection of Christ, in order to grow continually in the service of our brothers and sisters.

Our religious community is centred on the Eucharist, founded on faith and strengthened by interpersonal relationships. We wholeheartedly accept others as they are, and we actively help them to mature in their aptitudes and to grow in love, ensuring that the community atmosphere helps each one to respond faithfully to his or her own vocation.

Community life requires, on the one hand, aptitudes for living together; on the other hand, it fosters full maturity through charity and those human virtues which lead to fraternal communion, in particular, sincerity, affability, respect for persons, without being judges of anyone. This creates an atmosphere of dialogue and avoids anything that might cause division between brothers.

The Spirit of Christ, ever present in us, leaves our charity to be permeated with a delicate simplicity in order to advance mutual respect, to love one another as brothers, to help one another with kindness and tolerance, and even with fraternal correction.

Community relations come alive and vigorous with charity and co-responsibility: the spirit of collaboration leads us to forget ourselves.

We are authentic community when we feel concern and interest for the situations in which the brothers find themselves; when we participate in community acts of prayer in which Christ makes himself present; when we actively participate in community meetings to plan and review our spiritual life and apostolic activity; and when we are faithful to the timetable set by the Community and approved by the Major Superior with his Council.

With special care and fraternal love we are concerned for those who have just embraced our way of life, for those in distress with personal difficulties, for the sick and the elderly. Finally, with our suffrages, as prescribed in the Rules, we help in the Lord those who have gone before us with the sign of faith.

34.- This commitment to create and foster community is one we have all made in embracing religious life; but it falls principally on those who have received the responsibility of animating community and those who are charged with the task of establishing community in each province.

We are concerned that everyone should have sufficient time to regain strength, for personal prayer and for cultural and spiritual renewal. For our part, we place at the disposal of the brothers our energies, our time and all that we possess. In order to foster the intimacy of the religious family, we keep certain places reserved only for the Community, as required by the Rules.

The Piarist Family, formed by the Piarists of all times and places, is made concrete and visible in the Local Community, constituted by the religious assigned to it. The whole Local Community, in turn, forms part of the wider Piarist communities, such as the Provinces and the whole Order. In their own way, the non-professed formandi and lay people who share our vocation in different ways also participate in the life of the Piarist community.

37.- Feeling intensely the experience of authentic communion with the Church, we establish fraternal relations with dioceses and parishes, with the sister Congregations of the Calasanctian Family and with other religious Institutes, especially those involved in educational works, and we encourage mutual collaboration as far as we can.

Our community, as a member of the whole human family and always ready to serve, willingly and resolutely makes its own the joys and hopes, the sorrows and anxieties of all people, particularly those of the local community in which we live.

With this community life we respond better to the Lord who calls. And this response will be, with God’s grace, our best recommendation so that those who have more assiduous contact with us, especially children and young people, will feel strongly attracted to work in the harvest of the Lord.

You call us to live in fraternity

Lord, you call us to live in community and you want us to build community; you want us in communion with others, not to be stronger or to serve them, but to be ourselves and to serve.

The community is strong if it is encouraged, the community is true if it loves, the community is holy if everyone is holy, the community exists for service, the community exists for the mission.

Community is meeting others in the Lord, is to pray and live with them in unity, is to give signs of hope because it waits.

Only in this way can we proclaim the Lord, Only then can we announce it to those who hardly know it.

Sharing mission, charism, Piarist community[14]

14 This chapter is largely based on the Sal Terrae Review. Different charisms, the same Spirit” (1 Cor 12:4) Shared Mission. June / 2011 (Volume: 99/6- Nº: 1157) and on reflections by Antonio Botana, a De La Salle Brother.

It is convenient to situate the current Piarist communities, religious and also of the Fraternity, in the ecclesial framework that is taking shape since the Second Vatican Council and from the Consecrated and lay life of our Church. The path we are following in the Pious Schools is understood in this general context, to which we are also contributing with our Piarist experiences and reflections.

Religious congregations have their origin in a charism given to a founder, or to a small group, who offer it to the Church for the good of the world. The continuity of the charism was realised, practically uniquely, through Christians who felt called to be part of the corresponding Institute.

The situation has changed in recent decades. Institutes of Religious Life, since the Second Vatican Council, and especially from the 1980s onwards, have been incorporating into their reflections, debates and legislative texts statements on what has been called “shared mission”. The Council opened up new horizons and conveyed to us an image of the Church as “koinonia” or communion of the People of God, following the image of the Trinity. In 1985, the Second Extraordinary Synod of Bishops confirmed the post-conciliar path on the basis of a central affirmation that John Paul II took up in his Post-Synodal Exhortation Christifidelis laici (ChL): “The ecclesiology of communion is a central and fundamental idea in the documents of the Council” (ChL 19).

The post-synodal apostolic exhortation Vita Consecrata of 1996 was the first text of the magisterium in which the formulation of sharing the charism appeared:

“Due to new situations, not a few institutes have come to the conviction that their charism can be shared with the laity. The laity are therefore invited to participate more intensely in the spirituality and mission of the institute itself. In continuity with the historical experiences of the various secular or Third Orders, it can be said that a new chapter, rich in hope, has begun in the history of relations between consecrated persons and the laity”.

Subsequently (2007), the Congregation for Catholic Education produced an important document entitled “Educating together in Catholic schools. Shared mission of consecrated persons and lay faithful”, which stated, among other things:

“Being able to share the same educational mission in the plurality of persons, vocations and states of life is undoubtedly an important aspect of the Catholic school in its participation in the missionary dynamic of the Church and in the opening of ecclesial communion towards the world. In this perspective, a first and precious contribution is given by the communion between lay and consecrated people in the school”.

Nowadays, the expression has been reformulated and deepened and, thus, we often speak of “sharing charism and mission”. And this entails certain convictions and attitudes that we must be aware of and develop:

- The charismatic mission, which is not born of human initiative but of the Spirit, requires attention to the signs of the Spirit, discernment and docility to his inspirations. It is with this attitude that we must approach this joint journey of religious and lay people in the Pious Schools.

- In principle, no hierarchies or ranks should be established among those graced with the charism. The laity should not be considered “second class”. This means that the institutions of religious life should not set themselves up as the “first instance” of governance, of economy, of leadership. At most, they should do so in order to initiate and facilitate the process, as a kind of initiatory mentoring, to give way later to shared responsibility and leadership.

- Participation in the mission and charism is based on a vocation received from God and not on a mere collaboration through friendship or sympathy in various works or persons. We speak of a new identity based on this received vocation.

- The charismatic vocation unfolds through a process of configuration to Jesus Christ, both in the form of religious life and in the form of lay life. There is a spiritual and formative journey which has to be shared on the one hand and differentiated on the other. This requirement must not be dispensed with in order to prevent the mission and spirituality from being distorted. For this reason, together they must establish formative structures of “joint or shared mission”.

- The shared mission is neither discriminatory nor exclusive. We welcome the brothers and sisters that God gives us, respecting the identity of each one’s form of Christian life: it does not blur the identity of the religious or the lay, the celibate or the married. This calls for an exquisite respect for the other, the different: respecting their rhythms, their processes, their most intimate communities of belonging.

- Shared mission has a charismatic profile that must be nurtured and encouraged, which is not only intended to work more, but also to contribute more to the mission of the Church with its own charism.

All this resituates us, religious and laity. Consecrated life is not a closed circle, a “state of perfection”, the only ones responsible for the charism received and for the vocational pastoral care of this religious vocation. The laity is not only a recipient of the mission, but an authentic protagonist, called to holiness and to collaborate in the building of the Kingdom of God.

From this ecclesiology of communion, the different vocations are not separate and independent, but complement and enrich each other: they need each other. The first ministry of religious is to be a sign of what should characterise every Christian, thus recovering their original function of being a “stimulating memory” for all. Therefore, any Christian can feel that he or she is a participant in the essence of Consecrated Life, even if he or she is not a religious, and can also feel urged to look for someone to continue this “stimulating memory”, because it is necessary for the Church.

A change of mentality and actions is needed

The vision of “shared mission” is involving much more than we suspected. It is taking us beyond the previously established barriers of “states of Christian life”. The states of Christian life (clerical, religious and lay) used to be seen as closed, watertight compartments. Now we speak rather of “stable forms of Christian life”, which are subject to processes of transformation by the charismatic correlation of a Church of communion. This requires an openness of mind and heart:

- Banish from our minds the confusion of identifying “shared mission” with “shared work” without the spirituality of sending that it implies. Or with a voluntary service that helps religious institutes free of charge, which can count on it or dispense with it at their discretion.

- To come to the conviction that we religious are not the owners of the charism, that we lay people have to help to actualise it at every moment. For this reason, everything charismatic must be reflected on together.

- To move from the belief that shared mission is optional to the conviction that it is necessary, because mission never belongs to just one person or group.

- Shared mission is born spontaneously when there is an awareness that it is the same Lord who has called us, that mission is always linked to a spirituality and a life, that we are a family sharing the same “space” in the Church, that the contribution of all vocations is necessary in a Church of communion. Shared mission thus becomes the normal way of mission for every religious Institute… and for all lay people.

- Assume positive attitudes: in the face of resistance to change, anticipate what is already appearing: in the face of rigidity in organisation and functioning, flexibility; in the face of centralisation, a network culture where all people can take advantage; in the face of fear of institutional survival, innovation and creativity from the initial charisma; in the face of victimism, greater protagonism for more people; in the face of personalism, cooperation, a lot of joint work.

- It will be necessary to set in motion formative processes, calling for different vocational offers, where everyone can find what the Lord is calling them to. Especially those of us who have an educational and pastoral responsibility have to develop these processes of personal growth and discovery of our own vocation, at the same time as we offer concrete possibilities to live it. The work in schools, educational centres, the Calasanz Movement, will be fundamental together with a presentation of vocational possibilities and ecclesial insertion where they can lead and where the offers that we Piarists are living in the religious life, in the Fraternity and in the other modalities of participation in the Pious Schools cannot be missing.

- We have been discovering that sharing the same ecclesial space (the Piarist in an educational centre or parish, or work…) is wonderful. But it is possible to move forward by sharing specific tasks (collaborators with many possibilities). And it is also possible to grow as a shared mission, as sent together to the same mission. And it is also possible to share the charism, which implies spirituality, life and mission. And it can also be the community, at different levels: the Piarist Christian Community, the community of reference, the same joint community of religious and lay people in the same dwelling, the parish community… And what else is the Lord calling us to in this sharing?

We have a way to go

In the Church no one should “go it alone” (whether individual or group), but everyone should collaborate from their own possibilities, join forces for the mission, move forward in harmony: “The life of ecclesial communion will thus be a sign to the world and an attractive force that leads to belief in Christ” (ChL 33).

Clearly, the road is long. Progress has been made, but work remains to be done. And not only because we are still in “post-conciliar reception times”, but also because it is a subject subject subject to discernment where there is a lot of novelty and interests (some legitimate and others not so much) that should be reviewed in order to strengthen or purify.

We can point out some particularly sensitive points, trying to highlight the most common risks and temptations.

Remembering who summons us and for what purpose

It is Jesus who has called us and not our desire. This should help us to be permanently attentive to the temptation of “appropriation”. In religious and/or priests it usually manifests itself as a tendency to take possession of the mission or the charism in which it is concretised; in the laity, as an inclination to believe themselves to be the authentic “renovators” of the Church, to which they restore its original freshness. Evidently, neither one nor the other marks the right direction. It is not by standing out one above the other that we communicate the goodness of our God, but by being at peace with one another (Mk 9:50) and restoring the Lord to his rightful place.

To situate the complementary vocations, precisely because they are different

One of the most delicate points in the shared mission is how to understand the link between the laity and the religious institution. The laity has a leading role to play in harmony with the hierarchy or any kind of recognised authority. The question is the nature of the relationship.

It now seems clear that the lay person is not called to work for a congregation, but to collaborate in a common mission; which implies that religious and priests will in turn have to look at how to collaborate with the laity. This shift from “for” to “with” has remarkable implications for all.

The priest or religious should not do everything, because the mission is not theirs. It is part of their obligation to enhance the gifts of the faithful and help them to put them at the service of the common good. Experience shows that this is often a point of conflict, as the lay person often ends up being more of an “executor” of orders. And, on the other hand, the lay person also has the desire to be in places that were previously inaccessible, with an undeniable claim to control and power. The Gospel goes in a different direction (Rom 15:7). “In order to build up the common house in solidarity, it is also necessary that every spirit of antagonism and strife be put aside and that we compete rather in mutual esteem, in mutual affection and in the willingness to collaborate, with the patience, foresight and willingness to sacrifice that this may sometimes entail” (ChL 31).

Good collaboration should not result in the confusion of vocations, as if they were the same and it makes no difference whether they are one or the other. The Church has long warned of the danger of “clericalisation” of the laity, as well as of an excessive secularisation of priests and religious. It can happen, and we must be vigilant. In fact, a characteristic feature of healthy cooperation would be for each vocation to recognise itself more in the encounter with the other. This requires mutual knowledge and shared discernment.

Cultivating mutual trust

A relationship of mutual cooperation has to be based on trust.

One cannot delegate to another without serious prior knowledge; and just as priests and religious have a long period of formation, where the person “tans” their faith, it is necessary to seek means of “probation” for the laity so that their presence is not only due to “godfathers” or particular friendships, to ideological questions (which also work in the Church), to poorly thought out good intentions. An excessive desire to promote the laity often leads to decisions in which the intention is not entirely correct and, in the long run, breaks down mutual trust.

This point is extremely delicate and important, especially in cases where a lay person is to occupy a pre-eminent place in a community or an institution. Before doing so, it is essential to “test” the reception that he/she may have among the other lay people, as well as to “verify” the honesty of the person chosen by various means (and not only those of the persons concerned). It is essential that the person feels legitimised in his office by the community, by the Congregation and by those who will collaborate directly with him (lay people, religious, priests).

Trust has to be earned every day. The laity often feel a certain suspicion towards priests and religious because they “do not understand the things of the world”; but, at the same time, they know they are looked upon with suspicion in their motivations (particularly in their material ones), because few truly believe that God can be first and foremost for them too.

When mistrust outweighs trust, the tendency is to opt for secrecy and “hidden agendas” (especially when it comes to information), rather than prudence and transparency. But without the latter two virtues, relations deteriorate irretrievably.

Maintaining the spirit of the charism

Another major challenge is how to guarantee the survival of the foundational charism of the religious institution in which the lay faithful are going to collaborate. This is probably one of the aspects of greatest concern. In fact, it is often the cause of doubts and suspicions. Any charism is a gift from God for the edification of the community and for the good of all. It is true that congregations are the depositaries of the founder’s charism and therefore responsible for its care and preservation; but those called to participate in it are not limited to the members of that institution. Sometimes, new perspectives can bring to light forgotten or overshadowed aspects, and they can also be the reason for a reinterpretation of the charism when it is incarnated in people who belong to another state of life with its own characteristics.

On the part of priests and religious, there is often the temptation of a paternalistic attitude that humiliates. On the part of the laity, there can be the temptation to “downgrade” the value of tradition, to think that they “know it all” and that they do not need anyone. The charism should be nothing but a place of encounter, of gratitude, of mutual enrichment and service to others.

Recognising various forms of authority and power

Another aspect to pay attention to is that of power and authority, which manifest themselves differently in the different participants in the shared mission. It is not the same to collaborate with an established institution that has many resources (material and human) as it is to belong to it de facto. Certainly, the ways and degrees of involvement in a religious work are very varied: leading catechesis, animating prayer, guiding groups, giving spiritual exercises, teaching as a teacher in a school, taking charge of a house of spirituality, occupying positions of leadership in a work… But in all cases the lay person must live with the fact that there is a margin of responsibility (and, therefore, of decision-making power over things and people) which belongs ultimately to the authority figures of the congregation with which he or she works (superiors, provincials, etc.).

However, there is a point of difficult balance that is necessary to take care of sharing responsibilities, decisions… in a framework of basic and fraternal dialogue.

Another path would be to create works or institutions that are truly shared, where it will always be necessary to take care of these forms of authority and power. This is a path that has already begun in the Itaka - Piarist Network.

Examine the interrelationship between the professional and religious spheres.

Collaboration in mission in an institution whose owner is a religious order or a diocese must be done by making it clear that there is a certain autonomy of earthly realities, certain values and norms of the world that have a certain autonomy - not separation - from the religious. Knowing history, marketing, graphic design, IT, management, languages, philosophy or psychology is independent of professing or not professing religious beliefs, of being secular or religious. The hiring of personnel, working conditions (economic, working hours, responsibilities, etc.), the promotion of employees, and even dismissals, should be done with clear professional criteria in institutional environments when we are talking about a shared mission between believers, be they lay, religious or priests. The “master’s sons”, whoever they are, should have no privilege other than to serve more deeply and selflessly. The shared mission also includes taking care of working conditions, the way institutions are managed. All of this without naivety or “do-goodism”, but also without discrimination or infringement of rights.

Once a minimum of justice has been integrated, it is then time to talk about sharing mission and charism and community.

It is also worth asking about lay people who seek professional or professional advantages or personal recognition in the shared mission… or where participation in decisions is sought without assuming the corresponding obligations and responsibilities.

Review and update mission-specific locations

Today there is a deficient public presence of Christians, who are mainly focused on education, social action, hospitals, prisons, missions in the third world… while their presence in politics, trade unions, economics, the media, art and culture is scarce. Perhaps the shared mission should lead us to rethink new presences and renewed ways of carrying them out.

Evaluating experiences

In general, the shared mission is generating a more adult and more ecclesial Christianity. The experience is proving positive, and it would be unfair not to thank God very much for this grace of working together. However, there are a number of underlying issues that, after a few decades of collaboration, need to be assessed.

It has not always been right, and it is essential to integrate failures, limitations, blindness and injustices. Collaboration has not always fostered the development of responsible individuals. Has the shared mission made us all more adult and responsible? A certain reductionism has meant that most of the training for collaborators continues to be geared towards forming catechists, teachers and helpers, rather than responsible adults in the faith. Have we completely abandoned the paternalism that infantilises so much? It is not clear whether the formation we receive (lay people, priests and religious) enables us to live a mature and adult faith in a secularised society, a faith in a society where it is becoming increasingly difficult to believe. Has the shared mission been up to the task of our times?

Three issues seem to be central to the evaluation: the construction of adult and responsible subjects, the mutual listening to the Word and the creation of Christian forms of life.

It is this spirit that is discovered in the texts of Matthew that speak of the mission of the apostles (chaps. 10 and 18). The shared mission is a mission that seeks to heal and purify, that goes to the lost sheep, that gives freely because it has received freely, that seeks neither gold nor silver, that blesses with peace, that is wise as serpents and simple as doves, that is aware that it is sent to us in the midst of wolves, that is not afraid, that takes up the cross and follows the Lord, that loses its life and loses its soul, that loses no one, that loses no one, that loses no one, that loses no one, that loses no one, that loses no one, who is not afraid, who takes up the cross and follows the Lord, who loses his life and finds it, who becomes like a child, who does not scandalise the little ones, who corrects fraternally when a brother sins, who prays in common and who forgives up to seventy times seven. It is that style of Jesus that invites us to be concerned with how and where we go in shared mission, even more than with the fruits.

Shared mission and also shared vision

It is all very well to deepen the shared mission, the shared identity, the common sending to develop a mission… but we must also move towards sharing the vision of reality, of the moment we are living, of the horizon towards which we are moving. As well as going deeper into the mission, into what we are and what we do, we religious and lay people have to elaborate together the values, the basic beliefs, the culture of the Pious Schools and the lines for the future.

Distinguish well between leadership, authority and power, always from the key of service.

Underlying some difficulties in the shared mission is a misunderstanding of who is the protagonist, who are we (only the religious, only the laity, the Order and the Fraternity…?). The key is always service to children, young people, the poor… For this, leadership is necessary (the capacity to unite in a common project and to accompany), authority (recognition of certain people for their experience, capacity…) and also power (the capacity to decide). In today’s complex and changing world, it is necessary not to confuse these aspects and to know how to make the most of all their potential through service and by distinguishing between specific areas.

Testimony from Mexico

I am Cecilia Oliveros Alvarado, my vocation as an educator began many years ago and I decided to train as a primary school teacher, and for 22 years I have been teaching at different levels. For the last decade I have been teaching children in the first and second year.

I am a teacher who is concerned about the good development of children, both in their basic learning and in their psychomotor and emotional maturity. I have seen how little by little they have been changing their ways of behaving, the state of cognitive skills developed in preschool and the support that their parents give them at home to accompany them in their lives.

As teachers, we already know the dynamics of planning, tidying up the classroom, playing with them and, above all, always being attentive to the children’s needs and concerns in order to adapt our lesson plans and get the best out of them.

During this journey I can say that I had realised my vocation as an educator. But God has other plans.

I confess to being a restless person, I enjoy travelling, taking care of myself and cultivating good interpersonal relationships and learning to live my days to the full. And it was there that God was calling me to combine my personal interests and what at that time I called my vocation.

I was invited to join the Fraternity of the Pious Schools, we held meetings, attended some retreats outside the city, and time passed between reflections and integration dynamics. Many people started and little by little each one decided to continue or not. I chose to be attentive and willing to be, to participate and to collaborate in the community meetings and in some of the services that the school asked of us. I confess that it was not very attractive but it was our community.

It was not until two years ago, when I was living experiences both in my personal life and in the fraternity, that I began to understand that God is calling us to seek Him and to find Him. It was not easy, but I decided to follow the invitation to go to the Calasanz Social Centre to support children with educational backwardness.

Those who know me know that what I like and love I share with my dearest people and so I invited a sister from my Pauline community and another friend with whom I worked at school for a decade, to go and take this flight.

Filled with mixed feelings, between joys and fears of the unknown, I was assaulted on the way to the Centre. It was when I arrived and the children welcomed us with great joy that they won my heart and everything made sense. They have transformed me over the course of more than a year of accompanying them, of loving them, or perhaps of feeling loved, expected and wanted by them. Truly, they are wonderful children who in the midst of their lives broken by violence in their homes, by the lack of emotional and family resources, are willing to move forward just by being with them and encouraging them to do what is necessary for them to learn to read, write and manage their emotions in a peaceful way.

They have made me understand the Piarist vocation, which is not only to be an educator or teacher, but a person who feels with the most vulnerable children and put all the resources for them to succeed on their own. Look that I like to enjoy life and travel, but the service to the little ones of the Social Centre have made me wake up to a life experience that is transforming me into a better person and I love it. God has looked into my eyes through the faces of these little ones and filled my heart with blessing and love.

And like someone who has great news, I could not keep quiet, I have told my children in the first year of primary school and some of them have been concerned about going to support the Centre with their mothers. I have invited other teachers from the school and brothers and sisters from my community to collaborate with us. The good news is noticed and shared.

I have been with the fraternity for six years now, and although each one has been important, this last one has been unprecedented. Today I feel more fulfilled and restless to learn more, to serve, to improve the care of the children, not only in the social centre, but also those who are in vulnerable situations due to the lack of attention and love from their parents…

God has been awakening me, in this journey, to meet different people who, in community, accompany each other, dream and work to educate the neediest children. God has loved me and has sent me to live the experience of Joseph Calasanz. I think I have been a good teacher, but when I arrived at the Social Centre (my Trastevere) God has made me a Piarist and I will not leave him for anything in the world.

“What is done for these poor children is done for Christ” St. Joseph Calasanz 1638.

Cecilia Oliveros Alvarado

Prayer (Matthew 10, 38-42)

Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me.

He who receives a prophet because he is a prophet shall have the reward of a prophet; and he who receives a righteous man shall have the reward of a righteous man.

I assure you that anyone who gives even a glass of fresh water to one of these little ones to drink because he is my disciple will not go unrewarded.

Piarist fraternity, another way of living the charism

“I invite the Piarist Religious to welcome the Fraternities as a gift that enriches and strengthens the Pious Schools, and to all the people who form part of the Piarist Fraternities. so that, all together, we may contribute to the strengthening and renewal of the Pious Schools, for the sake of children, young people, the poor and the poorest and of all the people to whom we are sent by God, through the Church, for the fortunate daring and tenacious patience of St. Joseph Calasanz”.

(Fr. General Pedro Aguado, in the prologue of “The Fraternity of the Pious Schools”. ICCE, 2011)

The Piarist Fraternity is, by recognition of the Order, a new reality where the charism of Calasanz is also lived. The charismatic integration that defines this modality of participation in the Piarist Schools is a leap in the Piarist history: previously who fully embodied the Piarist charism were the religious in community; now it is also the laity grouped in Fraternity who becomes, together with the religious, the face of Calasanz today, in a new Piarist subject that, together with the Order, has the task of giving continuity to the Piarist spirituality, life and mission.

This still nascent Piarist reality enriches religious life and opens a new space for the laity linked to the Pious Schools.

The richness of religious life in and for the Fraternity

A fundamental feature of every person who follows Jesus is the communal sharing of his faith, his life, his mission. However, this communitarian aspect has not always been sufficiently emphasised in the Church. Religious life, in addition to other contributions, has the merit of having been the safeguard of community in the Church and a sign of fraternity both within each Institute and towards the people to whom it is dedicated.

Curiously, the mission of religious life and the vows that define it have been highlighted more than the community itself, when it is precisely this religious community that makes the mission possible, the continuity of it, the great scope it has had and continues to have today for very many people… and the sign, not always clear, of a community life that is a convener and a reference point in its environment.

When the Second Vatican Council relaunched the model of the Church as the People of God, as a community of communities… small communities of very different styles are re-emerging all over the world. Religious life has been the driving force behind this revival and a teacher of how to live fully in community. Today many communities are inspired by the experience and wisdom of this well-established ecclesial reality that is consecrated life.

A possible dilemma of religious life as a visible and palpable sign with a clear presence and its own institutions or as a hidden leaven inserted in social realities that can be transformed from within without hardly manifesting its own Christian and religious identity was raised at the time, and is still present today. These are two very different attitudes, increasingly compatible, which are worth knowing.

Religious life, and logically also Piarist life, presents as a proposal and as a consolidated reality a community that is a family, where we try to leave the fundamental space to the Father God and to the Spirit, to live the experience of Jesus with our brothers and sisters.

Religious life is a community of life, of being at the feet of Jesus listening to Him day by day, of making Him present in the Eucharist and in fraternity, of sharing goods in a common box renouncing private property, of centring our affections on Jesus and on the brothers whom He has chosen, of discerning the will of God with full generosity and availability, of feeling sent on a mission to announce the Gospel and transform the world, of perseverance and fidelity until death… It is about living as a family with the brothers and sisters He gives us, sharing our destiny as children of the Father in heaven and at the service of the whole of humanity.

Today the Piarist religious can be proud of the birth of the Fraternity, because the Lord has given us a precious daughter, with our same genetic code, with our same blood. And that is a sign that we have allowed Jesus to work in our environment, calling also lay men and women to the Piarist harvest of following Jesus in the style of Calasanz and to the mission of collaborating with his Kingdom through the transforming Christian education, especially for the most needy people.

But the gift is not only the gift of the maternity of the Fraternity, which multiplies our community and mission possibilities, but also the contribution that the Fraternity makes to the Order in the permanent revitalisation to which it is called: the birth of this new Piarist subject, bearer also of the charism of Calasanz, is a new impulse of the Spirit that gives new life to the religious and the Order.

The Trinitarian reality of our image of God invites us to discover ourselves always in relationship, now with the Fraternity and the other forms of participation in the Pious Schools, in order to allow the Spirit to give us a new air of fidelity in the moment in which we are living.

The possibilities that the Fraternity opens up for the Pious Schools are a new horizon for community life, for the mission, for the re-reading of the Piarist charism today, for our institutions and works, for our way of situating ourselves in the Church and in society.

An example of this is the richness that participation in the Fraternity means for a religious, or for an entire community, to share life and faith with the Piarist laity, to discern together with them the will of God at every moment, the possibility of implementing with greater intensity the model of Piarist presence where the religious together with other people are assuming the Piarist mission and presence…

Testimony from Serra (Brazil)

Lately I have heard a lot from my mother the following sentence: “Today it is no longer necessary for me to accompany you to church, when you were little I did everything I could, I showed you the way, I never missed a single Sunday mass, you were baptised, you took part in catechesis… now you have grown up and you can walk according to your own decisions”. Well, it seems to me that this is exactly how it is. My name is Jéssica dos Anjos, I am 23 years old, I am a Fraterna of the Shemá community in Serra (Espírito Santo), educator, psychologist, I work more directly with adolescents in the Obra Social Itaka - Escolapios and I can say that I am walking according to “my own decisions”.

I have always been present in the Church, I consider myself Catholic, Apostolic, Roman, and not always, but very recently, I have had the joy of discovering myself as a Piarist. … The first impression one has is that it was all of a sudden, it was arriving from another city and going to a new parish, with a hitherto unknown name, “Parroquia San José de Calasanz”, with a nice and charismatic saint, with a Spanish name and who lives surrounded by children, children and young people, poor and needy. But, thinking about it, I don’t know if I can say that it was so “all of a sudden” or that it was “my own choice”, because when one says YES to something so great it is because it is already inside you, so that one does not choose and one makes it life day by day.

Getting to know the Piarists was an awakening to a charism that had always been part of me, which needed to be shared, made present in community and transformed into mission.

I had always served in the Church and, until I met the Piarists, I had never realised that I could do something more. From then on, the concerns that were already inside me began to bother me to such an extent that worrying was no longer enough and, like Joseph Calasanz, I felt that I needed to do something, to go to meet the other, to understand the needs of that other and to give myself totally. This is how my life has been as a fraternal, educator, daughter, sister, young woman, psychologist. In all environments, in all my work and parish groups, I have tried to live this charism, which surpasses you, expands and captivates everyone, in the same way that one day I was captivated.

Today I live, share and feel responsible for this mission, responsible for every child I meet and for every adolescent in my work environment. I thank God for this opportunity to be here, for the possibility to show a way, as my mother showed me one day, as St. Joseph Calasanz has shown so many lay and religious: a new way, a new way to serve. May St. Joseph Calasanz continue to inspire my life and may he make me, each day, more whole and more caring as I “touch” the lives of these little ones.

Jéssica dos Anjos Ribeiro, Shemá of the Fraternity of Brazil

Being an Emmaus walker

+ I want to make a journey, to be an Emmaus walker.

To meet different people with whom to walk and to let myself be inundated by their realities, to let the feelings that I know will be contradictory at many times well up in me.

+ I want to be an Emmaus walker.

I throw myself into the task of training myself to make as few mistakes as possible in my dealings, in the way I speak, in my gestures and attitudes, so as not to harm any of those people with whom I would like to walk.

+ I want to be an Emmaus walker.

And to begin the wonderful adventure of getting to know concrete stories, companions who see life differently from the way I do. To soak up their feelings, to listen, contemplate and dialogue.

+ I want to be an Emmaus walker.

To join them in their struggles, to be in solidarity with their illusions, to share their dreams and their sorrows. To climb steep slopes and go over potholes, but with them hand in hand.

+ I want to be an Emmaus walker.

Forming groups, developing projects, because I do not want to walk alone. I want to walk with other brothers and sisters who feel the same as I do and walk the path together, even if we go more slowly, but to arrive, wherever we arrive, together.

+ I want to be an Emmaus walker.

To allow myself to be evangelised by those I will meet on my journey. I want to make a journey, to be an Emmaus walker. To share the bread, the wine and the life, the work, the sweat and the joy, the feast and the weeping. To feel my heart on fire as I share what I am and what I have and look at each person’s story as God looks at it: with immense tenderness.

+ I want to be an Emmaus walker.

And to discover in each face, in each look, the wayfarer… the Lord of Life.

The place of the Fraternity in the future of the Pious Schools

The Fraternity is a fruit of the Order, not only because of the educational and pastoral work that brought it into being, but also and above all because the Order is, in some way, the reference that guides the growth of the Fraternity and its style.

The image of the Fraternity as a daughter of the Order allows us to visualise this reality that is taking shape in our Piarist geography. The Fraternity is born of the Order, with its very genes, its very charism. This is a gift from God to the Order for this gift of another form of motherhood. And it is also a great gift to the Fraternity because it is the gift of life. The bonds of a mother with her child and of the child with the mother are indelible.

As the Fraternity grows, as the years go by, as it matures, the Fraternity becomes aware of being another subject. Just as adolescents and young people have to find their own place in the family and in society, so too the Fraternity has to make this journey.

It is a development that will hopefully be made out of affection, out of mutual understanding, out of respect for the identity of both (Order and Fraternity), out of the conviction that they are of the same blood, with the same mission… out of two realities with a life of their own.

The Fraternities that have been making this journey are discovering that they must be able to make their own decisions, in economic autonomy, in the preparation of their own members of the Fraternity without always depending on the religious… and always from the perspective of walking together with the Order, to take advantage of its community wisdom. And the Order must also encourage autonomy of functioning, to guide without imposing, to learn also from the youth of these communities.

And for this it will be essential to share basic elements, from the recognition of being two entities with their own life: religious who belong to and participate in the fraternity, lay men and women who belong to the Order (lay Piarists), shared work in the different Piarist mission platforms (schools, parishes, social works, Calasanz Movement…), promoting the legally shared entity that is the Itaka - Piarist Network, the Piarist ministries entrusted to lay people jointly by the Order and Fraternity, as well as the sending out, the joint communities…

The Fraternity is called to occupy an important place in the Pious Schools and this will only be possible if it is aware of its own identity and the intrinsic link it has with the Order. And also if the Order is capable of admitting that “the daughter” is growing up and has to occupy an important place in the life and mission of the Pious Schools. The daughter must know that she is growing up and so must the mother.

The Fraternity brings more hands for the mission. They are hands that not only collaborate with the religious, but are also bearers of the charism of Calasanz. Saving the distances, what St. Peter did in the house of the centurion Cornelius is happening again, when he said: “Can we deny the water of baptism to these, who have received the Holy Spirit as we have received it? Seeing what not a few lay people desire and do together with us, can we deny that they also have the charism of Calasanz?

The Fraternity can bring freshness, novelty, youth, an essential ecclesial complement such as the adult and committed laity in the Church.

In the Piarist history there have been moments of great and very valuable changes, such as the departure from Europe to other continents with their cultures, the development of new areas of Piarist mission, the growing role of women in our works… With the Fraternity, new Pious Schools are being born.

Piarist spirituality, always closely linked to religious life, is also taking on other characteristics with the experience of the laity, of the families, of the little ones also sharing life in a new way with the religious. The mission is enriched with more hands and with different hands: too often the religious have had to take on tasks (directives, management, construction…) that are possibly more proper to the laity: this complementation is a great change. Religious life brings much to the community life of the Fraternity and, at the same time, it is urged to be more of an example, to learn from the new communities that emerge from the Fraternity. The Piarist organisation, more clerical in style, can be enriched by new forms of real participation in the Piarist life and mission today and in the future.

A now classic work by R. Hostie (“Life and Death of Religious Orders”. DDB. 1973), presents the crises suffered by religious congregations over time and the need to introduce profound changes to give new life. Those who do not introduce these transformations are condemned to disappear. Perhaps the Fraternity is one of those necessary changes that the Lord sends us to keep Calasanz alive in our time.

The participation and closeness of the religious enriches the Fraternity and also themselves. New Pious Schools are being born.

Testimony from Barquisimeto (Venezuela)

The Piarist Fraternity has meant in my life the necessary reference to reach the concrete goal of being part of the Church and of God’s project, logically that from desire to fact many conquests are needed, these are less difficult if there is a group of brothers reminding you with words and works how it is the way to live in order not to detach yourself from the objective. Since 1995 I met the Piarist Fathers in the College of Barquisimeto; later, in 1997, I met two extraordinary brothers who would sow in me the desire to live as a laywoman committed to the Piarist charism, Alberto and Bea, a Basque couple who touched the hearts of many for 3 years and who left an indelible mark in every street they walked in their voluntary work; But, it was not until 2010 when I took the step to the Fraternity in the city of Carora, at that time we were 30 people crazy about Jesus and his particular way of calling us; The Provincial at that time, Juan Mari Puig, invited us to consolidate the relationship with the Pious School and to continue in the different areas where we felt that we were useful to God (the school, the neighbourhoods where we did apostolate, the fraternal community, our own families) at a mature age and after meeting again from our adolescence which was marked by similar church experiences; That same year I returned to Barquisimeto and one of the missions I was given was to accompany the creation of the Frater in this city together with Father Edgar Romero. There are currently five of us and we make up the Divina Pastora de El Trompillo community; the five of us work in the neighbourhood where we have a Vicarage, a High School, a Work Training Centre, a Cultural Centre and four centres with their chapels. So far all the sisters have taken on the Piarist Mission with great affection and responsibility and, although there is no religious community in our city, we do our best to maintain each of the works with the direction and support of the Piarist Fathers from Carora.

In 2013 I was called by my fraternal brothers to be part of the local Fraternity Council, I did it until 2016 and I give testimony of an extraordinary mission of knowledge, service and listening in the growth of our Venezuelan fraternity. The fraternity has been for me the point of support in my life decisions, in my lifestyle, even if this implies some renunciations of comfort and of the people who were once part of my history; the best thing of all is that the community becomes the mirror in which we look at ourselves on a path of conversion and even if it is still lacking, with the help of God and the affection of the brothers, including the priests, we are walking on the path that we have made our own in full freedom and with conscience. I hope to be part of the concretion of the pastoral plan of my country and province that contemplates the growth and consolidation of the Calasanz Movement, of the Cultural Centres, schools, parishes and vicariates with integral attention and especially with the vocational one, all hand in hand with the Itaka Foundation and the Order. In Venezuela we do a humble work, but full of the presence of God and Mary Most Holy and with the blessing of St. Joseph Calasanz.

Carolina Paredes P. Divina Pastora Community. Barquisimeto. Venezuela

Our community

Our Father, we present to you our Community with its weaknesses and its riches. Look upon it with kindness. Give it your grace that it may become what it aspires to be.

Let it be a family where life and enthusiasm are found, where everyone can express what they think and what they feel, what they believe and what they seek; a community of freedom.

May it be a family where one listens before speaking, welcomes before judging, forgives without condemning, where one announces and not so much denounces; a community of mercy.

Let it be a family in which the Holy Spirit can be a guest because not everything is foreseen, regulated and already decided; a community that looks to the future.

May it be a family that when they see it they say: “look how they love each other” and not so much “look how well organised they are”; a community of life that is always growing as it listens to your Word. AMEN.

Pious Schools enriched by the Fraternity

The Fraternity of the Pious Schools is a wealth for its members who find in it an ideal community space to live their faith and to follow Jesus. It also enriches the Order because the possibility of having such a reality is a gift from God for the religious who participate in the Fraternity, for the Piarist life and mission in the place, to live more deeply the Piarist spirituality. And also the Pious Schools, now understood as Order and Fraternity with all the people and entities that form it, are placed in a new map where the mission has more possibilities by having more people identified and available, where the Piarist life can develop in new ways and where the Piarist spirituality itself receives new contributions from the Piarist lay world and from the interrelation of vocations that the Fraternity supposes.

The Piarist mission, life and organisation strengthened by the Fraternity

It is evident that the Piarist mission has more hands, more people, more possibilities because of the hundreds of members of the Fraternity who assume this mission co-responsibly.

Perhaps it is not so visible how rich it is for Piarist life, even for Piarist community life. The Fraternity and the religious community of a place can find shared spaces of prayer, celebration, reflection… of life. When the religious community or the Fraternity is reduced in number or strength, the sharing of moments is a very important support. The existence of some joint communities is an experience that is proving to be very valuable. The Piarist Christian Community acquires more strength and visibility when it is a reality promoted jointly by the religious community and the Fraternity.

The Piarist organisation with the Fraternity also gains considerably. Not only because of the number and possibilities involved, but also because it facilitates important Piarist options such as the implementation of the Piarist presence model and the institutional shared mission in the Itaka - Piarist Network.

It is worthwhile to dwell further on the richness it brings to Piarist spirituality.

Piarist spirituality, more incarnated and visible

Piarist spirituality, which has its source in Calasanz, is extremely rich although not always sufficiently known and presented in the environments in which we find ourselves. There are many publications that help to discover it, to make it alive, to make it known to others (we can find them at https://edicionescalasancias.org/espiritualidad/).

The Fraternity assumes the Piarist spirituality as its own, is formed in it, incarnates it in its members and communities… and helps to make it more visible and more inviting in the places where it is found.

It is worth recalling briefly some elements of this spirituality that shapes us Piarists, religious and lay people:

From the spirituality of Calasanz, mystic in action

- The centrality of mission, service and attention to others, especially the poorest.

- Creativity and leadership to carry forward the Piarist mission.

- To know and take advantage of the spiritualities of the environment as Calasanz did with the Franciscans, the Carmelites and the Jesuits.

- A permanent attitude of conversion, of listening to the needs of the needy, of stripping oneself of one’s own plans… as was the entire path of our Founder.

- Personal poverty, austerity to devote all resources to the most disadvantaged, closeness to the poor, total dedication to the little ones and the needy.

- Fidelity, availability, authenticity and coherence to the end, as permanent attitudes to achieve God’s will.

- Humility, simplicity, obedience, patience, forgiveness, magnanimity, kindness, gentleness, meekness, gentleness, modesty, in community life and with others.

- Personal and community prayer, also as a fundamental element in the education of children and young people.

- Comfort, joy, happiness, happiness, hope, trust, gifts of God found in prayer and dedication to mission.

- Configuration with Jesus Christ meditating on Christ crucified, imitating Jesus, seeing Christ in the little ones

Piarist life throughout history

- The deepening of religious life with its constituent elements: profession of vows, community life, Piarist mission, etc.

- The experience of ministerial spirituality as priests

- Piarist adaptation to social, theological and ecclesial history

- The growing importance of the Word and the living community in our Church

- The need for a personal and communal witness of life in our mission

- Growing missionary awareness among the Piarists

- Spiritual experience as an Order, with its components of interculturality and universality

Updating spirituality with the contribution of the Fraternity

The life of the Fraternity introduces new elements that enrich the already valuable Piarist spirituality:

- Importance of personal vocational stories and of the Fraternity, where the spiritual experience takes shape: symbols, places, metaphors that we use.

- The lived experiences that have led to the Fraternity: the educational processes, the Calasanz Movement, the dedication to the poorest, the meaningful celebrations, the group and community life, the accompaniment, the relationship with other Piarist realities, the testimonies of life, the personal proposals…

- The assessment of our mission platforms: the small community, the Fraternity, the Province, the Order, the schools, the social centres, the Calasanz Movement, the parishes, social projects… Itaka - Escolapios as a novelty of an internationally shared mission.

- The new challenges of our reality: pedagogical and pastoral innovation, new forms of poverty and new focal points of marginalisation and exclusion, feminism, integral ecology and care for our common home, multiculturalism and interculturalism, social and prophetic denunciation, political commitment, new languages for transmitting the faith, new models of family…

- The need for greater formation and participation of the laity, young people and communities in ecclesial and Piarist life.

- Importance of the Eucharist as the centre of community life, with a living liturgy, with more transparent and transforming signs.

- Spiritual experience in small community, in Fraternity, in Pious Schools, in the universal Church, in the whole of humanity, in creation.

- Experience of vocational diversity, of the complementarity of lay, religious and priestly spiritualities, lived in this rich Piarist Christian Community.

- Importance of being referents, significant, attractive and inviting.

These notes are clearly incomplete, but they can serve as an explanation of the enrichment of the Piarist spirituality of yesterday, today and the future for the Fraternity and from it for others. A good community exercise could be to complete these scripts with our own lived experience in the Fraternity.

Testimonial Piarist Fraternity is… a school of love!

Lord, teach us to love those who have no one to love them. There are millions of human beings, your children and our brothers and sisters, who die of hunger without having deserved it, who die of thirst, without having done anything to die of thirst, who do not know you, without being guilty of this ignorance.

Lord, do not allow us to live happily and contentedly in our little world. Make us understand the anguish of universal misery and deliver us from our blind and lonely self. This is our ardent prayer.

Our fraternity is…

… to remain united to Jesus, the vine that gives life, and to bear abundant fruit. And all this from that facet of Jesus that Calasanz developed so well: the attention to children, to the poor, to the young.

I am the true vine, my Father is the husbandman. Every branch of mine that bears no fruit he cuts down; those that bear fruit he cleanses so that they may bear more. You are already clean because of the message I have given you.

Follow with me, and I will follow with you. Unless a branch remains in the vine, it cannot bear fruit alone; neither can you unless you follow with me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who follows with me and I with him is the one who bears abundant fruit, for without me you can do nothing. Whoever does not follow me is thrown away as a branch and withers; they gather them up, throw them into the fire and burn them. If you follow me and my words remain with you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done. In this the glory of my Father is revealed, that you bear fruit and become my disciples.

(John 15:1-8)

Launching the fraternity

“What we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked upon, what we have touched with our hands of the Word of life, that is what we proclaim to you.

(1 John 1:1)” (1 John 1:1)

The setting up of the Fraternity is a step of great importance for the life and mission of the Demarcation concerned and for its mission. It is therefore useful to present some guidelines for this and to remember that one can always count on the help of the Council of the General Fraternity, with the other Fraternities and with the Order.

The decision to start

The openness of the Order to the laity has been a constant since its beginnings, which has become even more intense with the Second Vatican Council and the orientations that have emerged in the Church and in Consecrated Life. Since the approval in the General Chapter of 1997 of the framework document “The Laity in the Schools” and since then in all the Piarist guidelines, openness to the laity and to sharing together, religious and laity, is a living and growing reality.

There are various forms of participation in the Pious Schools, which we usually group into four main chapters for a better understanding: collaboration in the mission, the shared mission teams, the Fraternity which supposes charismatic integration and the Lay Piarists with charismatic and juridical integration.

When we consider taking steps to start the Fraternity, it is necessary to make a fundamental decision: to be prepared and willing to share the charism with the Fraternity, another entity different from the Order and, at the same time, very close to it. This is the decision: that the religious of that Demarcation and the lay people who could enter the Fraternity be ready to prepare themselves to assume together, Province and Fraternity, the Piarist charism today.

To know what is involved in the recognition of a Fraternity.

The General Congregation published in 2011 “The Fraternity of the Pious Schools”. It is a document of great importance that needs to be known in depth and applied to the concrete reality of each Province before starting up the Fraternity. This is the first task.

In the Pious Schools there have always been collaborators and our history is unthinkable without them. In recent times, the implementation of charismatic integration (the Fraternity) and juridical integration introduces an important novelty in the Order.

At the Congress on Calasanctian spirituality in Bogotá in April 2014, José Pascual Burgués said: “I believe that this is the most important change that is taking place in the Order in our days, even more than the restructuring because it will have greater consequences… comparable to the opening to other continents and other ministries”.

It is important to be aware of the thinking that is going on, which is presented in a very orderly manner in a few documents, among which it is worth highlighting:

The Laity in the Pious Schools (General Chapter 1997)

The Fraternity (General Congregation 2011)

Participating in the Pious Schools (IC-MC General Secretariat 2012)

Directory of Participation in the Pious Schools (General Chapter 2015)

After studying this reflection, it is worth highlighting some of the consequences of setting up the Fraternity in a Piarist Demarcation:

1. Throughout history, the participation of lay people in the spirit and mission of Calasanz has been a constant (“The Fraternity of the Pious Schools”, no. 2). Even so, those responsible for the Piarist charism have been the religious. We have been challenged by the discovery of Calasanz, by the need of so many children and young people who demand our action and by the call of God to consecrate our life to this mission. This, which is still a reality, is undergoing a change.

2. The Second Vatican Council, the subsequent reflection of the Church and of the Pious Schools have made us realise that the Piarist charism does not belong to anyone but the Spirit and that it can and must be shared with those who feel called to it (“The Fraternity of the Pious Schools”, no. 3. Vita Consecrata, no. 54). The Spirit led the first Christian communities to go out to the non-Jews (Acts 15, 7-8), has led and continues to lead us Piarists to new countries and works, and is also leading us to new forms of participation of the laity with what it means in terms of a change of mentality and organisation of the Pious Schools.

3. The Order invites us to set up the Piarist Fraternity (“The Fraternity of the Pious Schools”, nº 7-8.), reconfiguring the Pious Schools as a place of ecclesial insertion for those who feel called to it and as a space for religious and lay people to walk together (“The Fraternity of the Pious Schools”, nº 12.).

4. The beginning of the Fraternity in a Province implies responsibilities for the Province and for the religious: to set in motion the itineraries and processes of convocation and formation towards the Fraternity, to share the charism, to welcome the brothers and sisters of the Fraternity, to accompany them from their own ministry, to participate adequately in the Fraternity,… (“The Fraternity of the Pious Schools”, no. 15).

5. To start the Fraternity is for all of us, religious and lay, to be aware that we are not just another group of collaborators, but the communion of communities that incarnates, together with the Province, the face of Calasanz. The personal and community coherence, the quality of the witness of life, the availability and dedication, are immediate consequences.

6. Starting the Fraternity implies a profound change which obliges us to reconfigure the Province and its functioning, seeking forms of real participation in the decisions, in the work, in the mutual commitments. It is necessary to set up periodic meetings between the Province and the Fraternity, as well as between the Congregation and the Council (“The Fraternity of the Pious Schools”, nº 15 f).

7. It is important to situate well the participation of the religious in the Fraternity: we all support and recognise it, those who can and are called to do so participate in the communities of the Fraternity, thus enriching their Piarist religious vocation. The role of the religious in the Fraternity is very rich: he is one more brother in the community and also has to contribute his vocational and ministerial specificity. As far as possible, there should also be other assignments and ministries in the Fraternity in order to better situate the role of the religious and the priest in the vocational diversity of the community.

