Retreat on the FMM Charism

Experience of Charism

A “YES” To

God’s love

Retreat on the FMM Charism

Given to the province of Mauritius/Reunion

in April and June 2006

By Sr. Mary Rose Joseph Pulikottil FMM

(Texts in French, English and Spanish)

79

Preparation for the Retreat:

“The Lord said to Moses:

‘Be ready by morning, and come up to the mountain of Sinai at dawn;

await my orders there at the top of the mountain.

No one must come up with you,

no one be seen anywhere on the mountain;

even the flocks and herds may not graze in front of this mountain.’

Moses.....went up the mountain of Sinai in the early morning as Yahweh had commanded him.

And Yahweh descended in the form of a cloud,

and Moses stood with him there.

He called on the name of Yahweh.

Ex. 34: 2-6a

Dispositions necessary for the retreat:

·  Rest well and relax in the presence of the Lord. Be seated with open hands, letting go of all preoccupations and entrusting them to the Lord.

·  Contemplate and be where the Lord is waiting for you. The seed grows in silence, invisibly.

·  Be receptive……Welcome the Word.

·  Taste the goodness and the love of God.

'''

Introduction:

An Overview

Experience of Charism

Love of God

A “YES” said with Love

1
Witness to the
Primacy
of God’s love / 2
Witness to the
love
for the sisters
God gives us / 3
Witness to the
love
for the brothers and sisters
in the world

Witness by a Permanent Conversion,

Leading to the

Transformation

and

Fullness in Christ

(Path to Holiness)

W

Introduction (contd.)

Development of Major themes:

1.  Personal Encounter with the God of my life:

“Mystical” Dimension

·  Encounter with Christ:

Personal / Community Prayer

Word of God

·  Contemplation of the Mysteries

Blessed Trinity

Incarnation

Eucharist

Paschal Mystery

Consequences:

v  Total self-offering after the example of Jesus

v  Genuine love for others

v  Reconciliation

v  Capacity to wonder at God’ work

2.  Importance of fraternity in the Frnciscan Family:

“Ascetical” dimension

·  Build the community in faith, love, joy, understanding and reconciliation

·  Witness to an evangelical life: the vows

·  Live as sisters, going beyond all our differences: internationality and interculturality

·  Gift of oneself: share the gifts and experiences

·  Mutual accompaniment

Introduction (contd.)

3.  Contemplation of the realities of the world – allow oneself to be challenged, to be compassionate and involve oneself in the mission with dedication:

“Apostolic” Dimension

·  Passion for Humanity

·  Embrace the whole world with the feminine qualities of patient love, compassion, tenderness, sensitivity and gratitude, not condemning, excluding and judging any one.

·  Share what we possess because of the love we have for our brothers and sisters and not because of what we renounce which is the fruit of asceticism for the sake of asceticism (Cf. Fr. Carballo - Minister General OFM)

Ongoing Conversion>Transformation>towards

the fullness in Christ

Ø  Confront our daily life with the light of the Word of God

Ø  Let God be God in our life

Ø  Have the attitude of humility and minority – accept our human condition

Ø  Search for the Will of God every day – listen to it and accomplish it

¯¯¯

Contents

Page
Preparation for the retreat / 2
Introduction / 3
Table of Contents / 6
Day 1:
/ Reflection: 1
Reflection: 2 / My Identity
My Identity in Christ / 7
11
Day 2: / Reflection: 1
Reflection: 2 / Corporate Charism
Foundation Charism / 15
18
Day 3: / Reflection: 1
Reflection: 2 / Called to Live the Same Charism
Witness to the Primacy of God’s Love / 23
27
Day 4: / Reflection: 1
Reflection: 2 / Contemplation
Contemplation of the Offering of Jesus - I / 31
37
Day 5: / Reflection: 1
Reflection: 2 / Contemplation of the Offering of Jesus – II
Contemplation of the Ecce-Fiat of Mary / 45
49
Day 6: / Reflection: 1
Reflection: 2 / Community Life
Totally Given to God - Vows / 55
61
Day 7: / Reflection: 1
Reflection: 2 / At the Service of Evangelisation
On the Path to Holiness / 65
73

79

Day 1: Reflection 1

My Identity

definitions of the word “Charism”:

- “Gratuitous gift of the Holy Spirit to a person or to a group for the good of the Church.”(Fr. Dumeige SJ)

- “Gift accorded by the Spirit to a person for the edification of the Church.” (Fr. Lozano cmf)

- “Movement that invites the Christian to a work of the given mission of the Church and which he accomplishes. (Fr. Ghislain-Lafont OSB)

- This word has something to do with our identity as a person.

The fundamental theme that recurs often in the Bible is: “Called by name”.

Gn. 15:1; Ex 3:4; Jr 1:11; Am 7:8

Who am I? What is my identity?

- Member of a natural family – I am a woman

- Member of the Church; a baptised catholic, with a name

- State of life: Religious in the FMM family - an International

Institute of Pontifical right; living a life of contemplation and

action.