8. It is fundamental to take care of the admission, formation and discernment of the people who are going to join the Fraternity[15] , especially the first ones who become a reference for those who will come in the future.
15 The Constitutions say in no. 9: “Since this task which we have before us is of such great importance and requires persons endowed with the greatest charity, patience and other virtues, it will be necessary to consider with great care who should be admitted or excluded from formation for our ministry”. Although this refers to religious, it is applicable in a similar way to the brothers and sisters of the Fraternity.

9. Itaka - Piarists, a network of Piarist districts and fraternities, is a platform that embodies this reality of shared mission. It thus serves as an aid to the international network mission and becomes a privileged place of shared participation of the Province and the Fraternity, not only for the development of certain projects or only for the mission, but also as a space for shared life and discernment.

10. The setting up of the Fraternity must be a decision of the Provincial with his Congregation and, as far as possible, it should have the firm and clear support of all the religious who make up the Province. It must also have the approval of the Council of the General Fraternity.

To initiate the Fraternity is to enrich and transform the Pious Schools of a Demarcation.

To take the steps to start a Fraternity is to be willing and ready to make this profound transformation of the Piarist reality of the Province.

It also involves taking some concrete steps:

1. Convene the group of people who could start the Fraternity, give them the necessary information and invite them to make a discernment process to the Fraternity.

2. Develop this preparation plan. The following pages provide a few pointers on how to do this.

3. The participation of the religious is very important at this time, in order to accompany and for a better understanding for themselves of their participation and belonging to the nascent Fraternity.

4. Draw up the concrete document that defines the Fraternity in that Demarcation. The framework document, “The Fraternity of the Pious Schools” should be used as a basic framework and the documents of other Fraternities can also be used[16] .
16 They can be found at https://www.escolapios21.org/fraternidades/estatutos-de- fraternidades/

5. Liaise with the General Fraternity Council to keep it informed and to receive the necessary advice and, in due course, the necessary approval of the Fraternity document.

6. To prepare the moment of the beginning of the Fraternity, with the appropriate information to the people who take part in some way in the Piarist life and with the appropriate celebration where the first members will make their promise.

7. Discern who can enter the Fraternity at any given moment. At first, the role of the Provincial Superior and of the religious who accompany the process will be important… and later it will be the Fraternity Council itself, with those who accompany the preparation of the new members, who will assume this responsibility. Care should be taken to ensure that it is a personal decision, perhaps with the presentation of a personal letter requesting entry, which will lead to a dialogue with someone responsible for this process.

Here are some chapters that can help in this preliminary process.

Testimony from Serra - Brazil

Getting to know the Piarist mission changed my view of children and adolescents, especially the poorest ones.

After a long trajectory, my family and I arrived in the municipality of Serra/ES, and began to participate in the San José de Calasanz Parish in the neighbourhoods of Feu Rosa, Vila Nova de Colares and Nueva Zelandia, a region on the outskirts of the municipality. Renata, my daughter, introduced me to Father José Carlos, parish priest of the parish to which I belong and Director of the St. Joseph Calasanz Social Centre.

I was born in a small town in the state of Minas Gerais, where I began my Christian life through baptism and went through the process as a child, through the adolescent group and, later, through the youth groups. In the cities where I lived, I was always present in the life and actions of the parishes.

Everything I learned and experienced in my childhood, adolescence and youth are the pillars of adult life that set me on the path. Until arriving at Serra I went through nine parishes, always learning and acting: youth groups, family ministry and catechesis, but what was still to come was what would be a turning point, the encounter with the Piarists.

Joining the Social Centre as a volunteer, I began a new stage in my life of walking in faith. And, to my great joy, I met Fr José Luis who, with great wisdom, accompanies us, guides us and gives us the gift of his teachings. I discovered a space that invites us to believe that it is possible to fight for a better world, a space that allows us to look at the children and think about their development and their human and spiritual growth. A space of life, because there are children and adolescents with bright eyes, with dreams and hopes.

I was invited to be part of a team that works with the families of the children and adolescents who are in the Social Centre: Proyecto Familia. An action that I loved from the beginning, and with the aim of creating a space with the possibility of welcoming and listening to so many parents full of anxieties and hopes. The Family Project encourages dialogue and the sharing of life, and these elements are capable of promoting transformation. It is a proposal that invites care in its fullness: looking at children through their families.

Getting to know the Fathers and the Piarist mission touched me deeply and that feeling was amplified when I was invited to be part of the Piarist Fraternity. In the end, God calls us in the most different ways. After two and a half years of discernment, studying and getting to know the Holy Father Joseph Calasanz and his charism, I found myself in front of the great moment: to say YES by making the promise with the Piarist Order and placing myself at its service.

Saying YES reproduces in me a new and exciting way of living a life in a community of brothers who share the life and the Word of God, who dream the same dreams, who take on the same mission as the sustenance for their lives.

A YES that leads me to be part of something greater, a commitment: To live the Faith, following in the footsteps of Calasanz. To serve God and children, preferably the poorest.

Maria Emília da Silva Jorge, Serra Fraternity - Brazil

Life of the early christian communities

Christians, in fact, are not distinguished from other men either by their land, or by their speech, or by their customs. For they neither dwell in cities peculiar to themselves, nor speak a strange language, nor lead a kind of life apart from others. Indeed, this doctrine has not been invented by them through the talent and speculation of learned men, nor do they profess, as others do, a human teaching, but, inhabiting Greek or barbarian cities, according to the lot that befell each, and adapting themselves in food, dress, and other kinds of life to the usages and customs of each country, they show a superior and admirable, and, by the confession of all, a surprising tenor of life. They live in their own countries, but as strangers; they take part in everything as citizens and endure everything as foreigners: every foreign land is to them a homeland and every homeland a foreign land. They marry like everyone else, like everyone else they beget children, but they do not expose those who are born. They set a common table, but not a bed. They are in the flesh, but do not live according to the flesh. They obey the laws, but they surpass the laws with their lives. They love all and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned. They are killed and in this they are given life. They are poor and enrich all. They lack everything and abound in everything. They are dishonoured and in the same dishonours they are glorified. They are cursed and they are declared righteous. They are reviled and they bless. They are reviled and they give honour. They do good and are punished as evildoers. Condemned to death, they rejoice as if they were given life.

(Letter to Diognetus, 86).

Small networked communities as an option

In the Church there are different concepts of community. And not all are equally valid, far from it. The Church has assimilated the word community like many of the great words we have (love, forgiveness…). Thus we speak of universal community, parish community, community of Christians…

It must be said clearly: the Universal Church can be communion, but not community. A parish can have a community spirit, it must be a community of communities, but it is not a community in the sense we are presenting here: the community is a small group of people, who know each other and are recognisable.

On the other hand, community is not for a few, for the most radical. Like the great elements of our faith, such as prayer or service, community is for everyone. The particular style of community to which each person is called will be different, but not the call to share faith in community.

Today, individualism and competition predominate over sharing. Mistrust of others dominates, perhaps because we do not trust ourselves. There are occasional generous experiences, but committing one’s personal future in community is very costly. In such a situation, to present the following of Jesus in the small community is an audacity.

But it is not only the social and cultural environment that does not support this option. Nor in the Church is the community always supported and valued, as it prefers the organisation, the numerous public Christian presence… There is even a distrust of the community because of what it may imply in terms of critical stances, ecclesial fragmentation…

Today there are different models of ecclesial insertion in our Church. There are basically four: parishes, movements, small communities and associations of small communities. All of them are considered valid in our Church and can serve the Christian in following Jesus. But they are not the same. We propose the model of small communities in association with each other.

Parishes can be very lively realities, with community elements of great value… although this is not, unfortunately, the most common. The movements focus more on the mission team, on “see, judge, act”, on mission actions. Small communities share life strongly but have the weakness of being more isolated and have difficulty in sustaining themselves over time. Small communities associated with each other have the value of small communities with the added value of having an entity that allows for greater vision and permanence.

Why, then, propose the small associated community as the most normal way of being Christian?

On theological grounds

When God acts, he always brings about liberation and fraternal reunion. This follows from the basic principle that “God is love” (1 John). It is the foundation of the Trinitarian idea of God. Love cannot be expressed individually.

Looking at the Old Testament, we see that the People of Israel arose from the liberation from slavery in Egypt in the Exodus and the assembly at Shechem. That is when Yahweh begins to be known. This is nuclear: Israel will always be defined as a great assembly. The prophets go along the same lines.

In the New Testament, the experience is similar. The first thing Jesus does, even before he begins his public life, is to gather a group to announce the Good News and to liberate, which manifested itself in those times and always in healing the sick and casting out demons, evil and injustice in the world. The apostles themselves are liberated from their daily lives, leaving their homes and their work, to participate in this fraternal gathering of Jesus. In this group, new relationships are created: no one has to be first, no one oppresses anyone else? That first community, with all its failures (in spite of Jesus being its catechist), is the one that will announce Jesus after his death and resurrection. It is through them that the Gospel will come to us.

Estrada explained it to us in this way: Jesus first of all tries to convert all the people of Israel. But that failed. The crisis of Galilee occurs. Jesus realises that not all the people will convert. There is a change of strategy: to prepare a small group to keep the preaching of the Kingdom going and to live already in that reality. It will be the community of Jesus with his apostles.

The same thing is happening to us today: if we wait for the conversion of the whole world, the return to the state of Christianity… it will not be easy to see the fruits. It will be necessary to create small nuclei, like that of Jesus, which will make the Kingdom we advocate for everyone a reality in themselves and in their environment.

After Jesus’ death, the same experience continues: the Holy Spirit gathers them again (from Galilee where some of them were) and launches them to give the Good News. The Holy Spirit gathers them and gives them strength for the task of liberation.

Therefore, in faith, community is not an add-on, but something that precedes us: the witness of Jesus and faith has come to us through it, and the Church is the only community in which we can survive as Christians and followers of Jesus.

For ecclesiastical reasons

In Vatican II, the Church presents itself as a sign, sacrament and instrument of salvation and reconciliation for humanity.

Despite this reality, the Church can be an anti-sign that does not bear fruit. Today in the Church there is a crisis of relevance and significance. Instead of being a sign, people often have a negative feeling about the Church.

How to regain significance? The only way is for faith to be used, to be valued, to be meaningful to ourselves. And here the community has a lot to say. Community is living the gospel. And it is also a way of living it that makes an impact, that creates irresistible questions. Living the Gospel always surprises. Today it is essential to have groups of Christians who live the Gospel in depth, who dare to share, who question the values of society.

The community is a home and a workshop, where you first experience what you want to offer to the whole society. This is the way of every Jesus-centred community. If the Church were like this, it would be surprising, as it is being on many occasions.

For socio-cultural reasons

Not only is it true that the experience of faith is communal, that the Church stakes its future on the community, but also that each person needs the community as an oasis in the middle of the desert.

To be a Christian is to be a follower of Jesus. But this is not to be an admirer of Jesus, nor to spend time with him, but to put one’s whole person at his service. Today, in a society that does not persecute Christians but in which there is an atmosphere that erodes believing convictions, community is needed. And in those countries where it is persecuted, subtly or violently, community life is even more necessary to persevere in the faith and in the following of the Crucified One.

There are three relationships that define us as Christians: faith as a relationship with God, love with our brothers and sisters, and service to the world. All three relationships are threatened today in many of the environments in which we move. Faith because of secularisation as a general feeling. The experience of love and brotherhood by the bourgeois, consumerist and individualistic society. Service is challenged by structural injustice, which seems to overwhelm any possibility of transformation.

Community experience makes faith possible because it creates a space of plausibility. You need spaces where you value what you value yourself. No belief stands without a group to support it.

God once forewarned the people of an earthquake that would swallow up the waters of the whole earth. And the waters that would replace those that had disappeared would make the whole world mad.

Only the prophet took God seriously. He carried huge containers of water to his mountain cave, so that he would never be without it in the days of his life.

And sure enough, the earthquake occurred, the waters disappeared and new water filled the streams and lakes and rivers and ponds. Some months later the prophet came down from his mountain to see what had happened. And it was true: everyone had gone mad and attacked him and wanted nothing to do with him. Everyone was even convinced that he was the one who was mad.

So the prophet returned to his mountain cave, glad to have had the worry of waiting for water. But as time went on, the loneliness became unbearable. He longed for human companionship. So he went back down to the plain. But again he was rejected by the people, so different from him.

Then the prophet made his decision: he threw away the water he had kept, drank the new water and joined his fellows in their madness”.

(Anthony de Mello. “The Song of the Bird”. Sal Terrae)

Our faith comes from a community and can only be maintained there. Social support for our faith is scarce and structures of plausibility are needed for beliefs to remain, otherwise they are lost or become entrenched in a sect or fanaticism. But the call of the Church is to be leaven in the midst of the world, and even more so with the laity. We are asked not to step out of the world, but without losing our identity.

“The Christians, in fact, are not distinguished from other men either by their land, their speech, or their customs. For they neither dwell in cities peculiar to themselves, nor speak a strange language, nor lead a kind of life apart from others, (…) adapting themselves in food, dress and other kinds of life to the customs and habits of each country, they show a superior and admirable, and by the confession of all, a surprising tenor of life. They inhabit their own homelands, but as strangers; they take part in everything as citizens and endure everything as foreigners; every foreign land is to them a homeland and every homeland a foreign land. They marry as all men do, as all men beget children, but they do not show those who are born. They set a common table, but not a bed. They are in the flesh, but do not live according to the flesh. They obey the laws, but they surpass the laws with their lives. They love all and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned. They are killed and thereby given life. They are poor and enrich all. They lack everything and abound in everything. They are dishonoured and in the same dishonours they are glorified. They are cursed and they are declared righteous. They are reviled and they bless. They are reviled and they give honour. They do good and are punished as evildoers. Condemned to death, they rejoice as if they were given life”.

(Letter of Diognetus)

It is necessary to have a community to be able to continue believing in a secularised world. You need a group that confirms faith, that relationship with God. Many difficulties in faith do not come from the Gospel, but from the fact that society does not value it. Faith needs the group. When the whole society was Christian, perhaps Sunday mass could be enough, but today this is not possible.

The experience of love needs a community where the truth of what Jesus affirmed is tested. The community is the place where the beatitudes are tested, where it is seen that sharing is better than competing. The community is a kind of laboratory of humanity, which is essential for a credible proclamation. The “this happened to me” is fundamental. The community has to be, in addition to this experience of God, a laboratory of fraternity and a team commitment.

The service, the commitment, is impossible to last and to have a certain quality without the support of others, without the criticism, applause and encouragement of others. Failures are numerous in a society like ours and we need the community for that.

It can happen to us as in the parable that shows how Christians should not put our own legitimate projects before the community and social transformation:

“A man was giving a banquet and invited many people. When it was time for the banquet, he sent the steward to tell the guests, ‘Come, it is ready.

But they all, as if in agreement, excused themselves. The first said to him: ‘I have bought a field and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen. Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen and I am going to try them out. Please excuse me’. Another said: ‘I have just got married and, naturally, I can’t go.

The foreman went back to tell the master. Then the master of the house, indignant, said to him: ‘Run out into the squares and streets of the city and bring the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame’.

The foreman said: ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done and there is still room left’.

Then the master said to him, ‘Go out into the highways and byways and insist them until they come in and the house is full, for I tell you that none of those guests will taste of my banquet’”.

(Lk 14:16-24)

The current situation is indicated by the following characteristics:

- The existing communities are few. The whole Church should be articulated in primary groups, with other structures that bring them together. The Diocese cannot be a sign of love, because in order to be a sign of love it is necessary to see each other and to be close to each other, and this is only possible in groups where people see and recognise each other.

- Existing communities hardly understand each other. Each one reproduces itself. And so, when they come together, they become a tower of Babel where no one understands each other: each speaks its own language.

- The clergy is little predisposed to the community and prefers and is more trained to organise structures. And even more so when it comes to pastors and bishops, who expect large youth demonstrations and expect little from small communities. And so, instead of being supported, they are, at the most, consented to.

- Community building is exciting and difficult. Because it is not easy to agree. “When two are in full agreement, it is because one does not think”. After the first moment of keeping up appearances, differences emerge.

- Wanting to make a kind of community is not the same as making it. In the same way that wanting to look for a girlfriend is not the same as finding one. Rather than criticising my companions in community, we should be thankful that there are brothers who put up with me.

Testimony from Governador Valadares (Brazil)

In August 2011 I started the Discernment of the Piarist Fraternity in Governador Valadares - Minas Gerais and began to experience something different and positive in my life by participating in a small community, Emmaus, in which today I am an active member.

At each meeting I have the feeling that “I want more”, because we create a Christian family atmosphere, where we share the faith and life of all the members. I feel a daily transformation in myself, as a member and coordinator of a pastoral council (Santa Efigênia Community of the Parish of Our Lady of Grace).

The Piarist charism leads me to understand that we can transform small drops of water into great oceans, as long as we try to give opportunities to our brothers in Christ, marginalised by society, without the right to a voice or a place.

With this feeling of belonging to the Piarist charism and mission, I leave these words of gratitude for being part of this great project.

Antônio Pinto Neto, Fraternidade de Valadares (Brazil)

Assembly in the carpentry workshop

They say that once upon a time there was a strange assembly in the carpentry shop. It was a meeting of tools to settle their differences. The hammer was in the chair, but the assembly notified him that he had to resign. The reason? He was making too much noise! And, besides, he spent his time banging.

The hammer accepted his guilt, but asked for the screw to be thrown out as well; he said it had to be turned a lot to be of any use.

Faced with the attack, the screw also agreed, but in turn asked for the expulsion of the sandpaper. He pointed out that she was very rough in her dealings and always had friction with others.

And the sandpaper agreed, on condition that the metre that always measured others according to its own measure, as if it were the only perfect one, was expelled.

Then the carpenter came in, put on his apron and began his work. He used a hammer, sandpaper, a tape measure and a screw. Finally, the initial rough wood became a beautiful piece of furniture.

When the carpenter’s shop was again left alone, the assembly resumed deliberation. It was then that the sawyer took the floor, and said: “Gentlemen, it has been shown that we have faults, but the carpenter works with our qualities. That is what makes us valuable. So let’s stop thinking about our bad points and concentrate on the usefulness of our good points”.

The assembly then found the hammer to be strong, the screw to bind and give strength, the sandpaper to be special for sharpening and filing rough edges, and they observed that the tape measure was precise and accurate.

They felt that they were a team capable of producing quality furniture. They were proud of their strengths and proud to work together.

It is the same with human beings. Watch and you will see. When people in a group often look for faults in others, the situation becomes tense and negative. On the other hand, it is by sincerely trying to perceive each other’s strengths that the best human achievements flourish.

It is easy to find faults, anyone can do that, but to find qualities, that is for higher spirits who are able to inspire all human successes.

(Martha Lambrechts)

What is the small community

The formula of community is: “C = C (C C C C C C C)”, i.e. community is the sharing of five elements: contemplation, communication, knowledge (formation), commitment and celebration. Jesus calls us to share these dimensions which are more than Christian, they are also profoundly human experiences.

What is the difference between a Christian group and a community? A group usually focuses on one of these aspects. A community tries to reach out to everyone. We are always in a process towards community and neither is a legalistic approach valid (community is when certain points are fulfilled and it is not community when some are missing) nor is every group a community just because it is called that.

The image of the community is a plant or a tree. The seed, the roots, is prayer: God who calls us together, sustains us and gives us support. That relationship of affection and friendship with Jesus is the root on which the whole plant will depend. If the environment in which the plant is in is desert, the roots will have to be bigger and deeper.

“A community says a lot when it is about Jesus. When it talks about Jesus and not about its meetings. When it announces Jesus and does not announce itself. When it glories in Jesus and not in his merits. When it gathers around Jesus and not around its problems. When it reaches out for Jesus and not for itself. When it relies on Jesus and not on its own strength. When it lives of Jesus and not of itself… A community says a lot when it is of Jesus. A community says little when it speaks of itself. When it communicates its own merits. When it announces its meetings. When it bears witness to its commitment. When it glories in its values. When it extends itself for its own benefit. When it lives for itself. When it draws on its strengths… A community says little when it talks about itself. A community is not shaken by failures, but by lack of faith. It is not weakened by sins, but by the absence of Jesus. It is not broken by tensions, but by forgetting Jesus. It does not become small because of a lack of values, but because Jesus within it is small. It does not suffocate for lack of fresh air, but because of the suffocation of Jesus. A community is only lost when it has lost Jesus. A community is strong when Jesus within it is strong. A community is heavy when Jesus within it is heavy. A community marches together when Jesus is in its midst. A community reaches out when it reaches out to Jesus. A community lives when Jesus lives. A community convinces and carries when it is the community of Jesus”.

(“A community that convinces and fills” by Patxi Loidi. Shouts and prayers)

The trunk is fraternity. Normally, what unites us is friendship and this is stronger than anything that can separate us. Fraternity is sharing what we feel, what we do, what we decide, our illusions? Fraternity cannot fall into legalism. We share what is good and also what is poor in each one of us, because often what is good becomes bad and vice versa.

The branches are the formation, which does not serve in itself but as a whole. They bring the trunk into contact with the leaves and the fruit. This formation is necessary in order not to appropriate the faith, to enrich ourselves, to be able to make communion in the Church by having a common language and to commit ourselves.

The fruit is the transforming commitment. “You will know them by their fruits” (Mt 7:15). But we must recognise all the fruits, the great and the small. It is not only the striking results that are important, but also the simple everyday details that need to be acknowledged and thanked for.

The celebration, the party, are the flowers. Apparently they are good for nothing, but they are the ones that make us live, the ones that prevent us from being overwhelmed. The problem of celebration is that of authenticity, of having a joint reason to celebrate. If the flowers are missing, perhaps it is because there is no fruit or branches… The celebration is the end of something and the beginning of another reality.

The community is not a sum of five dimensions, but an articulation where a new reality is produced. It is not enough to put together some roots from anywhere, with some leaves and some branches… for it to be a tree with life. Life comes from having the five elements well articulated and proper.

Every community must have these dimensions. But there is no single model. The rhythm, the form, the place will depend on the members and on each concrete community. The most important thing is to be in a dynamic of growth of all these dimensions.

As a definition of community we could say: a community is a group brought together by Jesus, in a stable way, to pray together, to love each other, to reflect together, to help each other and to celebrate all of this. And when everything else is relativised from this reality.

Four criteria for assessing our community:

- When Jesus becomes the centre of life and not just another value. And this for all the members of the community. And this is a daily fight against the idols that are still very present.

- We become more of a community when we share more aspects of life and are guided by the Gospel. From words to feelings, from there to choices, to goods and faith…

- It is more of a community when the feelings of vocation, stability, belonging… grow.

- And when faith is seen in all its dimensions, not limited to some of its aspects only.

The work of building a community is the work of an “architect”. Before building and while he is building, he looks at the climate of the place (the environment in which the community moves), the ground where the foundations will be laid (the ecclesial stratum in which it will be inserted), the building materials (the specific people who form the community), the design and characteristics of the house (the style of the community), the possible risks it will have to face, etc.

Experience from Cochabamba (Bolivia)

My adult life is closely linked to the Piarist fraternity. In 1991 I finished my university studies in Biology. At the same time as it was a time for me to discern and make key decisions, the Itaka community in Bilbao was formed, offering an outlet for people who had come from the youth and adult catechumenate. Those first years of the 90s were very intense both personally and for the community. It was during this period that the Itaka community began to define and become aware of its identity, establishing itself as a Piarist Fraternity in 1996.

One of the characteristics that I most admire in our Piarist Fraternity of Itaka is to be always in search, in continuous movement , seeking to respond to what the world and the church need. In this environment it has been easy for me to be available to the needs of the fraternity and the Piarist mission and to take on different challenges and commitments: four years as “liberated” in the Itaka association (later Itaka-Escolapios), three years of sending to Valencia (Venezuela), work as a teacher in the Calasancio school in Bilbao taking progressively different pastoral and management responsibilities, being part of the joint community Mikel Deuna, being an animator and member of the Local Council of the fraternity,…

This attitude of openness to the action of the Spirit has led the Fraternity to broaden its horizons, to open up avenues, inwards and outwards, developing ministries, channelling vocational diversity, assigning different tasks, taking responsibility for the Piarist mission, giving light to Itaka-Escolapios,… Becoming more universal, being present in new places, feeling part of a much larger ecclesial and Piarist reality,…

From this experience of Fraternity, rich in ministries and vocational diversity, open to the needs of the world and the Church, in 2010 I received the call to be a Piarist religious and priest. In the yes I give to this proposal, the Fraternity plays a very important role: for the experiences lived previously and for the support given at that time.

In 2011 I made my simple profession as a religious after my novitiate year. Since then, every four years I have been sent to a new assignment. First, to Vitoria-Gasteiz where I did my theology studies and in 2015 I made my solemn profession. Then, in 2015, I was sent to my city of origin, Bilbao, where I received my diaconate and priestly ordinations. And finally, in 2019, to the province of Brazil-Bolivia, specifically to the city of Cochabamba.

In all three places, forming part of a joint community made up of religious and lay Piarists (temporary, definitive or sent), sharing life, faith and mission with families. In all three places, living in fraternities that are diverse, especially in number, but dedicated to the mission, open to new missionary horizons, offering paths to young people and allowing themselves to be renewed by them. In all three places, working and living from the model of presence.

Looking back, the feeling that dominates is one of gratitude for all that has been experienced. Looking forward, from this Bolivian land, hope for what is to come. I ask God to give me, to give us fidelity to the vocation we have received and to the promises we have made. Surely he will continue to surprise us.

P. Alberto Prieto

We need each other

In the middle of a large forest there was a great tree, a magnificent tree. In its shade they sat and rested. The walkers and in its branches the birds built their nests.

But one day the branches said: “Do you see how important we are? We cause the admiration of everyone who sees us and the birds are very happy to live with us… Besides, what wonderful colours our leaves have! What have we got to do with that dirty old trunk, so ugly and horrible, and how much less with those stinking roots that are underground all day long?”

And they decided that from that day on they would live alone, without needing anyone.

The trunk said: “What would the tree be without me? I am the one who sustains the branches and gives vigour to the whole tree. If I were not here, the branches would have no foundation and no sap to give them colour and life… I am certainly the strongest and most important”.

We are very important, said the roots. The tree could not survive without us who absorb from the earth the substance with which we produce the food that sustains the trunk and the leaves. That is why we have nothing to do with that fat, unfriendly trunk and even less to do with those stuck-up branches. From now on we will feed ourselves and we will not give our wisdom to anyone else. And so they did.

The great tree began to dry up. The leaves fell off, and the trunk was without a drop of sap. The roots were sadder than ever. The birds abandoned the nests built in the branches, and people passing through the forest no longer sat in the shade… The whole forest was very sad because the big tree was dying.

But little by little the roots, the branches and the trunk realised that they could not live separately, that they were made for each other, that the importance was not of each one, but of the tree they all formed… So the roots stopped keeping the sap, just for themselves, and gave it to the trunk. The trunk, at first, refused to participate, but in the end it also collaborated. The branches were happy to receive the first drop of sap, and asked the trunk and the roots to forgive them for having despised them. Everything went back to the way it was before. Birds continued to nest in its branches and people continue to take shade under its canopy.

The tree is happy again and the forest is happy with it.

Vocation to the community

Busting myths that harm us

It is worth starting by debunking some of the myths about community that become great enemies of real community.

Myths are beliefs that we uncritically accept and influence our behaviour. Myths hold us back, precisely because they have a grain of truth in them.

Try to identify which of these expressions you have said to yourself many times in your group experience or in your image of what a community should be and add others of your own that you have discovered.

1. Because I know and am enthusiastic about Jesus, I am already his follower.

2. Because we are friends and we believe in Jesus, we are community.

3. Others expect the same from the community as I do.

4. In the community we will all be equal and we will do the same.

5. No one should be in charge in the community, we must be totally democratic.

6. Communities fail because everyone goes their own way

7. Let the one who knows how to do it do it, the responsible one. I am not good enough.

8. There are no rules or legalisms in the community

9. We are all equally convinced of the community project.

10. We are an open group: anyone can join without further consideration.

11. Arguments, quarrels, conflicts and criticisms break up the community.

12. To be honest is to be able to “sing one’s heart out”.

13. Fraternity implies thinking, feeling or doing the same thing.

14. In the community I will meet all my needs

15. Community: high expectations at low cost

16. Effort and group techniques are essential.

17. What is most authentic and sincere is spontaneous.

18. I have to sympathise with everyone and feel at ease.

19. I have the right to choose the partners in my community.

20. Outsiders are better than us at everything

21. Time will fix the problems

22. The cause of the problem is X

23. We are all responsible for what happens

24. The community is my way of understanding my ecclesial insertion.

25. Freelancers and self-employed hold back the community

26. It is enough to make community to grow

27. If something doesn’t work, you have to go back to past discord.

28. Others should be able to sense that this is happening to me…

29. To improve, the key is to analyse and criticise the failures of the community.

30. When arguing: may the best man win!

31. A good community is a matter of luck in the members who make it up

32. With this person or problem there is no possible solution, forgiveness or hope for a solution.

33. Everyone knows what the vocation of the community is.

34. The ideal community is the one that agrees with me and my criteria.

35. If there are problems in the community, the solution is “good group dynamics”.

36. If my partner is not in the community, there is no point in my being in the community.

37. I see community as the adult way of living my Christian faith.

38. …

What is vocation

No one went yesterday, nor is going today, nor will go tomorrow to God on this same road that I am going.

For every man the sun keeps a new ray of light… and a virgin road God.

(León Felipe)

God’s call to each person is unique and unrepeatable. Each one has his own path, which God himself has chosen and dreamed for him, and the important thing is to discover it. Helder Câmara said that “the secret of eternal youth is to have a cause to which to dedicate one’s life”.

How to move from desire to reality? How to turn the dream into a choice? How to turn the illusion into a profound motivation? How to discern whether I am called to community?

And this is vocation. The call that God makes to each one of us. The vocation that can be applied to any field (mission, state of life…), but which we will now concretise in the vocation to community. A call that remains unique for each individual person.

It is important to realise that one’s vocation has two dimensions: it is discovered on the one hand and, on the other, it is nurtured and worked on day by day. And only one of them is not enough if the other is not produced.

Every vocation always has three features:

- I discover a possibility to be deeply happy. A deep joy that is fraught with problems, but which I feel as a call to live more fully. It is not a duty or an effort, although it also implies it, but not as the first element. I have to see if this call makes me happy, more than any other. It is not the cross that comes first, but a happiness that is expensive. Either you want to live an exciting life with great risks, and that is the vocation, or you don’t live it to the full.

- Every vocation is a choice and a renunciation. This is something that is difficult for the young person, because to choose is to renounce. One cannot be everything at the same time. Just as we are called to follow Jesus (and that is what we have been seeing in the previous stages of our own process), now I have to discover what is my concrete way of living this following. Every vocation is about defining oneself. In making a choice, one chooses what one believes will be most worthwhile, but in making this choice one renounces other possible options. If one studies one career, one gives up all the others, if one marries one person, one gives up the rest, if one engages in one activity, one gives up the rest. That is why it is necessary to define oneself: that is vocation.

- Every vocation has an element of cross, of burden. Any choice (a course of study, a job, a state in life, a choice in any field) demands effort. Every vocation has its cost, its difficult and dark moments. Only the one who does not choose a vocation avoids the problems. But at the price of not living.

Analysing the elements of vocation

In any vocation, four elements must always be considered.

I LIKE

I KNOW

I FEEL CAPABLE

I ARRAY

To be really motivated I have to say yes to all four elements. Lately we have insisted too much on risk, but it must be clear that generosity and commitment do not sustain a vocation: in the end it becomes such a burden that it is not sustained: fidelity can be achieved, but at the cost of bitterness. This is why taste, knowledge, ability and risk-taking have to be combined. Perhaps today’s young people are not guilty of this, but of giving too much weight to “I like it”. But in any case, all four are necessary.

The first thing in a vocation is that I like it, that it seduces me, that I fall in love with it, that it fills me with enthusiasm, that it brings me affection and affection, that I love it, that I have personalised it and that I am motivated. Anything that does not do this will be difficult for me to follow. Affectivity is what is effective. Rationality allows us to solve problems, but the affective allows us to enjoy. This is the illusion. The world of the affective, of pleasure, is a fundamental dimension of the person and this is where much of happiness comes from: what touches the heart, what makes us happy. To be a vocation, I have to like it. What I like is not bad, as some Christians may say. Vocation is not renunciation for something else; it is the feeling of being loved, valued? If this factor is not taken into account, it ends up taking its toll, it turns against you like a boomerang. But it cannot be the only element either. The child is the one who moves only for what he or she likes. A vocation is not just a simple “I feel like it”.

A second element is knowledge. This refers to the ability to think. I do not have a vocation if I do not know adequately and sufficiently what I am getting into. Before making a choice, one must know. Otherwise, the fanatic arises. This leads to childishness and a false choice. We are also heads and we have to calculate the means, the possibilities… It is not a question of knowing everything, because it can lead to paralysis until one knows everything, a task that never ends. But without knowing, one goes blindly.

I also have to feel capable. I have to see it as possible for me. Nobody is born with a ready-made vocation, but it is made, nurtured and cared for. But in order to do so, it is necessary to feel capable of it. Christians often lack self-esteem and self-worth. If I think I am going to have a bad time because I am not capable, it is better not to start at all. At other times, there may be a lack of realism and a lack of knowledge of one’s own capacities and attitudes that could lead to my not being capable.

Finally, I need to take a risk. Faith is involved at all levels, but even more so here. There is a risk in opening up, in not being accepted, in failing me, in failing myself,… Because the other is another and is not like me. There are no guarantees here. If the vocation is a community vocation, it is with others and I have to trust them and be willing to bear the costs that this may entail.

Vocation is realised in the four dimensions that complement each other. The more I like it, the more I get to know it. And the more I know, the more I can like it. If I feel capable it is easier to take risks and if I take risks it is easier to see myself capable. If I know I can take risks more easily and if I take risks I know more. Etc., etc., etc.

As far as my vocation to the community is concerned, I have to ask myself: do I like it, do I know what it entails, do I feel capable, am I willing to take the risk, do I have all four dimensions equally developed, and if so, how?

But it is not only these positive elements that play a role. What don’t I like, what don’t I know, what are my limits, what fears do I have, what do I have? It is important to identify these negative aspects and name them. We Christians have a tendency to idealise reality, and that is dangerous. We must start from reality: from what attracts and repels me, from what I know and what I don’t know, from my possibilities and limitations, from my options and my fears. If I know my faults (limits, fears, ignorance…) it will be easier for me to understand others. This leads us, in addition to knowing ourselves, to be less critical of others and more tolerant.

These more negative elements are often neglected. For example, there are couples who, after a long relationship, break up at the last moment because they have forgotten this. These aspects should not be denied, but loved and accepted. Those who have no fears, no limitations, no ignorance and nothing to dislike, are clearly at risk, because what is important is reality and not just my expectations or illusions. To prevent anyone from being left in the lurch and burnt out, it is necessary to be aware of this.

Vocational complementarity and capacity for change

Having done this double analysis, we still have two more steps to take: discovering complementarity and our capacity for change.

The first thing is to see the complementarity in ourselves, instead of criticising others. The ideal is balance and complementarity. This happens in the group. One would like others to be like me, but the community teaches that this is not the case, that others want and value differently, and this is precisely the richness of the community.

“It is a fact that the body, being one, has many members, but the members, though many, are one body. For so also is Christ… And again, the body is not all one organ, but many. Even if the foot says, ‘Since I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it does not cease to belong to the body. And even if the ear says: ‘As I am not an eye, I am not of the body’, it does not cease to be so. If the whole body were an eye, how could it hear; if the whole body were hearing, how could it smell? But, in fact, God established in the body each of the organs as he willed. If they were all the same organ, what body would that be? But no, in fact there are many organs and one body.

Moreover, the eye cannot say to the hand: ‘I have no need of you’, nor the head to the feet: ‘I have no need of you’. On the contrary, the limbs that seem to us to be of lesser status are the most indispensable, and those that seem to us to be less worthy we dress with more care. The less presentable we treat with more care, the presentable does not need it.

Moreover, God combined the parts of the body, taking greater care of what was of less value, so that there would be no divisions in the body and the members would care equally for one another. Thus, when one organ suffers, all suffer with it; when one is well treated, all rejoice with it.

But you are the body of Christ, and each of you is a member in his own part”.

(1 Cor 12:12-27)

The community needs everyone, because we are different and this is good. “When two fully agree, one does not think”. What I see is not seen by the other and vice versa. This allows us to progress. One takes risks in one thing and the other in another. One likes something that the other doesn’t like and we are good for different things…

In me, as in the group, the poles are complementary:

- Taste and risk go hand in hand, as I take more risks the more I like it and the more I like it the more I get into it. And the same goes for the awareness of my limits and knowing more. And with each of the elements in relation to the others.

- When I see my strengths and weaknesses in myself, I better understand my brother who also has his strengths and weaknesses.

- It must be realised that defects and qualities are interchangeable. The more perfect one often harms coexistence, for example. Complementarity exists in all senses. We are all good for something. Mercy comes from looking at oneself in one’s weakness. No quality is always valid, and no defect is always valid.

- In a group there are multiple qualities and defects which are precisely the richness of the community. The cross and the possibility of community is diversity, being different. Those who bother us are our richness, because normally those who bother us most indicate what we lack the most.

José Antonio García writes in his book “Hogar y taller” that four roles are needed in every community. It is not that these roles are always adaptable to specific people, but in specific situations they can vary.

There is always a need for the prophet, the one who denounces, protests, annoys, picks on others and the group. He is the one who brings out the weak aspects of the people and the group. The one who is worried about that ideal future that never arrives in the present.

As opposed to the prophet, we need the minstrel, the singer, the one who enjoys the everyday details, the one who always highlights the positive aspects of the group and its members, the one who sees nothing to change but to continue as we are, who perhaps seems to take the progress of the group lightly because we are already doing well. He is not concerned about the future, but about the present.

The doctor is also needed in every community, the one who cares for the wounded, for those who have a hard time, the one who avoids all confrontation and arguments, the one who wants peace and tranquillity in the group, conciliating whatever is needed. He is the mother of the community, who wants everyone who wants to be in the community.

And there is also the need for the rector, the organiser, the one who has authority and coordinates the different aspects of the community.

They are tremendously complementary roles. If there were only prophets, the community would be hell. If there were only minstrels, the group would be stuck. If there were only doctors, there would be no progress either. If there were only organisers, no one would come up with anything new. But if there is no prophet there is no progress, if there is no minstrel there is no peace, if there is no doctor there is no place for those who are in trouble, if there is no organiser there is no possibility to function. But the prophet cannot be seen with the minstrel who is his opposite, nor the rector with the doctor, nor the doctor with the prophet,… And, in the meantime, they all need each other.

Discovering the need for complementarity allows us to escape from excommunication and to understand the importance of others, especially the one who is most contrary to me. The maximum of community is to see it as a great good fortune to have someone very different at my side, in my community.

But in addition to the step of complementarity, we must be very aware of the possibility and interest of change. We are all capable of change: we can change in tastes, knowledge, aptitudes and capacity for risk. This implies the urgency of a pedagogy, of a way forward in these dimensions. None of us is fit for the community, but we can become one from the community itself. No one is born knowing, but we have to water and work on our community vocation.

How to work in these four dimensions?

In the “I like it”, group experiences are already a way of learning to enjoy. Living together and getting together with those who already form a community. Or by contagion. Or not at all. Maybe it can be a temporary experience.

Advancement in knowledge can be achieved through books, courses, seminars, gospel texts, visiting and getting to know other communities.

Empowerment works by showing everyone that you value them, by listening to them, by taking care of details, by being punctual… Despite the fact that we Christians know we are children of God, many of us feel bad. It is necessary to have a positive theology, highlighting the good, savouring the positive in everyone, not allowing scapegoats, being grateful for what everyone does. We need to realise that we run out of life if we fight against our failures instead of taking advantage of the strengths and qualities we have. The Gospel presents the theme of progressiveness: it speaks to us of goals for which steps are necessary. It is not about wanting to reach the end, but about progressing. We all have many capacities, but we have to find the right pace to develop them.

The capacity for risk has to do with everything that favours faith: prayer, contact with other communities, the strength of our friendship with Jesus… The pedagogy of faith and support has a lot to do with progressiveness in this aspect. But knowing that, in the end, we always have to take a leap into the void.

The vocational dynamic starts from a personal relationship that never ends. The important thing is to live these four dimensions from a personal relationship with Jesus. Here there is a personal call that is not just a head project. It is not just my project, but a call from Jesus. Hence a discernment has to be very prayerful.

Life-long choices are those that are renewed every day. Whoever does not take care of his vocation every day loses it. Every day Jesus, like Peter, asks me: “Do you love me? The point is to keep moving forward. The following of Jesus is what is proper to the Christian and it is necessary to follow him, to move, to progress. Every day we must renew our baptism and our option for Jesus, for the community and for our personal vocation.

At this point I ask myself what Jesus is calling me to do in the points mentioned above: state of life, profession, community life, commitment…

To further deepen

Review your personal vocation. What are the traits that define your community vocation? What are the elements that make it more difficult? How can you work on your own vocation? How can you work on the four aspects of any vocation (I like it, I know it, I feel capable, I take risks)?

You can do something similar with your vocation in other areas of your life. How is your vocation in your work, in your state in life, in your commitment to others? How can you continue to move forward in responding to that vocation, that call that Jesus makes to you? How does all this complement your vocation to the community?

The whole New Testament is written from community for people who were with community. Spend some time rediscovering this New Testament. Understand it as the first community that addresses you. Have your personal prayer time.

Together with the above, choose a reading that has touched you deeply. Pray it, discuss it with Jesus.

Testimony from Pamplona - Iruña (Spain)

I feel that I have taken many steps in the years that I have had the good fortune to be part of the Catechumenate and Discernment in Lurberri (Piarist Presence of Pamplona-Iruña), all of which have brought me to the Fraternity and have forged me as I am today.

There were steps in the clarity of the Gospel when at Easter we celebrated that life reigned again above all; there were steps in the darkness of uncertainty when life decisions did not give the dreamed fruits; there were steps in the fog of fear when academic decisions apparently distanced me from the Piarist life; there were steps in the joy of sharing with others when group life allowed me to open myself to God and to my sisters and brothers to taste that Jesus’ is more if it is shared in fraternity; and there were steps in the sadness of losing a loved one when the longing for life and water in abundance were greater than death and despair.

If I think and pray about the years spent in the Catechumenate and Discernment, I feel that all of them were always guided by the hand of God. He is very gentle, very light, so much so that it seems that He is not there; always present while I was playing in Mikel Gurea from the age of 10 to 14, always attentive to every step I took in my adolescence in Bidean from the age of 15 to 18. Always ready to accompany me with my group and my monitors of the Calasanz Movement, in the shadows of doubts and fears and in the lights of Faith and yeses. And in all those feelings, in all those shadows and lights, the gaze of Jesus was hidden: patient, warm, close, affectionate and soft, waiting for my heart to open a little bit; just enough so that He could enter, embrace me tightly and never let me go again until I took a new step on the path to the Fraternity.

In all these years of life, of growing as a Christian and Piarist, of studying at university and sharing my life with my reference group, full of brilliant experiences, of mistakes, of people and unforgettable moments, of loneliness and passions, there has always remained a clear and deep feeling: I want there to be something more important than myself in my life, I want there to be space for others in my life, I want there to be water in abundance in my life. All these intuitions took shape, became a reality and turned into a dream come true: the day came when I was invited to take a step further, to join the Piarist Fraternity and thus be able to make all these dreams come true, to live as Jesus lived, being water for the thirsty and light for those whose circumstances have distanced them from the softness of life. And just as it happened to me during my first steps in the Calasanz Movement, behind all these great dreams and desires, do you know who was behind them? That same one. Patient, warm, serene and profound.

Kristian Rey Capellín. Pamplona-Iruña School Therapy Fraternity

In tandem with Jesus

At first I thought that the spiritual life was entirely my own endeavour, and that my fatigue and toil were my responsibility alone. And so I gave myself to it day after day, taking upon myself the whole burden of the journey. But the thing was extraordinarily fatiguing. And even I myself noticed something strange about the whole thing, as if I were a person going alone on a tandem and feeling a fatigue that was not proportional to the result obtained. All in all, a unique stress - how long would it have lasted?

But at a certain moment I met Jesus, who simply proposed to me to ride on my tandem. Perhaps I moved him to pity… And naturally I accepted: I rode in front, he behind. A good pair and, obviously, more speed: I was leading the way and he was giving the impulse with remarkable efficiency and less fatigue for me.

But at a certain point he said to me: “What if I were to go in front?” That time too, I agreed, among other things to please him: the one who goes in front enjoys the scenery better. But very soon I realised the proposal and the radical change it meant for my ride. From that moment on, he is the one who chooses the direction, the one who decides where to go and where to pass.

When I was the one leading then I went the way I knew. It was perhaps a boring and predictable route, but it was safe; and it was also an easy route, because I was careful not to go in the wrong direction. But when I let Jesus lead the tandem, he didn’t know where we were going. Among other things, because he is very strange: he often or almost always doesn’t choose the easiest and most comfortable route, and so he decides to take those impassable mountain trails or go down steep slopes, I get nervous and make him understand. But then I find out that it was fine that way. And in this way I have learned to trust him and let him choose the direction to take in life. Also because I see that he knows perfectly well the paths to follow.

At first I thought it was just an alternation of roles, and that sooner or later I would be back in charge of the tandem. In fact, every now and then I am tempted to take back control of my life myself. But he makes me understand that no, it’s all right: he’s in front, keeping me out of the air of the race and guessing the right route; I’m behind, pedalling. In this way, not only do I tire less, but above all I have the certainty that I will never go astray”.

(Amadeo Cencini. “The truth of life”. P. 290)

Elements of any community

Some notes to get you started

There are many forms, rhythms and accents of community. It is not a matter of copying models. For example, contemplative life is notable for the joy of its members, but it is not for everyone.

The important thing is that everyone finds their place. We have a very nice reference in the film “A Place in the World”. Getting to know other communities and models allows and enables us to discover our own paths. It is necessary to start from the model of each one, and to combine it, trying to come up with something new, different from what each one has thought of, where each and every one of us can see ourselves. We have to start from the strengths with which each of us sees ourselves. It must be scary, but seduction overcomes this fear.

What is proper to community is that you move forward in faith, sharing and service. But we never reach the end. We are always moving forward. There are no goals, no bar… that once surpassed, we can rest assured that we have achieved community. Jesus does not ask of us what we cannot do. No one can always love to the extreme. What we give of ourselves is what God allows us, knowing that it is not our merit, but God’s. This is a liberation. This is a liberation. To the extent that we perceive Him, we bear fruit. If we give less, we are “unprofitable servants”. If we don’t realise this, we become anguished with titanic efforts and we will come to nothing.

This is how Bonhöeffer can be understood: “Jesus is the one who is the foundation of the community, the only one who makes it possible and who has brought us together” (“Life in Community”). Or the First Letter to the Corinthians: “Aspire to the better charisms” (1 Cor 12, 31), to the better gifts, and the criterion is love. Community is a gift of the Holy Spirit. It is not a matter of fists and effort.

The criterion of the community is not giving all the money, nor letting it burn…, but love. The most Christian thing is that which involves the most love. The criterion of the community is love, not its ideology, nor its rules, nor the people who compose it.

The community is for normal, simple people, for all Christians in the world. It is not for the chosen ones, we are not weirdos. Community is as fundamental a dimension as prayer or commitment. And it is for everyone. But it is for everyone who takes the Gospel seriously, for whom it is the most important thing. And who discovers that the rest will be given to us in addition.

It is not about having fleeting community experiences, but stable ones. The Church needs stable communities that last. It is not community for young people until they “settle down”. That is not “settling down”, but sitting down themselves.

We have to start from the personal choice

The first thing is to separate what happens to me as an individual from what happens to my group. Each one of us has to see if we feel called to the community and what our concrete community project is. The individual moment is essential. It is not enough for a group to decide to become a community, or for someone to be dragged along by the others. It is necessary to clarify and make a personal choice, to personalise this choice, which is for life.

This clarification involves its concrete steps by integrating in us four levels: head, heart, guts and knees.

The head, the thought, goes very fast (when reading a book, when living together, when getting to know a reality), ahead of the whole body. The guts, the body, my way of being, tends to go at tortoise speed and fights against the head and ideals. The heart, the affectivity, the feeling, has to support the choice to avoid bitterness and unhappiness. The knees, the prayer, the experience of God, have to restrain the head and push the body.

The way is to get to know and try it out little by little. This requires training to harmonise these four elements.

It is also necessary to overcome fear in everyone. Including that of parents who want their children to go to a Christian school, who want them to be good and to join groups, but who do not take it very seriously. Today it is scary to define oneself, to link oneself to others, to commit oneself to a community project that includes the future. But if they are not overcome, if these fears are too great, they impede community.

There are two fundamental elements in the life of every person: work and family, which pull us strongly. If they are not integrated into the community follow-up project, there is an intolerable division. Religious orders resolve these issues with the vows of poverty and celibacy. But in our communities we need to see the appropriate response. As long as the couple’s project is not harmonised with that of the community, there is no future. And something similar can be said about work and the use of money that goes with it.

There are also other themes for later: the review of life, shared discernment, the community of goods, ecclesial insertion, new incorporations, life in common… Little by little, the moment of falling in love with the community will pass into faithful love maintained over time, from “our” community to that of “Jesus for the Kingdom”.

Essential conditions for a community

To establish a community, goodwill and simple desire are not enough. A series of conditions and elements are also needed, which, if they are not present at the outset, must be achieved relatively quickly.

As long as these five challenges are not met, community is not possible:

Vocation

This is the first thing that needs to be clarified. At the beginning, it is often thought that everyone is in tune and on the same level, and that it is enough for us to feel united to Jesus. In reality, it is often the opposite: each one has his or her own expectations (very different from the others) and this is what really unites us. It is only in the end that each of us will discover the strength of Jesus that unites us. Deep down, we want to live a good experience that we think depends on our efforts. And deep down there are psychological contracts, usually unconscious, which have a great influence.

That is why it is necessary to discover the vocation of each member of the group. Vocation is a call from God, perseverance is a gift. The first thing is to see why we have come together and not to be afraid to tell the real reasons. These are motivations that will have to be purified, but this is where to start.

The important thing is that God calls us and accompanies us, and what is secondary is our response. In the face of God’s call, we will move forward in our motivations. But we need to know where we are starting from. It is a matter of distinguishing the main thing from the secondary. The fundamental thing is that God encourages us to do this. The group takes the step when it discovers that God is calling it. The starting point is often friendship… but the central thing is that we want to follow Jesus. “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labour in vain” (Ps 126). If we do not start from this conviction, the community task becomes exhausting. It is reassuring to know that the speed of the community’s progress is what God has allowed us.

In the Fraternity we always speak of a process prior to entry into community, where there is a clarification of one’s own vocation, with the intervention of those accompanying the process and those responsible for the Fraternity. It is a process of discernment where there is already a time of sharing in a group and where the decision must always be a personal one.

In the framework document we have several indications in this sense, presenting also what is the common vocation of all the members and the necessary diversification of the vocations of each one of the persons who form the Fraternity (“The Fraternity of the Pious Schools, nº 13-35”).

Belonging

It must be clear in the Fellowship who is in and who is out. The false myth that anyone can enter the community at any time is not acceptable. This is not the case: boundaries must be defined. It is imperative to indicate the traits of belonging. It is necessary to set clear minimums to which one does not have to return every day, but which become essential elements for belonging to the community. And this is something that is always done, consciously or unconsciously.

Some groups are strong because they make it difficult to belong, others disappear because they are not clear about this.

In the beginning, with the euphoria, minimums are often set so high that they are actually maximums. Membership has to be established at a normal time.

These criteria have to come from everyone and be affordable for everyone, to eliminate the risk of exclusion. These minimums give us the playing field and avoid a lot of discussions. This is what is basic and obligatory. In this way, the different communities present differentiated offers. These criteria must be based on experimentation: it is important to set up provisional criteria and to test them in practice.

A common myth is that there is no need for rules in a community.

In the Fraternity, in the framework document for all Piarists, the features of the common vocation are indicated (The Fraternity of the Pious Schools, no. 14) which, in addition to defining the vocation, mark these basic criteria of belonging.

Identity

Identity is quite different from belonging. What matters here is what unites us and what differentiates us, what we have to agree on as a desire and as a goal. Identity is the goal that is aimed at, but can never be fully achieved.

What is not identity is free ground where each one chooses. This is the Constitutions of religious Orders, it is the style, the general lines, the project. Just as belonging has to be realistic, in identity we have to be audacious, to set strong ideals.

The myth here is to think that we are all equally convinced in the original project. Identity, rather than being revised, is the element of contrast, which must be confronted in order to always move forward.

Religious congregations tend to orient it around the state of life (the vows) and the mission. In the laity, identity tends to go through coordination, sharing of states, tasks… which gives richness and fragility. It is necessary to aspire to a communion with all from the different identities. It is about spirituality and mission. They are not the minimum of belonging, but the ideal goal that is never fulfilled; it is the utopia that pulls us. Identity makes us feel part of the same project, even if at different levels. It is not a law, as the minimums of belonging can be.

In the framework document of the Fraternity there is a chapter, the first one, to present this identity that marks the path we want to live together (The Fraternity of the Pious Schools, nº 1-12). It is about living the Piarist charism, the spirituality of Calasanz updated in our time, the life shared with the religious and those who participate in the Pious Schools, as well as the Piarist mission of the transforming Christian education, directed especially to those who need it most.

The organisation

It is about pointing out how we function, how decisions are made, how we organise ourselves.

The myth here is that we are all equally responsible, that no structure is needed, that things work “by themselves”.

In order to progress, organisation is essential. In any human group there is a leader, a collaborator, a critic and someone who is never listened to. The organisation tries to ensure that everyone has their say. A group that is not organised generates a lot of frustration and ends up disappearing, because it needs a structure, rhythms, tasks and people responsible for making it work.

In Christianity, it is the matter of charisms and ministries. It is not a question of one having to carry everything, nor the technique of the volunteer (who are always the same and end up burning out). It’s about looking at the tasks (formation, prayer, celebration, treasurer, reception, library…) and dividing them up. There are many ways of structuring it. The ideal is for everyone to participate and to bring out the best qualities of each person. One should avoid specialisation, but it is also good to learn something about the task one has to take on. The concrete formula is secondary if the tasks work.

As the Fraternity grows and takes on more mission and responsibility, it needs more organisation to ensure that everything runs smoothly.

The framework document of the Fraternity and the Statutes of each of the Fraternities define how each small community, the whole Fraternity, the link with the General Fraternity, the relationship with the Pious Schools, the way of electing the persons with responsibilities of animation, the economic functioning, etc. will be run. In the framework document we also have a chapter in this sense (The Fraternity of the Pious Schools, nº 39-60).

Love

The myth is that we all love each other and are brothers and sisters without any differences arising.

Being brothers and sisters comes from being children of the same Father. It is a fact, a fact of faith.

But, at the same time, the other fact is that we have to work to make this real. We have to unravel with whom I get on well, with whom I get on well, with whom I get on well and with whom I get on badly. There is a call to fraternity and to love each other, but just as each one of us is. We have to love each other, not because others change in the way I want them to, but because we accept the right of our brothers to be different.

To do this, the first step is to recognise our relationships honestly. It is about being aware of our limitations and moving forward. We must recognise that the other person has every right to be different from me. And not to disqualify them for it. We must start from the situation we are in and not try to cover up what is unpleasant: only by acknowledging reality can we move forward. The task is to harmonise difference into unity, to acquire the ability to communicate, to be honest[17] …

17 Here the book by Elkin Arango, “El camino comunitario”, may be of great interest. Verbo Divino, 1990.

These five challenges (vocation, belonging, identity, organisation and love) must receive an adequate and growing response. Otherwise no real community will be possible.

Some useful hints

There are also some indications that are useful and key in the community that is born. These are four conditions: internal and external, initial and future, which strongly condition the nascent community.

- The precondition is to have had a good catechumenate in which faith has been personalised, where faith is a priority in the life of each person. The centre is Jesus. If this fails, community is not yet possible and it will be necessary to carry out a catechumenate that will lead us to the discovery of Jesus in our life and to the response to this love in our way of life.

- The internal condition is that the community has a sufficient organisation and rhythm: clear meeting days, the topics to be discussed, who is in charge of the different tasks… Finding a rhythm that suits all of us. If this minimum level of organisation is not achieved, all members end up wasting time and becoming demoralised.

- The external condition is a good ecclesial insertion. No community can survive alone. The community is always very fragile and weak. The Church, on the other hand, is a very large and solid space, which has all the charismas (e.g. theologians). However, the warmth of the small community is not comparable to that of the large Church. The Church lacks life and has solidity: it is the mutual contributions that we can offer. It is the complementarity of the big church and the small communities. The linking of communities and ecclesial insertion is necessary. When the community goes through difficult times, the big church gives stability and services that are always stable; and the closeness and demands of the small communities are the richness of the big church. For example, in a religious congregation there is room for communities of two members, because they know they are part of a larger project, something unthinkable in other types of communities. The Piarist Fraternity has a clear ecclesial insertion through the Pious Schools, which allows it a wide framework of action and at the same time a very consistent one.

- The future condition is to live the community polarised towards the service of the poor. The unity of the community comes from outside: from Jesus and the work for the cause of the Kingdom. This task unites more than trying to resolve differences directly. Fraternity is a gift that comes to us to a greater degree if what unites us is the mission to the outside, to the least.

So we have these four conditions to guide the implementation and life of the Fraternity:

PRECONDITION: a good catechumenate

INTERNAL CONDITION: organisation

FUTURE CONDITION: service to the poor

EXTERNAL CONDITION: ecclesial insertion

Open letter to those of you who make up the Pious Schools of the 1st Assembly of the General Fraternity

Dear Piarist religious, members of the Piarist Fraternity, people who share the Piarist mission, collaborators:

During the last week of July, we celebrated in Peralta de la Sal, under the presidency of Fr. General, the 1st Assembly of the General Fraternity and the Meeting of those responsible for Charismatic Integration and Shared Mission of the Order.

The first thing we want to tell you is our joy and happiness. It has been a few days of intense reflection, work and, also, of a deep experience of communion. During these days we have learned more about the efforts that many Piarist religious and lay people are making around the world to strengthen the Piarist subject that carries out our mission, wherever the Spirit has called us.

We have noted with joy that thousands of people, religious, lay men and women, have received from God the gift and the task of following Jesus Christ by continuing the Mission of Joseph Calasanz, each one according to their specific vocation. Many people do it together with the Piarist religious, from their belonging to one of the nine Piarist Fraternities that exist today in as many demarcations of the Order. Others do it from their desire to share the Piarist mission and to collaborate in various platforms of formal and non-formal education, according to the modalities of the Institutional Project of the Laity, which the Order launched eighteen years ago.

We find with joy, that the testimony of faith and perseverance that so many Piarist religious have given throughout history, has given abundant and diverse fruit throughout the world. In addition to the necessary Piarist religious vocations, a multitude of Piarist vocations have arisen in people who wish to be followers of Calasanz from their own lay vocation.

In this way, we discover that the Pious Schools, which assume the task entrusted by God and the Church to our founder, are today made up of a centenary Order that continues to recreate itself in new places, together with a Fraternity that, while still taking its first steps, wants to contribute the best of itself to join forces wherever necessary, as well as many people who share the mission and collaborate with us in what is common to all: the conviction that we meet the same God in the children, especially in those most in need, when we become their instruments to bring them love and a future. This communion, which has been fostered by every General Chapter since the Council, is undoubtedly God’s grace, but it has been forged tenaciously over the years by many religious, lay men and women who have made it their own vocation.

After this First Assembly, the General Council of the Fraternity elected, together with the General Secretariat for Charismatic Integration and Shared Mission, assumes for the next six years the task of deepening the road travelled. To this end, it must be formed as a team that can accompany the Fraternities that are emerging, as well as being a valid interlocutor of the General Congregation and the General Secretariats in order to promote our common project.

In this sense, there are several areas where this collaboration is necessary and can be very fruitful: it is necessary to continue spreading the knowledge of the options of the Order and its Institutional Project of the Laity among all religious and lay people interested in sharing our mission. It is necessary to design and develop together formation processes in the key of Piarist identity for religious and lay people in which the keys of this common project clearly appear.

The proposal to jointly define, where possible, Piarist Presence Projects in which the role of the religious communities, the Fraternity, the Shared Mission teams and the various Mission platforms is made explicit in a coherent way, could be a way of putting into practice the proposed desires for communion.

In these projects of Piarist presence, it must be an unavoidable reference the horizon of forming in all the places where we are present, a Piarist Christian Community, with the religious communities and the Fraternity at the heart of it, where there is room for all the people who want to share and celebrate their faith in the Eucharist, where the pastoral processes, especially of the Calasanz Movement, see their natural outlet, where young people who are considering a religious vocation and belonging to the Fraternity can have a space where they can grow vocationally, where the Piarist ministries necessary for the best development of our mission can be raised…

In this week of meeting we have also verified the scope of the Itaka-Escolapios Foundation as a concrete realization of the institutional Shared Mission between the Order and the Fraternity. We are convinced that this platform is bearing good fruit in our shared endeavour to grow the Piarist presence and mission throughout the world. In the same way, we note the importance of the implementation of the Calasanz Movement in many places. This proposal of the Order is allowing the configuration of complete pastoral processes that lead to the Fraternity and Piarist religious life, offering children, young people and adults an insertion in the Church with a Piarist identity.

To continue building these Pious Schools in a spirit of communion is the task of all of us. This 1st Assembly of the General Fraternity has been a significant step forward, but it is necessary to continue working and committing ourselves to this exciting project.

We do not wish to end without thanking the Provisional General Council for its work and dedication over the last few years, which, among other achievements, has made the holding of this 1st Assembly possible.

We place our dreams in God’s hands and we pray that Calasanz will continue to show us the way and that Mary, our Mother, will always accompany and protect us. So be it.

Peralta de la Sal, 31 July 2014. Participants in the 1st Assembly of the General Fraternity and Meeting on Shared Mission and Charismatic Integration

Wisdom of friendship

A beautiful Arab legend says that two friends were travelling through the desert and at a certain point in their journey they had an argument.

The other, offended, with nothing to say, wrote in the sand: “today, my best friend slapped me in the face”.

They moved on and came to an oasis where they resolved to bathe. The one who had been slapped and hurt began to drown and was saved by his friend. When he recovered he took a stiletto and wrote on a stone: “Today, my best friend saved my life”.

Intrigued, the friend asked: “Why is it that after I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now you write on a stone?

Smiling, the other friend replied: “When a great friend offends us, we should write it in the sand where the wind of forgetfulness and forgiveness will erase it and extinguish it; on the other hand, when something great happens to us, we should engrave it in the stone of the heart’s memory where no wind in the whole world will be able to erase it.

Diversity of vocations in the common vocation

We have already noted in the previous chapter the importance of vocation for the implementation and life of the Fraternity. It is worthwhile now to consider this distinction between the common vocation and the particular vocation of each member of the community.

Every Christian has a call to follow Jesus: it is a vocation shared with all Christians in the world.

The way to follow Jesus is different according to the environment in which one is living, according to the discoveries and choices that one is making. Thus, all the members of the Fraternity of the Pious Schools see in Calasanz and in the life of the Piarists the framework in which to live their faith and the following of Jesus. The people who form the Fraternity have a common vocation: to live the charism of Calasanz, to read the Gospel from Jesus Master and from the Piarist intuitions, to collaborate in the construction of the Kingdom of God through the transforming Christian education, to celebrate and live the faith in the Piarist environments… We are now talking about the common vocation of the Piarist Fraternity.

In the Fraternity there are religious, priests, married couples and singles, educators and professionals in other fields, people more or less sensitive to the different ways of incarnating the Piarist life and mission… This is what we call vocational diversification that encourages each person to continue discovering their vocation within the Fraternity and that enriches the whole Fraternity with this variety of personal charisms, styles, vocations…

In the Fraternity we help to discern these more particular vocations, in terms of vocational culture, with proposals for personal and community advancement, with concrete paths that open vocational perspectives, such as sending to other places, Piarist commissions and ministries, accompaniment in personal growth, the reference of different Piarist vocations in the same Fraternity (priesthood, consecrated life, marriage, fatherhood and motherhood, professional dedications, joint communities of religious and lay people…).

The mission of the Fraternity is to respond to the calls of our society, especially those of the most vulnerable. And also to advance each of its members in the following of Jesus, in their availability to whatever God may call them, in co-responsibility with the tasks inside and outside the Fraternity, in persevering fidelity to God’s will at every moment of life.

There will be many initiatives that can help in this ongoing discernment of one’s vocation, both common and particular, by means of formation activities, retreats and spiritual exercises, personal and community prayer, life reviews, personal projects shared in the small community, personal accompaniment, proposals made by the small community and the Fraternity and the Order, steps in the capacity for dedication and availability, etc.

An important moment in this sense is the Definitive Option for the Fraternity, where after a few years of experience and with the necessary contrast of the community and its animators, each person discerns this vocation forever for the Fraternity, which can be complemented by other vocational aspects in other areas of personal life, family, work, dedication?

Testimony from the Meeting of Betania and Emmaus Fraternities 2015

Dreaming vocational culture together

The Piarist Fraternities of Emmaus and Bethany want to contribute to the promotion of a shared and coherent Christian and Piarist vocational culture that allows each person and community to discover, choose and grow in their personal and common vocation.

We are committed to…

1. Work and care for the different calls, making known the plurality of vocational proposals and generating options for everyone so that more and more people feel called and each one can grow in their vocation. We will especially seek to bring out the spark that each young person has, offering them stimulating models of dedication so that they may discover the call to seek their greatest happiness.

2. To be concerned about the emergence of all vocations, making individualised proposals and making more and better use of the platforms we have (schools, Itaka, Calasanz Movement, parishes, projects…).

3. Be clear and transparent in what we want to say, adapting ourselves to the different audiences and using the most appropriate languages and forms of communication for each one of them.

4. To call more by example, by witness and by signs that make us personally and institutionally recognisable in our Piarist identity.

5. Welcoming people with affection, leaving no one out of the project. Above all, to care for and pamper the processes of the people who come after us.

6. Spread the spirit of searching for one’s own vocation at every moment, living in the key of availability and allowing ourselves to be guided with docility and evangelical trust by what the brothers and sisters see in me. We will encourage sharing and rediscovering “my place in the Pious School” so that, once discerned, we can communicate it to the fraternity and to the Order in a spirit of service.

7. To be attentive to the reality that surrounds us in order to respond to the new scholastic, ecclesial and social needs, asking for help if necessary and training ourselves in what we are entrusted with.

8. Encourage participation in fraternal, local and provincial meetings, transmitting the importance of these meetings in creating bonds, increasing communion, and making us feel part of the Pious School.

9. To love one another and to show that we love one another. To live with joy and to make it flow strongly in the Eucharist, prayers and celebrations in such a way that it reaches every member of the Christian community.

10. Make celebrations more open, careful and participatory according to the recipients, the events and the liturgical moments. To live the Eucharist as the centre of Piarist fraternity and presence.

Do what you can

A huge fire broke out in the jungle and all the animals set out to put it out. They were in danger of being burned there if they did not put it out.

The camels filled their bellies with water, the giraffes collected litres of water in their mouths… and so did all the animals.

A herd of elephants was gushing water from the lake with their big trunks. Amazed, the elephant leader saw a little bird hovering in the lake: “What are you doing here?

The little bird replied: “I’m getting my feathers wet and then I’ll fly over the fire to throw a few drops of water”.

“And you think that’s how you’re going to put out the fire,” replied the elephant.

I don’t know,” replied the little bird, “but I do what I can.

Caring for the Fraternity as a living body

The Fraternity is “a body inhabited” by God himself, who wants to depend on us, on the community, to make himself more present in the midst of our world.

In that community, we are all needed. We recall, once again, the beautiful parable of St. Paul:

Just as the body has many members, and yet is one, and these members, though many, are but one body, so it is with Christ…

The body is not made up of one limb but of many. If the foot were to say: “Since I am not a hand, I am not part of the body”, would it not therefore remain part of it? And if the ear were to say: “Since I am not an eye, I am not part of the body”, would it cease to be part of it? If the whole body were an eye, where would the ear be? And if the whole body were hearing, where would smell be?

But God has arranged each of the members in the body according to an appointed plan. For if they were all one member, where would the body be? Indeed, there are many members, but the body is one.

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”, nor the head to the feet, “I have no need of you”. Moreover, the members of the body that we consider weaker are also needed, and those that we consider less decorous are the ones we treat more decorously. Thus our less worthy members are treated with greater respect, since the others do not need to be treated that way. But God arranged the body, giving greater honour to the members that need it most, so that there should be no divisions in the body, but that all the members should be mutually supportive. One member suffers? all the others suffer with it. All the others suffer with him. One member is exalted? All the others share in his joy.

You are the Body of Christ, and each of you in particular, members of that Body.

(1 Cor 12:12-27)

It is good for us to remember a thousand times that the different organs are essential for the functioning of the body, that each one has a function for the common good, that it is the joint work that allows the body to move forward, that no one can believe himself to be more than the others, that no one can fail to fulfil his task… and that the one who gives life to the body is the presence of Jesus Himself. It is a great discovery to know that it is He who gives life to each one of us and to the community, and it is a great responsibility to assume each one of us what is entrusted to us for the good of the body of Christ.

It will be the task of the community to discover the role of each member in it, to value each brother, to be grateful for his contribution, to give each of us as much as we can, to rejoice in the good of our companions and to empathise with them in their moments of difficulty… for the good of all.

This beautiful parable about the ego can be useful:

My hand, my right hand, has written many poems that I compose. And my left hand has not written any poems. But my right hand does not think: “Left hand, you are good for nothing”. My right hand has no superiority complex and is therefore very happy. And my left hand has no inferiority complex. So in my hands there is a kind of wisdom known as non-discrimination.

I remember one day I was pounding a nail… My right hand was not very steady and instead of hitting the nail I hit my finger. I put the hammer down so that my right hand would take care of my left hand very lovingly, like taking care of itself. However, it doesn’t say: “Left hand, you know that I, the right hand, have taken care of you, you have to remember that and you have to return that favour to me in the future”. They don’t think like that! And my left hand does not say: “Right hand, you have hurt me so much, give me the hammer, I want justice”, because they both know that they are united and equal.[18]

18 Thich Nhat Hanh, “Ego” that can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ORzDVGhusY

We can enrich this comparison by thinking not only of individual organs but of the systems that give life to a human being. A life is not the sum of a series of organs, but the harmonious functioning of many systems:

- The skeletal system, with its hundreds of bones, which give structure and support to the whole body. The Fraternity also needs this skeleton on which to place all the other elements.

- The digestive system that nourishes every cell, every organ. And the community has to take care of the personal nourishment of each of its members.

- The respiratory system that carries the air necessary for life, just as the community needs the air of the Spirit, of the Word, of the Fraternity?

- The circulatory system that carries the blood with the necessary oxygen and nourishment to every part of the body. And the community must have something similar so that fraternity reaches everyone.

- The muscular system that allows movement, action, the carrying out of what the body desires. And the Fraternity must have muscle to move and carry out the mission.

- The reproductive system that creates new life, that summons new members, just as the Fraternity is to create new life and new brothers and sisters.

- The excretory system that eliminates toxins and everything that we do not need and that is not good for us, just as the community needs to free itself from what intoxicates us.

- The nervous system, in charge of capturing reality and processing it into thought and action, into meaning. And the Fraternity must have its vision, its narrative, its lines of action.

- The lymphatic and hormonal system that knows how to respond automatically to the different situations that the body experiences in its development and at critical moments. This can help us to see what our usual community reactions are like and what we need to improve.

It may be interesting to take advantage of this analogy of systems to check our community in the different systems and areas that we need for life and mission to grow. And, of course, to be very aware of the need for each organ, of the need for the coordinated work of all, of the complementarity with which the different elements of the body fit together… and of the Fraternity!

Understanding the Fraternity as a living body, as an ecosystem that needs everyone, helps us to understand each other better, to get the best out of each other, to have the full life that gives the presence of Jesus animating every organ and area while making himself present through the Fraternity as a whole.

Testimony from Governador Valadares - Brazil

My name is Márcio Furbino de Oliveira, I am from Governador Valadares, I am 44 years old, married to Elaine and I have two children, Luiza and Mateus.

I have always participated in the Parish of Our Lady of Grace, in a small community called “Good Shepherd”, where I was catechised and initiated into the Christian faith. My parish is guided by the Piarist Fathers, that is to say, I have always had contact with them.

In 2009, together with other brothers, we were invited to a meeting in the community of the Fathers. We were curious to see what it was all about. We thought it would be just another meeting that the Piarist Fathers had invented for us.

Together with my wife I went to that meeting which, in principle, seemed very good. At that time Fr Alberto (who invited us), Fr Enivaldo, Fr Carmelo and Fr Fernando, a great promoter of the Fraternity in Valadares and in Brazil, were in Valadares.

We spent a long time without understanding what the Piarists wanted from us, but that style of praying, of sharing life and, above all, of forming us, was filling us with joy and opening new horizons. I ended up understanding better what it is to be Catholic and Christian.

Knowing the story of our holy founder, Saint Joseph Calasanz, I became passionate about his intuitions and ideals. The Fraternity gave meaning to my life as a Christian and helped me to live my faith better and with quality.

After eight years of journey in the Fraternity, I can say with peace of mind that this is my way of life, which fills the spaces that were left empty in my pastoral life. I feel I belong to the Piarist Order and I want to contribute with my talents, which God gives us, so that the dream of St. Joseph Calasanz may always be a reality: to evangelise children and young people, preferably the poor.

Through the Fraternity, I had the privilege of knowing the homeland of St. Joseph Calasanz, Peralta de la Sal, when I participated in the first Council of the Fraternity of the Order, together with my sisters Izabel, and Cidinha from Belo Horizonte. It was a time of great joy and many discoveries.

Today I continue to collaborate in the small Good Shepherd community, a community that I love, and I collaborate in the parish, always in the liturgy and in catechesis. And I say that the Fraternity is for me a place of sharing, of living the faith and a place where I am nourished. I feel privileged to be in the Piarist mission, especially in the Piarist Fraternity.

It pays to be a Piarist!

Calasanz unites us!

Márcio Furbino de Oliveira, Fraternidade de Valadares - Brazil

The rebellion of things

When I look at the sky and see that things are not working, I think something is wrong. We look for explanations everywhere… We blame America or Russia, priests or atheists, a party or a union… those who don’t think like me… but what if, deep down, the explanation goes deeper?

This world is like a big clock. And it gives the impression that one of its gears is not working. That’s why it is not telling the time correctly. And to explain it I have forged a dream, or rather a nightmare, and I apologise for narrating it as it was in its chaos of images.

FIRST VISION

The river said to the fountain: “No, I have no need of you”. And the river closed its mouth. It dried up and soon there was not enough water left for it to cry.

The cherry branch said to the cherry tree: “No, I don’t need your sap”. The branch closed its mouth and dried up. The rosebush said to the sun: “No, I have no need of your light”. And the rosebush bore nothing but thorns. The gardener cut it down and made a fire in the clearing.

This was not yet very serious, and the face of the world had not changed. But the cases of those who refused to receive multiplied. Animals refused to drink and men refused to eat. The baby would not take its mother’s breast. The worker would not use the machine and even refused to take his tool. The earth said to the sun: “Lie down and may I never see you again”. The man said to God: “I have no more need of you”, and then he said the same to his brother. And he found himself isolated, sad, condemned to die. Mankind dried up on the blackened earth. And the universe itself was nothing but a vast dunghill.

SECOND VISION

It started with the bread revolution. Bread said to man: “I don’t want you to eat me any more. I’d rather stay bread than feed you”. The man, dumbfounded, gave the bread five minutes to explain itself. The bread picked itself up on the table and said: “I am tired of serving you; I rebel. I am free, like you, to say yes or no… and I say no”.

And the vegetables, and the meat and the sun and the air, and the water and the wine, refused to let themselves be eaten or drunk. Things were taken from men and tools fell from their hands. Each thing said no in its own way. And the men followed the movement. Man said no to his brother. There was nothing but NO on earth; NO, NO… The earth resounded with the din of those NOs. The NOs were answered in formidable echoes. The rebellion was unanimous. It was an indescribable unleashing of NO. From the refusal of the minimum of atoms, to the gigantic refusal of stars and constellations. The stone refused to fall and the moon refused to shine. The stars lost their ability to rotate, the sun no longer shone and the plants dried up in the meadows. The wise men lost their heads and the president of the republic lost his word, each one was against his own law. Everything was denied. Humanity said no to God. Soon everything decayed and there was nothing left on earth but a huge dunghill.

I am the first to laugh at my dreams, but I like to interpret them. The clock is broken when each gear wants to suffice itself and says no.

God has not given freedom to things and each follows its own law. The apple always falls and the rose bush keeps on giving roses and the sun never sets. And if in my nightmare I gave freedom to things, it was to better teach men their own inconsistencies. Well, man is free, man is capable of denying himself… and he never ends up trampling on his law, breaking his heart and sabotaging creation.

This is a dream, but…

… and if things obeyed their law as you obey yours, what would happen?

… and if the baker, the farmer, the stockbreeder… the bricklayer or the electrician… all those - thousands of people - who make it possible for you to live were to obey their law as you obey yours, could you be free?

… and if, on the other hand, each man were to fulfil his own law, and self-improvement, outstretched hands, friendship were to replace laziness, rancour and self-absorption? would not the new earth, the truly free man and life be a hymn of praise to the Creator?

Stages in the Fraternity and Definitive Option

It is worth pausing for a moment to think about the stages through which a Fraternity and each of its members pass.

At its birth, the Fraternity experiences the adventure of beginning, of starting a story, of being the protagonists of something new, of inventing… and all of this is, at the same time, something attractive and exciting and something that raises many questions and doubts about what to do in each case.

When some time passes and new members join the Fraternity, the path, the way of acting, the community style… become clearer, which makes community life much easier. And, at the same time, some aspects are questioned by new brothers and sisters: it could work differently.

This manifests itself in day-to-day life and also in concrete situations: in assemblies, in the renewal of councils, in certain decisions that have to be taken… This, which serves to keep the Fraternity alive, can also create some tensions.

Also the initial enthusiasm of the people, with the passage of time, has to become a sustained fidelity that purifies the motivations to remain in the following of Jesus. It is not unusual for some people to leave because they feel disappointed or do not respond to the community’s needs. It will be necessary in the Fraternity to put in place some initiatives that help to continue to grow personally, to maintain joyful perseverance and also in the capacity to bring together and inspire everyone.

This process of the Fraternity is linked to and mutually influenced by the process undergone by each of the people who make up the community. Jean Vanier’s way of presenting this possible evolution is interesting and very suggestive when he speaks of four crises, starting with the figure of Peter:

- The first crisis, and less difficult, is when the person enters the community and renounces some aspects of family, work, home, use of money…

- The second crisis comes when we discover that the community is not as perfect as we thought, that it has its flaws: Peter must accept that Jesus is not a Messiah full of power.

- The third is when one feels little understood and valued by the community, esteemed less: Peter abandons and disowns Jesus when he announces his demotion to death.

- The fourth and most painful crisis is when one feels disappointed in oneself, dominated by frustrations and jealousy: Peter realises that Jesus was right about him and weeps bitterly.

These moments of crisis, when overcome, help to purify one’s own Piarist community vocation, to relativise criteria and expectations that served at some point, to focus on what the Lord is proposing to us every day through the Fraternity and the situations that arise.

It will be important to have in the Fraternity some people (the animators of each community, the Council, the religious of the Fraternity, people with this personal charism) and some mechanisms that can help in this process of realism and fidelity.

In these stages of the Fraternity and of each member, it will be essential to have sufficient knowledge, with the support that can be received from other people and communities, of some actions that can help (formative material, retreats, accompaniment, sharing of life, fraternal correction, attractive proposals, etc.).

The mobility of people from one small community to another helps to a great extent to get out of the comfort zone, to reposition oneself in the fundamental choices of the vocation to the fraternity, to revitalise each community with the novelty of the change of members, to make concrete changes in the community dynamics, to grow in the feeling of Fraternity beyond each small community…

This mobility, which has to be well cared for and managed by the Council and Fraternity leaders, is a sign of maturity for individuals and groups, as well as an excellent tool to keep the Fraternity more alive.

Renewals of the pledge

We can pause at the periodic renewal of the promise of entry into the Fraternity, as a moment to stop and relive the first vocation, to introduce the necessary changes, to continue to support the brothers and the Fraternity, to suggest the relevant modifications in the community’s progress, to re-read and pray the documents that define us, to analyse our personal journey…

In each renewal, it is necessary to compare oneself, at least, with the features of the common vocation (The Fraternity of the Pious Schools”, nº 14) that configure the brothers and sisters of the Fraternity:

1. to deepen their Christian vocation and their mission as members of the People of God;

2. to know more about the person of Jesus and the Word of God;

3. to advance in a greater knowledge of the person and work of Calasanz;

4. pray personally;

5. participate in the weekly Eucharist, if possible in the Piarist Christian Community;

6. to make time available free of charge each week for the service of others;

7. share financially for the Piarist mission and internal needs;

8. to collaborate in the construction of the Pious Schools, especially in the consolidation of all Piarist vocations and their mission.

9. actively participate in the small community, understood as a community of reference, where prayer, life and formation are shared…;

10. cultivate a sense of community and links with the other groups in the Fraternity;

11. take part in meetings of the Fraternity and of the Pious Schools, organised to promote fraternal fellowship, formation or the Piarist mission;

12. to promote the integration of the work, to which they belong, into the fabric of the country, the Piarist Demarcation, the Community and the local Church;

13. to take on the Piarist mission as their own;

14. to animate the Piarist Christian Community.

15. feel part of the Pious Schools and, as such, co-responsible for them.

Renewal is also a time when the Fraternity Council, the animators of the small communities and all the members must intervene to help each person to be more faithful to the Fraternity by means of support, correction or even discernment about its continuity.

The revision of the personal project and its transformation from the plan of each one to the response to the Lord’s project manifested in the interior impulses, in the demands of the community brothers and sisters, in the permanent discernment, will be an element to take care of.

It is also an opportunity to make the Definitive Option for the Fraternity as a new step in one’s life, after the initial catechumenate and the years already lived in the community.

Towards the Definitive Choice

During the first years in the Fraternity, the promise is temporary and, after the period established in each case[19] , with sufficient personal and Fraternity discernment, the Definitive Option for the Fraternity is made, with a written and signed record.

19 Normally the time limit is two or three years of life in the Fraternity. A maximum period of around seven years is also usually indicated, when the temporary pledge must become definitive.

This promise for ever is a step forward in personal life and also in the life of the Fraternity. For the individual, it means starting a new stage, without looking back (Lk 9, 62). For the Fraternity, it means knowing who can be counted on permanently.

The preparation of this step is a help for the one who takes it and also for the whole Fraternity every time a sister or brother promises to follow Jesus forever in the Piarist Fraternity because it challenges everyone and revives the Option of each one.

It must be a Definitive Option that covers a certain itinerary where, in addition to the years already lived in Fraternity, the small community is involved in accompanying the person, those in charge of the Fraternity participate and there are especially careful moments of reflection, prayer, discernment, and perhaps also individualised proposals?

It may be a time to have some personal accompaniment, an interview with the Fraternity Council and whatever mediations are possible and convenient.

There should be a written request for such an Option, which the Council will have to accept or delay after hearing the interested party and the persons it deems appropriate.

The celebration, within the framework of the Eucharist, will be fundamental to highlight the centrality of Jesus who is the one who calls and who invites each one of us and the entire Fraternity to follow him in a generous, available and communitarian way.

The Definitive Option offers a very appropriate space for further deepening the particular vocation, which concretises the common vocation to the Fraternity. It can be an opportunity for personal discernment, for proposals from the community, for openness to respond to the calls of our reality…

Testimony from Valencia - Venezuela

Being part of the Piarist Fraternity has been a journey full of joys, challenges, educational, transforming, and all enriched from the light of the Gospel of Jesus of Nazareth and the Piarist style. Now being a member of the Piarist Fraternity from volunteering in the Piarist work has its implications - in all dimensions - of much testimony and commitment, in which being consistent is key, so it will not be easy, but there will be no opportunity to get bored. I share a little with you:

Being a member of the Piarist Fraternity has implied me daily (or almost) to be in several environments, since I work in the Educational Unit Obra Social San José de Calasanz in Valencia - Venezuela-, and as a volunteer I am in the San José de Calasanz Parish, less often in Itaka-Escolapios and the Calasanz Cultural Centre; as you can see, a complex, dynamic and rich Piarist presence. I have found myself at times when I do not distinguish the volunteer work, and when I stop to take a good look, I say to myself: “in any of the environments, I am doing Piarist mission, and so are you, so let’s get to work”. In my case, I work from the Administration of the school, and from the other environments in the logistics, maybe it is not the direct work with the kids, but we worry and take care that nothing is lacking - in pedagogy, pastoral, infrastructure, among others - to our staff, volunteers and catechists, so that this “evangelizing by educating” is effective in all ages, for this Calasanz Movement from the youngest to the youngest.

Being a member of the Piarist Fraternity also implies being available for other tasks in which the community of reference or the Piarist Presence Team indicates you after discernment, which we know will go ahead if you take the lead or accompany us, according to the need.

Participating in the Piarist Fraternity has also meant sharing goods and finances. It is an aspect that we do personally, although we know that it is part of the transition to the Piarist Fraternity, but when we click on the special operations code for bank transfers, we do it with pleasure, with solidarity. We must invest time, skills and money in all the projects here and there (of our demarcation or not), despite the fact that it has become difficult for us because of the difficult situation we are going through at the moment in Venezuela.

Being a member of the Piarist Fraternity makes it clear to me, as the formative itinerary prior to the community says, this is “vocational”, understanding vocational not only for the religious, but also for us lay people, who from our state also live the Piarist charism (mission-community-spirituality) with all its letters, maybe some of us do not live in a roofed community, but we live being a community of life, and life in abundance Piarist.

To conclude, being a member of the Piarist Fraternity has made me discover and recognise myself as a child of God, and in this discovery and recognition I have placed him at the service of those closest to me and also those furthest away, sometimes directly or at other times behind the scenes, but centred on the mission, spirituality and community, as a Piarist School and as a Church.

Raúl Zambrano, Peralta Community. Fraternity of Valencia - Venezuela.

Jesus, we are your hands

Jesus, you have no hands. You have only our hands to build a world where justice dwells.

Jesus, you have no feet. You have only our feet to set freedom and love in motion.

Jesus, you have no lips. You have only our lips to announce the Good News of the poor throughout the world.

Jesus, you have no means. You have only our action to make all men brothers.

Jesus, we are your Gospel, the only Gospel that people can read, if our lives are effective deeds and words.

Pious Schools in fraternity, a horizon that is opening up

“The seventy-two returned and said to him with joy: “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your Name.” He said to them, “…I have given you power to walk on serpents and scorpions…”.

and to overcome all the forces of the enemy; and nothing will be able to harm them.

Rejoice not, however, that the spirits are subject to you; but rather rejoice that their names are written in heaven”.

At that moment Jesus trembled with joy, moved by the Holy Spirit, and said: “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and the prudent and revealed them to the little ones. Yes, Father, for so you have willed it.

(Lk 10:6-21)

In previous chapters we have already indicated how the establishment of the Fraternity introduced a qualitative change in the local Pious Schools. We shall now develop this aspect.

When the Fraternity exists, Piarist life and mission are greatly strengthened, both by the number and the diversity of people who assume this Piarist identity as their own. It is a new Piarist subject that, together with the Order, assumes co-responsibility in the Piarist charism: it is a “new us”.

The members of the Fraternity are Piarist laity (and religious) who assume the Piarist charism from their own vocation and this is an important reinforcement for the local Pious Schools. They are no longer only religious, but also a group of strongly identified people, a constituted and very visible group, with diverse capacities and situations that open more possibilities, with sensitivities that favour a greater connection with the environment.

Thus, for example, a Fraternity present in an educational centre provides a greater Piarist presence that reinforces the work of the religious, offers a wider range of people for the different tasks (think of professions of the members of the Fraternity) and to be a reference (they can be families of the Fraternity, students who have their parents in it, varied ages), they can be new ways of approaching the environment, they can favour the joint work as educators (role of families, alumni, volunteer or professional educators), etc.

Living in the key of Piarist presence

“To educate a child you need the whole tribe” is an observation of every educator who sees the need to unite his task with that of the family, the child’s environment, his friends, the environment in which he moves, the media, the laws… Trying to educate individually is a mission destined to fail.

We are increasingly aware of teamwork, of the need for collaboration between the different educational agents, of the synergies necessary for any efficient work. The greater complexity of our works, the growing demands of our society, the changes in the people responsible for our works, the new situations of the religious communities indicate to us that co-ordinated work is more and more essential.

The Piarists are growing in this awareness and in steps towards a more joint and coordinated work. The individualistic practices where each one is the “owner” of a Piarist plot (be it the classroom, one’s own group, the specific responsibility) are coming to an end and we are moving towards a more communitarian, shared, sustainable action, enriched with the different contributions of all the people who collaborate in some way in the Piarist mission.

In every Piarist place there are, besides the people who drive the life and mission, a series of works: it can be a school, a parish, a social work, a social or cultural centre, some kind of children’s or youth movement, a more or less developed work with families or with the environment, etc.

We call the group of Piarist individuals and communities together with the works they carry out a Piarist presence, which can be local, demarcational or even general. It is a concept included in the Piarist regulations since the General Chapter of 2015:

“Piarist presence is the set of community and apostolic institutions (and the relational platforms that are established in their environment) that constitute and shape the concrete Piarist reality of a place, local, demarcational or general. We will provide our Piarist presences with the appropriate projects and teams for their growth and consolidation”.

(Common Rules, nº 12)

Introducing this key multiplies the possibilities of Piarist life and mission, gaining in the satisfaction of the people and in the efficiency of the work.

Implementing this model of Piarist presence involves growing in community awareness through the constitution of a team of presence which, in each area (local, provincial or general) assumes, with the leadership of one person, a project of presence that gives unity to Piarist life (religious communities, the Fraternity, other people and teams that collaborate) and to the Piarist works.

As a rule, each Demarcation, taking into account the guidelines set out in the Order, should establish a project of presence which, later, in each locality, is specified in the common objectives of communities and works, the fundamental actions of each one of them, the initiatives of joint collaboration, the corresponding agenda, the coordination bodies, the evaluation systems… and all that is deemed appropriate for the development of the said project of presence.

This, which may seem complicated at first, later facilitates a common Piarist line, the feeling of co-responsibility of all, joint and sustained work over time, teamwork even at different levels, creativity in our work, greater efficiency and satisfaction?

Working with this key of presence also makes it possible to include other people in the Piarist life and mission, thanks to the shared information, the common spaces that are being created, the joint mentality, the possibility of contribution of the different people and entities, the greater variety of possibilities of cooperation.

It also takes on a new perspective the capacity to call more people to the Piarist project by gaining in diffusion, in richness of content due to the greater participation, in the increase of agents who can develop the Piarist mission.

The Fraternity is being a propelling element of this key of presence that helps it to situate itself in the Piarist life and mission, while at the same time enriching it to a great extent with its contribution.

There are already quite a number of Districts and Fraternities that are developing this key and that can serve as a guide for all of us to move in this direction[20] .

20 Some projects and experiences can be found at https://www.escolapios21.org/presencia/

Piarist presence and reference Piarist community

In any Piarist presence, it should be borne in mind that it is necessary to have the Piarist community of reference.

This was very clear for Calasanz who sees the need for common life of those Piarists who carry out the mission in each place. It is the community, beyond the concrete persons, who gives continuity in time and in the style of action to all Piarist work, to all Piarist presence.

For a long time this reference community has been, and continues to be in many places, the religious community. This is a great richness that visualises the Piarist identity, reinforces it and gives it consistency.

However, the current situation is changing in many Piarist places due to the decrease of religious in each of the works or the loss of influence due to old age or lack of health, the expansion of the mission, the existence of two religious communities in the same presence, the emergence of the Fraternity which is also a Piarist subject of the mission… and all this makes it advisable to update this Piarist community of reference in each presence.

Today we have a wide variety of experiences, some very successful and others not so successful, which are useful to know in order to be aware of the situation each one of us is in.

Today we have negative experiences of presences without a community of reference, which leads to a weakening by leaps and bounds. Sometimes impossible efforts are being asked of religious who cannot respond to the need to be in two populations at the same time. There can also be communities with individualistic behaviour that are not a reference point and depend on the religious who is there at any given moment.

Thank God we have many more positive experiences of living religious communities that are a sign of unity and Piarist identity. We have Fraternities that become with the religious the reference community, sometimes in joint communities that share housing, and that are a very close reference to the people we address. Sometimes there are several reference communities in the same locality, well united and referential. On some occasions the reference community is solely that of the Fraternity with the support of the Province. And we also have many other realities that are giving a very adequate Piarist response.

What seems essential for the functioning of this model of presence is to be able to count on a Piarist community of reference, where the religious and the Fraternity and the people who feel called can live their faith and assume the charismatic leadership of this presence.

Testimony from Bilbao - Spain

How the fraternity is situated in the Piarist presence

In a context of numerical reduction of religious life and priesthood, from time to time the question arises: How many Piarists are there in Bilbao? The answer is usually: 108. The questioner is surprised, because he was probably only thinking of religious Piarists. But there are really 108 people in our city who are followers of Jesus, living the faith in the Piarist community and participating in the charism of Calasanz. There are 108 people who are part of the Piarist Fraternity and who are charismatically integrated in the Order of the Pious Schools. Of these, 4 are Piarist religious and 8 are lay Piarists (charismatic and juridical integration).

Those who make up the Piarist Fraternity receive the Piarist charism, a gift, a gift that the Holy Spirit brings, that gives life and that commits. Accepting the charism means for the Fraternity:

1. Make Jesus present:

This is its main task. To bear witness through personal and community life to Jesus Christ, to his living presence among us. To reflect his face, to be his hands.

The face of Jesus is multifaceted, very rich, inexhaustible. It is up to us as Piarists to “reflect” the face, and the hands, of the Jesus who approaches children (educate), especially the poor, to announce the Kingdom (evangelise-announce) and to live already within it today (transform society).

Through our community life, through our work and mission, through the celebration of our faith, through our spirituality, through our life animated by the Spirit of Jesus, the fraternity shows all people, especially children and young people, the way to Life in Jesus Christ.

2. To assume responsibility for the Piarist mission and its main mediations:

Embracing the Piarist charism also means receiving the very rich heritage of the Piarist works. For a good number of members of the Fraternity, this means actively participating in them, in some cases as professionals and in many others as volunteers. And for all of them it means feeling them as their own, knowing them and, respecting the autonomy of the different areas and teams, contributing as much as possible to the school, to the different projects of Itaka-Escolapios, and in the conformation and promotion of the Piarist Christian Community.

Because it is relatively recent (in our case 25 years) and, above all, because it is a gift of the Spirit that is never completely caught, the discovery of what this new Piarist “subject” means is far from finished. The richness it brings to Piarist life and mission has been proven, but there is still a long way to go. In this journey, the people who act as a “zip”, uniting different areas and realities such as the religious Piarists, the lay Piarists and the different ministries, have a special responsibility. In this same line, new realities are gaining importance that help this Piarist subject to take shape, such as the projects and teams of local and provincial presence and the Itaka-Piarist Foundation.

P. Alberto Prieto , Fraternity Itaka of Emmaus

You have brought us together in community

We thank you, Holy Father, because, through Jesus, you have brought us together in this community.

We want to make Jesus’ way of life our own, listening to his Word, sharing his mission, being his disciples.

Grant, Father, that our group may never close in on itself, to live always for the mission, to proclaim your Kingdom in the service of all people, taking up the cause of the poor.

May Mary always be in our midst, as among the apostles to help us in the task of evangelisation, of mission.

May your Kingdom come, Lord!

Enabling different forms of participation

The implementation and development of the Fraternity greatly facilitates the promotion of other forms of participation in the Pious Schools. Obviously it is not the only way, but it is an element that helps a lot in the beginning and growth of people who want to approach the Piarist world according to their own vocation.

We recall the Piarist framework that helps us to present these possibilities of participation:

Piarist religious life

It is, undoubtedly, a full way of living the Piarist charism, which has allowed from Calasanz until today that the Pious Schools reach all of us. Religious consecration, with its vows and community life, implies the vocation to imitate Jesus, poor, chaste and obedient, who shares life in community. The priestly ordination of most religious is the vocation to be “another Christ” for the community with its ministry of the Word, celebration, communion and charity. The living of the charism initiated by Calasanz is a vocation in favour of the least and the neediest in order to build a better world through transforming Christian education. Life-long membership of the Order is a crystallisation of this rich vocation with the group of brothers, with the existing works, the choices that are made together and the path that we travel together. All this constitutes a full way of living and being part of the Pious Schools.

For centuries the Piarist religious life has lived fully without the presence of the Fraternity and, in that sense, it has not needed it. But always, even during Calasanz’ lifetime, the Pious Schools are unthinkable without close lay people who collaborate and make the Piarist mission possible.

When the Fraternity is alive and strong in a Demarcation, religious life is greatly enriched. First of all, because it has become the “mother” of the Fraternity, because it has been able to gestate and raise a new Piarist life. Also because the “daughter” is not only a task for the Province, but also a gift that makes us live in another dimension and multiplies the possibilities of the mission.

The Fraternity gives hands and heart to Piarist life. It broadens the possibilities of community and of calling to the Piarist harvest. It facilitates tasks that can be undertaken together, religious and laity, each according to their vocation and abilities. The Fraternity opens horizons, brings a new sensitivity for the diversity it entails and becomes a fundamental collaborator of the Demarcation.

Lay Piarists

The Fraternity, as it grows, is proposing new steps for its members and helping to discern the aspects of particular vocation that make the common vocation of the Fraternity more concrete.

It is not strange that the brothers and sisters of the Fraternity who are living intensely the Piarist charism are asking for a greater link with the Fraternity and with the Order itself! They are asking for a charismatic integration (which already exists in the Fraternity) and also a juridical integration: they are lay Piarists.

This vocation helps the Fraternity by fostering people called to this new step of involvement and also the Order. They are also a reality that unites these two Piarist subjects, Order and Fraternity, with people who participate in both entities, in an analogous way to the religious who participate fully in the Order and also in the Fraternity.

Such a vocation is unthinkable without the existence of a living Fraternity that proposes and accompanies it, together with the Order. Opening the door to this vocation is a courageous step on the part of the Order, the Fraternity and the people who discover it as a call from the Lord.

The Fraternity of the Pious Schools

The Fraternity has to take special care of this way of participating in the Piarist charism, living with intensity its own life, sharing in the small community and in the Fraternity this charism that comes to us from Calasanz, walking together with the Order, working in the Piarist mission from its own vocation and always in availability, making known and calling other people who may be interested in this vocation…

The Piarist Fraternity shares the Piarist charism together with the Order. This means that it assumes the Piarist spirituality, life and mission. It is worth stressing the importance of this and, especially, of the Piarist ministry that the Fraternity as a whole assumes: it is responsible, co-responsible, for the ministry that the Church grants to Calasanz and to the Piarists. This is a great gift… and a great responsibility!

Belonging to the Fraternity can be greatly enriched by joining the Itaka - Piarist International Network if they decide to do so together with the corresponding Demarcation. It is a qualitative step of growth as it is an instrument that multiplies the possibilities of mission, of belonging to the international Piarist world, of internal organisation in connection with other Provinces and Fraternities, of co-responsibility with the Schools, etc.

Shared mission teams

To give shape to the shared mission modality means to organise teams of people who, after a formation process and a personal decision accepted also by the Province, want to live their dedication as mission together with the Piarists.

A Fraternity can help a lot in setting up this form of participation, not only because they are more hands on deck to take this path forward, but also because they can facilitate the beginnings with personal involvement in these teams. For example, some people in the Fraternity can create the initial group so that others have a guaranteed space to start it up.

Having the Fraternity opens up more possibilities to think of shared mission teams of teachers, professional and/or volunteer staff of Piarist works, families, etc.

The Fraternity also makes it possible to invite those who feel called to join the same Fraternity after a period of time in these shared mission teams.

The partners

In the Piarist works there are many and very diverse collaborators who participate in the different activities: educators, volunteers, families, former pupils, partners…

The Fraternity can greatly help to promote this collaboration with new convocations, with the testimony of life, with the training of collaborators in their task, with closeness and signs of gratitude, with initiatives of support at certain times, etc.

By expanding the number of people (no longer just religious), not only do the possibilities of collaboration grow, but it also becomes more institutional and less dependent on the personal relationship that the collaborators may have with a particular religious.

The recipients of the Piarist mission

The centre of the Pious Schools is always the children and young people, the poor. Every time we have a new religious, a new collaborator, a new brother in the Fraternity or in the shared mission teams, those who benefit most are the people we serve.

Having the Fraternity is a great reinforcement, because it is not only a personal collaboration, but also an institutional one, which gives a greater guarantee of solidity and perseverance over time.

A Fraternity is a gift to its members and also to the other ways in which people can participate in the Pious Schools.

Testimony from Bilbao - Spain

The Shared Mission groups are groups of people sent to promote and incarnate the Piarist presence in the different areas of each place.

In our case, in Bilbao, we have three groups, one made up of people who work in the school, one made up of people who work in Itaka-Escolapios and one made up of families from the school.

In the case of the groups of Itaka-Escolapios and the school, those who participate make our professional work a shared mission and we live it in a vocational key. In addition, we want to be the driving force that promotes, from the vocational culture and the call to all those who make up the school and Itaka-Escolapios, the Piarist Christian community as an agent and horizon of the Piarist educational, pastoral and solidarity mission in Bilbao.

On the other hand, there is the Shared Mission group of families, formed by mothers and fathers of the school, who not only participate and collaborate with the school and/or Itaka-Escolapios, but also share the Piarist mission and promote it globally.

I am fortunate to participate in the three teams, and for me it is a great wealth that we have to take care of and continue to promote. Over the last few years we have realised that there are many people who want to be more involved in the Piarist presence in our environment, each one from their own reality (work, family, vocation…).

Some of the riches we have discovered about these groups over time:

- They help personal growth in each of the areas and favour the joint work with people who dream together with the Pious School.

- It has led to the development of materials and the preparation of trainings that we could not have imagined and that have allowed us to continue advancing the mission.

- It has helped to bring more people closer to the Piarist Christian Community, participating in the Eucharist and getting involved in projects that already existed and in the new ones that we have been creating.

- It has enriched the Piarist presence in Bilbao in all its aspects, facilitating the participation of more people and helping each one to feel part of the followers of Jesus in the Calasanz style.

Iratxe Meseguer, Itaka of Emmaus Fraternity

Being united

A farmer’s sons were at loggerheads. Despite his many recommendations, he could not get them to change their attitude with his arguments. He decided that this had to be achieved by practice. He urged them to bring him a bundle of sticks. When they had done so, he first handed them the sticks together and ordered them to break them. Although they made an effort, they could not; then he untied the bundle and gave them the rods one by one. When they could break them easily, he said: “Well then, my children, if you too have harmony, you will be invincible before your enemies, but if you quarrel, you will be easy prey”.

(Aesop)

The Piarist Christian Community

For a long time the religious community was the engine and the reference of the Piarist presence… and it still is in many places. It is evident the importance of a community that gives consistency and support to each of the Piarists, that makes the Piarist mission possible and gives continuity to the work, that becomes a reference for the environment and for the recipients of the mission in each place.

However, in many places this constant in the Piarist history is changing: in some places because of the disappearance of the religious community, in others because it has lost presence due to the many tasks assumed or because of the advanced age of the religious or the assumption of greater responsibilities by lay people… and in all because the participation of lay men and women in the work is demanding, more or less clearly, a greater co-responsibility and visibility.

Especially when the Fraternity emerges and becomes aware of being, together with the Order, a Piarist subject, it becomes necessary to broaden the concept of community of reference so that it also includes the Fraternity and all the people who participate in this Piarist presence.

We are talking about a fundamental change: the Piarist Christian Community is emerging. This includes the religious community, the Fraternity and all the people who want to share their faith and grow in their Piarist identity:

“We will strive to strengthen our presence in each locality by forming the Piarist Christian Community in which the religious, the members of the Piarist Fraternities and all the people who form part of the Piarist presence as a whole can meet to share their faith and grow in their Calasanctian identity”.

(Common Rules, nº 103).

This reality, which is reaching more and more Piarist places, needs to be understood, assumed, loved and cared for. It will be necessary that, first of all, the Province and the Fraternity take steps in this direction.

In those presences where the Piarists are entrusted with a parish or where we have a worship centre, we will have to take steps to integrate ourselves into the network of Piarist parishes[21] with a clear identity, where this Piarist Christian Community has a suitable place. And where there is no such possibility, we will have to find the most appropriate way to offer this much-needed space for the people who promote our presence from this point of view.

21 Document “Red de parroquias escolapias” at http://www.escolapios21.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/190520-Prot.S.206.2019-red-de-parroquias-escolapias-dossier-ESP.pdf and official charter at http://www.escolapios21.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/190520-Prot.S.206.2019-red-de-parroquias-escolapias-ESP.pdf

This Piarist Christian Community must have the Eucharist at its centre, as every community does. And it must have those elements that help personal and community Christian growth, becoming a space of ecclesial insertion for those who feel called to it.

The Piarist presence and the Piarist Christian Community are two interrelated and different realities. This should be made clear: the community is the Piarist believing group that lives its faith, celebrates it, offers it as a reference of life and translates it into Piarist mission in the specific place; the presence (with its coordinator, team and project) is the more organisational and managerial approach where there is room for believers or non-believers, or Christians who live their faith in other communities).

The Piarist Christian Community, formed mainly by the religious community and the Fraternity, is open to those who wish to join: educators, collaborators, families, students, people from the surrounding area… always with a clear Christian and Piarist identity.

In it the different Piarist vocations are visualized, united in Jesus through the charism and mission initiated by Calasanz, it offers a good environment for ecclesial insertion always in communion with the local Church, it presents a living community and very present in the different community areas (religious community, Fraternity, families, groups of the Calasanz Movement… and in the Piarist works of the place) and it is the appropriate place for Christian moments of celebration of the presence (sacraments, sending, entrustments, welcoming, etc.) and to call and welcome children, young people and adults in a Piarist Church with a Piarist face.) and to gather and welcome children, young people and adults in a Church with a Piarist face.

Testimony from Tolosa (Spain)

The proposal of lay pastoral ministry was an unexpected gift. A gift that, to deny it, frightened me. The Pious School was making a long-term commitment to me, and that meant that I also had to make a definitive commitment to the Piarist. It was a time to pray and reflect a lot about it. I asked myself if I was willing to continue on this path that made me so happy, but with a commitment that would give stability to my work in the presence of Tolosa and that linked my present and my future to it. The enthusiasm for the proposal and for the Piarist commitment in my person was mixed with the fear of the responsibility that it entailed. Fear of betting on the long term, of going back to study, of settling my life in this way at a time when nothing else tied me…

Thank God the illusion was stronger and I threw myself into this adventure, or rather I continued in it. I say “continued” because I have been sharing the mission for many years. I have been a part of it since I was 10 years old. First I was a boy in the Calasanz movement, then a monitor and finally a member of the fraternity, which takes care of me and accompanies me in my life and now also in my ministry. Many years of being and feeling Piarist. Years of dreams, adventures and meetings. But suddenly all this took a new shade, with my YES I definitely bet on all this and decided to link my present and my future to it.

I have not regretted my decision for a second. As I said a few lines above, the ministry has been a gift. Possibly one of the best gifts and one of the greatest adventures my Piarist life has led me to. I am still in the early stages of my ministry. I am still in the early stages of my ministry, training myself to be able to give the best pastoral service to the young people I meet. This formation is making me grow as a person, as a Christian and as a Piarist. The formal studies, the religious sciences, have helped me to know my faith better and to deepen it. And the meetings and more Piarist formations are enabling me to know more and better the Piarist mission in its totality. Making me feel more involved and co-responsible for it and giving me the possibility to meet incredible people and works that fill me with pride.

My work for the moment has focused mainly on the Calasanz Movement, coordinating it in the presence of Tolosa and accompanying several groups of young people. This year I will also be present at the school as a teacher. A new stage that I face full of illusion and enthusiasm to continue fighting for the Piarist dream and for the construction of the kingdom.

Finally, I would like to thank the people who have accompanied me and are accompanying me in this process and all those who have believed in me for this fantastic adventure.

Iván Asenjo Elizalde, Toulouse Fraternity of Emmaus

The spokes and the rim

Let’s not forget the spokes and the rim. What are spokes? Each one of us. Solidly united at the centre, we start from that common centre from which we diverge. That is our nature and our richness.

But we are useless until the rim comes to unite our differences and to join us together. The indispensable rim from which we often flee is the community, the Church.

(Jacques Loew, “Fables and Parables”, p. 26)

Piarist ministries entrusted to the laity

The mission of every Christian is to make Jesus’ sending to us our own:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. Baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to do everything that I have commanded you. I am with you always, to the end of time”.

(Mt 28:19-20)

In order to carry out this mission, the Church entrusts specific individuals and groups with certain ministries[22] (which must be important, stable, with adequate preparation, entrusted by the corresponding ecclesial authority, celebrated in community), services, commissions, entrustments…

22 More information at https://es.catholic.net/op/articulos/18452/cat/748/los-ministerios-laicales.html#modal

Some are personal ministries:

- The ordained ministries are those which the Church has determined in order to “order”, to organise the community: bishops, priests and deacons.

- The ministries instituted by the Church are currently the lectorate and acolyte… and those recognised by the different Episcopal Conferences.

- The recognised ministries, which can be for men and women (unlike the previous ones), are not “so official” but they do have recognition and a certain permanence: Eucharistic ministers, musical animation, care for the sick, dedication to the poor, administrative management…

Some are ministries entrusted to entities:

- The most obvious are the ministries of religious congregations or ecclesially recognised institutes.

- Sometimes generic ministries are also referred to for specific groups: ministry of educators or of different professions (health, communication…), of parents… but it is always a more diffuse reality.

There are also more or less specific services, positions or assignments, personal charisms, talents of each person… which are very important in day-to-day life. But they do not have the community recognition or the stability over time that ministries have.

The Piarist Order has recognised in its Constitutions, approved by the Church, the ministry of Christian education, especially for children, adolescents, young people and the poor. Most of them, being priests, also have the ministry of presbyterate and previous ministries. Thus,

- All Piarist religious have two ministries: Christian education and care for poor children.

- Piarist priests also have the ministries of lectorate, acolyte, diaconate and presbyterate… that is to say, the pastoral ministries instituted and ordained (some also the episcopate).

The Fraternity of the Pious Schools shares, by recognition of the Order, the Piarist charism and participates as a community in the Piarist ministry.

This opens a way, which can be shared by the Order and Fraternity, to entrust some of the Piarist ministries also to specific persons of the Fraternity.

Since the year 2000, three Piarist ministries entrusted to lay men and women, which correspond to the three ministries of the majority of Piarist religious, have been put in place:

- Pastoral ministry, to collaborate with the team of ordained Piarist ministers in their work of pastoral care of celebration, Word, communion and service.

- The ministry of Christian education, to promote fundamental aspects of Piarist educational action (family accompaniment, initiation into the faith, attention to diversity, institutional identity of the works…).

- The ministry of social transformation, to promote our Piarist option for those most in need (attention to situations of poverty, minorities, social awareness…).

In order to implement these ministries, we have some criteria to take into account (Secretariat for Charismatic Integration and Shared Mission, “Participating in the Pious Schools”, no. 26):

- Choose people to participate in the shared mission teams or, better still, in the Piarist Fraternity.

- To mark the stage of initial formation by following a suitable itinerary of preparation for the corresponding ministry, both for the person who is going to assume the ministry and for the Piarist presence in which it is going to be developed, since all need this preparation.

- To make the entrustment from the corresponding Major Superior on behalf of the Demarcation and, if the necessary conditions are met, also on behalf of the Fraternity, the shared mission teams and the Piarist Christian Community.

- A formal sign of mutual commitment, usually in the context of a celebration of the Eucharist of the Piarist Christian Community.

- The ministry is entrusted for an extended and renewable term.

- Piarist ministry always takes place in a team, which accompanies the person over time in his or her work, decisions, ongoing formation, etc.

It is already a few years of rich ministerial experience with more than 40 ministerial entrustments, some of them also renewed at the end of the period for which they were made. More specific orientations can be found in the documents of the Order, in the Directory of Participation no. 73 and in the Statutes of some Provinces[23] .

23 We can find some materials and experiences in the Directory of Participation in the Pious Schools nº73, in the publication of the Secretariat of Charismatic Integration and Shared Mission, “Participating in the Pious Schools”, nº 19-28 and in some Statutes and documents of the ministries that can be found at https://www.escolapios21.org/documentos-2/documentos-principales/.

At some point we thought about the diaconate for people in the Fraternity, but this road has not yet been travelled.

The communitarian and ministerial character of the Church is fundamental. The community is the place of encounter with the Lord and of sending out on mission. It is complemented by the various ministries that help to carry out the function of the community and to be a contrast to it.

Without being ministries, they are also being sent out, entrusted to specific people or small communities… and, of course, positions, commissions, services to carry out certain tasks, projects and works. Without having the character of ministries, these are aspects of great importance to carry out all the tasks, to take advantage of personal charisms, to make everyone more co-responsible and to function.

Testimony from Pamplona - Iruña (Spain)

I remember perfectly well the time when I was proposed to be a minister of Christian education. After the Eucharist every Saturday, a Piarist wanted to talk to me to make the proposal. The truth is that it was easy for me to say yes, because how could you not trust the one who has taken care of you so much and has given you the gift of faith? I could do nothing but trust. I had done it before and it had gone very well, so saying yes didn’t have much merit? That conversation ended quickly. YES. That was it. My ministry had just begun…

At the beginning I was very worried about my training… I wanted to know a lot, to “control” (it seems that this gave me a lot of security and helped me to balance the balance of fears that were appearing as I got to know my functions). Fortunately, I was able to attend a training course for pastoral agents, meetings of ministers, different talks and a master’s degree in interiority. And as I got to know something more, phrases and doubts of the type “but I don’t know about this, what am I going to contribute here?

However, the Gospel was whispering in my ear other kinds of messages that counteracted and diluted my excuses: “It is God who enables us”, “You are the salt and light of the world”, “Come and see”, “Whoever wants to be the greatest must be the servant of all”… and, of course, “Let the children come to me”. And I feel privileged because my ministry has taken shape in being close to the little ones. How fortunate I am to be able to serve boys and girls, the most sacred, pure, sweet, and kind that exists in our world! And what a responsibility to accompany them on the path of faith; to accompany them and their families, and to sow together and discover how each child is inhabited by God!

The ministry is a service to which the Fraternity and the Province send you. That is how I want it and how I try to live it. The ministry of Christian education continually challenges me to have a heart ever closer to God, and for this there is no greater example than the heart of a child. With my failures, my laziness, my ignorance, my doubts…, but also with the conviction that the faith sown in early childhood helps to transform the world and to make the Kingdom of God possible and feasible. The ministry of Christian education speaks to me of hope, of the future, of transformation, of love, of fulfilment.

The ministry of Christian education is dreaming with each child and family, it is sowing and praying for and with them, it is working for them, training, creating, innovating, programming, playing, singing… In my case, one of my functions revolves around coordinating Tipi tapa (the groups of the Calasanz Movement of initiation in the faith between the 1st and 4th grades of Primary). In my case, specifically, it is being a monitor, accompanying the families through different meetings and gatherings, programming together with the team of monitors and training together as we learn from each other and with the children we are with.

But above all, this ministry thing I would summarise as speaking a lot about serving and above all about TRUSTING; standing back a little and letting the Spirit blow, which is what ultimately makes the seed of faith germinate and a person meet the heart of Jesus.

Maite Larrañeta. Lurberri de Emaus Fraternity

Prayer for the brothers of the fraternity

Father, today I want to pray to you for my brothers and sisters in the community.

You know them personally: you know their first and last name, its virtues and its faults, its joys and its sorrows, their strength and their weakness, you know their whole story; you accept them and love them as they are and enliven them with your Spirit.

Teach me to really love them, not by their words or their deeds, but by themselves.

I thank you for them, Father. They are all a gift to me.

Give me the gaze and the heart of Jesus to behold them and to love them to the end because I want to be for each one of them living sacrament of the presence of Jesus.

Shipments to other countries and presences

The Fraternity is also making possible the sending as an initiative of great value for the people involved, for the Fraternities and Provinces from which they leave as well as for those who arrive and, above all, for the Piarist mission.

A presentation to get you started

As a result of the growth of the Fraternity and of the experiences of summer volunteering in Piarist presences in other countries, the Piarist missions that are currently being promoted by some Piarist Provinces and Fraternities, as well as the Itaka - Piarist Network, are taking shape.

The first such sending was from Bilbao (Emmaus - Spain) to Venezuela in 1995. Since then, more than 90 people have been sent through Itaka - Escolapios from Provinces and Fraternities from seven cities in Spain (Bilbao, Granada, Madrid, Pamplona, Tafalla, Tolosa and Valencia), from Venezuela (Valencia) and from Brazil (Governador Valadares) to different countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic and Venezuela.

In a similar way, the sending of people from the Fraternity to other presences in the same country, especially in Spain, has also begun: at the moment there are more than twenty people sent in this way.

And, although we are not going into it here, there has also been and there is another form, from the Order or from specific Provinces, of sending people with a certain similarity: people who are not from the Fraternity, who are not intermediaries between Itaka and the Piarists, who are for a more limited time, who are more work contracts… We do not include them here (because of the difficulty of collecting this information and because the assessment is quite different), although it is worth mentioning this.

A common characteristic of these Province (and Fraternity) sendings is the aim of promoting the Piarist mission in a specific place or a specific Province. It is increasingly focused on the promotion of the presence and not only of the mission. And always with a strong link with the religious and the corresponding Demarcation, while maintaining a living relationship with the Province and Fraternity that has sent.

The form of community in which these sent people have lived has been diverse. Most of the time it has been in a joint community of religious and lay people, sharing housing, life, prayer, mission… with greater or lesser intensity. In some cases the lay people have lived in a different place from the religious, sharing some moments and always the mission. As far as possible, we understand that the first model helps much more in all senses.

It is important, especially at this time, to focus this sending in three areas: as part of the personal vocation of those sent, as a commitment of the Province and Fraternity as a whole, normally through the Itaka - Piarist Network, and as part of a project of Piarist presence wherever they are sent, in which each one, in a coordinated way, contributes their best.

A sending is part of one’s vocation, which is lived as a response to a call from God through the community, which is lived from a careful spirituality, which is faced with trust in the one who sends (Jesus himself, the Church, the Pious Schools) and with the availability to be at the service of the Pious Schools in that place.

It is a commitment for the Province, which assumes that those sent are Piarists during their stay in the place of sending and that they are part of the Province from their own lay vocation, while taking responsibility for them to the extent of its possibilities.

It is a commitment for the Fraternity, which grows as an entity co-responsible for a sending, which takes care of its accompaniment and of the needs that those sent may have at all times, which ensures that there is continuity of sending in order to give stability to the mission, which feels that the work of these people is its own?

It is a commitment of Itaka - Escolapios, which assumes the support and the experience in these sending with the contribution that is necessary in each situation and which encourages and promotes this initiative that helps so much the people sent, the host presences, the Province and the Fraternity… everyone!

It is part of a project of Piarist presence in the place that receives these envoys, jointly approved and led by the corresponding team, which becomes the guide for the being and doing of all.

All of this is such a richness that it must be lived with openness to novelty, with generosity, with a spirit of adventure and trust, with good preparation and permanent accompaniment.

An experience with a track record

The years of experience and the number of people involved allow us to draw a very positive balance, both for the life of those sent and for the promotion of the mission and presence where they have carried out their service.

90% of those sent in these more than 25 years are still in the Fraternity today, one is now a Piarist priest, 12 are lay Piarists, 14 are lay ministers, 24 are living in joint communities…

The experiences have been different depending on the place of reception, the specific people, the moment… even on three occasions when it was necessary to shorten the sending time, the years have been very positively evaluated.

The moment of sending and also the return have been very important moments for the whole Fraternity, which is enriched with a Piarist experience of great intensity that is contagious to all and encourages others to make decisions. And it is also important for the Province and the Order, which can see the commitment of these people and of the Fraternity itself.

As of December 2019, 92 people have been sent. Of these, 17 to Venezuela, 14 to Brazil, 28 to Bolivia, 2 to Cameroon, 2 to Guinea, 4 to the Dominican Republic, 3 to Nicaragua, 2 to Indonesia, 2 to Chile, 2 to Mexico… And in Spain, 6 to Vitoria, 3 to Tolosa, 4 to Logroño, 4 to Oviedo and 2 to Salamanca. Some have been sent on two or three occasions, to different places.

We do not include here the Piarist religious, where sending is much more common. Sending, obedience, is another precious characteristic of religious life.

The fundamental elements of the sending, both in style and in terms of the implications and responsibilities for the parties involved, should be set out in a commitment. This commitment must be signed both by the person sent and by the Demarcation and the Fraternity of origin, with the participation also of Itaka-Escolapios. In addition, the host Demarcation, and the Fraternity if applicable, will be informed of all the details.

In order to give solemnity and highlight what this commitment means for the person and the community, an appropriate time to sign it is at the Eucharist of the Piarist Christian Community where the sending is celebrated, a few weeks or days before the person’s departure.

Preparations of the Province, Fraternity and Itaka - Piarists

Logically, these shipments require preparation and a series of elements that we will only mention here:

- Determine the timetable that supports the itinerary: official dispatch date, travel date, return date, preparation activities…

- To deepen the sense of sending on the part of the persons sent… and also the Province and Fraternity that sends and that receives: missionary spirituality.

- Personal preparation as an envoy, to situate oneself in the new reality, to learn and share…

- Preparation for integration into the Piarist projects where he is sent.

- Commitments of each party

- How to take advantage of the vocational culture in the Piarist presence, the Fraternity, the Calasanz Movement…

- Determining the experience of life and mission in the host country

- Taking care of specific aspects: tickets, visas, vaccinations, powers of attorney, leave of absence, insurance,…

- Preparing for the celebration

- Etc.

Testimony from Anzaldo - Bolivia

To live the important choices of life in fraternity is to feel accompanied, sent and sure that what you are going to live will have an impact on the world. Because the crazy things we live are crazy things that build the Kingdom.

Belonging to the fraternity makes me brave and dreamy. And capable of great adventures. Just as the fraternity helps me to know myself, the best and the worst, and with the worst, to know how to grow and mature. And with the worst, to know how to grow and mature. What more can I say! That I am very grateful to be able to live my faith in the small community and to celebrate life in the Piarist fraternity. Wherever I am.

It turns out that I have been living in the Piarist mission and community in Anzaldo (Bolivia) for almost two years and I feel that it is the same as I lived in Pamplona. Is it a coincidence? Well, no, it is because this faith and the Piarist world encompasses a lot and there is room for everyone.

The commitment that I have acquired throughout my life in fraternity has grown in seriousness and importance. But I believe that the YES that has helped me the most to live this as mine and not only mine… is that I have chosen to live my faith in a small community.

Sending is a strong and reciprocal commitment between the fraternity, oneself, the mission and God. This is how I live it, I am not alone, but I am sent by my fraternity brothers to fulfil a dream of God. And what a joy to have been a protagonist of my own faith and a witness to the dedicated life of many others. That is what it is all about, to live the faith with joy, with dedication and in community.

It is true that there are higher and lower moments. But that’s life, sadder encounters, disagreements with people, unforgettable moments, relationships that make us grow a lot and find life in abundance to share.

In my personal sending, I think I can only choose one word to describe it, TRANSFORMING. And I have found great treasures in Bolivia, but alone, I would never have experienced my sending as transformative, nor would I have found such valuable treasures. I could never be a follower of Jesus if I walked alone (nor do I want to) and every day that passes I feel more and more like a follower of Jesus, that my life has so much meaning and with more desire to give myself to others. So thank you little community, thank you Piarist Christian community: for helping me to grow, to get closer to this beautiful reality, to feel close to God and to fulfil big dreams.

Finally, a word of advice: TRUST. It is by trusting that exciting and worthwhile commitments are made, because you can really improve the realities of our world.

Idoia Gil, Lurberri de Emmaus Fraternity, sent to Anzaldo in Bolivia.

Call to form community

As he went up the mountain he called those whom he wanted and they joined him. He appointed twelve to be his companions and to send them out with power to cast out demons. Thus he formed the group of the Twelve: Simon, whom he called Peter, James Zebedee and his brother John, whom he called Bonaerges (the Rays), Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James Alpheus, Ta-deo, Simon the Bigoted, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.

(Mark 3:13-19)

Lay Piarists: integration also in law

Another novelty brought by the Fraternity is the modality of charismatic and juridical integration, the lay Piarists (Directory of Participation in the Pious Schools, General Chapter 2015, no. 66), which are appearing as a new Piarist vocation of great interest.

When the Fraternity is lived with intensity and the Piarist identification is being walked with more and more generosity and demand, the desire to take a step further may appear: the figure of the Piarist can be, and is being, a step further.

In June 2002, the first lay Piarists were born. There were then seven of them: three married couples and a bachelor. All of them had been walking for many years in the Piarist mission, in the Fraternity, they had shared community with the religious for a few years, they had made the Definitive Option for the Fraternity, almost all of them had been sent for three years to Venezuela where they shared Piarist life and mission… and now they needed to keep moving forward.

The vocation of the lay Piarist, also juridical integration with the Pious Schools, seemed an interesting option. It is a question of binding oneself more strongly to the Fraternity and also with a juridical participation in the Order. This is the most significant and novel step: the juridical link with the Order itself.

It was necessary to further define this link and for this purpose a Statute of the Lay Piarist[24] was drawn up, after a long process of participation of religious and lay people, as well as canonical consultations and approval “ad experimentum” in the General Congregation, pointing out that it is a Statute for the Province.

24 Lay Piarist Statute (2002) defining the charismatic and juridical integration in Emmaus: https://www.escolapios21.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/2010-Estatuto-escolapio-laico.pdf

Others have been added to those first Piarists, until there are now twenty, thirteen with a definitive promise and seven with a still temporary commitment.

During this time, various reflections and materials have been published[25] , processes of convocation and formation have been developed for the preliminary discernment and for the first years, and several meetings have been held for all of them, which is giving greater consistency to this vocation.

25 In 2011 a Papyrus is published for this purpose: https://www.itakaescolapios.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/190-ESCOLAPIOS-LAICOS.pdf

As a result of all this, in the General Chapter of 2015, this modality was definitively approved in the Directory of Participation in the Pious Schools, no. 66.

This modality of participation in the Schools is being of great value, both for the people who are living it and for the presences (Provinces and Fraternities) where they are developing. The contribution of these lay Piarists, most of them with important responsibilities in life and mission, is very great. It is also a vocation incarnated in people who act as a link between the Province and the Fraternity because of their strong ties with both entities. Having this vocational possibility open is another great richness that leaves open the range of ways of being part of the Pious Schools.

Testimony from Bilbao (Spain)

Since 2000 I have been a member of the Emmaus Piarist Fraternity, culminating a process that began in 1993, when I got to know the school groups while I was studying at COU. I joined the community with my husband, whom I had also met during that fruitful school year, and with whom I shared the catechumenate process. A deeply religious family upbringing and my participation in the parish nourished my experience of God, but in the school groups I discovered another way of living the faith, doing mission and sharing life. These were years of strengthening my following of Jesus and discovering the call to opt for the poorest people through voluntary work. I also felt that God was offering me the gift of community to be able to live these choices faithfully.

In 2012 we were asked to discern the vocation of lay Piarists. We had shared community with some people who had received that vocation, and we contemplated it with respect and affection. It was not the first time we had been approached, but until then something had been missing for the call to ignite within us. Now I know that we needed an experience that would open our hearts intimately to Calasanz. What was ours?

In January 2009 we had adopted our children, who at the time were 4 and almost 3 years old. It was a community brother who told us that he saw in our family option a profoundly Piarist step. This surprised and pleased me, and made me reread our story in a different way. Looking back, I discovered us wanting to serve God by responding to his call to the vocation of marriage and trying to form a family. I found us traversing a painful desert of infertility. I discovered us, along the way, opening our eyes to the reality of unprotected children, discarding medical solutions, calibrating the measure of our love in order to realise our offer of adoption. And I discovered us realising that love has no measure, and that offer grew wider and wider: a healthy baby, or why not, an older child, or perhaps more than one, or with a disability, or with a particularly difficult family history… And today I understand that while we were meditating on our offer as a couple, a voice whispered to us: “Look, look…”.

Our children arrived, I felt fulfilled, I discovered that we had found a way to serve God, that this was the call he was making to our marriage… We came to know the wonderful experience of love that adoption is: to welcome into your home and your bosom a little person in need, to let their story burst into your life, to let the pain of their primary wound be your own pain, and to assume the responsibility of supporting them, caring for them, and accompanying them, demonstrating every day the unconditional nature of our love. A precious adventure, not always easy, but one that we would not change for the world.

Reading my own story opened my heart to Calasanz. I identified with his journey, I made it my own, I was inspired by his hope, his humility, his perseverance and his trusting abandonment into the hands of the Father. The knowledge of his life and mission that I had had until then became a true encounter. And the proposal of discernment to the vocation of lay Piarists fell on soft ground, already fertilised by our rich community life, an intimate relationship with God, a deep desire to improve the world especially for those who suffer most, and the welcoming company of some Piarist religious.

We are temporary lay Piarists since October 2015. I am not professionally involved in education. I am an architect in a public company that promotes rehabilitation in vulnerable neighbourhoods, and I live my professional dedication with commitment and joy. I encounter many situations of poverty in my daily life: in my work, in the neighbourhood where I live, in my commitment… And this makes me question my lifestyle and my way of being in the world. On the other hand, I discover every day the pedagogical value of my work, and I am convinced that education will transform the future. Thus, I value, respect and appreciate the work of so many teachers who carry out this task from the front line, and I look for my own place to support this mission.

This vocational option is a gift that God offers us through the Pious School and the Fraternity that leads us to deepen our availability and sharing. The Pious School welcomes us and generously makes us co-protagonists of the story of love and dedication that Calasanz began 400 years ago. A story that, while maintaining its main argument (educate, announce, transform) is enriched by the lives of all of us.

I have been invited to write part of this story and I do it with enthusiasm and a certain vertigo, aware of my limitations and weaknesses, but also strengthened by the people I meet by my side, in whom I trust and support me. I feel in a continuous process of discernment, wanting to continue deepening my knowledge of Calasanz and the Pious School, but above all, wanting to continue opening myself to experiences and encounters that touch my heart with Piarist aroma.

Elena Pérez Hoyos, Itaka de Emmaus Fraternity, Lay Piarist

Varied gifts for a single body

“The gifts are varied, but the Spirit is the same; the functions are varied, but the Lord is the same; the activities are varied, but it is the same God who activates all in all.

The particular manifestation of the Spirit is given to each for the common good. To one, for example, through the Spirit, right words are given; to another, wise words, according to the same Spirit; to a third, faith, through the same Spirit; to another, through the same Spirit, gifts of healing; to another, miracles; to another, an inspired message; to another, a distinguishing inspiration; to another, speaking in various languages; to another, translation. But all these things the one and the same Spirit activates, and He distributes them, giving to each individual in particular what He sees fit.

It is a fact that the body, being one, has many members; but the members, though many, are one body. For the Messiah also is like this, because all of us, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, were baptised with the one Spirit to form one body, and the one Spirit was poured out on us all; for even the body is not all one organ, but many. Even if the foot says, “Since I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it does not cease to belong to the body. And even if the ear says, “Since I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” it does not cease to be so. If the whole body were eyes, how could it hear; if the whole body were hearing, how could it smell? But, in fact, God established in the body each of the organs as he willed. If they were all the same organ, what body would that be? But no, in fact there are many organs and one body.

Moreover, the eye cannot say to the hand: “I don’t need you”. On the contrary, the limbs that seem to us to be of lesser status are the most indispensable, and those that seem to us to be less worthy we dress with more care. The less presentable we treat with more care; the presentable does not need it.

Moreover, God combined the parts of the body, taking more care of what was of less value, so that there would be no discord in the body and the members would care equally for one another. Thus, when one organ suffers, all suffer with it; when one is well treated, all rejoice with it.

But you are the body of Christ, and each of you is a member in his own part”.

(1 Corinthians 12, 4-27)

Itaka International Network - Piarists

Another of the valuable fruits of the Fraternity is the Itaka - Piarist International Network, created and supported jointly by the Order and the General Fraternity, as a platform of life and mission shared institutionally between both entities, with the Demarcations and Fraternities that wish it, which is present today in a good part of the Piarist geography.

The original intuition

As the Fraternity grows, the need arises to promote the Piarist mission, not only with the dedication of its members, but also with the institutional involvement of the Fraternity itself. And there are three ways to do this:

- To work on the works and projects that the Order and the Provinces have. This is a reality in every Fraternity which is highly valued and needs to be maintained. But a question arises: does the Fraternity always have to be dependent on the works of the Order? We know that many lay people, whether in the Fraternity or not, take on very important personal responsibilities (and that is fine), but the Order always has the last word. Does it have to be like that with the Fraternity?

- To start up some works of the Fraternity, where the Fraternity is responsible for them. This is a possibility that was started, until it was realised how dangerous it was: wouldn’t this lead to a separation from the Order? It is a possible path which, for the moment, it is preferable not to go down.

- To initiate an entity shared by the Order and Fraternity to carry out some works and projects together: this is Itaka - Piarist. Sharing a legal entity allows the two entities to be co-responsible, to have their own voice and to walk together to carry out the Piarist mission and support the life of both institutions.

Valuing and maintaining the first possibility mentioned above, knowing that there is a second possibility, the Fraternities that currently have the most to offer are seeing in Itaka - Piarists a particularly valid path for the future. This is the first intuition.

There is a second intuition, possibly due to the Piarist moment in which it was born and to the very nature of a Fraternity that is always called to universality: the approach of working in an international network, of taking advantage of synergies to function as a system, of assuming the keys to efficiency (teamwork, with a project always under review and improvement, economic transparency, modern and flexible management).

This intuition, which seems very easy to accept, is very difficult to understand because of its complexity and, above all, because of the novelty of being a shared entity, which includes the Order and Fraternity, which unites different countries, Demarcations and projects with different mentalities and legislation, which has no difficulty in accepting different levels of involvement, which is growing a lot and fast, which sometimes walks in parallel with teams of the Order with the same purpose and different functions, which is still defining its way of being and acting, continually reinventing itself… It is not easy to understand, because it is still a path under construction that is discovering new horizons at every moment.

In relation to the two previous intuitions, a third one is appearing: the discovery that the Itaka - Piarist Network not only promotes the current and future Piarist mission, but it is also an ideal tool for both the Order and the Fraternity to continue growing in number and Piarist identity through this sharing that places us in a new dimension. We are no longer each one, the Order and the Provinces and each Fraternity looking for its own way, but this Network allows us to share experiences, life, personal and institutional relationships, projects, which help us both to move forward while respecting the identity of the Order and the Fraternity.

Some examples, just by way of explanation. Itaka - Escolapios allows through the projects that are in the Network to provide a salary to more than one hundred religious, who certainly deserve it for their work but could not get it otherwise in the mission in which they find themselves. This economic capacity allows the religious communities to live, to take care of vocations, to gain in structure as a Province… The Calasanz Movement in the Itaka - Piarist Network not only has more hands and institutional co-responsibility, but also the offer of Piarist involvement in religious life and the Fraternity has a clearer reference and visibility. Too often the religious, who have fundamentally an educational and pastoral vocation, have to take on management, economic, labour and legal management, responsibilities in the construction of buildings… because everything has to be under the control of the Order; but in shared projects in Itaka - Piarist many of these functions can be attended to much more easily by members of the Fraternity with this preparation, allowing a more adequate vocational development for religious and lay people. And we could go on with more very real examples today.

Reality today

It is not easy to present the reality of Itaka - Escolapios at every moment because of its changing nature, the new countries and presences where it is present, the projects that are entering and transforming, the plans of each moment.

But let us point out some elements to be well informed:

- Today the Itaka - Piarist Network is being promoted by the General Congregation and the General Fraternity Council, together with the Advisory Council (the aforementioned plus the Provincials and representatives of the Fraternity Councils that are in the Network), through the Board of Trustees (permanent team that represents the Advisory Council), by the Executive Commission (the Network’s management team) and the different General Teams and those of each Demarcation[26] .
26 They can be found at https://www.escolapios21.org/red-itaka-escolapios/los- equipos-principales/

- Itaka - Escolapios began as an association in 1985, became a Foundation in 2001, opened up to other Provinces and countries in 2005 and in 2015, with the Programmatic Charter, the Itaka - Escolapios International Network was launched. Each year, the participation of each Province and Fraternity is specified in an annual Agreement where the projects and works to be shared, the driving teams, the objectives for the year and the necessary budget are indicated[27] .
27 These documents and more can be found at https://www.escolapios21.org/red-itaka-escolapios/documentos-internos/

- Every six years, the Network prepares and the Advisory Board approves the Strategic Plan, which sets out the key priorities for the next six years.

- At present, more than half of the Order’s Demarcations participate in the Network. And half of the Fraternities, those with the longest trajectory and with more than 80% of the members, are also participating in Itaka - Escolapios.

- There are currently 19 entities involved (the Order, the General Fraternity, 11 Demarcations and 6 Fraternities), operating in 19 countries and each year increasing in some more, in more than 60 localities and with more than 200 projects. Such a diverse and wide-ranging operation requires a great deal of flexibility, varying degrees of involvement, great complexity… and a marvellous richness.

- At present, the Itaka - Piarist Network continues to advance, becoming more present and in more places, growing in visibility and overcoming the logical initial misgivings when a new reality is enriching the Piarist world, discovering more potential, gaining recognition and always offering new steps.

- The website www.itakaescolapios.org and also www.escolapios21.org, as well as the corresponding social networks, will be updated with the latest news and information at all times.

Range of possibilities

In the III Advisory Council of 2018, several very interesting papers were presented[28] reflecting on the possibilities offered by the Itaka - Piarist Network and the enriching relationship with the Order and the Fraternity.

28 They can be found at http://www.escolapios21.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/ 05/01-Ponencias-y-m%C3%A1s.pdf

We now present a summary of the first of these, while at the same time recommending careful reading and reflection on all of them.

Itaka - Escolapios is like those multi-purpose knives that have many possibilities and are normally used for only one. The same could be said today of other resources and especially of “smart phones”, which can do many tasks… and which most people use only minimally and perhaps in the least profitable ways.

Today we carry in our pockets, in that small device, the telephone, the photo camera, the agenda, the e-mail, all the news we want, access to all the information offered by the Internet, entertainment of all kinds, music, reading, GPS, an ever-growing offer of new possibilities… and even many resources for prayer. This could free us from having to carry other devices because we already have those who do it better and in an integrated way.

Sometimes lack of knowledge, laziness, routine, prevent us from seeing the potential we have in our hands and the opportunities we can miss.

Something similar can happen with Itaka - Escolapios. These examples can help us to learn more about this network and the possibilities it opens up, and not just to make the most of it.

We are now pointing out some of the many avenues that are opening up, which are emerging every day with everyone’s contributions:

Some possibilities of Itaka - Escolapios

- To raise money for projects in one’s own country and to share with other countries. More than fifteen million euros have been raised in the last ten years for Piarist projects in countries other than the one in which they were raised. Logically, much more is raised and spent in each of the countries through Itaka - Piarists. This amount could be much higher if we worked with more time planning, with clearer and more defined projects, with a better preparation of the responsible persons.

- To sustain, year by year, the functioning of the mission and to help the progressive self-financing of each project on its own. This is a much bigger challenge than raising one-off money for a purchase or a building project and is much more important.

- Helping the organisation of the mission by the dynamics of working with projects, with teams, with an annual agreement at the beginning of each year where the objectives, teams and budgets are set, with justifications of accounts, with analysis of the results obtained…

- To network the Piarist network, uniting very different people, entities, Fraternities and Provinces in common objectives, growing in universal Piarist sentiment, getting to know more closely Piarist realities far away, advancing in co-responsibility, in sharing, making possible exchanges and sending people from one place to another, etc.

- Encourage volunteering and the call to the Piarist life and mission. The volunteer schools, their promotion and accompaniment, the invitations to participate in Piarist activities and projects, the information actions of Itaka - Piarists, the number of people who collaborate in different ways, the collaboration with the Calasanz Movement, the offer to share as partners… are some of the possibilities that are growing.

- To strengthen the Fraternity because it enables a legal entity to function for economic and legal matters, to develop the Piarist mission in a more co-responsible way, to gain in Piarist identity of great involvement, to grow in economic sharing within the Fraternity and, above all, towards the Piarist mission with the good practice of the tithe of solidarity.

- To strengthen the Province and the Order, helping it to expand, to start new presences and works, to collaborate especially where there is the greatest need, to make economic resources available also to the communities and demarcations, to the formation of young religious?

- Offering a new legal framework, which can be very interesting where the religious entity is more difficult, and which can be advised by the Network itself.

- To grow in the current Piarist culture of a more systemic vision, of an Order mentality, of functioning from the model of presence, of the Piarist Christian Community, of the key of life that supposes integrating the different modalities of participation in the Pious Schools…

- To enrich the Piarist action in schools and educational centres, bringing a potential of projects, of shared mission, of full time educational approach… A school, with a religious community and/or Fraternity, with Calasanz Movement and an Itaka - Piarist headquarters is much more than a school.

- Enriching the Calasanz Movement, by offering a certain support structure to start it and as a reference when it grows. It is not by chance that when the Calasanz Movement is integrated in the Itaka - Piarist Network it grows more and with more strength: the synergy with the other projects, the link with the Fraternity, the training that can be offered by the schools of official educators… are more accessible possibilities from Itaka - Piarist.

- Help for vocation ministry, involving more Piarist agents in a more formal way and reaching out to more people and more areas of these same people and their environment.

- Help to create itineraries for the different forms of participation.

- To help in the attitude of “being on the move”, by the flexibility of action it offers, by the ability to quickly launch new initiatives.

- To assist in the development of non-formal education, with a network that gives consistency to these projects with sustainability in terms of resources and people.

- To create an institutionally shared space where the Order and the Fraternity can walk together in the Piarist life and mission.

The Fraternity, together with the Order, has made possible this reality of Itaka - Piarists, which is called to be an instrument of Piarist revitalisation and of promotion of the mission throughout the world.

Testimony from Logroño (Spain)

When Itaka-Escolapios started in 2001 in our Emmaus Province I was 21 years old and I was a volunteer and part of the groups that we now call Calasanz Movement. At that time, I was not aware of the importance of that step in which our Fraternity joined the religious Province in the responsibility of managing at all levels the educational, social and pastoral actions of the extracurricular field that were developed in our Piarist environment.

In the following years I came to understand that the bet made by the religious and the response given by the communities of the Fraternity at that time made real a new style of Church and shared Piarist mission in which the communion of vocations was the paradigm from which to dream and organize together responses to the calls of the Pious School. And that way of doing Church challenged me in my personal discernment towards the Fraternity because it demanded me to commit myself indefinitely for this mission, without staying in the rearguard or being a sporadic collaborator, decentring myself from my personal interests to think about the common good of the mission that depended on all of us.

After a personal discernment and after also getting to know other ecclesial spaces and other charisms, I joined the Fraternity and started working in Itaka-Escolapios in 2007. Soon I was a direct witness of another leap that was particularly significant for me. The religious Province of Emmaus and our Fraternity proposed that through Itaka-Escolapios we should acquire a constant and indefinite commitment with the Piarist mission and life in other countries. Up to that moment we were carrying out some campaigns or we were getting some help to send some money when we could but this new vision asked us to feel more brothers of all the Piarist reality of the Order, sharing economic and human resources on a daily basis, and communicating our successes and difficulties directly with all those places. The Itaka-Escolapios Network has been a good platform since then to enrich my Piarist vocation in this way.

Since then, I have seen this Piarist tool that we call Itaka-Escolapios grow a lot with different socio-educational projects, with many pastoral actions (mainly through the Calasanz Movement) and with new ways of raising awareness in many places, approaching me, especially, to realities of poverty that I often did not know and where God has made Himself present to me.

And through this tool I have met many people who are giving their lives for the Pious School, feeling deeply united with them even though they are thousands of kilometres away and enriched by their testimony, their strength, experience, professionalism and spirituality.

As a member of the Fraternity, I feel that this path helps me and Laura to be truly adult Christians and committed to the Piarist mission to the end, offering our availability and time through participation in Itaka-Escolapios as volunteers and hired persons and putting our tithe money every month for their projects.

I believe that Itaka-Escolapios will continue to serve the Piarist charism by calling more and more people. And I live with great joy, and more so in this Piarist Jubilee year, this search for the will of God and Calasanz to realize a shared mission that fights against all types of poverty that affect children and young people.

Jon Calleja, Logroño fraternity of Itaka - Emmaus

Poetry of Itaka (Kavafis)

When you set out on the road to ITAKA you should ask that the road be a long one, full of adventure, full of knowledge.

You must ask for the road to be long, may there be many early mornings when you come in in a port that your eyes did not know, and go to the cities to learn from those who know.

Always keep the idea of ITAKA in your heart. You must reach it, it is your destiny.

But never force the crossing.

It is preferable that it lasts for many years.

And you have grown old at anchor on the island, enriched by all that you will have gained along the way, without expecting it to offer you more riches.

ITAKA has given you the beautiful journey.

Without it you would not have set sail.

And if you find it poor, don’t think that ITAKA cheated you.

As a sage you will have become, you will know very well what the ITAKAS stand for.

Further you have to go, further away from the fallen trees, which now imprison you.

And when you have succeeded, be very careful not to stop.

Further, always go further, further away from the present that now shackles you, and when you feel liberated, take new steps again.

Further, always much further.

Further away from the tomorrow that is already approaching.

And when you think you have arrived, know how to find new paths.

Different community models

The beginning of the Fraternity also brings some possibilities regarding the possible organisation of local communities, especially if the number of members allows it.

The most common is usually the small community that meets one day a week to share a moment of prayer, something about the life and progress of the Piarist mission, some formation plan…

Some communities have two weekly meetings: one for the meeting of the small community and another, also for the whole community, to share the Eucharist in the Piarist Christian Community. Sometimes even other times are added for specific mission work, although this is not usually for the whole community, but for some members for different types of work.

The meeting place of the community can also be different: sometimes the meeting is in some premises of the Piarist works (the school, the parish, the social centre…). It is usually where the group has been born and it is usually the usual place, at least initially.

In other situations the meeting is in the home of one of the members, perhaps because they have young children and must be at home to look after them, perhaps because they have more space. Sometimes the meeting rotates between different houses. This allows for a more familiar atmosphere, perhaps sharing a snack or dinner. It may also allow for a community time with the children to pray, share a meal.

The way in which the religious participate in the communities of the Fraternity is done in very different ways. In some places, the entire religious community is also considered a community of the Fraternity and the moments of meeting are in assemblies, celebrations, or on specific occasions. There are also religious communities that are distributed among the small communities that exist in the presence, sometimes each one being fixed in one of them and sometimes the religious rotating in all of them. The role of the religious has to be well cared for so that it is clear that he is just another brother in the community, although he has a special role because of his ministry and vocation, as do the others: he must avoid being the monitor of the community or the one who has a different status, while at the same time offering, like everyone else, his own experience. This presence of the religious and the concrete way of carrying it out has many variants and can be a great richness for all.

Each small community could be entrusted with some task by the Fraternity: to take on some specific mission in the presence, to take responsibility for some matter (liturgy, proximity to the catechumenate and people in the process of approaching the Fraternity, care of some space, sponsorship of a recently created community…). This can give more life to the small community, as long as it keeps in mind that what is important is community life itself.

There are also joint communities of religious and lay people, either because some lay people join the religious community at the time of the meeting, or because they live together sharing the day to day in the same house, with some space reserved for different situations and sharing prayer, meals, mission… and life.

This experience of joint communities has a long history in the Pious Schools. It is lived very naturally when people are sent to other countries, as is happening in many countries in America and in some in Asia. Today they are also a reality in the localities where the Fraternity is active. And even in new Piarist foundations that are started jointly with some religious and some lay people of the Fraternity, which is becoming a precious experience.

The evaluation of these joint communities, of which there are currently about twenty in seven countries, is very good, both for the religious who are enriched by the experience of these very lively communities, and for the lay men and women who can share the community and spiritual journey of the religious. Living together such different vocations helps to live one’s own vocation and to discover the complementarity possible in the community.

Another element of novelty in these joint communities is the sharing, not only with singles, or with men and women, but also with entire families. Here the experience has been less experienced (fifteen years already in some cases) and sharing the growth of the children, the environment in which they are developing in this “extended family”, the religious placing themselves with these “children and grandchildren” in another perspective, is an exceptional opportunity for all.

We must also mention the experience of communities, all of them lay people and normally young people of the Fraternity, living together for a time in the same house, sometimes in a marginal neighbourhood, with the Piarist commitment to develop some work and to approach situations of poverty. These are more specific experiences, with changes in people, which mean a lot of progress in the personal lives of those who live them.

To conclude this chapter, we must highlight the opportunity of being able to count on different models of community, which provide differentiated spaces for the people and the moments of each one, enriching the Fraternity and the Piarist presence with a community colouring that shares the same Piarist charism in different forms.

Other elements of diversity could be mentioned: communities with younger or older members, new communities, with different sensitivities, perhaps highlighting more some dimension of the Fraternity (prayer, commitment, formation…).

Being able to offer this diversity is also a good attraction for the people around us who can identify more or less with the different models. And this can be the initial call to enter into the Fraternity as a whole.

We are in a time, like all times possibly, where we have to update the community to continue being a sign of the Kingdom, a space of fraternity, a home and a workshop…

The appreciation of the different models, without trying to absolutise any of them, the mobility of people between the small communities, the moments when the whole Fraternity and also one community meets another (for a meeting, a retreat, an experience), knowing how to situate oneself in the Piarist Christian Community and in the local Church, are great treasures that each of us must discover and share with others.

Testimony from Granada (Spain)

Living in community together (“What we have seen and heard”)

Reflecting a little on the testimony that our life in community together can mean, we believe that to a large extent it is a way of materialising the amalgam of personal encounters, experiences that have been founding our faith, vocational proposals that have always had a community tinge… Since we were young we began our journey in the groups of the Calasanz Youth Centre, and from early on we were lucky enough to be catechists of the processes. With the Albisara Fraternity, a proposal that had just matured, we became certain that we were happy to share our life and our faith in that way. In the midst of all that, the sending to Cameroon for a year and a half as temporary lay Piarists nourished our community thirst in a special way.

The not entirely conscious desire to pass on what we have experienced in our personal journey and what has made us happy is behind the need - more than a choice - to insert ourselves in a community such as ours, made up this year of three religious and two families, each with two children. Without wishing to be exhaustive, we have experienced several impulses in this sharing:

- certainty that each vocation, in its radical way of being, is of God and permeates Piarist life and mission with distinct and complementary dimensions and that, in doing so, each one admires and looks at the other, profiling, touching and reinforcing each other;

- the acceptance of an inheritance that is dynamic, precious and fragile: that of Calasanz and his mission to educate the youngest and especially the poorest.

- and the responsibility to be a sign that calls many to cooperate closely with one another, because the task at hand is urgent. In this respect, we must ask ourselves whether our communities (of religious, of the Fraternity…) are sufficiently open to be convoking and whether we are sufficiently pro-active.

Working side by side with the religious as catechists, educators, ministers…, having experienced especially in the South (Bolivia, Cameroon…) the joy of feeling at home (barefoot but protected, listened to but demanded, tired to be relieved) and a proposal in a very concrete way and time encouraged us to start 8 years ago (4 years sharing a roof) the adventure of being part of a joint community. Despite our many failures and weaknesses, the reading we have made so far is in the key of gift, because we are convinced of the fruitfulness of the project, that we can reach more things, that we feel more ours even the projects that we feel more distant or do not occupy our time, that it helps us to transcend our proximity and short-sightedness.

Two wheels that make a common home grow

Fraternal correction always puts us on our guard, and over the years we have learned to allow ourselves to be accompanied, to be questioned and forgiven. The experience of the children in the midst of the Community has brought tenderness and creativity, and we have had the experience of enlarging physical spaces without renouncing family intimacy.

This common home is guided by God, who also demands simplicity and austerity from us, in the midst of our awkwardness and selfishness. This sharing at the table speaks to us of the love and care of our brothers and sisters for one another.

And all this with prayer addressed to the Father as the repository of our life - our encounters and misunderstandings - and our communal discernment in search of his Kingdom.

Inma Armillas and Alberto Márquez - Ángel Ruiz Isla Community, Albisara Fraternity of Emmaus

The Calasanz Movement

The Calasanz Movement was officially born in 2012 to give continuity to the work of existing educational and pastoral groups in the Pious Schools, to put them in connection with each other, to mark some fundamental criteria of identity and functioning and to guide them to an adult outcome where the proposal of Piarist religious life and life in the Fraternity cannot be absent.

The existence of a living Fraternity is a condition for the Calasanz Movement to be on the right track, in the same way that the presence of the Piarist religious community is also necessary. And if the work of Order and Fraternity is visualized in the Itaka - Piarist Network, we are already in the best conditions for the Calasanz Movement to be born and to develop fully: the two main Piarist subjects institutionally assume together their impulse and become present as an offer to lead.

Here is a reminder of its key points[29]

29 Ephemerides June 2012, pages 671-672.

The rich educational and pastoral Piarist action in educational centres, in parishes, in social centres, in different works needs a complement, an educational thread, which offers and makes possible vocational processes in group itineraries from childhood to youth, and even adult ages, which help to discover and respond to the personal vocation.

It is a continuous process, always accompanied by educators, which makes possible experiences and knowledge that prepare for the encounter with the Lord, to discover one’s personal vocation and to respond positively with the necessary formation and decisions. It also involves an ecclesial insertion in accordance with this vocation.

It is essential that these processes have a clear end, which is the adult and committed Christian life, which always supposes a reference group, a community, where the explicit offer of the Piarist religious life and the Fraternity cannot be missing. If this offer is missing or if the groups do not reach this adult and committed Christian life, we have a clear sign that our pastoral action is not developing adequate educational and pastoral processes.

It must be said clearly: today it is not enough to have personal endings, or processes that never come to anything, or the attempt to continue the same group indefinitely… It is necessary to present the different possibilities of our Church and, in a special way, the Piarist ecclesial insertion offers: the Order itself, the Fraternity and the Piarist Christian Community. Attractive reference models, the educators of the processes themselves and the closeness of these Piarist realities are fundamental for it to be truly a process that leads to an end.

The preparation and celebration of the sacraments can be incorporated into the dynamics of the Calasanz Movement, as long as we maintain the continuous processual character.

It is also the communion of groups from different Districts throughout the Piarist geography, which are united in the same educational and evangelizing proposal, inspired by the spirit and style of Calasanz. In this way, the already existing realities are strengthened, connecting them, to gain in Piarist identity and to offer a pastoral horizon to those who need it at this time.

The fundamental elements, always interrelated with each other and with the perspective of the following of Jesus in the Calasanz style, are:

- The personal encounter with the Lord in prayer, the sacraments, the Word, the believing and Christian reading of reality, the closeness in solidarity with the poor, the community, the ecclesial and Piarist history and in personal commitment.

- A lifestyle based on the keys of the Gospel, following Jesus, always seeking the vocation to which God calls us and adapting our life to his proposal in an attitude of permanent conversion.

- Human, Christian and Piarist formation that allows us to be able to give reason for our hope and to incarnate Christian and Piarist values at the same time as we grow as persons.

- Service to others and commitment to building the Kingdom of God, especially with the most needy, based on the intuitions of Calasanz.

- To share the following of Jesus and all aspects of life with brothers and sisters in small groups and communities, in clear communion with the Pious Schools and the whole Church.

Some stages in this process are outlined, so that it can be carried out at all ages, from childhood to adulthood, with special emphasis on youth. The itineraries always conclude in vocational discernment leading to a clear ecclesial insertion.

Different possibilities for calls are proposed throughout the different stages of the process and depending on the different situations.

The style of the Calasanz Movement will take shape over time, but some necessary methodological principles should be highlighted:

- Process always in small groups with broad reference to the groups as a whole.

- Weekly meeting rhythm

- Strong activities, on a regular basis: retreat, camp, retreats, missions, etc.

- Active pedagogy with member ownership

- Itinerary of experiences, of discoveries: orational, social, relational…

- Comprehensive and age-appropriate education

- Personal accompaniment

- Accompaniment of the Piarist Christian Community and the Fraternity and Province.

- Support from the elders of the process to the children

- Centrality of Jesus and the Word

- Participation in the celebration of the Eucharist

- Symbolic framework, especially at the youngest ages

- Signs marking the stages

- Revised and contrasted life project

- Attention to social reality, solidarity

- Commitment at every stage, services

- Volunteering and missionary spirit

- Relationship with the school, the work and the Piarist community

- Participation in the local Church and in the life of the Demarcation and the Order

This Calasanz Movement needs educators, always in a team and with adequate training to carry out this initiative. Some necessary traits in these educators are:

- To participate personally in stages of the Calasanz Movement, the Fraternity or the Order.

- To have adequate and constantly updated training.

- Have a clear identification with the Piarist and Calasanz Movement style.

- Leading a consistent Christian life

- Always work as a team of educators

Special attention will be paid to the preparation of these educators, complementing the personal, spiritual and piarist formation that they receive in their reference groups on an ongoing basis, with the corresponding initial and ongoing formation.

We cannot forget that the ultimate goal is the discovery of one’s own vocation and getting enough equipment to be able to listen to it and respond faithfully: Who is Jesus for me, what does He invite me to, what can I be most useful in, with whom do I want to live my vocation, how do fundamental aspects such as love, family, affectivity, participation in the Church and work fit in? And in this process, those of us who believe in the Piarist, religious and lay vocation, must invite to get to know it and let ourselves be questioned by it.

Fraternity, Province and Calasanz Movement

The Fraternity and the Order find in the Calasanz Movement a privileged field of mission and, for this reason, the ideal place to call and accompany the future members of the Pious Schools.

The Fraternity and the Demarcation provide a great service to children, young people and adults with their commitment to the birth and development of the Calasanz Movement. They become the fundamental reference, personal and institutional, for the participants of this Piarist process.

For this reason, it must be a project that is especially assumed and loved by all the brothers and sisters of the Province and Fraternity, each according to his or her abilities and possibilities.

And, at the same time, the Calasanz Movement is the quarry of the future Piarist, from where young people and adults who discover their Piarist vocation in the Fraternity or in the Order must appear naturally.

Using a cinematographic simile, we could say that the Calasanz Movement has to help each young person to discover the role that the director of the film wants to give him/her, not to remain a mere spectator of life or a figurehead who only serves as a filler, but to assume his/her leading role and play it in communion with the others so that everything goes as God wants it to go.

The Calasanz Movement is a project that can and must be shared by the Province and the Fraternity (that is Itaka - Piarist) to have more strength and more reference in this mission. For its part, Itaka - Escolapios considers, from its beginnings, this integral educational process as the most important project and the backbone of all because it visualises the fundamental mission (the transformation of each person on discovering their vocation) and because it is the primary source of the people who will carry forward the other projects from that discovered vocation.

Testimonial

Fraternity and Calasanz Movement… and at this very moment the text of St. Paul comes to my mind: “For I am not proud to preach the gospel; that is my lot, woe is me if I do not preach it” (1 Corinthians 9:16).

I also remember how the manifesto of the Calasanz Movement begins: “We, Piarists, religious and lay people, gathered by the Father in the name of Jesus, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and faithful to the inspiration of Joseph Calasanz, feel ourselves sent by Christ and by the Church to evangelise by educating”.

For me, a member of the Fraternity, these words are of vital importance. How can I not bear witness to what has done me so much good? How can I keep to myself what has made me what I am? How can I not speak of what has given meaning to my life?

My experience in the Calasanz Movement is wonderful, since I started in the groups until I became part of the Fraternity. I cannot but be grateful for having had the good fortune that one day the Father, through the encounter with the Piarists, gave me the opportunity to transmit all that he has given me and that has made my life and with it my faith, has grown “in abundance” in happiness, in dedication, has matured and has been able to find the way to be in the Church in an active and committed way.

The gift of the Gospel and the charism of Calasanz that I discovered many years ago, I could not and cannot keep it. It is fundamental in my day to day life to transmit it to others. From the Calasanz Movement I find a space to do it. I live with deep conviction that the more people discover this precious gift, the more hands there will be to announce that another world is possible, where Love, the central message of Jesus, is lived with intensity.

And we have the wonderful gift of doing so through education, let us remember the words of Calasanz “on the good education of boys depends all the rest of the good or bad life of the future man”.

Malen Rebollo, Guadalquivir Fraternity of Emmaus

Mission of the scolapians (General Chapter 1997)

We, Piarist religious, poor of the Mother of God, gathered together by the Father, in the name of Christ, and listening to the Holy Spirit, which opens us to share the charism with the laity, challenged by the cries of crowds of children and young people in a rapidly changing world, faithful to the inspiration of the Founder, we profess our faith in Jesus Christ, who welcomes and blesses children, and, by this grace, we mean, as consecrated, the evangelical radicalism of his following, according to the path opened by Calasanz, in a process of continuous conversion; we live, as summoned, the joy of fraternity, a prophetic sign of the Kingdom, in communion with the Church, the people of God and with the whole human family, being the voice of the little ones; we give ourselves, as envoys, in the educational diakonia proper to our ministry committing ourselves to work, united with the laity in the new evangelisation.

We thus proclaim our faith and hope for a new world, already present in the availability of so many brothers, religious and lay people, open to the free and popular character of our mission, and we wish to share them with the new generations of Piarists, so that together we may live with authenticity and creative fidelity the Calasanctian charism.

We place our future in Mary’s hands, under whose maternal protection our Order was founded.

Vocational and formative culture

The existence of the Fraternity multiplies the possibilities of establishing a Piarist vocational and formative culture really present in each place and directed to all the people nearby.

Obviously the Order itself has the capacity to develop this culture, but when the Fraternity is involved in this task, the participation of the whole Piarist Christian Community is much more possible, the preparation of a future with this new Piarist subject that joins the Order, the collaboration from different approaches and situations, the richer vocational and formative offer in terms of communion of the different vocations, the implementation of actions and projects along these lines.

For a long time it was thought that vocation was something proper to religious and priests, that the laity were those who did not have a vocation of their own. Today we are aware that all Christians are called to holiness and mission, to respond to the vocation received from God, to build from communion a living Church with all charisms and vocations.

Vocation today is not a spiritual matter for some people, but a vital question for everyone and, even more so, for every Christian. The central aim of education is to create the conditions for every child, young person and adult to develop their full potential to discover and carry out their mission in the world, to be happy and to contribute in the best way possible to the building of a better society. The purpose of evangelising and pastoral work is also to discover one’s own vocation and to respond generously. It is not just a matter of knowing the Gospel and a set of truths, or of receiving the sacraments, or of maintaining a certain conduct: what is fundamental is the encounter with the living Jesus who loves us and calls us to follow him. What every society must seek is that each of its members be happy, that they can develop their lives to the full by contributing to the common good: that is also vocation.

Such an approach, such a vocational culture, places the focus on each person, but not on their narcissistic and individualistic expectations, but situating them in a world that needs them, in a God who accompanies them, in a happiness that is only possible when the person “gets it right” in the meaning of their life. And it also has the potential to be present in different places: in the school, the parish, the family, the media, the social environment, citizen groups… because it is in everyone’s interest for each person to be the protagonist of his or her life and to find and develop his or her vocation.

The vocational culture is the environment, the framework in which we want to move, to help children, adolescents and young people to find their place in the world, in the Church, in life. And also for adults who, at times, need to reorient their own existence to fill it with meaning.

This vocational culture leads us to help each person to discover his or her qualities and limitations, his or her deepest desires (quite different from those that the consumer society wants), while at the same time it raises the needs of a world that needs the diversity of vocations and to understand them always as necessary insofar as they help the common good. It is the challenge of finding one’s own identity, that which makes me myself, in the rich assumption of diverse identities (family, country, hobbies, belonging…) always ordered according to the value of each one of them for the fundamental identity.

This vocational culture must go hand in hand with a formative culture. Formation is, literally, the action of taking one’s own form. And, in this sense, vocational culture is also a formative process of discovering the world, the cultures, the possibilities… and always maintaining an attitude of continuous learning.

In our Piarist world, dedicated mainly to the Christian education of children, adolescents and young people, the vocational and formative culture is the line that gives continuity to all our action. The knowledge imparted, the attitudes fostered, the experiences lived, the challenges posed must favour the discovery and development of one’s own vocation.

Logically, educators and companions must be people who live their vocation and continue to be formed in order to keep it alive. The exhortation “Christus vivet”, following the “Synod on young people, faith and vocational discernment” encourages us on this path and provides us with some very clear-sighted clues.

Thus the pastoral ministry of vocations to religious life and to full lay life, as well as initial and ongoing formation, must always be a reference point for our work. And the Fraternity, together with the religious, can be the ones who most strongly promote this culture which humanises and creates the conditions for a better future for all.

This will require:

1. To live happily one’s own Piarist vocation, personal and communitarian, as religious and as members of the Fraternity. The most contagious thing is joy and happiness… and, even more, if it is communal.

2. Have a firm and hopeful conviction that the Good News of Jesus is already present, even in the most difficult situations.

3. To show signs of a new humanity with the life of friendship of Jesus that is translated into life with the testimony of one’s own community, with economic sharing, with actions of solidarity, with voluntary dedication…

4. Valuing and appreciating all vocations, especially those which, in each situation, are most necessary. And the concern that each one should live his or her own vocation with fidelity, joy and commitment. The celebrations of sending and thanksgiving for the different services, commissions, ministries, vocational steps, are the seeds of this vocational culture.

5. In the educational and pastoral processes, help, at the right age and at the right time, to draw up a life project that includes the various areas of life (studies, profession, service to others, family, friendships, hobbies, training, lifestyle, sharing, belonging to a group… relationship with the Lord of life). And to keep moving forward so that it is not only a personal project, but also shared with educators, friends… And to try to arrive at the vocational question that gives an answer to the best life project: what God has planned for us, what can best serve others.

6. For this it is fundamental to offer life experiences: interiorisation, prayers, celebrations, retreats, living together, closeness to the Word, a believing reading of reality, contact with the poorest, voluntary work, solidarity actions sharing time and money, testimonies received and also offered to others, training…

7. To present the different Piarist vocations as possible and close, if possible with direct testimony and with vital experiences of approach, among which the Piarist religious and priestly life, life in Fraternity and the other modalities of participation in the Pious Schools and ecclesial insertion in the Piarist environment cannot be missing.

8. To work in coordination with the different educators “who can promote this vocational and formative culture: family, teachers and tutors, counsellors, catechists, educators of the Calasanz Movement, project leaders and volunteers, religious, members of the Fraternity, the young people themselves, those responsible for the Piarist communication… “To educate a child you need the whole tribe”, says a wise proverb and it is very real to create this culture.

9. To multiply the specific and personal calls for formation and discernment on the possible Piarist religious and priestly vocation, with its corresponding accompaniment. And the same for those vocations that need it (the Fraternity, the lay Piarist, etc.) and vocational preparation paths (entry to the same school or Piarist work, Calasanz Movement, school and / or training for families, volunteering, etc.).

10. The pastoral care of vocations to the Piarist religious life would need its own chapter because of its importance and specificity. It is not our intention now to deal with this subject, which would require more detail, but only to point it out in this broader approach.

Testimony from Anzaldo (Bolivia)… and elsewhere

BEING A PIARIST IN FRATERNITY

From my beginnings in the Piarist life, the mission and the life shared with lay men and women was a constant that enriched my own vocation.

In the 1990s and the beginning of the new century, I was fortunate to be able to coordinate the work of the then Vice-Province of Venezuela for the promotion of Piarist lay life. It was an exciting experience, gathering, forming, accompanying and, above all, dreaming of a Pious School open to all vocations. From those sowings was born, later on, the Piarist Fraternity of Venezuela, which gave and continues to produce so much fruit in that part of our Pious School.

Later, I also had the opportunity to live in a community with lay people in a nucleus of life that was part of a larger community, belonging to the Fraternity of Itaka, in Bilbao. It was only two years, but the intensity and depth with which we lived completely revived my worn-out Piarist experience.

Once again the Latin American lands were calling me, this time it was Brazil. The circumstances of the Demarcation led me to coordinate the work to create the Piarist Fraternity of Brazil. For some years I had the good fortune to personally accompany the formation and discernment groups in Belo Horizonte, also coordinating the process that was followed in Governador Valadares. Those weekly meetings with each group were like accompanying a gestation. I witnessed the awakening of authentic Piarist vocations in the hearts of adults, whose lives took on a new flavour in the warmth of St. Joseph Calasanz. God was opening us to a real fraternity, even before we were officially constituted as such. The meetings and retreats of all the groups in Brazil, the enthusiasm for a shared Piarist life, the dreams of a renewed Brazilian Pious School, forged in all of us a Piarist identity that today sustains and guides our lives.

Finally, in my life journey, I arrived in Bolivia, also in a mixed community of the Piarist Fraternity of Bolivia. Sharing the day to day, the mission, life, faith, discernment and dreams with Piarists of different vocations and states of life, have been opening my heart and my mind to new sensibilities, to more real and less ideological visions of the world and life, to diverse lives but rooted in the same charismatic and evangelical treasure.

Shared life with other vocations is an exceptional opportunity to avoid falling into clericalism, which continues to do so much harm to our Church and to our Pious School. Living with lay men and women, with couples, with families, is an experience that has only generated learning and positive transformations in me, in my understanding of my own vocation and ministry, as service and dedication, and not from privileges or power. The Piarist Fraternity has become a new way of being a Piarist, discovering the gift of different brothers and sisters that God is putting in my life. In the community of the Fraternity the evangelical mandate of service, quiet and humble, of fraternal love, of the construction of a single heart and a single soul, overcoming with dialogue and forgiveness the conflicts that always exist, becomes real.

The Piarist Fraternity is a treasure that we must take care of so that our Piarist School continues to grow in evangelical life and in dedication to the service of the Kingdom of God.

Carlos Aguerrea

To pray: you call us

God and our Father, your choice comes in unsuspected ways.

You call us through other people. You call us through events.

But above all, Father, you call us through the poor, of the simple, of the sick, of those who have no work, of those who die of hunger, of those who die because of the injustice of war.

We thank You that You have called us and chosen us to be builders of a more fraternal and united world.

To be young people of peace and tolerance, justice and freedom.

You have called us, in short, to be creators of a new earth.

Send your rain and your sunshine on the desert of our land to bring forth flowers and fruits of life.

Hold our hands with your hand so that together we may grasp other hands and lift many lives to the heights.

Experiences that make you grow

Over the years, the Fraternity has generated many personal and community experiences that help it to grow. The diversity of people, of ages, of places, of routes, makes it possible to come across many initiatives that it is worthwhile to include here, even in the knowledge that it will always be a limited presentation that will continue to grow every day.

Sharing some of these initiatives is a service to all.

1. Mobility of people between small communities. At the beginning of the Fraternity, this action is not possible, as it requires several community nuclei. However, when the Fraternity grows, it helps a lot, despite initial resistance, to move people from one community to another. This forces us to rethink the dynamics of each group, and of each person, who has been able to get used to a certain rhythm, makes us feel like a Fraternity beyond being a member of a small community, allows us to move towards more heterogeneous communities and to solve possible difficulties in personal relationships. It is useful to have a mechanism for this mobility, normally based on trust in the Fraternity Council or the team of animators, always in dialogue with each person, with an awareness of all…

2. It is very useful to have a formation plan for the whole Fraternity, always flexible according to the situation of each small community, which makes us reflect together and create a common mentality, which helps to give content to each meeting, which makes us progress over the years. We can take advantage of the plans of other Fraternities[30] , elaborate some themes among the members themselves, choose a book or documentation, ask some people from inside or outside the Fraternity to accompany us periodically, etc.
30 We have a lot of training material at https://www.escolapios21.org/fraternidades/materiales-de-formacion/

3. Economic sharing is a feature of every Christian community. Quite a few Fraternities consider sharing 10% of all personal income through the Itaka - Piarist International Network: it is a way of participating institutionally in this platform of shared Piarist mission. In many cases it is carried out through direct debit like the collaborating partners, indicating at the beginning of each year the amount that corresponds to them. This also allows, in some countries, a certain tax benefit. Other Fraternities leave this sharing as an important element, but without specifying the amount or the concrete form: some share in a campaign, others as partners, others through the Piarist work… Obviously, the commitment to do it in a more formal way is an indication of the maturity of the Fraternity.

4. Independently of this solidarity sharing, it is always necessary to assume from the community itself the internal expenses: materials, meetings, activities, fees with the General Fraternity, etc. This is a symptom of the adulthood of the Fraternity, which does not need to depend on others (the Piarist work, the Province…). This sharing can be at the beginning by contributing the amount necessary at any given time or, as it progresses, by means of a periodic contribution that covers the budget drawn up by the Council and approved by the Fraternity. In some places there are differentiated quotas according to the different situations of the members, or with a percentage of the tithe, or with secret contributions that are made until the needs are covered.

5. There are also precious experiences of economic sharing when someone in the community goes through a difficult time, when money is lent from those who have some savings to others who need it with the commitment to repay with the intervention of the Council or some people who act as intermediaries to maintain anonymity, when an extraordinary monthly money is contributed to hire for a while an unemployed person of the Fraternity with the intention of helping him and also to provide some service to the community and Piarist mission… and other initiatives of a more personal nature.

6. Community retreats and fraternity retreats are also interesting initiatives. Sometimes a proposal for a small community retreat is included in the formation plan. It can also be an invitation for two small communities to come together for a shared retreat. Another possibility is to commission someone, religious or lay, to prepare a retreat and offer it to the communities. It is also possible to take advantage of offers from the local Church.

7. To entrust to a small community some service for the good of the whole Fraternity or for the Piarist mission is also an experience that is being valued very positively for the service provided and for the commitment of the whole community that helps a lot to grow. Some experiences of these assignments are the accompaniment of a group that is starting in the Fraternity, the animation of the liturgy of the Piarist Christian Community, the responsibility in some Piarist project, the animation of the personal and community formation in the Fraternity…

8. Some Fraternities, in the measure that they are made up of different ages and personal situations, have proposed some actions to grow in the different life cycles: a retreat by age, a meeting, some personal or community work material. It is often very rich to have small heterogeneous communities of different ages and backgrounds thanks to mobility and some initiative to take care of the different moments is very rich for the whole Fraternity.

9. An interesting experience has been, by means of biblical characters, to make temporary proposals to deepen one aspect of the following of Jesus. For example, with Zacchaeus, to deepen the use of goods and sharing, with Mary of Bethany to advance in personal prayer, with the Good Samaritan to take steps of closeness to those most in need, etc.

10. Another initiative of the Fraternity is to promote special days to discuss a topic with interested people, which can be open to other people close to the Fraternity: colloquium dinners or meetings with a guest of interest, workshops to deepen life situations (mourning the death of close ones, the arrival of illness, social commitment, etc.), joint reflection days, etc.

11. The Fraternity Council or Team of Animators should think of personalised proposals for progress that could be made by each member of the Fraternity and, with all sensitivity, talk to each one to present them.

12. When there is a possibility due to the number of small communities, it is interesting to try to have a certain diversity in the style of each of them in order to better respond to different expectations and situations. For example, a community sharing a house, or of younger or older members, of members working on the same project, of people who are interested in personal growth in some aspect…

13. Periodical evaluation of the progress of each person, small community and Fraternity is always necessary. An appropriate method could be a personal self-assessment questionnaire (it could be with the traits of the common vocation and other aspects that are of interest) that allows to have data of each small community and of the Fraternity, that helps to see each one and, if it is maintained in time, it allows to see the evolution that is being made and to introduce improvements.

14. To take care of the formation of the animators of each small community and of the Fraternity Councils so that they receive the necessary support and have some tools and orientations to carry out their task in the best way.

15. Promote the vocational diversity of the members of the Fraternity which, besides helping those who take new steps, creates the community atmosphere of the need to continue advancing and new perspectives of future possibilities. It can be the implementation of ministries entrusted to lay people, people who make their promise as lay Piarists of juridical integration with the Order, personal assignments or to a small community, sending to other presences or countries to promote the Piarist life and mission…

16. The implementation of the Definitive Option in the Fraternity is another important moment that can give direction in the first years of the Fraternity, which implies a personal commitment and also that of the whole community towards the Pious Schools and the mission, while at the same time introducing a step that is already consolidated.

17. The annual renewal of the promise made at the entrance of the Fraternity is a good occasion for personal revision, for proposing new steps, for spirituality lived more intensely. It can also be renewed at special liturgical moments: at Christmas, at Easter, on Calasanz Day…

18. Periodically reading the Statutes of the Fraternity, both personally and in community, is always a reminder of what defines us, sets our goals and constitutes us as a Piarist community.

19. The presence of the religious in the Fraternity is an element of great importance for the Fraternity, because of their experience of Piarist community life and because of their formation and identity. It is important that they participate as one more member, who contributes with simplicity and availability their rich religious vocation, avoiding the role of monitor or accompanier from outside the Fraternity. At the same time, for the religious, the experience of participating in the Fraternity is a breath of fresh air for their own community, Piarist and ministerial vocation.

20. The Fraternity can and must function with plans and projects for a certain period of time that help it to set priorities and to focus its attention on matters of importance: it can be a community project, a participation in the project of local or provincial presence, the personal project that cannot be missed?

21. The Fraternity that promotes the vocational culture, the constant invitation to the people around to participate more actively in the different ways of being Piarist and in the different activities and works, is a living Fraternity that invites to live. Promoting religious vocations, inviting to the processes towards the Fraternity, inviting to participate in the Calasanz Movement and in the collaboration with the Piarist mission… are always fundamental tasks of a Fraternity that lives the charism of Calasanz, that is in love with the Piarist project and that needs to share the treasure of its own vocation with the people close to it.

22. To strive so that the Fraternity and the possibility of participating in it reaches all the Piarist presences of the Demarcation in which we find ourselves is a great challenge that helps us to be in a missionary spirit, going out, to offer to others what we have been fortunate enough to find.

23. To be demanding in the life of each small community, not allowing accommodating attitudes, lack of attendance or commitment, laziness in participation… Precisely because we are brothers, we must help each other to live with intensity the vocation to which we have been called.

24. To always deepen our Christian and Piarist identity, avoiding attitudes of believing ourselves to be better than others, being aware that this identity is our contribution, which only we can make, to our Church and our society. Working on the awareness of ecclesial communion is today, and always, a fundamental sign of our faith.

25. Taking steps in economic sharing is one of the great challenges that help us to grow spiritually: the most spiritual thing is money, because it shows us where our heart is. We must always advance in the awareness that we are not the owners of goods, but rather stewards of resources that must be oriented, first and foremost, to the common good.

26. One experience that is giving good results is the drawing up of personal or family budgets and sharing them in the small community. In addition to the organisation involved, it makes us reflect on the use of money and places us in a situation of community discernment.

27. Besides money, there is another very clear indicator of our commitment: it is the dedication of time to the service of the mission and the community. Analysing the use of our time, growing in our dedication to others, sharing more and more of our time are fundamental steps in the Fraternity.

28. Sharing the most important decisions in the community: the work I am going to take on, the place to live, the way to educate the children, the organization of one’s own home, the Piarist volunteer work… are some aspects that help us in our Christian life and enrich the community. It can be as simple as presenting these types of decisions in community and asking the community to help us discern what is most in accordance with what the Lord might indicate to us. These exercises of community discernment help us to grow as human beings and Christians.

29. To keep us always informed and available in the great Piarist areas: what the Province and the Order are doing, the options of the General Fraternity and ours, the steps of the Itaka - Piarist Network, of the Calasanz Movement, of our universal and local Church, of our Piarist presence.

30. Listen with special attention to the young people, to the new brothers and sisters of the Fraternity, to our close collaborators, to the most needy people around us… for they are extraordinary channels to continue discovering what the Lord is asking of us at every moment.

31. Another indicator of the maturity of the Fraternity is when it is able to go out of itself, to take co-responsibility for other Piarist, ecclesial, social, local, national or other realities.

32. … and I am sure that we can think of possible initiatives that can help each one of us, each small community, the Fraternity, the Pious Schools… To be in that attitude of always moving forward, of never conforming, is fundamental for our following Jesus in the style of Calasanz and the Piarists.

Testimony from Belo Horizonte - Brazil

I believe in the heritage left by St. Joseph Calasanz, who lived the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a beautiful way and worked for the construction of a more just and humane world, in which the dignity of the human person is preserved.

After a few years of living and participating in a Piarist Parish, I discovered, in catechesis, the taste and the meaning of the word “evangelise”. Through the many catechists I had and also through the opportunity to be a catechist, I discovered what it means to educate in piety and letters.

My youth was marked by the presence of the Piarist Fathers. Little by little I got to know and understand a little better the dimension of a mission that was much bigger than I could have imagined. I took part in the Confirmation groups and later in the Youth Pastoral and, at the age of 17, I was invited to become a catechist. From then on, I followed a path that led me through the catechesis of children and adolescents, Pastoral del Menor and many other groups. Working in the Piarist works helped me to discover the Piarist charism. In all these years, I could see people who had their lives transformed day by day, small details that make me believe and continue in this mission.

I feel with great joy that the Charism left by Calasanz also belongs to people like me who live their Christian vocation from the normal everyday life. I feel the call of God in my life, and that answer necessarily passes through the Pious School.

I also consider that the experience and the sharing of life with the Piarist religious were fundamental to get to know the mission in depth, at the same time that fraternal bonds were established.

The arrival of lay Piarists from the Lur Berri Community (Nova Terra) of the Province of Emmaus was a way of awakening in us the will to share life, spirituality and mission. In 2008, four lay people and I requested the accompaniment of the Pious Schools for this small group that felt the need to better understand the vocation of lay Piarists, as we felt identified with the mission and charism of Calasanz. After a few months, the Piarist Fathers invited me to participate in a discernment group that would become the Piarist Fraternity. In 2013 we celebrated the Assembly of the Piarist Fraternity in Governador Valadares. The first District Council was elected, and I was among them to represent the Piarist Fraternity in Belo Horizonte. I also had the unique opportunity to participate in the 1st Assembly of the General Fraternity in Peralta de la Sal, the place where Calasanz was born for life and faith.

Today, with great joy, I can say that I am also a professional with the Piarists, working in the communication area of San Miguel College and also working in the Communication team of the Brazil-Bolivia Province.

I thank God and all my dear fraternal and religious brothers and sisters. I place our dreams and desires in God’s hands, may Calasanz help us by showing us the way.

Maria Aparecida Miranda de Carvalho, Belo Horizonte Fraternity - Brazil

Your challenge is to live your faith in community

On your own, Lord Jesus, it is not possible to follow you.

Your offer is to live with joy the joy of your Gospel.

Your challenge is to live your faith strongly in community.

Your requirement is to carry the cross on high every day.

Your mission is a profound call to commitment for the Kingdom.

To be a believer in you, Lord, is not to play at the limelight; to be a believer in you is to accept the clean rules of your game;

To be a believer, Jesus, is to count and feel the man beside me; to be a believer in you is to make life a free service.

You call me, Lord, to look for a ‘place’ where I can live my faith; you call me to break my shell and tear down my wall;

You call me to open my heart wide; you call me to follow you with the help of a group.

You want me to share my plans and projects; you want me to be sensitive to the hidden mystery of man.

You want me to forget myself and live in communion of love.

I have given you my life full of illusions and utopias.

I know that the profound choice of my life is you.

I want to live you by living the reality of your Church.

I ask myself, Lord: where is my community?

Where to integrate my life to live your project?

Where to put together what I have searched for, what I am, what I have?

Where to be and take root in order to become ‘fruitful’?

It is not clear to me, Lord, the way to stay with the others.

I am afraid to lose my ideas, to stop being myself.

I am afraid of feeling insecure, unstable, unrooted.

I’m afraid, that I won’t be taken seriously.

How to break this absurd selfishness that I carry in my guts?

How to end this mistrust of the brother?

Give me, Lord, the strength of your Spirit of love; anoint me with the perfumed oil of burning charity; make me feel my slackness, my insecurity when I am left alone; make me experience the joy of being many, of being them.

Lord Jesus, set me on the way and give me a sense of Church.

Break my individualism and open me to fraternity.

Teach me to share the gifts so that they may flourish and bear fruit.

I want to be a servant of your Word and an open hand to man.

I want to be a servant of your Gospel and gladdening Good News.

I want to be ground wheat and a trodden cluster made Eucharist.

I want to be ‘sent’ by the community in your name, Lord Jesus.

I want to be a believer among believers gathered in your Spirit.

(Conceptionists)

To move forward in fraternity

“We carry this treasure in earthen vessels, so that it may be clearly seen that this extraordinary power is not from us but from God.

(2 Cor 4:7)

We have repeated several times that the establishment of the Fraternity introduces a profound renewal in the Pious Schools: it is a new Piarist subject that is added to the Order which has been the Piarist subject from the beginning.

Now the Piarists are more. “We, Piarists, religious and laity” says the mission that the General Chapter of 1997 elaborated, in which a great step was taken in the participation of the laity. The Piarists are a new us, a new “we”, enriched by the Fraternity and the other forms of participation in the Pious Schools. And we are called to universal fraternity by opening our mission and our hearts to children and young people, to the poor, to volunteers and collaborators, to women, to families, to those who were users or recipients of our projects and works… so that they may be, so that they may also be “us”, so that we may be brothers and sisters of the same family of God. The poor, the young… they evangelise us, we evangelise ourselves!

Fraternity means sharing more and more

Setting the Fraternity in motion, becoming part of it, is a very important step that opens up new paths and new horizons that we must continue to pursue: Fraternity means sharing more each day, entering into the adventure of decentring ourselves from personal criteria in order to discover the will of the Lord in community, because following Jesus means discovering the new paths that his Spirit is showing us.

Those first companions of the first community of Jesus were very different, they were more united to Jesus than to the other brothers… and, little by little, they will have to share moments of triumph, personal and community disappointments, cowardice, the personal experiences of encountering the Risen One, the moments shared in community, the missionary strategy, the solution of disagreements and problems, the discernment to go ahead with the project of Jesus, the giving of one’s life. In this way they build a community “with one heart and one soul” (Acts 4:32) because they share the presence of Jesus, prayer, commitment, life and the Spirit.

Thus it is necessary to grow in sharing in community, discerning each day how to share more. It is not a technique, but a way of life, based on personal relationships inspired by trust, in the esteem of the other and not in distrust, in the capacity to enjoy the good of the other and not in envy, in the desire to be together and not in the urge to go it alone, in the recognition of the capacity of others to reach truth, not in the pretension of self-sufficiency.

It is to continue to advance in a lifestyle that is linked to those people who have a similar vocation, who share a common existential project, who share the same objective of following Jesus in the Piarist way.

It is to decide, and to maintain that option, a lifestyle that implies giving oneself to the community, to the other with its lights and shadows, accepting its right to be different, trusting in its capacity to change and in the contribution it can make for me to change. Because we are aware that we all need to give and to receive, to evangelise and to be evangelised, in order to be not only what we already are but what we are called to be.

We have to take on the ethic of the wanderer, the wandering Aramean, who goes through life with others with the desire to enter into dialogue and without knowing the way. And always with the conviction that the Lord walks alongside us and shows himself in the wayfarers who walk along the same paths as us.

In the Piarist Fraternity we have the great fortune to walk together, religious and laity, people from different countries and cultures, of different ages and history, feeling united by the same charism that God gave us in Calasanz and in the Piarist history of more than four centuries. Sharing the religious and lay vocation, as well as the other deeply Piarist vocations, is a wonderful gift that enriches us all if we are able to accept it.

The madness of Babel, where each one spoke his own language and no one listened, is contrasted with the experience of Pentecost, where each one also speaks his own language, but they allow the Spirit to make them understand each other. This is the experience of sharing in community, of allowing the Spirit to speak through the brethren.

Fraternity is communication that trains us in the art of getting in tune with the community by feeling, thinking, saying, doing, listening and accepting in the key of fraternity.

Community is sharing the faith received as a gift, prayed and celebrated in community, lived and translated together in works, tested and suffered, studied and understood thanks to others, shared with the brothers and announced by word and personal and joint witness.

Sometimes in the history of individuals or nations, an unexpected twist of fate changes everything.

Stefan Zweig in his book “Stellar Moments of Humanity” masterfully narrates how a half-open door changed the destiny of world history. Byzantium, also known as Constantinople, the best fortified city of its time, which had heroically withstood a terrible siege, was defeated through carelessness, through imprudence. Someone had left a door open. A short distance from the main siege point of the wall, a couple of Ottoman warriors managed to break through the outer wall and wander quietly inside the city. After ascertaining that it was not a trap and that they had managed to enter easily, they decided to enter with a small troop of janissaries. The Kerkaporta was crossed as it would be crossed on any Sunday by merchants, who stood in the centre of the city and attacked the Byzantine defenders unexpectedly, shouting a phrase that was more deadly than any cannon: “The city is taken! That surprise attack and that shout shattered the Byzantine resistance, who, believing themselves betrayed, abandoned their posts for safety in the harbour and on the ships. A tiny chance, the Kerkaporta, the forgotten gate, decided the history of Europe and of the world…

The Christian community is one of those forces that transform people and societies with irresistible force. It may seem to be chance, or God’s interventions, opening doors to a future that continues to move closer to Jesus’ dream of a Reign of God where we discover ourselves more and more family, more brothers and sisters, more able to forgive each other, to share life and destiny.

We must grow in sharing, never settling for what we have already achieved, always seeking to deepen and broaden the Fraternity.

Those of us who have felt in some way the call of Jesus to follow him are meeting those who have received the same call. And we discover that they have the same DNA as us, that they are our brothers and sisters. To be faithful to this call is to share the material, the affective and the spiritual.

Sharing goods because it makes us freer: “you cannot serve God and money”. Because it makes us put our security in the Lord and our brothers and sisters, and not in our resources. Because it allows us to be more supportive, more brothers and sisters to all.

Sharing the affective because we are called to have the same heart, to be part of the same body. And this is only possible by growing in knowledge, acceptance, recognition, affection, friendship, fraternity.

To share the spiritual because our bond of union is the Father in heaven, our brother Jesus and his Spirit. Because it is in the Eucharist, in shared prayer, in the believing reading of reality, in shared discernment, that we feel more like brothers and sisters. Because “life in common is of little value if there is no communion of life” (B. Olivera, Martiri in Algeria, Milan, 1997, p. 96).

Testimony from Granada - Spain

From the beginning of the Vice-Province of Andalusia, we began to become aware of the functions that the laity should have in the Church. Thus, in 1973 we set up the community of Cerro del Águila, in Seville, a community made up of religious and lay people.

The functioning of the Vice-Province, from the beginning, was forged in the quarterly meetings, where the progress of the Vice-Province and its plans for the future were analysed. Religious and lay people took part in them. And all had a voice and a vote.

There were also local and vice-provincial chapters, in which the laity always participated, with voice and vote, except for the canonical vote for vice-provincial.

As the Vice-Province developed, a cataract of events took place: project of co-management of the religious-secular Genil College (1970); organisation of extracurricular catechesis with a large majority of lay people (1982); lay academic directors (1985); first fraternity of St Joseph of Calasanz (1991); titular lay director (1995); Calasanctian ecclesial community (1996); beginning of religious-secular faith groups in Seville (1997); Albisara fraternity (2003).

In this context, and with the responsibilities that I have had to carry for many years, I have been in permanent contact with the laity at all levels and to work in symbiosis with them at all levels: work in schools, groups and communities of faith, communities of life… All this has created in me an awareness of total unity and complementarity.

Today, in this corner of the Pious Schools, the Province would no longer be understood without the symbiosis between religious and laity in a unity of project which embraces life and mission. In spite of the misgivings of some of the religious, fewer and fewer to be honest, who do not see this increasingly important role of the laity and who seem to be afraid to share life with them, perhaps because they believe that the religious have a higher rank on the ladder.

My experience of many years now is very satisfying in all fields: in mission, in co-responsibility and in life.

In our Province, where we have already travelled an important road, we must continue to go deeper. And so must the rest of the Order and the whole Church. I sincerely believe that this is where the future of the Church lies.

P. José Manuel Jiménez, Albisara de Emmaus Fraternity

Don’t say the Lord’s prayer

Don’t say Father, if you don’t behave like a son every day…

Don’t say ours, if you live isolated in your selfishness…

Say not hallowed be thy name, except thou honour it…

Do not say come to us your Kingdom, if you confuse it with material success…

Do not say thy will be done, if you do not accept it when it is painful…

Do not say give us this day our bread, if you do not care for the hungry people…

Do not say forgive us our trespasses, if you hold a grudge against your brother…

Do not say do not lead us into temptation, if you intend to continue sinning…

Do not say deliver us from evil, if you do not take sides against evil…

Do not say amen, if you have not taken the words of this prayer seriously.

Sharing the material

Jesus’ insistence on the use of goods, on the denunciation of those who put their trust in them, is a constant that we cannot silence.

The Fraternity must also help us in this area. We have already mentioned in previous chapters some very interesting experiences that can help us to enlighten or suggest initiatives.

Entering the Fraternity is a radical option that can be lived in different ways, but never forgetting this call to share goods. The community of Jesus had a common purse by sharing their goods, but there were other followers of Jesus (Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, Bartimaeus, Lazarus…) who believe in Jesus and are called to share their life with him in another way.

The Jerusalem community has everything in common:

“No one considered their possessions as their own, but all things were common to them… No one was in need, for all who owned land or houses sold them and put the money at the disposal of the Apostles, so that it could be distributed to each according to his needs.

(Acts 4:32-35)

Paul’s communities do not share their goods in this way, but they are called to be in solidarity with the needs of the church in Jerusalem (1 Cor 16, 1-3). Paul reproaches the economic differences in the Corinthian community, calls for love as the fundamental norm of the Christian and asks that “each one should give according to what he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or by force” and reminds us that “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor 9,7).

There seems to be no single model of sharing, but what is clear is that the use of money is fundamental to following Jesus and one of the best indicators of what our faith is like.

It may be interesting to collect some of the many texts from the Gospels (or the New and Old Testament) for community reflection. Just looking at the number of references makes us see the importance of this aspect. And a common reading can guide us in the steps we can take.

It is also worth considering the importance given by the Christian communities of the first centuries, which is reflected in many of the considerations of the Holy Fathers. By way of example, which could be expanded and worked on in community with the Gospel texts, we present some of them:

- “You cannot serve both God and money at the same time” (Mt. 6, 24).

- “Believe me, it is very difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 19, 23).

- Woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation” (Lk 6:24).

- “Tonight you are going to die, and for whom will all your possessions go? Avoid greed of every kind, for a man’s life does not depend on the abundance of his possessions” (Lk. 12:15-21).

- “Whoever does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Lk. 14:33).

- “The superfluous things of the rich are the necessities of the poor. And one possesses other people’s things when one possesses superfluous things” (Saint Augustine).

- “He who, by giving to the needy what he received from God, becomes the God of those who receive from his hand, is the true imitator of God” (Address to Diognetus).

- “Behold the judgment that is to come. You who abound, seek out the hungry” (Shepherd of Hermas).

- “Thus all of us who are of one heart and one soul do not hesitate to communicate material goods. All things are common among us” (Tertullian).

- “Commune in all things with your neighbour, and do not say that all things are your own, for if in imperishable things you are partakers in common, how much more in perishable things! Do not be of those who stretch out their hand to receive and shrink it to give” (Letter of St. Barnabas).

Analysing in community possible steps in economic sharing, inside and outside the Fraternity, is a necessary aspect of moving forward in community.

Another approach to this sharing can be to reflect on the ability to allow ourselves to be contrasted in the use of money (within our own family, within the community), on the way we obtain goods (ethical work, honesty in our professionalism), on the contribution in household work (it is still something economic), on hospitality, generosity in situations of special urgency?

Sharing time

In addition to money and goods, there is another not so material element that clearly reflects our willingness to follow Jesus: it is time.

“Whoever thinks that his time is too valuable to be wasted listening to others will never find time for God and for his neighbour. He will only find time for himself, for his own talk and personal projects” (Bonhoeffer). Time for the elderly, for the sick, for our brothers and sisters in need…

A good exercise is to analyse in community how we use our time, how much time we spend each week (or month, or year). How much time is for ourselves, for others, for the community, for God? Translating this into numbers is a good test of where our hearts are.

Punctuality is a detail that is not unimportant. Those who value others make an effort not to waste others’ time waiting and are prepared to waste their own time by arriving early. Neglecting this aspect is a sign that should be analysed.

It may also be useful to analyse how many times we claim that we “do not have time” for really important matters in the life of the Fraternity or in the Piarist mission to which we are called. It is striking how the most committed and co-responsible people always “have time” for a new task, while those less involved always have this excuse.

More demanding and liberating is the freedom of those who place themselves at the disposal of the Fraternity and the Order to be sent to another task, to another place, to leave many of their usual securities. It means giving up apparent securities in order to discover the richness of Providence (Mt 6, 25f), the freedom to place oneself in the hands of the community, the happiness of putting the good of others before one’s own security.

Sharing goods, ever more freely and generously, is a path that we have to walk in life and in the Fraternity:

“If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?”.

(1 Jn 4:20)

Testimony from Bilbao (Spain)

Sharing assets in community

“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Lk 12,34).

I begin these lines with a quotation from the Gospel that challenges us when we speak of economic sharing. This passage brings me to a very concrete question: what is the treasure that I have, where do I really put my heart and with it my securities, my confidence, my bets for the future…? These are key questions for those of us who follow Jesus in community, and they are answered not only with words, but above all with deeds and lifestyle.

Another premise for approaching the subject is how I situate myself in the world in which I live, which we know is unjust, exclusive and radically unequal. As soon as I analyse reality, I realise that I am part of a privileged minority, because of the material well-being to which I have access and others do not. Faced with this, I can let myself go and even “go for more”, as the consumer society invites me to do, seeking to increase this privilege for me and for my own. Or I can place myself in a Lazarist perspective, as the Gospel invites me to do, and thus evaluate the social situation and my choices from the point of view of the poor and excluded. Or more concretely, in the manner of Calasanz, I can dare to do something as Piarist as looking at reality through the eyes of the poor child.

From these keys, the sharing of goods is a process of discoveries, of calls and choices in which God meets me through the community and the mission.

Today I am deeply grateful to have been able to live from childhood a pastoral process in a group in which sharing in solidarity has always been a fundamental educational key: through the “boat” of the group, through participation in solidarity campaigns, as well as by cultivating an austere and simple style in what we are and what we do.

It is from there that other steps in sharing have been taken, lived together with the brothers and sisters of the Fraternity:

- The tithe of solidarity, as one of the essential features of our common vocation, understood as the regular giving of at least ten percent of income to support the mission through Itaka-Escolapios, our solidarity platform.

- The contribution to cover the internal expenses of the Fraternity itself, responding to them responsibly and according to my capacity. And to do so not only from the key of my local Fraternity, but also globally.

- Likewise, participation in other forms of sharing that have been emerging among us: loans to meet the extraordinary economic needs of the members (Itaka-Kutxa); a common fund to be able to hire those who need employment (Itaka-Lan)… Proposals that bring us closer, even if only to a limited and partial extent, to that ideal of the first Christian community: “among them no one was in need” (Acts 4:34).

- The contrast in the small community of the family budget, so that the brothers and sisters can guide us, and correct us if necessary, on how we are managing our daily economy and the decisions we are making in this respect.

- And finally, the commitment as a lay Piarist to share income and expenses with the Province, as one of the concrete aspects of the charismatic and juridical integration proper to this vocation.

That said, what can I add from my experience in economic sharing?

The first thing I can say is that, although it is an essential part of our being Christian, it is at the same time something we find difficult to talk about, it often makes us uncomfortable and even a little defensive. I often perceive it in myself, in my weaknesses, selfishness and inconstancy; and I also perceive it sometimes in the community, when we are not transparent, or are too complacent, or too undemanding.

It is difficult for us, yes, because it is not in vain that we are dealing with one of the most countercultural aspects of our community life: it is not common today and here to find someone who permanently gives up part of what is theirs to share with others (beyond their own family); it is even socially rare to talk openly and openly about money.

Precisely for this reason, this dimension of sharing takes on even greater value, because of its witness and because it connects us with the Gospel proposal of detachment (freedom) from material things and solidarity with those who suffer. And it is in our way of relating to the material that the apparently more spiritual options are verified.

I also consider it very important to always maintain the tension regarding the economic issue and the sharing of goods, both at a personal and family level as well as at a community level, in the Piarist Fraternity. Tension to question ourselves what we do or do not do in this aspect and if we are being faithful in the following of Jesus in the Calasanz style. But not a blaming tension, but rather a creative tension, which places us in a dynamic of growth. In this sense, it has been very valuable for me that in our Fraternity the Zacchaeus Option was launched some years ago, as a proposal for personal and community progress that proposed concrete steps in sharing and towards a more supportive lifestyle.

Finally, I believe that from the Fraternity we are called to live economic sharing above all with joy, with trust in our brothers and sisters, as well as with peace in the face of our contradictions. Sharing is above all a gift, not a renunciation… even if I am not always clear-sighted enough to see it that way.

Really, I am very fortunate to have a community to share with, a mission of social transformation to commit myself to and a Pious Schools that welcome me with what I am and what I have. I have won the lottery, how can I not share the prize?

Igor Irigoyen. Fraternity of Itaka - Emmaus

Community sending

The eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain where Jesus had summoned them. When they saw him, they prostrated themselves before him, although some of them doubted. Jesus came and spoke to them as follows: “I have been given full authority in heaven and on earth. Go and make disciples of all nations, baptise them and consecrate them to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all that I have commanded you; for I am with you always, even to the end of the age”.

(Matthew 28:16-20)

Sharing the affective

In that first community “all were of one heart and one soul”. Clearly, a community is not a “group cooker” that keeps its members happy inside and from which they do not want to leave, nor is it a therapeutic collective where everyone goes to seek answers to their expectations and traumas. But a community must be a warm space, a place where we can be healed of our many weaknesses, an environment where we feel loved and grow as brothers and sisters.

A community that is just a “work team”, or a “formation group” or a “prayer centre”, needs to grow in having the same heart and soul. And that has a lot to do with building an oasis in the middle of the desert, a home where to regain strength and orientation, a family where to feel that we have the same blood and the same spirit, a moment to reinforce the feeling of a God the Father who wants us to be brothers and who sends us to build a better land.

In community we are to grow in affective sharing, the joy of being together, shared recreation, communal rest: “See how delightful it is when brothers and sisters are united (Ps 133). This is the best testimony and the gift God gives us: “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for my name’s sake will receive a hundred times as much, and will inherit eternal life” (Mt 19:29).

To share the affective is to share the sentiments of Christ. It is not a matter of creating communities of like-minded people, but of discovering fraternity in the people whom the Lord has called to the same place as each one of us. We must discover that what unites us is the same vocation, the same charism, the same values, the same common vocation. And that is above diversity, differences, customs, sensitivities.

To share the affective is to progressively incorporate the same feelings, desires, projects and ideals as Jesus, his sensitivity, his way of looking, his freedom, his affection, his friendship (Phil 2,5), to be nourished by his words, to share his reasons for living. Jesus shares his joy, his prayer, his suffering with his community. And all this in order to share with Jesus the spiritual, the knowledge of the Father (John 15,15). It is to participate in the mysteries of God, in the life of Jesus, in his holiness, in the Fraternity as a gift.

In every community, difficulties arise, to a greater or lesser extent, in personal relationships. It is normal, the more we live together and the greater the shared history, that differences appear, people who are more difficult, moments of conflict, doubts, defects, tiredness, obsessions, selfishness, small wounds that can grow or heal… Here we have the challenge of sharing, perhaps not directly and as a group, but looking at the most appropriate ways of healing, which always involve sharing more affective aspects as well. In later chapters we will analyse some “illnesses” and some “cures” in community life.

There are those who are afraid of feelings and are blocked in the community: it will be necessary to prepare suitable situations to encourage communication in the community, perhaps in a more personal relationship, in a moment of prayer, in a retreat…

Sometimes the fear of criticism, of conflict, of a bad relationship with another person in the community, makes us shy away from sharing. It will be necessary to unblock this situation that harms everyone. It is necessary to move from selfishness and egocentric criteria to the otherness that maintains our being and opens us to recognise the other as different from me, with the right to be different and as a possibility of mutual enrichment. It is necessary to take care with great delicacy of the changes that can take place and this leads us to avoid classifying the other, to reify them, to mark them forever, to write them off as lost. The importance of forgiveness, of unconditional trust in the brother over and above the differences, the love that comes not from my impression but from the gift of the Father who gives me that brother.

It will be necessary to take care of mutual esteem beyond politeness or benevolence, the moments that make personal closeness possible, the discovery of the need of others and of the responsibility that each one has towards the brothers, shared meals, feasts and moments of celebration, hospitality…

This sharing, based initially on the trust that is gained little by little, must be careful to avoid the confidentiality of what is shared in community, with superficial comments far removed from the contribution proper to a Christian community. And it has to grow in the recognition of the brother who goes beyond the small community and is not hindered by changes in the communities, but gains a sense of the wider community.

Friendship within the community, between communities of the Fraternity, which adds to the same common vocation the friendly relationship of those who feel at ease with their brother in the community, can also be born and should be strengthened as much as possible.

It is easy to detect in a community if there is a welcoming atmosphere, concerned about the situation of each person, interested in the concerns of others, open to other people, communicative of the community experience that is being lived (not of personal matters that should remain inside), dialoguing…

“We teach and admonish one another with wisdom” (Col 3:16). This is good advice for every community that must continue to grow in following Jesus and in community sharing.

Testimony from Governador Valadares (Brazil)

I am Maria Izabel de Jesus, 51 years old, married for eleven years to Carlos Antonio da Silva, father of two children, grandfather of six grandchildren. I am the second wife, we have no children in common. I belong to a family of five siblings and I am the eldest. My mother, who is 74 years old, took me to church at a very young age, without any schooling, to participate in the community and the Eucharist. She was and is a true testimony of faith and resilience.

I started with the Piarist Fathers when I was seven years old, participating in the “catechism”, what we call today in the Pious School “Calasanz Movement”. I was welcomed by Father Eulalio Lafuente, always with great joy. At the age of 15, after the sacrament of Confirmation, I was called to be a catechist and to start the youth group “MEAMÁ” (less arms, more love). In this youth group we had many activities, moments of prayer, celebrations, parties in the houses of the members on special dates, collecting food to give to the needy and taking care of the weekly cleaning of the church. These daily or weekly activities were carried out by me with great joy, I felt proud, because I had the opportunity to share life and mission. As the years went by, I took over the coordination of the Parish Catechesis and of the Christian Community School. These functions demanded a lot of dedication. But nothing was difficult for me. Sometimes I felt restless and I wondered where all this desire to collaborate came from, to do so many things without any tiredness, I just had a feeling of wanting to contribute to the commitment and growth of all those involved in the mission.

In 1999, I started working professionally with the Piarist Fathers in the Parish of Our Lady of Grace, where I spent 10 years. For the last eight years I have been working as a Social Assistant and Pastoral Agent in the Ibituruna School. All these years working with the Piarists, voluntarily in the field of faith education and professionally in formal education, served to confirm the reason for the flame that burned inside me. The care of the Piarists in looking, living, serving, dreaming and projecting the future of the Piarist School together with the laity, stimulated me in the passion to live the Piarist Charism. In 2009, when I was invited to start the path of the Fraternity, I was scared, because I did not know what it was, nor where I was going. But I started. After eight years of belonging to the Fraternity, I find that I am a new woman in my personal, professional and community life. My life has taken on a new meaning. I am currently coordinating the Local and District Councils of the Fraternity. I am also on the General Council of the Fraternity. As a Piarist, I want to continue collaborating so that the beautiful legacy that St. Joseph Calasanz left us strengthens the mission where it already exists and can be extended to other places where it is not yet present. I am happy and very grateful to the Piarists for belonging to this family and for being able to say that in it I found the true meaning to carry out the mission that was entrusted to me.

Izabel de Jesus, Fraternity of Valadares from Brazil

Always in pairs

Let us now begin the march along the paths of life.

No need for luggage, friendly hands are enough.

The paths are narrow to walk without love:

You only get to port if you go two by two.

A man is one man, and life is hard,

two together walk better.

A man without friends is without support,

and it takes two to stand up.

You can’t walk separately in life.

You have to lean on each other to feel supported.

Life is a hard path to walk without love:

you only arrive at a good port if you go two by two .

(G. Fernández- E. Pascual)

Sharing the spiritual

The centre of the Fraternity is Jesus: He is the one who has called us together and has shown us the Father of all who is making us brothers and sisters. This reality must be a frequently shared experience in the community.

The Eucharist is the centre of the community, it is the sign and the motor of communion, not only of the small community or the Fraternity or the Order, but also of the Piarist Christian Community and of the local and universal Church. The weekly experience of the Eucharist, trying to make it as communitarian and lively as possible, is fundamental for the growth of the Fraternity. In it, we de-centre ourselves from our worries, we ask for forgiveness, we listen to the Word with the corresponding orientations, we present our offerings and our lives, we nourish ourselves with the bread of communion and the presence of the living Jesus Christ, and we leave strengthened to continue the mission.

Something similar happens with the common prayer where we tell each other the joy of being brothers and how beautiful it is to live together with one heart and one soul. It is a time to share life and spiritual experience. It is an opportunity not to lose sight of the charism that unites us, the mission we take on, the life we are to lead.

We need to check and review ourselves if this is not the case, if the opposite happens: absence without reason, arriving late for common prayer or the Eucharist, not participating actively, not following the same cadence (some run too fast, others slow down, some bisburst as others declaim, some yawn and others are elsewhere)… and then falsehood appears, honouring God with the lips but not with the heart (Is 29, 13). We need to analyse our spiritual sharing as a sign of the authenticity of fraternity.

To share the spiritual is to share prayer and in prayer to put those who annoy us, those who criticise us, and to ask God to help us to see them as brothers and sisters whom He has placed along the way. It is to live the icon of the community with the paralytic who is brought to Jesus by the group and to discover ourselves sometimes as the one in need and sometimes as the one who brings others… and always in the community (Lk 5,18f.).

To share the spiritual is to rediscover in the Eucharist each liturgical moment as creator and sustainer of the community. To share the spiritual is to value and communicate the goods of the spirit (1 Cor 12:7), the charisms of each one, including the Piarist charism that unites us, because, more than educators or committed people, we must be creators of living communities that make us grow and become a sign of the One who is at the centre. To share the spiritual is to share a believing reading of reality in a spirit of discernment and not of trying to convince others. To share the spiritual is to know how to communicate as an experience of faith, money, interdependence, decisions, friendships, time and the whole of life.

To advance in this sharing we must renounce false ideals that paralyse us in reality and discover ourselves to be weak, vulnerable, bearers of a treasure, being earthen vessels (2 Cor 4, 7), in need of others and not their judges, knowing and recognising our own limits and mistakes, with a readiness to wash the feet of others… and to allow ourselves to be washed (Jn 13, 1-17).

In our heart there is a lot of hidden, unconscious, underhanded and apparently under control aggression, but which often comes to the surface, reacts unexpectedly to some situations and provokes situations and reactions that do not help in communion with the feelings of others. And then this aggressiveness degenerates into anger, hatred, anguish, silences and rejection of others.

This may seem excessive, because we normally control our aggression and explosions only occur from time to time. But explicit or not, physical, verbal or psychological violence translates into a lack of effort to understand others, into emotional distance, into not participating in the pains and joys of others or doing so without involvement, into a lack of empathy with our brothers and sisters. This also goes against the community and against God’s plan.

And it would only take a little to put an end to this violence: to follow the path that leads to the centre of our heart and makes us see how stupid and harmful it is to put the wolf to guard our wounds. And, following that path, to see that deep down we are not so different from those who are most annoying to us.

To share the spiritual is to read the Word of God personally and in community. It is to read the Acts of the Apostles and the letters of the New Testament as the life of those first communities that were discovering the way together, sharing many difficulties and, above all, a Spirit that is still present today in our Fraternity. A precious exercise is to bring each text we read from the Bible up to date in our community.

To share the spiritual is to discover that we have the gift of a Piarist family, of very different brothers who enrich us a lot and remind us Who has called us, who support us and help us to improve every day.

The community is a bank of spiritual gifts for the whole of humanity, it is a project of a home and a workshop of a new humanity. And this can only be done by making palpable the Spirit that shows itself in the community, at each Pentecost with the gathered Fraternity… and united.

To share the spiritual is to become aware of the “planetary man”, in the expression of the Piarist Fr. Ernesto Balducci, and to make the community an experiment of a new humanity united by love and commitment to a better world for all. To the extent that the community is like this, we are opening the way for this new humanity, we will make the Church evident as the Body of Christ alive today, as the People of God, as Catholic or universal communion… as a sign: “By this they will know that you are my disciples…” (Jn 13:35).

Testimony from Carora (Venezuela)

I would like to express my gratitude to the whole Pious School for opening its doors to the laity, through the Piarist Fraternity, especially in Carora-Venezuela, where I have the opportunity to share this particular charism dedicated to children and young people. I would like to thank you for the trust, affection and dedication that you have placed in me during these seven years of fraternal life.

Looking back, I have felt the presence of God guiding my life from the Piarist work, during these years I have been close to the neediest, especially with the smallest; experiences that have enriched my life and tuned my mission in favour of others. I can also say with certainty that my faith story has been guarded by God, because I have had the blessing of belonging to the Piarist Fraternity, where I have strengthened it, with the accompaniment and the timely formation of so many Piarists, men of God, men of integrity, who to this day have given me an example of donation and have impregnated in me the love for the Calasanz Charism. That is why taking the step to the Fraternity represented for me, the longing I had since I was very young, to go beyond a group meeting, to deepen and mature in faith, to be available for the mission entrusted to me and to form a community of brothers sharing this gift.

Thus, in the “Señora del Buen Querer” community, I have had the opportunity to get to know, enjoy and value this form of participation in the Pious School, trying to be coherent and responding to the commitment I made seven years ago as a lay Piarist; from my humble service as a monitor, as well as carrying out projects from Itaka Escolapios, being part of the Presence Team and the Fraternity Council, which have given me a global vision of the Work. Also as a Christian family, my husband and I, have been strengthened, helping us in the education of our children, in their integral development and that they continue to forge as volunteers and members of the Calasanz Movement; that is, this love for the Pious School is renewed and continues to grow in the lives of the children, now with a larger family of Brothers scattered around the world.

For all these reasons, the Fraternity represents for me the precious pearl, the energy that strengthens me and one of the most gratifying joys; in it I have found a way of giving my life in solidarity, of sharing it from my limitations and realities. It is an inexhaustible treasure that, even though it is more than 400 years old, surprises us with its novelty and relevance today. Finally, beyond what I can write, with deep gratitude, I ask God to grant me to continue to be part of the family, created for the glory of God and the benefit of others.

Yelitza Alvarado. Señora del Buen Querer Community. Carora. Venezuela

Thank you for counting on us

That evening, the monastic community prayed a prayer of intercession in their oratory. One after the other, the prayers of the monks were heard: “Lord, I pray to you”, “Lord, I pray to you”, “Lord, I pray to you”. The abbot also said his prayer: “Lord, I pray to you…”. Finally, all fell silent for a long time.

Until again the voice of the Abbot was heard: “Now, Lord, tell us how we can help you; we listen to you in silence”.

After a while he concluded: “Thank you, Father, because you want to count on us”. And all the monks responded in unison: “Amen”.

(Because they had understood that prayer, like love, has two times: giving and receiving, and that if one of them is missing, one dies).

Community diseases

Every community, like every person, has moments of illness. If it is discovered early and treated properly, it has no negative effects and can even be a vaccine for more serious illnesses. The condition is to discover it, diagnose it, treat it in time… and trust in the Lord of life.

In the community there can be the same illnesses that Jesus cured: deaf people who never listen to the community and to the needs of others, mute people who say nothing, blind people who do not see or do not want to see, the usual sick and victims… or even demoniacs, who only seem to want to do harm.

The disease can be our own fault if we have not taken care of ourselves, if we do not have a regular check-up, if we do not have healthy habits. And it can also be the result of environmental conditions, environmental viruses, contagion.

It is useful to be aware of some of the most common diseases in order to try to prevent or cure them at the first signs. And we leave it to each community to point out which other diseases occur in their own environment.

Individualism

The individualist is a sick person who does not come to share the “same heart and soul” of the community. He has his own convictions and thinks that maintaining them in spite of the community is a good thing. And he does not realise that his illness is harmful to him and to the whole, that it can be contagious, that it creates aggression and can break communion.

Sometimes he takes the form of a sniper, who may be effective for a short period of time, but for his intuition and action to persist he needs the community. And if this attitude is prolonged over time, it breaks the community and the mission, while disappointing the people who have put their trust in him.

Individualism soon leads to self-management, especially spiritual self-management, and to withdrawal into oneself, which often leads to other very harmful symptoms: lack of objectivity, conflicts with those closest to us, different ways of being in different environments, sometimes even a double life.

This self-sufficient individualistic numbness creates the phenomenon of psychological, relational and spiritual distancing of one from the other (dispersion) so that, even when living together, each one attends, more or less elegantly, to his own affairs, starting with the spiritual ones, while increasing the inability to understand each other and to find a common centre, a common passion, a common identity, a common holiness (the confusion of tongues). And when the same ideal is not lived together, its attraction diminishes and community life sinks into mediocrity and desolation. It is sad to find communities where the confusion of tongues has made relationships insipid and has destroyed the beauty of being together.

A sign of the individualist is the lack of punctuality, a delicate expression of brotherly love, which is undermined by one’s own plans, by the greater value placed on one’s own time than on that of others, by the lack of responsibility for joint actions.

Narcissism goes hand in hand with this individualism, where one believes oneself to be the centre, the only important one… without realising that it is due to low self-esteem and complexes and always ends in disappointment when faced with reality, personal failures, opposition from others. Sometimes it is compensated by being beggars for recognition from “outsiders”, by trying to appear, by living a role that does not correspond to one’s inner life. Narcissism in oneself and in one’s brothers and sisters should be detected early in order to correct it as soon as possible.

Individualism, which is contagious in discouraging others to work together, can lead to making a community a place where anything goes (the Pantheon that accommodates all the gods), where the strongest prevail (the violence of the Far West), where everyone does what they like without taking into account or valuing the others (Pancho Villa’s army), where life is comfortable (the hotel, the group of friends), where there is room for the weird, the manic and the isolated… All this is a far cry from the Fraternity which shares faith, life and mission.

Criticism… always against each other

It is not unusual to find in the community permanent critical attitudes, under the guise of “prophets”, who are characterised by constant denunciation, always against others, without assuming any responsibility or commitment.

It is the disease of criticism, often in the form of backbiting, constant irony, superficial mockery, which often translates into pessimism and silence when there is a contrast from the community.

Often this criticism goes hand in hand with constant complaining, which damages the community to a great extent. Sometimes it leads to division into camps within the Fraternity on the basis of ideology that has little to do with the Gospel and the common vocation we have received. It often leads to forgetting that the community is made by all of us, that it is not always the fault of others. It is useful to know that complaints are a cage that encloses us from others.

This division can lead to sectarianism, to consider the brethren as people “who are not one of us” because they do not belong to our little group (Mk 9, 38-40). In the end, it is jealousy and capillism.

We can often find ourselves in that attitude of which St. Paul already spoke: “We hear that some of you are idle, doing nothing and meddling in everything” (2 Thess 3:10).

Idealism… without realism or personal transformation

A common illness, usually present after the first period in the Fraternity, is a certain disillusionment because the community does not respond to the image we had made for ourselves, to the ideal we had hoped for.

It is a common situation that is cured by striving to get closer to that ideal, with the contagion of illusion to the whole community to continue taking steps towards a better community.

But sometimes it leads to a paralysing disappointment, to abandoning the community, to criticising others without personal commitment, to accommodating oneself by lowering one’s ideals?

A healthy Fraternity has to accompany this first stage, offering communication, spaces to share experiences and to prepare new steps, trying to control the sceptics in the community.

It is worth remembering that it is a disease that can be positive if it mobilises everyone, if it touches on community comforts and routines, helping it to continue to grow.

It is very convenient to read, to reflect, to pray with this precious reflection of D. Bonhoeffer in his book “Life in Community”):

Christian community means fellowship in Jesus Christ and through Jesus Christ. No community can be more or less than that. And this applies to all forms of community. If we can be brothers and sisters, it is only through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ.

To desire something more than what Christ has founded among us is not to desire Christian brotherhood, but to go in search of who knows what extraordinary experiences which one thinks one will find in the Christian community and which one has not found elsewhere, thus introducing into the community the disturbing ferment of one’s own desires. It is precisely in this aspect that the Christian fraternity is threatened (almost always and right from its beginnings) by the gravest of dangers: the internal intoxication caused by the confusion between Christian fraternity and a dream of a pious community.

It is therefore important to be aware from the outset that, firstly, Christian brotherhood is not a human ideal, but a God-given reality. And secondly, that this reality is of a spiritual order and not of a psychological order.

Many communities have failed because they have lived a chimerical image of community. It is logical that the Christian, when he enters the community, brings with him an ideal of what the community should be and tries to realise it. However, God’s grace constantly destroys this kind of dream.

Disappointed by others and by ourselves, God leads us to the knowledge of authentic Christian community. In his grace he does not allow us to live, even for a few weeks, in the community of our dreams. For God is not a God of sentimental emotions, but the God of reality. That is why only the community that, aware of its tasks, does not succumb to the great disappointment, begins to be what God wants and achieves by faith the promise that was made to it.

The sooner this hour of disillusionment arrives for the community and for the believer himself, the better for both. To want to avoid it at all costs and to cling to a chimerical image of community, which is destined to deflate anyway, is to build on sand and to condemn oneself sooner or later to ruin.

We must be persuaded that our dreams of human community, introduced into the community, are a real danger and must be destroyed on pain of death to the community. Whoever prefers his own dream to reality becomes a destroyer of the community, no matter how honest, serious and sincere his personal intentions may be.

God abhors pious dreams because they make us hard and pretentious. They make us demand the impossible from God, from others and from ourselves. They make us judges of our brothers and sisters and of God Himself. We behave as if it were up to us to create a Christian society that did not exist before, adapted to our own ideal image.

And when things do not work out as we would like them to, we speak of lack of collaboration, convinced that the community is sinking when we see our dream collapsing. In this way, we begin to accuse the brothers, then God, and finally, in despair, we turn our bitterness against ourselves.

The opposite is true when we are convinced that God himself has laid the unique foundation on which to build our community and that, before any initiative on our part, he has united us into one body through Jesus Christ. Then we do not enter the community with demands, but with heartfelt gratitude.

Therefore, true Christian community is born when, leaving behind our reveries, we open ourselves to the reality that has been given to us.

Comfort and immobility

This illness can show itself with different symptoms: “it has always been done this way” so as not to leave the comfort zone, unconcern and indifference for the brother and for the progress of the Fraternity (“where is your brother?”), the profiteer who demands much and contributes little, the sceptic who holds back the illusions of the young people?

In the Fraternity we must put in place mechanisms to help in the face of this ever-present threat. We are not museum keepers, nor sad observers of community life, nor narcissistic consumers of community… but builders of a Fraternity that is the work of the Spirit through each one of us.

We are pilgrims and not wanderers, not tourists, but living stones of a Church that takes the face of each one of us when we live in Fraternity and collaborate in the building of the Kingdom.

Consumerism is a very present factor today that affects not only the economic level, but also the way we relate to each other with the risk of doing it in a utilitarian way, with the attraction it has and can turn us into slaves (a very visible example is the excessive use of mobile phones), with the tendency towards selfishness and egocentrism…

Weaknesses due to oversights that are becoming serious

Neglecting the sacramental dimension, especially the Eucharist, leads to a spiritual anaemia that can result in “sociologism” and ideology without any link to the Lord of Life who is present in the sacraments of the ecclesial community.

The forgetting of essential elements of Christian living: the constant reading of the Word, conversion, ongoing formation, the loss of a moral sense perhaps due to assimilation with the social values of the environment, the partial vision of the Church… which weakens our following of Jesus.

Criticism without consequences of greater personal commitment, often from the logic of the always self-interested media, which harms us and those who listen to us and does not bring any real improvement for the Church. Something similar happens with the lack of a sense of communion and ecclesial involvement that translates into little presence in events and in the life of the Church.

The lack of sufficient formation, which has to have a very concrete plan each year in community and personal life, also wears us down and can cause small cracks in our faith.

Personal and small community disorganisation, impatience that does not forget the harsh persistence of reality, inconstancy, the self-sufficiency of each one and of the community itself that can lead to sectarianism, the utilitarianism of community life (what does it bring to me? leaving aside what I have to contribute to others) or psychologism (I don’t feel good, I don’t miss anything), uncritical integration into the fashions and criteria of society without contrasting them with the Gospel and the community, are so many other weaknesses with serious consequences if they are maintained over time.

Problematic people… and stupidity!

It is not uncommon to find in every community some problematic person, who has strange motivations for being in the Fraternity, which greatly complicates community life. This is a serious illness.

He is characterised by establishing strange personal relationships, asymmetric of superiority or inferiority, with false roles and pretended roles, very far from a healthy relationship (of interdependence, reciprocity, co-responsibility, flexibility without dogmatism), causing problems of all kinds and at all times. He often maintains more meaningful relationships outside the community, where he appears to have a more gratifying role, but which always ends up with new problems. Sometimes it is linked to indiscretion, gossip, slander, creating a bad atmosphere wherever he goes…

It is often confused at first with people in need of more attention, or even with psychiatric problems.

Perhaps a simpler and more accurate explanation is to consider this disease as stupidity. We have a small book, “The Fundamental Laws of Human Stupidity” by Carlo M. Cipolla[31] , which can enlighten us. We now present a brief summary to encourage individual and community reading, which will help us a lot in our daily life and also in community life.

31 We found it at https://detemasytemas.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/cipolla-carlo-m-las-leyes-fundamentales-de-la-estupidez-humana.pdf

- There is in our world a vast, extremely powerful and dangerous, unorganised collective that follows no law and has no boss, but acts in perfect sync to reinforce its destructive power: they are the stupid.

- A stupid person is a person who causes harm to another person or group of people without, at the same time, gaining a benefit for himself or herself, or even gaining a detriment. There are three other types of people: the wicked who do harm in order to do good, the unwary (or generous) who lose so that others gain, and the clever who make everyone gain.

- Always and inevitably each of us underestimates the number of stupid individuals circulating in the world.

- The probability that a given person is stupid is independent of any other characteristic of the same person. Thus the probability of encountering someone stupid is similar in all countries, cultures, religions, ages, levels of education…

- Non-stupid people always underestimate the harmful potential of stupid people. The non-stupid constantly forget that dealing and/or associating with stupid individuals unfailingly proves to be a costly mistake.

- The stupid person is the most dangerous kind of person there is, more dangerous than the wicked.

- The percentage of stupidity is always constant: only the action of everyone else can, by controlling the wicked, reduce the harmful capacity of the stupid.

These brief notes may fail to show the importance of this analysis, which can be of great help in community life and in all collectives.

Contagious viruses

The good news is that all the above illnesses, and those we can add, have a common constant: neglecting the vocation received from God for the Fraternity, giving priority to other aspects. This can help us in the healing process. The bad news is that community illnesses are contagious… if we do not make an effort to detect them, isolate them if necessary and apply the necessary remedies.

When one member of the community is individualistic and does not go along with the others, it discourages everyone from working together, and can lead to individualistic attitudes. The same goes for informality, infrequent attendance in the community, lack of preparation for the meeting, disorder, unpunctuality, lack of commitment, corruption. A good atmosphere of collaboration helps everyone to integrate and participate; a situation of neglect also spreads to others or to everyone.

A community is a group of people gathered in the name of Jesus Christ, to live the commandment of love, moved by the dynamism of the Spirit, for a mission which consists in establishing the Kingdom of God in the world.

The community grows as each of its components matures. The rest is pure appearance. There is a dialectical relationship between community and the individual, which may seem contradictory but is very real: the person grows in autonomy when he identifies with the common project, and matures in freedom through interdependence and community discernment. In the community he finds help so that respect for the person does not become a cult of personality: the community must be in favour of the individual, but against individualism.

To make each member of the Fraternity grow, to help to become gratefully aware of having been begotten by faith, called by the Lord to a precious vocation, to be part of the Pious Schools, to assume the mission of engendering life and future for all humanity must be priorities in each small community and in every Fraternity in order to eliminate the illnesses that can afflict us.

Testimony from Serra - Brazil

I am happy to belong to the Pious Schools through the Fraternity. Four hundred years ago, a man saw in a group of poor children with no future, and in education, the key to social transformation, thus finding his definitive way of serving God, placing himself at the service of these children and young people. This man’s action was like a ray of light and hope for many children and young people who were born marked by poverty and lack of opportunities.

Meeting Calasanz makes me dream again. A dream that the child will not be judged for his social status or for being different, but for what he has inside, for his character, and will have the opportunity to prove his worth. A dream of a better future for all. A future in which education professionals (formal or non-formal) know how to look at each child and recognise their specificities and differences in learning. They must understand that each subject is unique and, therefore, it is necessary to know their reality. A dream of a pedagogy of autonomy and hope that collaborates so that each subject is aware of his or her transforming role in society.

As a Fraternity, I feel the desire to share that passion, caring, in the best way, for children and young people and offering them the best of myself. Working, with tenderness, to help sustain and expand the service and the mission in a dynamic way. Always placing myself on the way, believing in the project in a committed way. Trusting and guaranteeing it in a daring way. By meeting expectations, without fear of difficulties, with a clear common project, situated in each context, not to adapt to demand, but to offer a valid and humble service, full of convictions. Young people and children need committed educators. It is necessary to leave a legacy, like Calasanz, discarding what does not offer light, in order to grow. Sharing, renewing and proposing, being a living witness of Jesus Christ. A Piarist work must be a special place to build happiness, collectively. Like Calasanz, we must welcome each child with a special affection, especially those rejected by all. We must prepare the future starting from the present.

This is how I feel, committed, involved in this subject, belonging to the great family of Calasanz. My intentions as a life project coincide with the Calasanctian way of being Calasanz to take care of life and people. Belonging to the Fraternity is the way to be more completely Piarist.

Katiúscia Pinto Nascimento, Fraternidade de Serra - Brazil

Donkeys, more than donkeys

Two donkeys were tied together. On either side of them, about five metres apart, their owner had placed two piles of rich green alfalfa. Clumsy, like the donkeys that they were, driven by hunger, they were determined to eat each one from the pile nearest to them. So eager were they to eat, so much effort in pulling each one to his own side, so much stubbornness and stubbornness and so much selfishness, that they exhausted themselves without eating a morsel. They were on the point of touching the grass in front of them with their snouts, but they did not succeed. This increased their suffering, their anguish and their futile effort.

They spent an hour like this, until, exhausted by hunger, work and anger, they fell to the ground two fingers (only two fingers!) from the alfalfa.

Two cows passing by, in marvellous camaraderie, stopped and, with intelligent parsimony, they cleared one of the piles and then, with identical understanding, they finished off the second.

(Alfonso Francia. “Historias de la vida”).

To cure community ailments

It is important to be very aware that the illnesses mentioned, and others that may occur, are illnesses and not evils. It is not a matter of judging people and pushing them away, but of seeing them as actions due to certain “viruses” that we need to cure.

Obviously for a good healing it is necessary to know each situation in detail. Here we will simply present some remedies and therapies that can be helpful.

A good community atmosphere

When the community enjoys a good community atmosphere, good relationships, a spirit of commitment and hope, it is easier for illnesses to stay away or to be carried peacefully.

It is therefore very important to take care of everything that contributes to creating an atmosphere of fraternity, of commitment to the mission, of spirituality that focuses us on a very much alive Jesus among us. Some of the elements we need to take care of:

- Create spaces for communication, for sharing life. These can be moments of shared prayer, community days, retreats, shared free time… It is necessary to have moments where feelings, worries, joys, difficulties can be communicated. Spending time in community creates a good spirit of fraternity.

- Favour friendship, within the community and also outwards, human closeness, disinterested, concerned for the other, charitable and liberating. And beware of false friendships that create separate, divisive groups.

- To make the community a “place of forgiveness and celebration” (it is worth reading Jean Vanier’s book with this title), where life, faith, the events of each person and of the community are celebrated: and where we know how to ask for forgiveness in words and gestures. A community that celebrates forgiveness to our brothers and sisters, to people who may have offended us and to ourselves.

- Enable a community that is “home and workshop” (another beautiful book, now by José Antonio García), where it is a pleasure to be and where we design the world we want, where we love each other and where we come together in a transformative commitment.

- A community that is open, that is inviting, that is contagious, that knows how to welcome others and learn from them. A community that accepts those who are different, that values differences and knows how to be enriched by them.

- Have the ability to control the toxic people who can always appear, those who introduce a lot of weeds and negativity. It is necessary to deal with them with gentleness and fraternal correction, with affection and firmness… and, if necessary, by making them leave the community.

- Creating joy in the community and in the environment. This salt of life is an indicator and a goal of every community, which is perceived from the outside and which keeps everyone hopeful. It is not a joy based on successes, on the complacency of achievements, on affection and applause, but on the discovery of the treasure of life (Mt 13:44f), on doing what we were meant to do (Lk 17:7-10), on doing what we love and loving what we do, in knowing that God loves us and gives us brothers and sisters, in knowing that our names are written in heaven (Lk 10, 17-24), in the joy of collaborating with God in his creation and in his presence in the world, in knowing how to look with clear eyes?

A good community atmosphere is conditioned by being an open, united, happy community, transforming reality with its mission and mobilising its own members and those close to it.

Some concrete tools

We have already indicated some concrete elements to foster a good atmosphere in the Fraternity. Here are some more concrete ones:

- The Fraternity’s project, which sets out some lines and objectives for the medium or long term. And the community programme, clear and accepted by all, where the organisation of the year is specified: timetables, dates, activities, formation plan, way of carrying out prayer… If we are clear about where we are going and with what concrete means, the community will function better and will not waste time and effort in the organisation, which should be clear from the beginning.

- The review of life, personally and in the small community. If possible, with a life project that is well worked out and sustained over time, which is concretised each year in actions shared in the community. The Word, the statutes of the Fraternity, the project of the community and the brothers themselves will be the contrast and the light to continue advancing in the following of Jesus.

- Careful time for sharing life and faith: careful and shared prayer that also favours the communication of life, the atmosphere of the prayer and the community meeting, a longer and more careful time (a retreat, a special day), times dedicated to each member (some communities mark five minutes in each meeting for one person to share how he/she is doing)…

- Fraternal correction. The Gospel speaks of fraternal correction (Mt 18,15-17); it was practised in the first communities. Paul corrected Peter (Gal 2,11) and recommended fraternal correction in his letters (1 Thess 5,14; 2 Tim 4,2; Tit 3,10). In spiritually demanding communities it is practised almost as a sacrament. It is situated in the unveiling of the “blind self”. To ask our brothers to correct us is our right; to correct our brother is our duty of love. Just as we ask the doctor to tell us the truth about our state of health, we can expect such help from the brothers. The aim is to help the brother to know himself better so that he can overcome his faults and grow. It must always be motivated by love; before we dare to correct the brother we must be very sure that we are motivated by love and not by unspeakable feelings. We must be ready to be corrected and be grateful to the one who corrects us. This always involves a great deal of delicacy and it is necessary to think about the most appropriate system (by a community leader, by someone closer to us, at a suitable time…).

- A good human and theological formation in community life that also includes daily life, mobility between small communities, personal accompaniment, the proposal of steps in personal growth, are many other means that help to combat the poverty of each individual and of each community.

- Review our sensitivity thresholds when we are personally affected and when we discover the needs of others. Some people have a low threshold for themselves and are easily hurt by small details, a sentence, a comment, a situation… and it is necessary to see that the problem is not outside but inside where there are complexes, low self-esteem and narcissism. Sometimes the threshold is so high that the indications of others are not picked up and it will be necessary to open the eyes, ears and heart more to the environment. And something similar happens with the degree to which it is necessary to see what is happening to our brothers and sisters in the community. It can be a good tool to think about the threshold of sensitivity we have and whether it is necessary to adjust it,

- Fight the dragon or free the princess? In each moment of our Fellowship, what can help us more: highlighting the negative to fight against it or the positive for more motivation to move forward? In certain situations it can be useful to highlight our weaknesses, problems, negatives, to make us react. At other times, it is preferable to leave “the dragon” and present new possibilities more forcefully, “the princess” who is a sign of what would make everyone happy, the dreams that encourage us. The important thing is to know how to combine both elements, both very real, in order to keep on walking.

- “If you want to build a ship, don’t start by fetching wood, cutting planks or distributing the work; you must first evoke in people a longing for a free and wide sea” (Saint-Exupéry).

Authority and animator

A naivety that sometimes occurs in the Christian community is to think that there is no need for an animator, that there is no need for any authority within the community.

Every human group, and even more so a Christian community, needs someone who can help the group to grow, to organise itself, to resolve conflicts… Evidently there are different ways of leading and, in the Fraternity, we will have to look for those people and ways of functioning that most help us to grow in our style.

The Church has always thought of the person of the ordained ministry to ensure communion, to be the image of Christ himself especially in the sacraments, to be a guide in the interpretation of the Word and to be a servant of all. The role of the priest is fundamental in the Church and also in the Fraternity, where we have the opportunity to have Piarist priests. We have to take care that they can be brothers like everyone else in the Fraternity and that they can render their service without absorbing or eliminating the role of the other members. Their role is of great importance.

The people who exercise the service of animation in the Fraternity and in each of its communities are a gift for each member of the community and for the whole Fraternity. It is highly desirable that they be chosen, that they have the capacity and availability for this service, that they can receive adequate training, that they work in a team…

The formation of those who assume the direction of the Fraternity is essential to promote leadership, authority and power, always in the key of service and trying to involve many people. They must be clear about the Fraternity’s project, the care of all the people, the situation and culture that is being created[32] , the local and global dimension… Without good leaders, the Fraternity goes anywhere without direction.

32 It is important to know and work on the organisation’s culture, which consists of the set of beliefs, values, rituals, myths, feelings, work styles and relationships that distinguish an organisation from others and that have a determining influence on the behaviour of the individuals and groups linked to it, as they find in this set of elements the keys from which they interpret their activity and their position in the organisation.

In each situation, it will be necessary to see what type of animation is most suitable and what means can be made available. Because a good team of animators, a good Fraternity Council, is an indispensable condition for everything to work.

Personal growth

The community needs each person and each person needs the community, but at the same time there is a basic tension between the expectations and needs of the person and the demands of community life. We feel God’s vocation, we are able to recognise the gifts he has given us, we are ready to give our lives… but it is difficult for us to accept that this gift must be made precisely through the community, where we do not feel fully understood or loved, where demands are made on us that do not correspond exactly to our availability. There is always a tension between the person and the community, which is necessary for the growth of the person, preventing him from closing in on himself, and for the community, which needs forces that make it grow constantly.

The growth of the person and the growth of the community are profoundly linked, but they cannot be equated. A good community will be one that ensures that everyone, or the majority of people, will be able to develop well in their lives. To this end, we suggest

- A personal work of purification of our motivations in the different areas of life, a growing awareness of the self in its different dimensions, a life project that is gradually being transformed into God’s project for my life?

- A care in the growing maturity with regard to the threshold of sensitivity we have in the face of pain, criticism, situations of difficulty, availability, co-responsibility… To the extent that we place our life and our sensitivity in “the Kingdom of God and his justice”, everything else is resituated from that key, making us freer and more fraternal.

- A constant vigilance of our various identities, of the various roles we play in the different instances in which we move, so that they complement each other and are not parallel lives in the family, at work, in our leisure time, in volunteering, in the community, with the Lord?

- Realising the service of the community to get to know myself. One of the ways is to discover how what bothers me most about others is often what defines me. Accepting myself and my brother will be fundamental in order to accept and love him as he is, without measuring him by my criteria, nor imposing my vision on him, nor forcing him to behave as I want him to. Here the magic words of the community help us a lot: “please, thank you, I invite you, I’m sorry, I made a mistake, you’re right, how do you see it, can you help me? And it also helps us to always highlight the positive in each other.

The relationship of friendship with Jesus Christ, meditation and personal reflection, the contrast of the life project with the Lord and with the community, will be valuable instruments to take care of our human, Christian and Piarist health.

Focus on Jesus

Everything that decentres us from ourselves to place our life in Jesus will be fundamental for this healthy life: to come out of self-referentiality in order to live in reference to the Fraternity, the Gospel, Jesus Christ.

We have to live the road to Emmaus more and more intensely: to recognise in our personal and community journey the Lord who goes by our side, to understand the Scriptures, to feel our hearts burning, to recognise Jesus in the life and bread shared in the Eucharist, to set out again to transmit the great news that Jesus is still alive…

We have to live the experience of the prodigal son who knows how to return home, we have to be very vigilant not to be the older brother who judges and in the end is left out, we have to assume the role of the father who goes out to look for the prodigal son and also looks for the older son, who cares for everyone and never loses hope.

We have the example of Mary, whom the Pious Schools take as a reference and rely on her protection. She, always close to Jesus, is also a model of community,

- Mary accepts to collaborate in God’s plan. This is also our main goal: to let the Lord work in us and through us. It is God’s plans that must prevail over our own and we must never forget this: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord” (Lk 1:38).

- Mary welcomes Jesus in her and gives him to the world. Giving Jesus a central place in our community is not easy, because the agenda of our own affairs makes us forget that we are here to give Christ to others. We should learn from Mary to fill ourselves with God in order to be able to give him to others.

- Mary keeps and meditates in her heart the Word that is spoken to her. For her it is a seed that germinates and grows. Sometimes it is difficult for us not to let the needs of the mission override listening to and meditating on the Word.

- Mary follows Jesus to the cross, following him at all times, sharing in his life and his fate. Mary is a call to perseverance.

- Mary is still in the midst of the Church: she was there on the day of Pentecost, keeping faith and hope in the midst of the community. And so she invites us to be always in an attitude of shared hope.

Knowing how to give reason for our hope

“When a group cannot describe and explain its convictions to the rest of society, it is inexorably driven to adopt sectarian behaviour or suffer from a series of cognitive dissonance, a kind of schizophrenia between its religious beliefs and the convictions of the society of which it is a part, which is ultimately unsustainable.

We Christians must bring to our society our prophetic resistance to any situation of injustice and instrumentalisation of people, while at the same time announcing the possibility of a better world through love that is scandalously universal”.

(Pedro José Gómez Serrano)

A good formation, always updated and adapted to the community and its members, becomes a fundamental element for the good health of the Fraternity. This formation must be active so that it can be internalised, to respond to the day to day, to be a witness and to respond to the requirements of the people close to it, who always end up taking an interest in the life of the community.

It is useful to know the contribution of Cardinal Ratzinger, before he became Pope, when he compared the Church to the moon and pointed out that, as we have seen on arriving at the moon, we have observed that it is a star without life of its own, arid and sterile: and yet, on contemplating it from Earth, we are amazed by its luminosity and beauty. She reflects to us, in the middle of the night, the light that comes from the sun. Thus the Church, which may seem to us to be poor and lacking in vitality, exists to reflect the love of God and to illuminate and warm all the people of our planet, even when they are not aware of it.

A tale for our healing

“The abbot of a monastery was very worried. Years ago, his monastery had seen times of splendour. Its cells had been full of young novices and the chapel had been filled with the harmonious chanting of its monks. But bad times had come: people no longer came to the monastery to nourish their spirits. The flood of young candidates had ceased and the chapel was silent. Only a few monks remained, sadly and routinely going about their duties.

One day, he decided to seek advice, and went to an old bishop who was reputed to be a very wise man in his old age. He set out on his journey, and a few days later he found himself in front of the good man. He asked him, “What is the cause of this sad state of affairs, and have we committed a sin? To which the old bishop replied: “Yes, you have committed a sin of ignorance. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself has disguised Himself and is living among you, and you do not know it”. And he said no more.

The abbot withdrew and set out on his way back to his monastery. On the journey he felt as if his heart was beating out of his chest. He could not believe it! The Son of God himself was living there in the midst of his monks! How had he not been able to recognise him? Was it the brother sacristan? Perhaps the brother cook? Or the brother steward? No, not him! Unfortunately, he had too many defects… But the old bishop had said that he had “disguised himself”. Were not those defects part of his disguise? All in all, everyone in the convent had faults… and one of them had to be Jesus Christ!

When he arrived at the monastery, he gathered his monks together and told them what he had found out. The monks looked at each other in disbelief. Jesus Christ… here? Unbelievable! Of course, if he was in disguise… So, maybe… it could be So-and-so… Or Thingy? Or…?

One thing was certain: If the Son of God was there in disguise, it was not likely that they would be able to recognise Him. So they all began to treat each other with respect and consideration. “You never know,” each one thought to himself as he dealt with another monk, “maybe this is the one…”

The result was that the monastery regained its former atmosphere of overflowing joy. Soon dozens of candidates again came asking to be admitted to the Order, and in the chapel the jubilant singing of the monks resounded once more, radiant with the spirit of Love” (Anthony de Mello).

Testimony… from heaven and very much present on earth

At the time of collecting these testimonies, the news of the departure to the Father’s House of a sister of the Fraternity of Itaka - Emmaus in Bilbao, of Mari Tere… and a few days later of the young religious Jean Luc from Belo Horizonte. There, in heaven, the Fraternity of the Pious Schools is growing, starting with Calasanz himself, with so many Piarist religious who have given their lives in response to the Lord’s call to care for children, adolescents, young people and the poor through transforming Christian education. There are already many brothers and sisters of the Fraternity, some religious and lay, and from there they continue to participate in our celebrations, meetings, gatherings… It is impossible to mention all the names, but we know that their names are written in heaven.

We know that, when it is our turn to take the step, they will be there waiting for us and inviting us to that definitive encounter with the Lord and with the definitive Fraternity.

Therefore, we ask the Lord, and all those saints and saints who are with Him, to accompany us, to intercede for us, to increase our faith and our availability to bring heaven closer to earth.

How difficult forgiveness is!

Once upon a time there was a king who had three sons. He also possessed a great deal of wealth. Above all, he had a brilliant of extraordinary value, admired the world over. Who would that brilliant be for when dividing the inheritance? His father put them to the test. It would go to the one who would perform the greatest deed on the appointed day… When evening came, each one recounted the events of the day.

The eldest had slain a dragon that was spreading panic throughout the kingdom. The second defeated ten well-armed men with a small dagger. The third said: “I went out this morning and found my greatest enemy sleeping on the edge of a cliff… and I let him sleep on”.

Then the king rose from his throne, embraced his youngest son and handed him the brilliant.

(Manuel Sánchez Monge. “Parábolas como dardos”, p. 116)

Happy in Fraternity

Every person desires happiness and tries to seek it through multiple paths, not always successful, in order to find it for himself, for those close to him and for humanity as a whole.

The Fraternity is a proposal for happiness in all areas. Personally, because it is a privileged place to love and to feel loved, to be useful, to give meaning to life, to meet the Lord of life and to live in fullness.

In a culture of suspicion, or at least of doubt, which has helped humanity’s progress so much, we also face a serious problem when it comes to finding that happiness. The confidence of the individual as the centre of the universe and king of creation has been crumbling and can leave us with a sense of emptiness and unhappiness. The earth and its inhabitants are not the centre of the universe, but only a tiny planet around a small star in a not very important galaxy (Copernicus). Man is just another animal, too similar to others and perhaps just another link in the evolution of the species, which can disappear without affecting nature (Darwin). People’s supposed intelligence is very limited and behaviour is conditioned to social and political realities (Marx) and to an unconscious that is much more influential than rationality (Freud). The very idea of God as a loving father may be a wish and a projection of ourselves without any real basis (Feuerbach). Mercy and human solidarity can be a weakness that goes against history and nature itself (Nietzsche). Perhaps each person’s life is completely indifferent to others and to the course of the universe. In the midst of so much uncertainty, how can happiness and a meaningful life be found? Is it only the immediate pleasure, the avoidance of the big questions?

Yuval Noah Harari’s contribution is interesting in his books and especially in the one about the future, “Homo Deus”. In it he states that the challenges facing humanity until the 20th century were famine, plague and war. In the 20th century, it became possible to put an end to these three challenges. This is not to say that they no longer exist today with much suffering and injustice for millions of people, but that they could be avoided and are in fact being reduced. Today we have the food and production possibilities to feed the whole of humanity, even if we are not doing so. Today diseases are being controlled and ways of curing them are being discovered, even if they are still reserved for those who can afford them. Today the international community could stop wars, or at least greatly reduce them, although there are still too many interests that prevent this from happening.

The challenges for the future, according to this author, are threefold: immortality, happiness and being gods. Immortality, living longer, much longer, is on today’s agenda. Every year we are increasing the life expectancy of humanity and, above all, of the richest. This obviously brings with it problems that will have to be solved: Happiness is being understood as a right and this entails avoiding pain, making pleasure more accessible, using legal drugs that free us from anxieties and suffering? Being like gods seems to be a more real possibility every day with genetic modification, technology applied to and incorporated into the human body itself, giving it new faculties… Each of these horizons is full of possibilities and also of new ethical problems, of coexistence, of limits, which we need to approach with a broad outlook and with good discernment.

The immense possibilities of technology may also be eliminating our freedom. Today, social networks and information from our communication channels can know us better than we know ourselves by controlling what we see, what we buy, what we choose… They could even choose, using increasingly sophisticated algorithms, our partner, our friends, our profession, our holiday plans better than we do. It is not just a matter of “some black hand” controlling us, but we can dispense with any choice and let “the computer” choose for us with the certainty that it will be more accurate than we are.

Being well aware of these approaches and the questions they raise, and being well integrated in our society, we continue to present the Christian proposal, the shared life in a small Christian community, as the path that can guide us in our present and future life.

The beatitudes are the proposal of happiness that Jesus offers us: happy are those who have the heart of the poor, those who know how to look with clean eyes, those who work for peace, those who hunger and thirst for justice, those who have mercy?

The beatitudes are the Christian’s identity card, his or her genes… which will always have to be under constant vigilance so that they gain space in one’s own life, in the community and in the environment in which we find ourselves.

The commandment of love, the giving of one’s own life for the benefit of others, the discovery of the Father who loves us, the friendship of the living Jesus at our side, the Fraternity that nourishes our faith and commitment, the appropriate formation in contrast always with the values of the Gospel, the commitment to build a better world for all, are the building blocks of a happiness that can already become very real in our midst.

Testimony of religious life of insertion

At a meeting of grassroots communities in Madrid, different experiences of community life were shared. Each member of one of these realities presented his or her testimony for the richness of all.

The topic gained in intensity when one of the participants commented that in his community they had decided to share all the goods in community, that each one put in common all the salary he had for the life of the community. This attracted a lot of attention and they asked even more intensely how this was possible.

He went on to say that one of them had been asked to give up his professional work to serve exclusively the social commitment of the community. It became more and more surprising and the questions continued!

He then said that they had thought that the best way was to live in the same flat, where they could share a moment of prayer every day, where they could tell each other what they were experiencing and together think about how to continue acting to improve the neighbourhood and their own lives. Living together? That was very new and daring.

Faced with numerous questions, he went on to explain that all the members of the community had decided to live celibately in order to be more available for action, to put their whole heart into the community and into social commitment. That seemed extraordinary! How could it be? As he continued his presentation, everything became clear when he said that they were religious.

Ah, of course, it has no more merit, was the comment of one of them… until they became aware of how they had had this sign in front of their eyes and had stopped giving it value.

Will this also happen among us?

Say community

To say community is to say shared path, a multitude of hands that join hands to make the march lighter, an embrace of gazes that seek each other in order to look, united, for the gaze of the One who gave his life for us. It is sharing, life intertwined, it is bringing together under the same hopes the differences that do not separate us.

To say community is to speak of a common project, shared dreams, accompanied paths. It is to think of the other and of what is best for the other and to think, together, of what is best in ourselves for all the others. It is to encourage each other with a pat on the shoulder, to correct each other without fear of anger. It is to encourage each other to grow together little by little.

To say community is to speak of openness and dedication, service to others, learning to give of oneself, generosity. It is to share the life of God, source of life, hope and love.

To say community is a common unity of true criteria (those of the Gospel), of courageous choices (those of Jesus), of audacious challenges (those of the Kingdom on the move).

To say community is the gathering of many who, animated and encouraged by the Spirit, seek to cry out to God: here we are, Lord, united and on the way to make your Kingdom grow wherever you ask. Amen.

To follow the life of the fraternity

“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And I will be with you always, even to the end of the age”.

(Mt 28:19-20)

The Fraternity is a living reality, very changeable, always on the move. For this reason it is also necessary to have some orientation in order to be able to follow the life of the Fraternity of the Pious Schools.

Current situation of the Fraternity

The Fraternity is in a moment of growth, both geographically (new countries and localities) and in number of members in each place. And also, little by little, in Piarist identity as a new subject that, together with the Order, must assume co-responsibly the charism of Calasanz in our world.

At the end of 2019 we have 11 Demarcations (of the twenty existing ones) with the Fraternity in place. There are about a thousand people, of whom 900 are lay men and women and about a hundred are religious, with a clear tendency towards a progressively greater participation of religious. In the stage of discernment to the Fraternity we can count on about 200 more people.

The average age of the members of the Fraternity is slightly over 40 years and covers all age groups, from the youngest at around 24 years old to the oldest at 80 years and over. The gender ratio is very even: the number of religious helps to balance this proportion.

Just over half of them are working professionally in Piarist works (schools, social centres, parishes, Itaka - Piarist projects…) and practically all of them collaborate on a voluntary basis in the Piarist mission.

The economic contribution of the Fraternities, some of which have the criterion of contributing 10% of their personal income to the Piarist mission through the Itaka - Piarist Network, is a valuable commitment also for the support of Piarist works and projects.

The situation of the Fraternities is diverse, depending above all on the years of operation (some have been functioning for 25 years and others are still starting), on the procedure of new calls (those who have already linked the processes of the Calasanz Movement with the Fraternity are growing more) and with the clear Piarist identity of the Fraternity that depends very much on the previous formation process. Other elements are also having a great influence on the good progress of the Fraternity: the involvement of the religious and of the Province as a whole, the participation in the Itaka - Piarist Network which gives many more possibilities to the Fraternity, the concrete steps that the members of the Fraternity are taking (definitive option, personal commitments, experience of each small community, sending, ministries, assignments…).

The Fraternity is enabling and giving greater impetus to initiatives of great interest for Piarist life: sending to other countries and localities to promote life and mission together with the religious, joint communities that allow new horizons, ministries entrusted to the laity with guaranteed continuity, the development of the vocation of the lay Piarist… and contributing much dedication, much knowledge and much life.

The Council of the General Fraternity is now in its third term of office, which is consolidating a more shared functioning of all the Fraternities and is discovering the need for a greater impact of this Council in the life of each Fraternity.

There is already a considerable amount of material available, both in terms of common documents and bibliography, training plans, initiatives that are being publicised, information through social networks and the Fraternity’s website, formal and informal contacts resulting from the meetings…

It is not possible at this time to give an overview that may be valid for a few years from now, due to the great changes that are taking place. But we can foresee, if we continue in this line, an important growth of the Fraternity and a greater identity as an adult Piarist subject that together with the Order can provide a qualitative leap in the life and mission of the Pious Schools.

For up-to-date information, it will be necessary to refer to the General and District Councils, as well as to stay connected to the website www.escolapios21.org and social networks.

Testimony from Colombia (Nazareth) The Fraternity, a progressive experience.

The experience of the Fraternity of the Pious Schools (FEP) has a history that goes back decades. A history that has gone from intuitions to certainties. From something in search to something certain and alive.

In me, in a marked way since 1995 in the first Provincial Chapter of Colombia and the Vicariate of Ecuador, in Cuenca, when I was put in charge of the “theme of the laity” and tried to gather the experiences of those who already called themselves “Fraternity” in Pereira, Cúcuta, Cuenca, Saraguro and other cities of the Province and the Vicariate. Betting on the green leaflet that had a sapling with a new branch. A secretariat deeply believing in the theme and committed to the point of giving out of its own pocket, with joy, regularity and enthusiasm, we became itinerant, animating the communities.

The picture became clearer with the PIL (Institutional Project of the Laity) of a General Chapter and later with the Directory of the Laity, issued by the General Congregation, but all based on living experiences.

Living experiences that later increased in universality, as Assistant General, as in the former Emmaus, Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, California… made the strength, the life and the horizon of the Fraternity grow in me.

The time has come to relaunch in the Nazareth Province what was called “Shared Mission and Charismatic Integration”, in its modalities, passing through all the presences, with a reflective, active, prayerful, committed, enthusiastic secretariat, which set cooperation on fire and left the aspiration for “something more” in lay people and religious.

The “something more” became a reality in small communities. This “something more”, lived in small communities, gained strength until the Provincial called us to start the Fraternity in the Province. These communities were first called shared mission communities, then pre-fraternity communities, and today they are called the Calasanz Adult Movement or Fraternity, properly speaking.

We began to call for discernment for the Fraternity, reworking the ten Bethany cards and turning them into twenty discernment cards, with an Ignatian thread, each one with biblical and Calasanctian texts. A strong movement of accompaniment and discernment began. The first promises. Without haste and without pause, today there are 50 of us, and a Fraternity Council, active and committed, with members from Colombia and Ecuador.

It is a precious and unique experience to live in a Fraternity Community, where experiences of Faith, Lectio Divina, review of life, evaluation of the common Mission and Celebration are shared. It is wonderful to see how one’s own common tent expands and the passion for consecration and mission grows.

P. Diego Bernal, Nazareth Fraternity

Gathered in your name

Lord Jesus, we are gathered together in your name and we know by faith that you are in our midst to teach us as a teacher, to heal us as a physician, to guide us as a shepherd, to love each other as brothers.

Make us sensitive to the action of your Spirit that builds up and encourages our community.

That we do not run away from the tensions that may arise between us. but that we succeed in overcoming them through the Gospel, the faith and open and trusting dialogue.

Give us the courage to face our own truth.

Let us not be tempted to confuse peace with evasion, fidelity with rigidity, frankness with aggressiveness, dialogue with verbiage, understanding with escaping from problems, benevolence with a lack of radicalism

Make our meeting fruitful, O Lord and that at the end of the encounter we are left with nothing but love.

May our fraternity continue to grow until we are but of one heart and one soul, until we love one another as you have loved us.

Particularly significant moments

As part of the history and the present day, we gather together some particularly significant messages from the General Fraternity Council. They are short and dense texts that give consistency to the Fraternity and shape us all.

Peralta de la Sal. 2014. Open letter to those of us who form the Pious Schools.

Dear Piarist religious, members of the Piarist Fraternity, people who share the Piarist mission, collaborators:

During the last week of July, we celebrated in Peralta de la Sal, under the presidency of Fr. General, the 1st Assembly of the General Fraternity and the Meeting of those responsible for Charismatic Integration and Shared Mission of the Order.

The first thing we want to tell you is our joy and happiness. It has been a few days of intense reflection, work and, also, of a deep experience of communion. During these days we have learned more about the efforts that many Piarist religious and lay people are making around the world to strengthen the Piarist subject that carries out our mission, wherever the Spirit has called us.

We have noted with joy that thousands of people, religious, lay men and women, have received from God the gift and the task of following Jesus Christ by continuing the Mission of Joseph Calasanz, each one according to their specific vocation. Many people do it together with the Piarist religious, from their belonging to one of the nine Piarist Fraternities that exist today in as many demarcations of the Order. Others do it from their desire to share the Piarist mission and to collaborate in various platforms of formal and non-formal education, according to the modalities of the Institutional Project of the Laity, which the Order launched eighteen years ago.

We find with joy, that the testimony of faith and perseverance that so many Piarist religious have given throughout history, has given abundant and diverse fruit throughout the world. In addition to the necessary Piarist religious vocations, a multitude of Piarist vocations have arisen in people who wish to be followers of Calasanz from their own lay vocation.

In this way, we discover that the Pious Schools, which assume the task entrusted by God and the Church to our founder, are today made up of a centenary Order that continues to recreate itself in new places, together with a Fraternity that, while still taking its first steps, wants to contribute the best of itself to join forces wherever necessary, as well as many people who share the mission and collaborate with us in what is common to all of us: the conviction that we meet the same God in the children, especially in those most in need, when we become their instruments to bring them love and a future. This communion, which has been fostered by every General Chapter since the Council, is undoubtedly God’s grace, but it has been forged tenaciously over the years by many religious, lay men and women who have made it their own vocation.

After this First Assembly, the General Council of the Fraternity elected, together with the General Secretariat for Charismatic Integration and Shared Mission, assumes for the next six years the task of deepening the road travelled. To this end, it must be formed as a team that can accompany the Fraternities that are emerging, as well as being a valid interlocutor of the General Congregation and the General Secretariats in order to promote our common project.

In this sense, there are several areas where this collaboration is necessary and can be very fruitful: it is necessary to continue spreading the knowledge of the options of the Order and its Institutional Project of the Laity among all religious and lay people interested in sharing our mission. It is necessary to design and develop together formation processes in the key of Piarist identity for religious and lay people in which the keys of this common project clearly appear.

The proposal to jointly define, where possible, Piarist Presence Projects in which the role of the religious communities, the Fraternity, the Shared Mission teams and the various Mission platforms is made explicit in a coherent way, could be a way of putting into practice the proposed desires for communion.

In these projects of Piarist presence, it must be an unavoidable reference the horizon of forming in all the places where we are present, a Piarist Christian Community, with the religious communities and the Fraternity at the heart of it, where there is room for all the people who want to share and celebrate their faith in the Eucharist, where the pastoral processes, especially of the Calasanz Movement, see their natural outlet, where young people who are considering a religious vocation and belonging to the Fraternity can have a space where they can grow vocationally, where the Piarist ministries necessary for the best development of our mission can be raised…

In this week of meeting we have also verified the scope of the Itaka-Escolapios Foundation as a concrete realization of the institutional Shared Mission between the Order and the Fraternity. We are convinced that this platform is bearing good fruit in our shared endeavour to grow the Piarist presence and mission throughout the world. In the same way, we note the importance of the implementation of the Calasanz Movement in many places. This proposal of the Order is allowing the configuration of complete pastoral processes that lead to the Fraternity and Piarist religious life, offering children, young people and adults an insertion in the Church with a Piarist identity.

To continue building these Pious Schools in a spirit of communion is the task of all of us. This 1st Assembly of the General Fraternity has been a significant step forward, but it is necessary to continue working and committing ourselves to this exciting project.

We do not wish to end without thanking the Provisional General Council for its work and dedication over the last few years, which, among other achievements, has made the holding of this 1st Assembly possible.

We place our dreams in God’s hands and we pray that Calasanz will continue to show us the way and that Mary, our Mother, will always accompany and protect us. So be it (Peralta de la Sal, 31 July 2014).

Esztergom (Hungary) 2015. Communication of the General Council of the Fraternity of the Pious Schools to the 47th General Chapter.

Dear Father General, dear members of the 47th General Chapter, dear sisters and brothers invited:

First of all, I would like to convey to you the gratitude and greetings of the General Council and of all the members of the Fraternity of the Pious Schools, who have been directing their thoughts and prayers with affection during these days towards this General Chapter.

It is not the first time that some of us lay people have been present at a General Chapter to share our experiences and dreams, our requests and even our fears. Exactly 30 years ago, at the 1985 General Chapter in Salamanca, two brothers who today belong to the Fraternity told the capitulars about the beginning of this journey.

It is the first time, however, that we are speaking on behalf of the General Fraternity of the Pious Schools. We believe that this is a historic milestone and a clear sign that the Order is moving forward steadily along the path that successive General Chapters have been marking for many years now. This may be a good time to remember so many people, religious, lay men and women, who through their intuition, sometimes not too well understood, their testimony and their work in all these years, have made it possible to get to where we are today, in this shared path between two different Piarist vocations, but called to the same dream.

In yesterday’s session we presented our reality in numbers and our scope in the Piarist maps. We are still a fledgling reality and our numbers are a recognition of what we still lack to be a Piarist entity rooted, widespread and significant throughout the Order. We are aware of our smallness, but we are no less convinced that we carry, and we present to you in this Chapter, a small treasure. The experience we are having shows us that where the Piarist Fraternity is becoming a significant Piarist reality and well located within the Demarcation, a change in the way of understanding the Piarist Schools is beginning to take place, which opens new paths towards the general objective of revitalization.

We unashamedly make this acknowledgement before you, convinced that we are also doing so before those who know how to recognise in the small and the humble, as in the humblest of seeds, or in the smallest coin, the most luxuriant trees and the most precious treasures.

We were reminded again at the last Easter, in a chain that has never been broken since, how the apostle Peter, in the first sermon of the community in Mission, recalled the prophet Joel: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams (Acts 2:17)… The successor of Peter, Francis, asks us to be a prophetic Church, going forth, and to seek a prophetic way of life (Laudato si. n.222.Francis. 2015). Fr. Pedro Aguado, for his part, in his last “letter to the brothers” before the Chapter, reminded us of the urgency of prophecy today. The call to prophecy resounds in every corner.

In this sense, the Christian philosopher Paul Ricoeur, two years after being awarded a prize by his friend John Paul II and a year before the death of both of them, included “the capacity to promise” among the configuring elements of his concept of narrative identity (Becoming capable, being recognised”. Paul Ricoeur. 2004). According to this concept, very briefly, people are what we say and what we say we are, what others say about us, what we do, what we take responsibility for having done and what we project and promise to do. From this idea of including in our identity what we are not yet, but what we want to be, we understand the urgency of the prophecy that Christians in general are asked to make in this time in which we are living, we as a Piarist Fraternity, and also those of us who meet in this General Chapter.

We have told you who we say we are and what we do, you will have heard what they say about us, but today we also want to tell you what we want to be. Be aware that this fact, and for this very reason it is historical, also commits those of you who are listening. As you will have realised, all the features of narrative identity proposed by Ricoeur are necessarily communitarian, they require reciprocity. Contrary to the dominant individualistic anthropologies, the anthropology that underlies this biblical and Christian model contemplates the need for an identity as a process of going out and encountering others, where saying and telling, doing, taking responsibility and promising, only makes sense if it is before others, for others or with others, and ultimately, before the Totally Other.

In the case of the capacity to project and promise, the significant others, the community, take on the irreplaceable role of witness to the promise. There is no valid promise if there is no one to receive it, but also if there is no one to witness it. Whoever receives and accepts a promise is committed, and whoever witnesses it is also committed. We would like that what we tell you today as a project and as a promise be received and accepted by God, and that you be our witnesses. If so, this will be our commitment and our prophecy, so that in this way we can be the excited elders who dream, the young people who are able to see beyond the immediate and the sons and daughters of God who are able to prophesy a New Heaven and a New Earth.

1. We dream of Pious Schools faithful to the original intuition of Calasanz. We are convinced that the Piarist Fraternity, like the Order, exists for the Piarist Mission, so we dream of being part of that history of fidelity.

- We see the extraordinary work we do through our schools, accompanying children in the process of becoming people and their families, who trust us so much, and bringing to the nations where we are located an undoubted treasure for their future.

- We see an enormous effort by the Order to maintain and expand its centuries-old presence and, at the same time, to open up to new needs and become more present among the poorest of the world.

- We see that in this effort it is necessary to seek the greatest possible coalition of wills to meet all the needs that this missionary growth is revealing to us: new communities, new houses of welcome and formation, new schools, new non-formal education centres,…, are requirements that, at the same time, can become calls for the mobilisation and collaboration of many sensitive people who are in tune with the Piarist mission.

- We see that the experience of shared mission that we develop personally and institutionally through Itaka-Escolapios and other sister organisations, is a model that allows, by making possible the proposal of a greater co-responsibility in the construction of the Pious Schools, to channel the vocation and the personal, voluntary, professional and also economic effort of the members of the Fraternity and of many lay men and women who wish to do their bit in this growth of the Pious Schools.

- In this sense, the Fraternity of the Pious Schools is committed to contribute everything in our hands in this missionary effort, redoubling our institutional commitment in Itaka-Escolapios, promoting Piarist projects where necessary, encouraging the voluntary involvement of our members in them, as well as demanding fidelity to the economic commitment made by each member in support of the Piarist mission.

- We are committed to train people from our communities, whom we can send for a period of time to where they are most needed, according to their profile and the needs determined by the relevant superiors.

- We commit ourselves to choose and train some of our members to be entrusted, together with the Major Superiors, with Piarist ministries in the fields of education, evangelisation and social transformation, so that for a period of time to be determined, they may significantly support the Piarist mission.

2. We dream of Pious Schools made up of diverse people, religious and lay, men and women, old and young, with an unmistakable Piarist identity.

- We see the priority that the Order has defined for working for the emergence and accompaniment of new religious vocations all over the world and we feel especially committed to this priority. The Fraternity of the Pious Schools would not exist without the sign of Piarist religious life, as it is the fruit of its efficiency in attracting others to follow Jesus along the path of Calasanz.

- We also see the exemplary journey of the Order, embodied in its reflections and documents, and carried out in many places, of searching for a common path where to share with the laity its own treasure. Humbly, but also clearly, we should be proud of the bold but patient journey, in the style of our Founder, which has brought us this far.

- We see in our Fraternity communities a great effort to nourish their Piarist identity with a demanding formation, a significant commitment to the Piarist mission, and above all, a spiritual life increasingly rooted in the Calasanctian reading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and forged in the fraternal contrast of the community.

- We see in many religious and lay people a sincere desire to advance along the path of sharing the richness that each Piarist vocation can bring: sharing formative experiences, responsibilities in the mission entrusted to them, times of prayer and celebration, some elements of community life?

- The Piarist Fraternity of the Pious Schools is committed to be involved as a priority in the sowing and accompaniment of new Piarist vocations, especially by participating in the Calasanz Movement, proposing to young people the Piarist religious life and the Fraternity as offers of full meaning for their lives and the foundation of Piarist Christian Communities which, around the Eucharist, are the sign of Unity that our world needs.

- We renew our commitment to form ourselves in the key of Piarist identity, getting closer to the figure of our Saint Calasanz, discovering what his spiritual and vital example can also bring us to the Piarist lay vocation.

- We commit ourselves to facilitate from the Fraternity more experiences of sharing this path between religious and lay people, which besides being enriching for the people who participate, we believe that they are extremely clarifying for the future of the Pious Schools: participation of religious in the communities of the Fraternity, joint Piarist communities of religious and lay people, some even sharing living space, lay Piarists with juridical links with the Order…

3. We dream of Piarist presences in which religious communities and the Fraternity assume together the task of promoting the Piarist mission in terms of complementarity (Cf. Christifideles laici, n. 20. John Paul II. 1988) and reciprocity, recognizing the responsibility and the specific contribution of each one, and forming a Piarist Christian Community that is a Piarist sign of Unity.

- We see the wonderful opportunity we have to form a Piarist Fraternity closely linked to the Order, sharing with it the fundamental elements of the Piarist charism.

- We see the need to assume in many places the responsibility to make our contribution to revitalise the Piarist presence, being significant communities faithful to the vocation we have received.

- We see that the Order is advancing in its own understanding in terms of Piarist Presence, assuming the need to project coherently the progress of the whole Piarist network in each place.

- We commit ourselves to promote a style of Fraternity with Christian communities that are adult but firmly rooted in the Piarist charism, always attentive to the needs of the Piarist presence where they are inserted.

- We commit ourselves to participate with availability in the reflection and concretion that the Order will make on the community styles and models that are necessary at each moment and in each cultural, social and ecclesial context.

- We commit ourselves to participate, in the places where we are present, in the Piarist presence projects, assuming our role in their design, development and evaluation, being aware of the personal and institutional responsibility that this entails.

As you can see, we share with simplicity what we are and what we want to be with you, because we want to be part of this dream that is the Pious Schools. We are aware of the seriousness of the proposals we make and of the commitment we acquire by doing so in this forum. We are convinced that the presence of the Piarist Fraternity in a Demarcation is an important step that can open the way to a new and very rich way of understanding the Pious Schools, making possible a qualitative leap in the direction that the last General Chapters have been marking.

We hope that what we have told you has also awakened your desire to dream together. We are ready to do so. Thank you again for allowing us to be here and to share these days with you.

A fraternal embrace from the General Council of the Fraternity of the Pious Schools.

Rome 27th November 2016. Opening ceremony of the Calasanctian Jubilee Year. Building the Pious Schools together

As the title of this small contribution, a metaphor is proposed to us which is, without doubt, very suggestive. “Building the Pious Schools together”. The verb to build is a powerful verb. In addition to its sonority, at least in Spanish, it is also powerful because it suggests a planned, continuous, energetic action, destined to create something solid, with a vocation to last. One cannot speak of building something overnight, nor of doing so with flimsy materials, nor with the prospect of being swept away by the first summer storm. The Gospel reminds us of the importance of building on rock so that the house will last, and even the children’s stories we tell our children and pupils save from danger those who build their house with solid materials.

Perhaps some will remind us that a verb so closely linked to human experience and vocation runs the risk of forgetting that the construction of the Pious Schools is not only a matter of human endeavour and success, but also the grace of God himself. And it is not a bad reminder. But for those of us who believe that all that is good is the work of God and, therefore, an unconditional gift of his infinite Fatherly Love, it is fundamental to assume that every gift carries with it a responsibility, a task. Likewise, for those of us who follow our Saint Calasanz, who was an example of tenacity and patience, it is unavoidable to always remember what he so often keeps telling us: nothing we do has any value without the Grace of God. That is why, without a doubt, the Pious Schools, as the small parcel of the Kingdom of God that they are, can only be, at the same time, grace and promise. Gift and project. Gift and task.

We build the Pious Schools day by day, but as useless masons at the service of the First Architect. I have often thought that we Piarists should deepen our “spirituality of the scaffold”. Anyone who has discovered the treasure of dedicating himself to education, has had to feel the same sensation: accompanying children from their earliest childhood, from the foundations, seeing how the master walls of their personality grow, how the towers of their vocation reach the top, and from the scaffold, with energy, but always with care and delicacy, contributing the necessary building material and, at a certain moment, retiring without too many honours, but happy, of having contributed something to that beautiful building that is each person. The spirituality of scaffolding, feeling like a simple bricklayer at the service of the Great Architect, who is the one each person dreams of, is the humble path of those who do not expect any reward, even less than the master stonemasons, who had to leave their mark on the stones in order to be paid; It is the path of the person who, after leaving his life on the building site, does not aspire to leave a trace, but keeps in his heart the joy of a job well done, the admiration for the grandeur of the building, and, at the end of his work, rests in the comforting gaze of the Architect, affectionate and paternal.

As in the time of Calasanz, building the Pious Schools also requires those who are concerned about the solidity and safety of the scaffolding that are our works, that there is never a lack of construction material, that we continue to call more workers for such a “very necessary” Work. Those who today have the responsibility of directing the Pious Schools, travel through our presences as site directors, with the irreplaceable task of listening to and encouraging those of us who toil in the daily work of erecting the Piarist scaffolding and those who dream of one day belonging to such a dedicated staff. This Jubilee year is also a time to thank God for the vocation and encouragement of those who have succeeded Calasanz in this task.

But, in addition, on the scaffolding we learn that nobody builds anything worthwhile alone. The same God, who reveals himself to us as a Trinitarian Community and sent his Son to summon and form a community to announce his Kingdom, inspired Calasanz, 400 years ago, not to rest in gathering collaborators who would give stability to his Schools.

And certainly, Calasanz continues to call. As workers of the last hour, the Fraternity of the Pious Schools, together with thousands of lay collaborators all over the world, we have listened to this call that comes to us through the centuries thanks to the silent testimony of so many Piarists.

Theologians say that our God is the God who creates the space beside Himself so that Man can participate in His creative work. The Piarists, by inspiration of the same Spirit, have created enough space in your scaffolding so that, side by side, we can participate in your Work. Since you said, solemnly, in a General Chapter, “We, Piarists, religious and lay…” we no longer feel not only invited, but summoned to work in what, more and more, is also our scaffolding, our Work, our Mission. And not only space on the scaffolding, in the work, in the fatigue; you have also shared with us even your most precious treasures: your History, your spirituality, your charism, even your house and your life, like St. Paul. It is true that at times we arrived with too much fuss, messing everything up, moving all the tools around and putting everything out of order. But you, with the patience of good educators, have been able to respond with understanding, generating new spaces, new names, new narratives which help us to understand each other better, to receive this gift of the last hour which is the Pious Schools of today. The last General Chapter has consecrated the new names of those spaces where all of us, religious and lay, men and women, married and celibate, young and old, can feel and sit in circularity, as in our own home: the Piarist Presence model, the Piarist Christian Community, the Piarist Fraternity itself, the vocation of the lay Piarist, the lay ministries, the Shared Mission, the Calasanz Movement, the Itaka-Escolapios Foundation, are the new scaffolding, the new places that, together with those that have always been and will be, allow us to better explain what the Pious Schools are today, so diverse and so rich, and, above all, what they can become, with God’s favour.

It is very important that we all understand and feel that this new development does not question, nor disfigure, nor invalidate, much less destroy all that the Pious Schools are and have been in these 400 years. On the one hand, these new scaffoldings are the original and exclusive work, I would say with a certain pride, of the Pious Schools themselves, so they cannot question their own origin. On the other hand, the Order generates them, no doubt, in order to be able to respond better to the challenges of the present and of the future, which continues to condemn millions of children and young people throughout the world to illiteracy and misery, or to the hopelessness of meaninglessness, even when living in material opulence. It does so also in order to be able to continue educating and calling more young people to give their lives as religious and priests, as animators of adult Christian communities, as educators without blemish, as welcoming fathers and mothers, as professionals in any field, sensitive to the pain of others, especially of the most vulnerable children and young people, as people in solidarity who seek a more just society that welcomes the small and the poor, the sick, the foreigner, the abused, the excluded, the refugee.

The Piarist Fraternity, together with all the lay collaborators, feels gratified, and therefore grateful, to have a place in the construction of the Pious Schools. We are aware that a good construction needs, besides scaffolding and masons, a good cement. The Piarist identity is the cement that guarantees the solidity of our construction.

We do not conceive the Piarist identity as a witness that is handed over, as if it were a relay race. Whoever hands over the witness stops, is left with nothing to do, is left empty, with no reason to keep running. And the last thing we need in the Pious Schools is that there are those who feel that they no longer have anything to do, that they have finished their career, that they no longer need to give more. We understand the Piarist identity, rather, as a colourful fabric in which we begin to weave all together, each one contributing their own identity strands, each one sewing their own pieces of vocational fabric. In the Great Story that Calasanz began 400 years ago, and which today are the Pious Schools, the foundational stories, the vocational story of each one of us, the life stories of each child and each young person that we attend, are irreplaceable threads that strengthen us and give us identity to all the others. No one, young or wise, religious or lay, man or woman, is superfluous in this task of weaving the Piarist identity of our works, of giving meaning to everything we do from our scaffolding.

The construction of the Pious Schools is, today more than ever, a matter for each and every one of us. We have the scaffolding, the bricklayers, the site managers and the cement. We count, as always, on the attentive and loving eye of the Chief Architect and of our Mother Mary.

So let’s build together, let’s celebrate together, and let’s not forget to keep telling the story together.

General Council of the Piarist Fraternity

Rome. November 2017. Meeting of Major Superiors. Weaving Piarist identity from the Fraternity

“Those who allow themselves to be guided in faith by the Holy Spirit are able to discern in every event what is happening between God and humanity, recognising how he himself, on the dramatic stage of this world, is weaving the fabric of a history of salvation. The thread with which this sacred story is woven is hope and its weaver is none other than the Comforting Spirit”.

“Resorting to images and metaphors to communicate the humble power of the Kingdom is not a way of downplaying its importance and urgency, but a merciful way of allowing the listener the “space” of freedom to welcome it and to refer to it even to himself. Moreover, it is the privileged way to express the immense dignity of the paschal mystery, allowing images “rather than concepts” to communicate the paradoxical beauty of the new life in Christ”.

“I invite everyone to offer the men and women of our time narratives marked by the logic of the “good news” (Message of Pope Francis on the 51st World Communications Day). 24-01-2017)

The image of personal and institutional identity as a fabric that is being elaborated with the narrative threads of the Piarist history of each person, of each work, of each presence or of each Demarcation, provides a simple and suggestive access to this important idea, which is sometimes difficult to explain and delimit, even more so if we try to do it in different languages and from different cultural registers. A fabric almost universally suggests work, elaboration, process, tradition, virtuosity, wisdom, delicacy, protection, warmth, personality, beauty, belonging, diversity, strength… There are cultures that use fabrics as a form of group identification, of communication, in short, of expression of their own identity.

Considering that we are all called to weave the Piarist identity that gives quality and warmth to our mission, aimed at girls, boys and young people, many of whom still today have nothing to cover themselves from the cold, from ignorance, from manipulation, from material or spiritual poverty, is an honour and a responsibility that the Piarist Fraternity assumes with great enthusiasm.

A proposal for adult Christian life in, from and for the Pious Schools

At the present time, two years after our last presentation to the Most Reverend Ministers at the General Chapter, the General Fraternity is present in 12 Provinces of the Order, 14 countries and 52 localities. In these years, new fraternities have emerged in the Provinces of Nazareth, Slovakia and Hungary, with the number of members increasing from 700 to 982.

The General Council of the Fraternity, in addition to its virtual meetings every fortnight or so, has held two face-to-face meetings, in Puebla (Mexico) and Belo Horizonte (Brazil). In these meetings, it also met with the General Congregation and the General Secretariat for Participation and together we were able to get to know the reality of the laity and the Fraternity in each place.

On two occasions, one virtual and the other in person, the Extended General Council, formed by a representation of each of the existing Provincial Fraternities, has met. All of them have been moments of communion and verification of the growth of this Piarist reality that, little by little, is widening its scope and strengthening its identity.

Belonging to a small community is the fundamental proposal of the Piarist Fraternity. In them we can live and fully develop our Christian and Piarist identity, sharing the fundamental elements of our charism: our own Piarist life, spirituality and mission, as well as making our contribution to the recreation of the Pious Schools.

To share Life

“In the small communities we have the possibility to accompany each other in our life processes. In this way we learn to accept ourselves as we are and to recognise and be grateful for the gifts we have received. Through this community accompaniment we can support and contrast each other in our personal and family decisions, combining human closeness with the indispensable requirement to be faithful to our vocation.

“The small community is the privileged place to share our vocational processes. It is a fundamental mediation, together with the celebration of the sacraments, to experience God’s forgiveness and to make conversion possible.

An adult Christian life is not possible without sharing with others what we are and what we have. The small community is the place where it is possible to share our personal gifts, our spiritual goods and our material possessions. Through this sharing of goods, we discover the freedom that comes from an austere and humble lifestyle.

“It is in community that we brothers become pledges of each other’s personal promises and vows. In this way, the community receives them, witnesses them and, in a way, verifies the prophetic character of our promises.

“The Christian community should be, above all, a place of celebration of God’s love for us. In it we receive and celebrate with joy the miracles that He works in us, and especially the new Piarist, religious and lay vocations that He raises up among us, which fill us with joy and hope.

To share Spirituality

“The central objective of the Piarist Fraternity is to be a community of followers of Jesus of Nazareth, that is to say, to help shape one’s own life according to his experience of God, his testimony of self-giving, his proposal, interiorising his way as our own way.

“We take on the Piarist spirituality as our own, so we strive to know and identify ourselves more and more with the particular way of following Jesus of St. Joseph Calasanz.

“We see it as our unavoidable task to enrich and update this spirituality with our own vocational identity: laity and religious together, families, the world of work, culture, politics…

“We want to bring this particular spirituality of the Piarist Fraternity to the whole Piarist School and to the Church.

To share the Mission

“The Piarist Fraternity assumes as its own the Mission entrusted by the Church to the Pious Schools and wishes to make its contribution through the personal and material commitment of its members and communities.

“Many of us are personally available to take on responsibilities in the Piarist mission, both professionally and as volunteers.

“In some Fraternities, the path of Piarist lay ministries is opening up as a form of stable commitment of some people who are specifically trained for some area of the Piarist Mission.

“In the same way, the dynamic of sending members of the Fraternity to other Piarist presences is being strengthened.

“The Piarist Fraternity assumes as its own platform of Piarist mission, legally shared with the Order and the Demarcations that wish it, the Itaka-Escolapios Foundation, which is expanding and strengthening its projects, within its possibilities, wherever it is required.

Recreating the Pious Schools and the Church.

“The Piarist Fraternity is becoming increasingly aware of its role in the recreation and revitalisation project.

of the Pious Schools in the World.

“First of all, we are shaped for lay people who share the Piarist mission as a place where they can grow in identity and commitment.

“In the same way, we bring to the Piarist religious who wish it, another mediation to grow and develop their own religious vocation, and, above all, a privileged place where to share our vocations, diverse, and therefore complementary and interdependent.

“The network that we are weaving in the Piarist Fraternity, and the welcome it is receiving, is allowing us to move forward in relationship and harmony with the whole Order.

“We take on with enthusiasm the task of extending the Piarist vocational culture and supporting the specific vocational pastoral to religious life where we are.

“We consider it essential to involve ourselves as companions in the Calasanz Movement, especially in the stages of vocational discernment, to make visible the proposal of the Piarist Fraternity as a natural outcome of the same, together with the Piarist religious life.

“The Piarist Fraternity, where it exists, is an essential part of the Piarist Presence Model, which links the Piarist Mission with the subject who is its agent and outlet.

“To this end, it is essential that the Fraternity be integrated into the organisational chart of each Piarist Demarcation and Presence, as an essential part of the Piarist subject.

“In this way, we can be an effective Piarist sign of Unity and Communion, God’s desire that calls all people to share in the Piarist Mission and to participate in the Piarist Christian Community.

“Our ecclesial insertion through the Pious Schools must be a guarantee of communion and fidelity to the Church, so that our contribution from our own charism results in its renewal, as well as in the transformation of the social and cultural reality, according to its principles.

Providing experiences, narratives, stories, images and symbols that regenerate the Piarist identity

“The Piarist Fraternity broadens the “Piarist semantic field” with new experiences, stories and images of great symbolic content, which express essential aspects of the Pious Schools in constant renewal and which allow us to weave an updated narrative identity, suggestive and capable of generating new Piarist life.

“Some of the images we are using are already familiar: Piarist identity as a multicoloured fabric that holds us together, new Piarist realities as scaffolding that allows us to build together…

“We also have experiences that are acting as real “zip elements” that guarantee the unity in the diversity that is being generated, and that, for this reason, work as symbolic elements that realize and concentrate, giving to speak and, therefore, giving to think, some essential aspects of the new Piarist vision: The formulation of the Piarist Mission that made the last General Chapter: (We, religious and laity, …); the joint communities; the vocation of the Piarist Christian Community, the Piarist lay ministries, the sending to other places, the Itaka-Escolapios Foundation, the Piarist Christian Community, the Piarist Christian Community, the Piarist lay ministries, the Itaka-Escolapios Foundation…); the joint communities; the vocation of the lay Piarist, the Piarist lay ministries, the sending to other places, the Itaka-Escolapios Foundation, the Piarist Christian Community, the same model of Piarist presence …

Strengthening the Piarist Presence Model

“The Piarist Presence model, in which the Piarist Fraternity has its natural space, is an innovation in our organisation, which, in a way, symbolises an increasingly rich and complex Piarist reality.

“From this vision of our organisation, it is easier for the Order and the Fraternity to look, feel, tell and dream together of Pious Schools open to all.

“In this way, it is possible to discover new “interstitial spaces”, new possibilities, new synergies, which go beyond the scope of each of our platforms and allow us to go further in the Mission we share.

“The model of Piarist presence becomes the loom on which to weave the identity threads of a stronger Piarist fabric at local, provincial and general levels.

“To symbolise the Oneness in which God is all in all and to remember that in no case is it us.

the protagonists of the Piarist Presence, but it is He who makes Himself present in the World through us and our works.

A prophecy in the key of Piarist Presence

Let us Piarists, religious and lay, young and old, Order and Fraternity, who, in different ways, but with a single gaze, in community, accompany the lines along the avenues of the 21st century, so that our children and young people do not get lost, do not lose them, so that they go and return, so that they feel at home, so that they meet Jesus, so that they tell their stories, to be heard, to make their prophecies, so that they are happy, as God commands and desires. Amen.

General Council of the Piarist Fraternity

Madrid, III Itaka-Escolapios Advisory Council. 2018. What Itaka-Escolapios is contributing and what it could contribute to the Fraternity: a vision from the 10 challenges

When in the summer of 2014, the First Assembly of the General Fraternity, meeting in Peralta de la Sal, approved the “10 challenges of the Piarist Fraternities” for their maintenance and advancement, the tenth one raised the participation in Itaka-Escolapios. One possible reading is that it was proposed as the last challenge, as it is, in a logical path, the last possible step, or, in some cases, the most complex to take.

Another possible reading, which we propose today, is that what makes it easier for the Fraternities, and, therefore, for the Demarcations where there are Fraternities, to advance in the other nine challenges is precisely their participation in Itaka-Escolapios. This reading of the same document of the 10 challenges, made from the end to the beginning, allows us to see better the contribution that Itaka-Escolapios makes to the Piarist Fraternity, and therefore to the Piarist Life and Mission of each Demarcation.

Beginning of the Calasanz Movement

Wherever the Calasanz Movement is promoted by Itaka-Escolapios, it is configured as the core project of the Piarist presence. Whoever sees Itaka-Escolapios as a platform for fundraising or for the development of social projects, should know that its genesis was just the opposite. The social projects and other actions such as fundraising arise from and as a complement to the educational and pastoral processes that today we call Calasanz Movement. Assuming the Calasanz Movement as the axis of Itaka-Escolapios, the connection between its projects and the pastoral groups is guaranteed, facilitating a quality Piarist voluntary work, the missionary and Piarist identity of the Calasanz Movement, the social formation of its monitors, in short, its effective insertion in the Piarist presence.

Beginning of the Piarist model of presence

Where the Piarist Fraternity exists, the main potential of the model of presence is to create the appropriate space where Fraternity and Piarist Demarcation meet, dream together, share mission, project and take responsibility for the Piarist mission. Itaka-Escolapios, by definition, is an organisation created to realise the Piarist model of presence. Through Itaka-Escolapios, the Order and the Fraternity share, de facto and de jure, the Piarist mission, closely linking all the areas that comprise the Piarist Presence, and, in this way, revealing itself as one of the most powerful “zip elements” of the Piarist Presence. Within this vocation, Itaka-Escolapios has a greater flexibility to take on new projects that respond to the realities of a particular context or time, allowing the Piarist presence projects to be real instruments for updating the analysis and a more effective response to the reality in which we find ourselves and more faithful to our own charism. In this way, faced with the limitations that, sometimes, together with undoubted advantages, our traditional mission platforms have, Itaka-Escolapios is allowing an endless number of more agile and lighter interventions that respond to realities that are presented as clear calls to our Piarist identity: care and literacy of young immigrants, reception in homes and boarding schools, presence in areas of exclusion, which, moreover, in many cases, are greatly enriching our more traditional presence in schools and colleges.

Initiation of Piarist ministries on a shared basis between the Province and the Fraternity

The Piarist ministries are another element that strongly unites the Piarist presences where they are developed. They are lay people, preferably members of the Fraternity, who assume for a time the ecclesial ministry of promoting some area of the Piarist mission. Where these ministries are promoted jointly by the Demarcation and the Fraternity, which is the ideal situation, Itaka-Escolapios is the natural platform to develop these ministries and from which to resolve, in a shared way, the practical, legal and economic aspects of this proposal, facilitating options such as temporary release to carry out studies, possible labour contracts…

Promoting vocational diversity

The Piarist Fraternity was born, essentially, to give a channel to the vocational diversity that the Pious Schools receive as a gift of the Holy Spirit. The fact that many lay people wish to share the Piarist charism with the religious is a sign of the times to which the Order responds boldly and decisively by creating the Piarist Fraternity. Itaka-Escolapios is born and spreads by the same impulse of the Spirit, with the intention that this vocational diversity finds an institutional channel to strengthen and multiply itself through the Piarist mission shared in an institutional way between lay and religious. Without institutional elements that allow to give historical continuity to the inspiration of the Spirit of God, it can happen, as Calasanz warned us, that this inspiration passes without being heard and without bearing fruit.

Participation in the Local, District and General Fraternity

A small community that does not have a clear insertion in the Local Fraternity and, through it, in the District and General Fraternity, runs the risk of depending excessively on the encouragement of specific persons, of seeing the growth of its Piarist identity limited, or of exhausting itself in the natural cycle of human groups. Itaka-Escolapios, thanks to its commitment to the growth of the Piarist Schools throughout the world, is an effective channel for a small community, a Local or District Fraternity, to participate and be linked in various ways to the global project of the Piarist Schools. In this way, it strengthens its Piarist identity and participates in the projects of the Order and of the Fraternities in other places, even those that would otherwise be inaccessible due to distance. Taking part in global campaigns, supporting Piarist projects in other places with financial contributions, meeting brothers and sisters from Piarist presences in other continents, with all that this entails in terms of growth in Piarist identity, is now possible, also thanks to the Itaka-Escolapios Network and projects.

Flow of new recruits

A fundamental key to the growth and continuity of the Piarist Fraternity, as of any organisation, is its capacity to call more people, preferably young people, to join it. In this sense, the linking of the Fraternity with the processes of the Calasanz Movement and its presentation as the natural outcome of the same, together with the Piarist religious life, is essential. The assumption of the animation of the Calasanz Movement by Itaka-Escolapios, and its enrichment with all its projects and projection, makes it an invaluable support to guarantee the incorporation of young people into the Fraternity. Likewise, Itaka-Escolapios is a space specially designed to give a channel and space for new project proposals, ideas and dreams that young people, both religious and lay, always bring with them, and which, sometimes, our traditional mission platforms find it more difficult to take on.

Adequate participation of religious

The participation of the religious in the Fraternity is one of the most appreciated features of our model. In addition to their indispensable ministerial role as priests, the Piarist religious is in the Fraternity one more brother where he brings all the richness contained in his religious vocation and his witness of community life, of poverty, of exclusive dedication to the mission. Sometimes, for many members of the Fraternity who do not participate in the collegial platforms where the religious normally carry out their mission, the visibility of this witness is limited to the presiding of the Eucharist or other sacraments. To find the presence of the religious as companions of the Calasanz Movement, or as volunteers where Itaka-Escolapios develops projects of social presence among those who need it most, is an encouraging sign, and makes this double vocational dimension of the religious who is also a priest more visible and closer. In the case of older religious, now released from their collegiate tasks, the Itaka-Escolapios projects can be the natural place to continue their involvement in the Piarist mission and their connection with the world of the youngest, which helps them to live this life cycle in a positive way.

A real place in the demarcation to share spirituality, life and mission

The Piarist Fraternity needs to have a real space where it can be inserted in the organisation of the Demarcation and contribute all its significance. The Piarist Fraternity cannot be considered as just another group together with the rest of the existing groups. The Piarist Fraternity is a group of communities of people who share the Piarist charism with the Piarist religious. It is a new Piarist subject that assumes the Piarist spirituality, life and mission. This new reality completely modifies the map of the organization of the demarcation and needs to have channels to become shared life and, thus, to be the bearer of new Piarist life. The Piarist Presence model, with its teams, leaders and projects of presence, is the natural map to accommodate this new reality and Itaka-Escolapios is the entity that best embodies this model. In it, the Fraternity finds a channel to develop its mission, to share it with the religious and to guarantee its future sustainability, both from the point of view of people and material resources. It is very interesting to note that Itaka-Escolapios provides a platform where people, who, because of their dedication or vocation, can hardly be linked to the traditional Piarist mission platforms, can find their place in it. On the other hand, the dedication of the economic contributions of each member of the Fraternity, the so-called tithes in some fraternities, to the projects of Itaka-Escolapios, is a concrete, specific, evaluable and undeniable Piarist commitment that in all cases is an opportunity for growth, contrast and deepening of the commitment to the Piarist mission.

Clarity in the identity, common vocation and functioning of the Fraternity, the communities and their members

But logically, all this new way of understanding the Pious Schools is only possible with people, religious and lay, clearly identified with the Piarist charism. For this, it is essential that the Piarist Fraternity is very clear about the fundamental elements of its common vocation and is capable of providing commitment and fidelity. A proposal for a juridical link such as Itaka-Scolapios is, without a doubt, one of the best proofs of commitment and fidelity that can be given. The fact that a Piarist Fraternity is in fact, and also in law, legally co-owner, together with its Demarcation, of its projects guarantees a present and future commitment that goes beyond the good will of some specific people at a specific moment. Itaka-Escolapios is, at the same time, testimony and prophecy of the viability of this new way of understanding the Pious Schools as a joint path among those of us who have chosen to follow Jesus of Nazareth along the path of Calasanz.

In the summer of 2014 we said: “No Province or Fraternity should fail to consider its possible participation in Itaka - Piarist”. The truth is that since that date several Districts and Fraternities have considered it and some have given an affirmative response. It is an effective sign that we continue to be attentive to the voice of God that touches the heart and passes.

General Council of the Piarist Fraternity

Madrid, 10-12 May 2018. Meeting of the general congregation, the council of the general fraternity, the general secretariat of participation, and the SS.MM. that have a fraternity in their demarcation. What does the existence of a fraternity in a Piarist demarcation imply?

With the birth of the first Piarist Fraternities and, especially, with the constitution in 2011 of the General Fraternity, the Pious Schools marked a before and after in their history. The Piarist charism, faithfully incarnated by the Piarist religious for 400 years, became the concrete way of following Jesus Christ in an ecclesial reality different from the Order. Thus was born the Fraternity of the Pious Schools, called to live and work together with the Order in the heart of the Church to continue offering to the world the dream that God gave to Calasanz. Since then, the Pious Schools are more than a religious Order, they are a “charismatic family” in which different structures of Piarist life and mission, with the Order as a nuclear reference, are intertwined to develop a common project: the project of the Piarist presence wherever there are Pious Schools.

This decisive change in the history of the Pious Schools is only at the beginning of its development. The change of paradigm that involves the Order giving birth to the Piarist Fraternity will need time to unfold all the potentialities that we are already beginning to glimpse today. But for this to be possible, it is necessary that, from the very beginning, in each Piarist presence and demarcation in which the Fraternity arises, we know how to take advantage of all the wealth of life and mission that it can bring.

We will now attempt to cite some of the implications of the existence of a Piarist Fraternity in a Demarcation of the Order. None of the following elements are mere speculation. On the contrary, they are already a reality in the concrete life of the Fraternity and of the Order. Hopefully, with God’s grace and our availability to the impulse of the Spirit, they will be consolidated and generalised in every corner of the Piarist geography.

ECCLESIOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS

Ecclesiology of communion

With the Fraternity, the Pious Schools take up the challenge, as a Church, to develop the ecclesiology of communion proper to the Second Vatican Council. The communities of the Fraternity are a beautiful witness of a church of Piarist charism, and services and ministries at the service of our mission and of the Christian community we form. We are called to be a sign of the People of God to whom we have been called.

“Charism shared with the laity”

The Fraternity embodies and makes visible some of the intuitions that the Church has been clarifying since the Council. In 1996, John Paul II wrote the apostolic exhortation Vita Consecrata in which we can read:

54. (…) Because of new situations, not a few Institutes have come to the conviction that their charism can be shared with the laity. The laity are therefore invited to participate more intensely in the spirituality and mission of the Institute itself. In continuity with the historical experiences of the various secular or Third Orders, it can be said that a new chapter, rich in hope, has begun in the history of relations between consecrated persons and the laity.

55. (…) It is not rare that the participation of the laity leads to the discovery of unexpected and fruitful implications of some aspects of the charism, giving rise to a more spiritual interpretation, and leading to valid indications for new apostolic dynamisms (…).

The life of the Fraternity confirms within the Pious Schools what John Paul II wrote more than 20 years ago.

More than 10 years before Vita Consecrata, our dear Fr. Ángel Ruiz, being General of the Order and with the prophetic character that so much characterized his contribution to the Pious Schools wrote: “The Piarist charism does not belong to the Piarists. It is not the property of the Order. It belongs to the People of God. And in it there will be and there are persons, of both sexes and of all ages, besides the Piarists, who have the charism for the evangelizing vocation of the young. If this were so, these people would participate in the Calasanctian charism” (Fr. Ángel Ruiz, 1983).

It has taken years for the seed planted by Ángel Ruiz in the heart of the Order to germinate into the ecclesial reality that the Pious Schools are today and which, with the guidance of the Spirit, will continue to grow and develop to bear fruit in abundance.

The Fraternity continues to maintain in the Church the prophetic character of Father Angel’s words. Many religious institutes find in the Pious Schools and their Fraternity a very significant point of reference in the development of the integration of the laity in the charism of the institute.

IMPLICATIONS FOR THE CONFIGURATION OF THE “NEW PIARIST SUBJECT”

Structured “Piarist subject”.

Since the General Chapter of 1997 coined that “we, Piarists, religious and laity”, the expression “new Piarist subject” has become familiar in the life of the Pious Schools. We have known for many years that many lay people are personally in tune with the “charismatic frequency” of the Pious Schools. But for the “new subject” to be real and tangible, it must be articulated and organised. The Fraternity supposes in the Pious Schools the concrete way, recognised by the Order, organised and structured of living in fullness the Piarist charism (spirituality, mission and fraternal life) for the laity, always together with the religious.

With the Fraternity we went from a model in which the Order tutored groups of lay people related and close to “the Piarist”, to a model in which an autonomous association of the faithful, inseparable from the Order, but autonomous, stands beside the Order (not behind, not below, not at a certain distance… but beside) to continue promoting the project of the Pious Schools in history.

“New Piarist subject” formed by two entities, “cooking together”

We are facing a paradigm shift whose scope, probably, we have not yet become fully aware of. Ángel Ruiz said that the Piarist charism does not belong to the Piarist religious, but to the People of God. In a similar way, we could say that the Pious Schools, in terms of ecclesial charismatic identity, no longer belong to the Piarist religious, but to a “new subject” formed by the Order of the Pious Schools and by the Fraternity of the Pious Schools, two distinct ecclesial entities called to promote the same project in the Church and the world.

The religious no longer dream, plan, suffer, enjoy, work, watch and pray for the Piarist project alone, but they do it together with other lay brothers, members of the Fraternity, whose Piarist charism has been recognized. And they not only collaborate, but also share responsibility in dreaming, planning, suffering, enjoying, working, watching over and praying for the Piarist project. As Fr. Manel Camp often says, “religious and lay people are cooking together”.

“Make a mess,” Francis said

This is already a famous expression that Pope Francis addressed for the first time to the young people gathered at the 2013 World Youth Day in Brazil, and which he has repeated on several occasions. We borrow it to apply it to the young part of the “new Piarist subject” (the Fraternity) and to highlight that the profound implications of the assumption of this new paradigm is a real “mess” for the Order of the Pious Schools and each of the Provinces in which a Fraternity is born.

If the appearance of the Piarist Fraternity in a Province does not mean that changes begin to take place, something is wrong: perhaps the Fraternity has not been well situated in the life and mission of the Demarcation; perhaps the dynamic of the Fraternity has been reduced to that of a group of “any” faith that spiritually nourishes the life of its members, but does not build Pious Schools… But if a Fraternity is well situated in the framework of the Pious Schools of a place and its communities make themselves available to the impulse of the Spirit, changes begin to take place: changes in a renewed way of facing the educational mission, in an increase in the possibilities of undertaking projects, in a creative way of organising the structures, in the impulse of the vocational culture, in a configuration of the Christian community that is more horizontal and circular, in a dynamism that helps us to be “on the move”?

Core of the Piarist Christian community

Throughout the history of the Pious Schools, the Christian community that has evangelised and educated so many children and young people who have passed through our schools and parishes has been the religious community. With the birth of the Fraternity and the new paradigm that it brings with it, the religious community continues to be fundamental in the configuration of the Piarist Christian Community, but alongside it are the communities of the Fraternity, also called to convoke, encourage, accompany and care for a wider community. This community, together with the religious and the members of the Fraternity, will be joined by other people who participate in the Pious Schools in different ways. This will be the community responsible for maintaining the Christian and Calasanctian identity of our presences, for promoting the missionary character of our works, for sending, for celebrating the Piarist life and mission, for developing the necessary ministry for the community, etc…

Here too we need a change of mentality to allow the Piarist religious to share with the rest of the community attributions and responsibilities that have always belonged to the religious. Others, logically, such as, for example, the presiding of the community in the sacramental celebration, will continue to be theirs.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PIARIST VOCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Promote all Piarist vocations

The great treasure of the Piarist vocation received cannot be kept. The vocation must be given to children, young people and the poor in the form of service; and shared with other brothers, religious or lay, whom the Lord may call to the harvest of the Pious Schools. The Order and the Fraternity have the responsibility to propose the Piarist vocation to young people, both religious and lay.

The fraternity, a space for the gestation of the Piarist religious vocation

The brief history of the Fraternity of the Pious Schools has shown us that a Fraternity that lives intensely the Piarist charism is a favourable environment for members of the Fraternity and young people close to it to seriously consider the question of the Piarist religious vocation.

Vocational clarification for religious and lay people

We live in times in the Church in which the question of the specificity of religious life often arises. Bringing the Piarist religious and lay vocation into vital dialogue helps to answer that question. The existence of the Fraternity helps the religious who belong to it to deepen their consecrated identity, and the laity to identify what is proper to their lay vocation. Far from generating the confusion that some fear, the coexistence of the two vocations helps both to respond more and better to what they have been called to.

The challenge of vocational diversity

The creation of the Fraternity is by no means the end of the road in the development of the Piarist lay vocation. The very life of the Fraternity will demand from the Fraternity itself and also from the Order the development of other vocational figures: definitive option, lay ministries, lay Piarist… Moreover, the diversity of the Piarist vocation in lay life will need other channels beyond the Fraternity: collaborators, shared mission teams, Calasanz Adult Movement, etc… The presence of a Fraternity in the Demarcation can be a very important point of support for the development of these other vocational itineraries.

IMPLICATIONS FOR THE PROMOTION OF THE PIARIST MISSION

The fraternity assumes the Piarist mission as its own

The Fraternity does not have its own mission, parallel to that of the Order, but always shares the Piarist mission with the Order. This implies that the birth of a Fraternity well situated in a Demarcation multiplies the possibilities of promoting the mission in that Demarcation.

Sustaining the Piarist identity of our ministry

One of the keys to the life of the Pious Schools seeks to sustain and enhance the Piarist identity of our ministry. A Piarist Fraternity well placed in the key of mission supposes that a good number of persons and communities are involved in this task together with the Piarist religious in our schools, parishes, NFE works, Itaka-Piarist works, etc…

Calasanz Movement

The Fraternity of the Pious Schools and the Calasanz Movement are interdependent realities that need each other. The Calasanz Movement finds in the Fraternity a fundamental reference within the Piarist Christian Community that accompanies its group and personal processes, and that offers a clear Piarist outlet, together with the option to religious life.

The Fraternity finds in the Calasanz Movement one of its most specific lines of mission and the area of natural development of the Piarist vocation to the Fraternity and to the religious vocation. It is difficult to imagine that, if things are going more or less well in a Demarcation, the existence of the Fraternity does not imply the creation of the Calasanz Movement and vice versa.

Itaka-Escolapios

A “new Piarist subject” formed by religious and lay people who together promote a shared Piarist mission project, logically end up needing a mission platform that belongs to both and can be promoted by both in the same shared mission integrated in the Piarist charism, juridically promoted jointly by the Order and the Fraternity of the Pious Schools.

Undoubtedly, a Fraternity is called to get involved in the projects and works of the Order’s own mission (mainly schools and parishes), but the most natural space for the development of the Fraternity’s mission is, at present, Itaka-Escolapios. If vocationally we have already seen that no subordination is established between religious and laity, Itaka-Escolapios generates an area in which no juridical subordination is established either.

On the other hand, the Itaka-Escolapios network broadens the horizons of the mission of the Demarcation, opening channels for new projects, works, sending, exchanges, forms of management… and helps to establish missionary dynamism in favour of the most needy.

STRUCTURAL AND ORGANISATIONAL IMPLICATIONS

The Piarist model of presence

The birth of a Fraternity with all that it entails (articulation of a new Piarist subject together with the religious, configuration of a renewed Piarist Christian community, new impulses of mission, the Calasanz Movement, the possibility of Itaka-Piarists) requires a new way of thinking and organising ourselves: the model of Piarist presence, in which all the Piarist realities of a place are articulated and aligned according to the same project. The dynamism of a living Fraternity with “play space” will give meaning and necessity to the option for the model of presence.

Networking

For years now we have been making progress in functioning as a global Order, as a network of interconnected Demarcations. The presence of the Fraternity in a Demarcation deepens this culture of networking. The General Fraternity itself, in which all the Provincial Fraternities participate, is a network to which the Demarcation is added. But, in addition, realities that form part of the systemic functioning of the Fraternity, such as the Calasanz Movement and Itaka-Escolapios, are also networks in themselves.

SOME KEYS TO MOVING FORWARD…

All the above-mentioned implications, derived from the existence of an authentic and well-placed Fraternity, and many others that may have been left out, represent a great enrichment for the life and mission of the Demarcations of the Order and for the life of the members of the Fraternity themselves.

But to achieve them, we need:

- “To continue to deepen the change of mentality that we need both religious and lay people to understand, recognise and relate to each other as a true “new Piarist subject”.

- “To deepen the identity of the Demarcational Fraternity. Do not “downgrade” the Fraternity project; do not settle for the Fraternity to be simply a group of like-minded and close people; do not allow the Fraternity to be just one more group reality among many other possible ones in the Demarcation.

- “To promote vocational and integral formation processes, both for young people and adults (among which the Calasanz Movement stands out), from which there are lay people who discover their Piarist vocation and can find in the Fraternity their place in the Church and its mission.

- “On the part of the Demarcation, not to be afraid to share (life, faith, mission, spaces, decisions…), to “let go” of attributions, to open the doors, to treat the members of the Fraternity as Piarists who can be trusted. On the part of the Fraternity, not to be afraid to take up the challenge of co-responsibility and the demands of the shared vocation.

- These attitudes are fundamental to guarantee an appropriate space in the Demarcation in which the Fraternity can share spirituality, life and mission. The proper relationship between the Provincial Congregation and the Fraternity Council helps to seek together these necessary spaces for the Fraternity.

- “To favour and encourage the appropriate participation of the religious in the Fraternity. The Fraternity is a shared community space for religious and lay Piarists. We need religious in the Fraternity. The more the better (always with freedom). But we need them with an adequate participation: not as consiliates, companions, or rectors; but as one more brother who, as a religious and ordained minister, can also offer to the community his specific ministry.

- “To raise the possibility of the development of the Calasanz Movement and Itaka-Escolapios in the Demarcation. Together with the Order and its mission works, the Piarist Fraternity, the Calasanz Movement and the Itaka-Escolapios network, they form a system that establishes synergies that help us to grow. They are pieces of the same puzzle which, together, reveal the face of the Pious Schools in full “Piarist Pentecost”.

Thank you very much and lots of encouragement. A hug in Calasanz

The General Fraternity Council

Testimony from the Province of Nazareth (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru)

In response to what you ask me to write my testimony with regard to the Fraternity, well, I feel a little indebted, because in terms of the dynamics of participating in the communities I have lived very poorly, not for lack of conviction but because of the rhythm of life that the dynamics of my Province have imposed on me.

I can say that I am convinced of the intuition of the Order and, with it, of the Fathers General from the time of Fr Ángel Ruiz to Fr Pedro Aguado, with regard to the way in which the Holy Spirit has been placing so many lay people who have truly discovered the charism of the Pious Schools as a vocational vector for their lives. I have seen with great joy how several lay men and women of our Province have found in the way the Order understands Participation their best opportunity to ground their search, their educational gifts, their experience of faith and their love for education. Some of them have expressed that, even though they are lay people, they have been able to find in the project of the Pious Schools and in the dynamics of the Fraternity, the best way to live their lay vocation.

With this conviction I wanted to assume with a great sense of fidelity and co-responsibility with the Order the different modalities of Participation, especially the impulse of the Fraternity of the Pious Schools. We have thought a lot about the best way to organise and give place to this precious gift of God to the Pious School, and for this we have guaranteed, in the structure of the Province, the conditions of possibility to help the Piarist lay vocation that some people carry in their souls to emerge, to be recognised and to become a reality.

- We want (I wanted) to give great value to the vocational outcome of all our pastoral processes.

- We work to guarantee the integral formation of the Piarist subject so that people take their human and spiritual growth very seriously and thus guarantee the suitability of all those who live the Fraternity of the Pious Schools as a way of life.

- The Fraternity Council is taking very seriously the role of caring for its members, motivating and accompanying the processes of discernment of the charism, the formative dynamics of the members and the explicit involvement of the members in the mission of the Pious Schools, whether in the works of the Demarcation or in the workplaces of those who are not linked to us.

- One of the great challenges is to learn to situate the role of the members of the Fraternity in the promotion of the charism in all its facets: spirituality, community and mission. To this end, we have created the conditions for members of the Fraternity (powerful because of their gifts and commitments) but also other significant lay people who are very committed (but not members of the Fraternity), to be involved in the different instances of reflection and decision-making in the major provincial areas. For the style of government that we want to imprint on the Province, the participation of members of the Fraternity and lay people is very important. We have placed them in the structure of the Provincial Government, but also in each of the secretariats and teams that work to achieve the great objectives of our Province.

- Personally, I have felt very enriched by this journey together in building the Province and the Pious Schools in Nazareth: the frequent dialogue with various members of the Fraternity, the full confidence in many of them (including significant lay people), the joint prayer and the Eucharistic celebration in all our provincial meetings are the best expression of the Fraternity and of the authentic Participation in the Pious Schools, as far as I have been able to live it.

P. Juan Carlos Sevillano

Screaming for safety… And include

Once upon a time a prophet came to a city in order to convert its inhabitants. At first the people listened to him when he spoke, but little by little they turned away, until there was no one to hear the prophet’s words.

One day, a traveller said to the prophet: “Why do you continue preaching, can’t you see that your mission is impossible?

And the prophet replied: “At first I had hoped that I could change them. But if I keep shouting now, it is only so that they will not change me” (Anthony de Melo. The Song of the Bird).

Always come with us

O Lord, go before us to guide us.

Go behind us to push us forward.

Go underneath us to lift us up.

Go over us to bless us.

Go around us to protect us.

Go within us so that, with body and soul,

let us serve you for the glory of your name.

(N. Söderblom)

The challenges of the Fraternity

In the first Assembly of the General Fraternity, some challenges of the Fraternity were raised which are still current, more or less according to the different situations, in most of our Piarist reality.

For continuity and strength

The first five refer to keys for the survival and strengthening of the Fraternities already in existence or those that are being set up:

Clarity in the identity, common vocation and functioning of the Fraternity, each of the small communities and their members

The Fraternities need, especially in these still quite initial moments, to take strong care of the quality of Christian and Piarist life of the people who form them and of the communities as a whole.

The reference to the document of the General Fraternity, which establishes a common framework that defines all the Fraternities, must be clear. Some particular actions of setting up groups with the name of fraternity means confusion by offering something that does not correspond to reality and is, moreover, damaging the development of a decisive commitment for the future of the Pious Schools at the present time.

The clarity of the elements that make up this vocation to the Fraternity, its integration in the Piarist charism, in its spirituality, life and mission, must be formally and truly present in the daily life of each Fraternity.

Also within each Fraternity, and in each of the small communities that compose it, the membership of its members must be clear, who is and who is not in the Fraternity. The features of the common vocation and the effort to be faithful to them must be very clear and defined, as is already the case in the Fraternity’s framework document, which we must always take as a fundamental orientation. The Council of each of these Fraternities will have to ensure this.

A real place in the demarcation to share spirituality, life and mission

The Fraternity needs a clear space, some instances in which to share life, spirituality and mission with the Demarcation. This new Piarist subject, which is the Fraternity, responding to the modality of charismatic integration, needs its link to the charism to be something palpable so that it does not remain an ethereal feature that easily dissolves.

This means that some initiatives are put in place that make the Fraternity present in the Piarist life and mission, such as, for example, including it in the organisation chart of the Pious Schools of each Demarcation, setting up the presence teams where the Fraternity is a fundamental pillar, meetings of the Provincial Congregation with the Fraternity Council, the legal link that the integration in the Itaka - Piarist Network entails, etc.

Adequate participation of religious

Another very important aspect for the growth and consolidation of the Fraternity is the adequate participation of the religious in it.

The religious participate fully in the Piarist charism. They do not need the Fraternity or to belong to it to be at the very heart of the charism, as it has been during these previous centuries.

And yet, recognising that the Fraternity also shares the charism, we religious find ourselves with new Piarist brothers along the way. It seems very appropriate to walk with them, to encourage them in their option for the Fraternity, to involve ourselves in it as a real demonstration of our commitment to a new Pious Schools.

At some time and in some places, it has been possible to understand the belonging of the religious to the Fraternity as a serious difficulty, since it implies a double belonging to the Order. Nothing could be further from the truth. All of us have many belongings: they are what give each one of us our identity. The important thing is to have these belongings in a clear order.

A Piarist religious belongs to the Order, to his Province, to his small community, to his school or Piarist work. He belongs to his family. He belongs perhaps as a member to some pious entity, to an NGO, to a sports club, to some association. He belongs to a people, to a country. Belongs to a Church.

The difficulty can arise if these affiliations are not ordered or if they are contradictory in their approaches. This is certainly not the case for the Order and the Fraternity of the Pious Schools which share the same charism in the Church at the service of the society in which they are.

How do the religious belong to the Fraternity? On the one hand, they are a member like all the others: they are not monitors, leaders, consiliates,… but just another brother. On the other hand, because they are priests and because of their religious vocation, they are a great contribution to the whole Fraternity. The participation of the religious in the Fraternity must move between these two poles.

The religious, and also many lay people, participate in the two communities, their own religious community and that of the Fraternity. Possibly also in other groups of young people, of families,… The priority of his own vocation is clear and it is precisely because of this that he is linked to the Fraternity.

Sometimes, the whole religious community participates together with some lay people as a small community of the Fraternity. It is an interesting possibility that opens some space of the religious community (one day or several days and moments) to the Fraternity.

We also have the proven and persevering experience, uninterrupted since 1995, of joint communities where religious live together with some single lay people or with families with their children. Knowing how to safeguard the spaces and moments necessary for the development of each particular vocation, they are being a great wealth for all and for the Piarist mission.

Another interesting experience is the participation in the Fraternity of a religious community with all its members, or even a formation community. It is necessary to define which moments will be shared and which ones should be reserved for the religious. Without losing anything of the religious community, it participates as another community of the Fraternity. Something similar could be done, although it does not yet exist, with other religious communities.

In any case, it is important that the religious who belong to the Fraternity do so clearly, without it being an intermittent or diffuse participation. This can be helped not so much by a promise for the Fraternity, since they already have their religious vows in the Order, but by some sign which makes their moment of entry clear: it could be the renewal of their own religious profession in the Fraternity or something similar. There are various concretisations which have been able to respond well on this point.

Flow of new recruits

The Fraternity, like the Order itself, needs to maintain a steady flow of new members for its survival.

Vocation work in the broad sense, both for religious life and for the vocation to the Fraternity, is an unavoidable priority. Without new vocations, not only is the future endangered, but we are failing to attend to a fundamental area of our mission, perhaps the fundamental one, of inviting each one to participate in the building of the Kingdom, each one from the vocation he or she has received.

The effort to achieve a vocational culture in the environment, the strengthening of the educational and pastoral processes that can lead to adult vocations, the personal involvement of the members of the Fraternity in these processes, the pastoral orientation of all our Piarist works, are some of the actions that we have to take care of.

The Fraternity Council, in liaison with the Provincial Congregation and the other bodies of each Demarcation, must be attentive to ensure that a steady flow of new incorporations can be achieved.

Participation in the Local, District and General Fraternity

It is important to generate an identity for the members of the Fraternity that goes beyond their participation and belonging to their own small community, passing through membership of the local and district Fraternity and the General Fraternity.

The defining feature of the Fraternity is its integration into the Piarist charism. And this goes far beyond the small limits of each particular reference. We are Catholic because we are universal, because we discover brothers in all humanity, because we feel part of the world, of the Church, of the Pious Schools, of the Fraternity,…

Much of our identity is at stake here. And the still nascent fraternities can bring this sign of their general feeling of Pious Schools with the corresponding consequences.

Possibly we Piarist religious have sinned of the particularisms of my area of responsibility, of my work, of my community, of my demarcation,… The current option to live and function from the mentality of the Order is an important decision at this time[33] . The Fraternity can also be an opportunity in this sense.

33 Salutatio of Fr General published in Ephemerides June 2011.

To achieve this, it will be necessary to make possible experiences and steps for the members of the Fraternity to transcend their belonging to the small community with mobility in their own Fraternity or even in other Piarist presences, meetings of different types (between fraternities, of religious and lay people, with other ecclesial entities), careful communication and information,…

To make further progress together with the province/district

There are some proposals for progress that go beyond the survival and consolidation of the Fraternity. They are possibilities, always with the Province, which allow important leaps to be made in the life and progress of the Pious Schools, both of the Demarcation and of the Fraternity itself. We point out five challenges:

Promoting vocational diversity

We have already indicated above the importance and necessity of a vocational culture in which to situate our Piarist mission and also the vocational pastoral ministry specific to religious life and to the Piarist Fraternity.

It is appropriate to extend it now with the proposal that the Fraternity, together with the Province, assume this vocational culture as a priority, taking care, of course, of the vocation common to each of these two realities and, in addition, of the vocational diversification that allows us to visualise the need for the different organs in the “Body of the Church”.

Each person must search and pray to discover their own vocation to which God calls them in life. The possibility of visualising a few of them, the concrete proposals from the educators, the testimony of life, are essential actions for this.

It is not a matter of setting out the different vocations for each one to choose from, as in a market, but of making it clear that they are diverse and all necessary and complementary when they contribute to the common good. And that each one must seek, pray, discern, that particular call that God makes for his or her life.

At the same time, the Fraternity gains in vocational, charismatic and ministerial richness and grows as a community.

Some vocational possibilities that cannot be missed, taking into account the modalities of participation in the Pious Schools: the Piarist consecrated life, the priestly ministry, the lay Piarist (charismatic and juridical integration), the vocation to the Fraternity, the shared mission, the different forms of collaboration,…

It also helps the diversity of community models in the Fraternity, perhaps a small community with a specific task, with some feature that defines it especially. It can be very interesting to have a community that is the driving force of the Piarist presence in each place, in the sense that it can offer greater reference to the young people, to the life and mission of the place. The involvement of the Fraternity, always with the Province, is very important.

We can include in this vocational diversification certain personal or community assignments. For example, to assume a responsibility in the Piarist mission in a work or in the Province. It can also be a sending to another place, even to another country, to animate the Piarist presence and mission. These are actions that involve people vocationally and that represent a leap of quality in the reality of the Fraternity.

More simple, although very important because of its content and its reach to more people, is the definitive option for the Fraternity after some years of journey in it. It becomes a privileged moment for personal growth also vocationally and for the growth of the Fraternity that sees how a person bets forever for the following of Jesus in the style of Calasanz from it.

Piarist ministries are started on a shared basis between the Province and the Fraternity

We have previously dedicated a space to talk about the importance of these Piarist ministries. It is not a question of repeating the same reflection, but of realising that we are facing a great possibility of progress for the Fraternity, for the Province, for the Piarist mission and also a great contribution to our Church.

Piarist ministries have existed since the beginning of the Order. We religious have been assuming them throughout the centuries. And so it must continue.

A great vocational and ministerial opportunity is now opening up for the Pious Schools. Lay people may also be called to participate in these Piarist ministries[34] .

34 It is worth reading Fr General’s Salutatio published in Ephemerides of April and May 2011.

We are proposing three major Piarist ministries that we can entrust to lay people who are close to and identified with the Pious Schools, possibly in the Fraternity[35] . Hence the need for collaboration between the Province and the Fraternity in this regard.

35 See the document “Participating in the Pious Schools” presented at the meeting of Major Superiors in October 2011 in Peralta.

As we have already noted, we refer to the lay ministry of pastoral care, the ministry of Christian education and the ministry of caring for the poor for social transformation.

Beginning of the Piarist model of presence

It is also presented in the previous section. And, therefore, we do not repeat what has already been said. But it is worth insisting now that we are facing an opportunity to make the Province, the Fraternity and the Piarist mission grow with the implementation of this model.

To speak of Piarist presence means the commitment to bring together all that is Piarist in each place, always from the provincial orientation and that of the Order. It is to opt for a joint and coordinated work, driven by a shared project, giving voice and space to all the agents that participate in this wide reality of Piarist presence, it is to make the Piarist subject and mission grow strongly.

If we set in motion the model of Piarist presence, we will begin by indicating who drives them. And the Province will immediately appear, and now also the Fraternity. And, of course, all the other forms of participation in the Pious Schools (shared mission, collaborators, addressees). We have already taken an important step.

By setting up this model of presence, we bring together the mission of the place, we start from its current situation, we analyse it, we jointly set objectives and paths, we involve more people… and, with all this, we make a lot of progress in the mission.

When we started the Piarist presence model, we clarified the organisation, the functioning, the tasks. We have a coordinator, a team that drives all the teams that may exist, a project that guides each and every one of them.

Implementing the Piarist model of presence is an excellent opportunity that we should not let pass us by.

Beginning of the Calasanz Movement

In speaking of the urgency of evangelisation, we have reflected on the Order’s proposal to initiate the Calasanz Movement.

It is an option of the Order to set up group processes with children, young people and adults with a clear offer of a Piarist vocational key to the Piarist religious life and the Fraternity.

It is time that the Province and the Fraternity jointly set themselves the task of promoting the Calasanz Movement in their area and coordinating it with the rest of the Pious Schools.

This shared responsibility not only makes both of them and the mission grow, but also opens an interesting call that can lead to new additions to the Order and the Fraternity.

Participating in the Itaka - Escolapios Network

There are many Districts and Fraternities that make the Itaka - Piarist International Network possible today as a shared space, as a platform for the Piarist mission, as a reality of charismatic and juridical integration between institutions.

It is a reality with a certain history, backed up by its results in the mission and in the lives of those who participate, which opens up many possibilities for the Order, the Districts, the Fraternities and the mission.

At this point, suffice it to highlight the opportunity to network Provinces and Fraternities, to assist the Piarist mission especially where it is most needed, and to provide a clear institutional place for the Fraternity and its mission in the Pious Schools as a whole.

Every Province and Fraternity has the opportunity to participate in the international Itaka - Piarist Network. It would be, undoubtedly, a great step for them and also for this Piarist Network that is rendering such good services to the Pious Schools and their mission.

And more…

After this presentation of some great challenges, we must also think about those challenges that our closest reality poses to us. Defining them is already an important step to continue advancing along the paths that Calasanz showed us to build a better world through the Piarist life, spirituality and mission.

At the presentation of the 2011 Fraternity Document[36]

36 Summary of the presentation of the document “The Fraternity of the Pious Schools”. Ediciones Calasancias, 2011.

… At the heart of the Pious Schools today there are several Piarist Fraternities, which have been formed with the approval and support of the respective Major Superiors and, above all, with the effort, enthusiasm, authenticity of life and Piarist commitment of those who are part of them. All of them have been defining in written documents their identity, structure and mission. All of them are an extraordinary gift for the Pious Schools and for the mission that we are called to promote within the Church and at the service of society.

… I invite the Piarist religious to welcome the Fraternities as a gift that enriches and strengthens the Pious Schools, and all the people who are part of the Piarist Fraternities or feel called to them to live according to the charismatic gift received so that, all united, contribute to the strengthening and renewal of the Pious Schools, for the good of children, young people, the poor and all the people to whom we are sent by God, through the Church, by the fortunate daring and tenacious patience of St. Joseph Calasanz.

We ask God’s blessing on all of us who dream of a faithful and renewed Pious Schools, under the protection of Mary, Queen of the Pious Schools, and of Saint Joseph Calasanz.

Return of the Community to Jesus

After these things the Lord also appointed seventy others, whom he sent two by two before him into every city and place where he was to go. And he said to them, “The harvest indeed is plentiful, but the labourers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. Go your way; behold, I send you forth as lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no baggage, no shoes; and greet no one on the way. And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house. And if there be any son of peace there, your peace shall rest upon him; and if not, it shall return to you… heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you…”.

The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name”.

And he said to them, “… do not rejoice that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven”.

(Luke 10, 1-20)

It is not an end…

“If I proclaim the Gospel, I do not do it to boast: On the contrary, it is an imperative necessity for me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel”.

(1 Cor 9:16-19)

We are approaching the end of these pages, but not the end of the road that we must continue to discover and travel. The most important thing will be to be open to the Spirit of the Lord who continues to call us and to show us new paths to follow Jesus in community, in Fraternity, in Pious Schools.

We have the good fortune, the great fortune, to have a history of hundreds of years, with a community experience of religious life, with very different and complementary people, with institutions that help us to live and develop the mission, with a personal call that we have received to come together in Fraternity and to continue moving forward together… So much gift received brings with it a grateful commitment to go forward, to transmit the Good News to all humanity, to live with intensity the gift that has been entrusted to us.

Some key reference books and materials

1. We present some documents of obligatory reference and also some bibliography that can help us. Obviously we will have to update it constantly.

2. The laity in the Pious Schools. This is the fundamental document which brings together the Institutional Project with the laity. General Chapter of 1997.

3. The Piarist charism. General Chapter 1997.

4. Clarification of the identity of Piarist religious and lay people. General Congregation of 1999.

5. The Directory of participation in the Pious Schools. General Chapter 2015.

6. The Fraternity of the Pious Schools. General Congregation of 2011. (The initial document with the same title from 1988).

7. Participate in the Pious Schools. Ic-MC General Secretariat 2012. PORTUGUÊS: Participate in the Pious Schools.

8. Constitutions (2004) and Common Rules (2016). (The 2009 Rules).

9. Piarist Religious Formation Directory (General Chapter, 2015)

10. Directory of Ongoing Formation (General Congregation, 1994)

References on the Piarist Lay Piarist: charismatic and juridical integration

1. Statutes of the Itaka - Escolapios Foundation (2001) in which Demarcations and Fraternities, as well as the General Congregation, participate with the corresponding agreements.

2. Programmatic letter of adhesion to the Itaka - Piarist Network.

3. Statute of the Lay Piarist (2002) which defines the charismatic and juridical integration in Emmaus.

4. Papyrus 190 (2011) records the reflection and practice of this vocation as a lay Piarist.

References on Piarist Ministries entrusted to lay men and women

1. Statute of the Piarist Ministries for the Pious Schools of Emmaus (2002). PORTUGUÊS: ,

2. Lay ministries in Betania (2015).

3. Co-workers in the Lord’s vineyard. Bishops USA 2005

4. Missao e Ministerios dos Cristaos Leigos. Bishops Brazil 1999

5. Congar and the theology of the laity.

6. Raúl Berzosa. The ministries.

7. Ministries: dossier presented at the Nazareth Forum 2017.

8. Ministries conferred on lay people at Emmaus. Nazareth Forum 2017

9. Mission and ministries of the laity. Mexico

10. Ministries, Letter to the Brothers of Fr., General 2011.

11. Demarcation Documents

12. Escuelas Pías entre todos y todas (Emmaus Participation Statute, 2014)

13. Participation Statute - Bethany (2019)

14. Nazareth Participation Statute - draft (2019)

And more…

1. 1st Assembly of the General Fraternity and meeting of those responsible for charismatic integration and shared mission of the Order (Peralta 2014)

2. These documents are available and updated as they become available at www.escolapios21.org.

Some bibliography of interest

- Elkin ARANGO, “El caminho comunitário”. Verbo Divino, 1990.

- José Mª ARNAIZ. “Shared life and mission”. PPC, 2014.

- Miguel Ángel ASIAIN. “Laicos y religiosos: luces y sombras de una relación de gracia”, Confer 148 (1999), pp. 629-653.

- Berzosa, Raúl. “Ser laicos en la Iglesia y en el mundo”, DDB, Bilbao 2000.

- Leonardo BOFF. “Ecclesiogenesis. Las comunidades de base reinventan la Iglesia”. Sal Terrae, 1986

- Dietrich BONHOEFFER. “Life in Community. Sígueme. 2003.

- Antonio BOTANA. “Sharing charism and mission with the laity”. Frontera Hegian 62. 2009.

- Antonio BOTANA. “Initiation into the community”. La Salle Vocational Centre. 1990.

- José Pascual BURGUÉS. “La experiencia comunitaria del escolapio”. ICCE. Madrid, 1993

- José Mª CASTILLO. “La alternativa cristiana”. Sígueme. 1985.

- José Mª CASTILLO. “Teología para comunidades”. Paulines. 1990.

- José Mª CASTILLO. “The Church that the Council wanted”. PPC. 2001.

- Amadeo CENCINI. Life in community: challenge and wonder. Athens Education Society. Madrid, 1996.

- Amadeo CENCINI. Relating in order to share. Sal Terrae. Bilbao, 2006

- Carlo M. CIPOLLA. “The fundamental laws of human stupidity”. Booket ,1996.

- Jesus MIRROR. Ministry in the Church. A change of perspective. San Esteban - Edibesa. 2001

- Juan Antonio ESTRADA. “La identidad de los laicos”. Paulinas, 1990.

- Juan Antonio ESTRADA. “La espiritualidad de los laicos”. Paulinas, 1991.

- Juan Antonio ESTRADA. “Una eclesiología desde los laicos. Frontera Hegian 60, 2008.

- José Antonio GARCÍA. “Hogar y taller”. Sal Terrae, 1991.

- Carlos, GARCIA DE ANDOIN. “Laicos cristianos, Iglesia en el mundo”, Ed. HOAC, Madrid, 2004.

- Pedro José GÓMEZ SERRANO. “We have plenty of reasons”. PPC. 2011.

- Carlos GONZÁLEZ VALLÉS. “Viviendo juntos. Sal Terrae. 1994.

- Yuval Noah Harari. “Homo Deus. Debate, 2016.

- Antonio HORTELANO, “Las comunidades de base”. Sígueme, 1987.

- Marcellin LEGIDO. “Fraternity in the world”. Sígueme. 1987.

- Alessandro MANENTI. “Living in Community. Sal Terrae, 1998.

- José Mª MARDONES, “Is there a place for God today? PPC, 2005.

- Juan MARTÍN VELASCO, “La transmisión de la fe en la sociedad contemporánea”. Sal Terrae, 2002

- Jesús MARTÍNEZ GORDO. “Los laicos y el futuro de la Iglesia”. PPC, 2005

- Carlos MESTERS. “Living and proclaiming the Word; the first communities”. Verbo Divino, 2001.

- Assembly of BISHOPS OF QUEBEC. “Proposing the faith today”. Sal Terrae. 2000.

- José Antonio PAGOLA. “Creer, ¿para qué?” PPC, 2008.

- José Luis PÉREZ. “God gave me brothers”. CCS, 1993.

- SAL TERRAE Magazine. “Shared Mission”, no. 1157 June 2011

- Bernard SESBOÜÉ. “Don’t be afraid! Ministries in the Church”. Sal Terrae, 1998.

- Gabino URÍBARRI. “Bearing the Marks of Jesus. Comillas, 2001.

- Jean VANIER. “Community, a place of forgiveness and celebration”. Narcea. 1983.

Thank you… and we continue

The most important thing about a Fraternity is the people who make it up, the brothers and sisters who come together called by Jesus Christ to collaborate in the proclamation of the Good News and the building of the Reign of God.

For this, THANK YOU WITH ALL MY DEAREST THANKS

The Fraternity of the Pious Schools needs you, it is grateful for your dedication… because without you it would not exist. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for what you have already contributed and for what you are going to contribute. Thank you.

Thanks be to You, Jesus, because You have called us personally and summoned us to discover our Father in heaven and the Spirit who sustains and guides us. For you are the centre of the Fraternity.

Thanks to all the people who have made the Fraternity of the Pious Schools possible… and, especially, for those who continue to accompany us from heaven.

Thanks to Abel, Adalberto, Adela, Adelio, Adolfo, Adrián, Adriana, Agendia, Agnaldo, Agustín, Aimar, Ainara, Ainhoa, Aitana, Aitor, Aintzane, Aitzol, Alain, Alair, Alazne, Alba, Albert, Alberto, Albino, Alcendiney, Aldwin, Alejandro, Alessandra, Alex, Alexandre, Alexis, Alfonso, Alfredo, Aline, Altair, Álvaro, Amador, Amagoia, Amarildo, Amaya, Amós, Amparo, Ana, Ander, Andoni, Andrea, Andréia, Andreas, Andrés, Andrew, Ane, Ángel, Angela, Angelo, Ángeles, Angelica, Aníbal, Anil, Antón, Antoine, Antonio, Antxon, Aparecida, Arantxa, Arelys, Ariel, Arilson, Arnel, Arnoldo, Arrate, Arturo, Asdrúbal, Asier, Assedina, Atila, Augustine, Avelino, Axun, Ballenyne, Baltasar, Bárbara, Baudilio, Beatriz, Begoña, Belén, Benedito, Benigno, Benito, Benjamín, Berna, Bernardeta, Bernardo, Bertrand, Beth, Bibiane, Bienve, Binod, Blanca, Borja, Breno, Bruna, Bruno, Buenaventura, Camila, Camilo, Canisio, Carla, Carles, Carlos, Carmelo, Carmen, Carmina, Carolina, Casilda, Casimiro, Caterina, Cecilia, Cecilio, Ceferino, Celestino, Celia, Celso, César, Cesáreo, Charleyson, Charo, Chiquinquirá, Christian Cidinha, Cipriano, Cirilo, Cirylle, Clara, Claude, Claudia, Claudio, Claudionor, Clement, Clemente, Clícia, Conchi, Constanza, Corina, Crisanto, Crispín, Cristian, Cristiane, Cristina, Cristóbal, Cristophorus, Curro, Dalgisa, Dámaso, Damián, Daniel, Daniela, Danilo, Dante, Darío, David, Deibson, Demetrio, Diana, Didier, Diego, Dionisio, Divino, Domingo, Doris, Eba, Eddy, Eder, Edgar, Edinéia, Edixon, Edmundo, Eduard, Eduardo, Edurne, Edwin, Efraín, Efren, Egidio, Eladio, Elaine, Elena, Elene, Elías, Eligio, Elisa, Elizabeth, Eloy, Elton, Elvis, Elzana, Emanuel, Emelio, Emília, Emiliano, Emilio, Eneko, Enivaldo, Enrique, Ernesto, Emmanuel, Ermelio, Esperanza, Esteban, Esther, Estibaliz, Eugenio, Eulalio, Eunice, Eva, Evaristus, Ever, Everth, Fabiana, Fabiano, Fabiola, Fabrício, Fátima, Faustino, Federico, Feliciano, Felicien, Felicita, Felipe, Félix, Fermín, Fernanda, Fernando, Fidel, Fidencio, Flaminio, Flavia, Flaviany, Flavio, Florencio, Francesc, Francia, Francisco, Franklin, Fred, Gabino, Gabriela, Garazi, Gartxot, Geilsa, Gemma, Geni, Genoveva, George, Georges, Georgina, Gerald, Geraldine, Gerardo, Germán, Gil, Gilberto, Gilmar, Gisele, Glaucilene, Gloria, Gonzalo, Gorka, Gotzone, Gregorio, Grover, Guadalupe, Guerrero, Guilherme, Guillermo, Gumersindo, Gustavo, Haroldo, Héctor, Helaine, Helena, Helton, Heliodoro, Henrique, Heyder, Hilario, Hugo, Humberto, Ibon, Ignacio, Igone, Igor, Iker, Imanol, Inés, Ingrid, Inma, Inocencio, Inohelia, Iñaki, Iñigo, Ion, Irati, Iratxe, Irene, Ireneo, Iris, Irune, Isabel, Isac, Isaac, Isidora, Isidoro, Ismelda, Israel, Itxaso, Itziar, Iván, Ivanete, te, Ivomar, Ixone, Izaskun, Jacinto, Jacobo, Jackson, Jacqueline, Jakobo, Jaime, Jan, Javier, Jardel, Jazmín, Jarbas, Jaume, Jean, Jennifer, Jeremías, Jéssica, Jesús, Jins, Joane, João, Joaquín, Joel, Jon, Jone, Jorge, Josafá, José, Joseba, Josefa, Joseila, Josélia, Joseph, Josi, Josineia, Josu, Jovino, Józef, Juan, Juanjo, Juan, Jucelina, Judas, Jude, Judith, Julen, Julián, Juliano, Julimar, Julio, Jumkwa, Juncal, Justine, Justino, Kazimierz, Katiuscia, Kattalin, Kelvin, Kepa, Kike, Kisito, Kossi, Kumar, Ladislao, Laida, Laura, Lara, Leandro, Leire, Lenin, Leonard, Leonardo, Léster, Leticia, Libia, Lidia, Lino, Livio, Loles, Loli, Lorea, Lorenzo, Lourdes, Luc, Luca, Luciane, Luciano, Luciene, Lúcio, Ludovico, Luis, Luisi, Luiz, Luz, Luziane, Mabel, Macario, Magda, Mahylda, Maia, Maider, Maipi, Maite, Malen, Manel, Manolo, Manuel, Marcel, Marcelino, Marcelo, Marcelo, Marcia, Marcio, Marcos, Marek, Marga, Mari, María, Maribel, Marilia, Marina, Mario, Maritza, Mariví, Mariano, Marisete, Markel, Marlene, Marly, Marta, Martín, Martiniano, Mary, Mateo, Mateusz, Mattin, Matxalen, Mauricio, Max, Maximiliano, Maximino, Máximo, May, Melchíades, Melvin, Mercedes, Mertxe, Micaias, Miguel, Mikel, Miren, Miriam, Miroslaw, Modesta, Modesto, Moisés, Mónica, Montse, Moses, Murilo, Muskilda, Nacil, Nagore, Naia, Nany, Natalia, Natalio, Nati, Natxo, Nazaret, Nazario, Ndze, Neida, Nekane, Nelyimar, Nerea, Neziane, Nicolás, Nidia, Nieves, Nikhil, Nisséria, Nivaldo, Noelia, Norberto, Norival, Norma, Numa, Nuze, Nisséria, Odirley, Ofeliz, Oier, Olegario, Olga, Orlando, Oscar, Oskia, Pablo, Paco, Paloma, Pantaleón, Pascual, Patricia, Patxi, Paula, Paulino, Paz, Pedro, Pepe, Pierre, Pilar, Plácido, Poliana, Primitivo, Priscila, Puri, Radoslav, Rafael, Raimundo, Raju, Rakel, Ramón, Raquel, Raúl, Regina, Renata, Renato, Reyes, Resu, Ricardo, Riselha, Roberto, Robinson, Rodolfo, Rogelio, Roger, Rogerio, Rolando, Romeo, Rommel, Romualdo, Ronaldo, Roniyer, Rosa, Rosalinda, Rosalío, Rosario, Roseane, Rosiane, Rozilda, Rubén, Rubia, Rudy, Saji, Salvador, Salvadora, Samara, Samson, Sandra, Santiago, Sara, Saturio, Saturnino, Sebastião, Secundino, Sergio, Severino, Sexto, Sherlock, Shinto, Shirley, Sidonio, Silas, Silvana, Sílvia, Silvio, Simón, Sonia, Stalin, Stanislaw, Stephano, Stephen, Stevons, Sueli, Suely, Susana, Tailo, Teodora, Teodoro, Terence, Teresa, Terezinha, Thadeus, Thuerryu, Thomas, Tiburcio, Tomás, Tulio, Txemi, Ugo, Unai, Unax, Urbano, Uxue, Valdésia, Valentín, Valeriano, Vanda, Vanderleia, Vanderson, Vanessa, Venio, Vera, Verônica, Vicente, Víctor, Victorien, Victorino, Vilma, Vinod, Virgile, Viviane, Walberleno, Warlem, Washington, Wemerson, Wilfred, William, Willians, Wilson, Xabier, Yelitza, Yefrin, Yolanda, Yrene, Zacarías, Zaida, Zigor, Zoraida, Zsolt, Zuriñe[37] (forgive me for not repeating when two names coincide or when they are compound names. Thank you all).

37 For the sake of simplicity, we do not repeat names and compound names are listed separately. If you find it difficult to recognise yourself in the list, sorry, don’t worry and thank you for your contribution to the Fraternity of the Pious Schools and its mission.

For the greater glory of God and the benefit of our neighbour

Table of Contents

Presentation of the book from P. General

Passion for the Fraternity, more than just a book…

Presentation of the book from the General Council of the Fraternity

Presentation

Situating this book

Passion for the mission… with passion for the Fraternity

A brief history of the Fraternity

Community, our identity

People of God from the beginning of time

The community of Jesus… until today

A synodal, missionary and communitarian Church

The laity in the Church

Religious life

Our Piarist community life

Sharing mission, charism, Piarist community

Piarist fraternity, another way of living the charism

The richness of religious life in and for the Fraternity

The place of the Fraternity in the future of the Pious Schools

Pious Schools enriched by the Fraternity

Launching the fraternity

The decision to start

Small networked communities as an option

What is the small community

Vocation to the community

Elements of any community

Diversity of vocations in the common vocation

Caring for the Fraternity as a living body

Stages in the Fraternity and Definitive Option

Pious Schools in fraternity, a horizon that is opening up

Living in the key of Piarist presence

Enabling different forms of participation

The Piarist Christian Community

Piarist ministries entrusted to the laity

Shipments to other countries and presences

Lay Piarists: integration also in law

Itaka International Network - Piarists

Different community models

The Calasanz Movement

Vocational and formative culture

Experiences that make you grow

To move forward in fraternity

Fraternity means sharing more and more

Sharing the material

Sharing the affective

Sharing the spiritual

Community diseases

To cure community ailments

Happy in Fraternity

To follow the life of the fraternity

Current situation of the Fraternity

Particularly significant moments

The challenges of the Fraternity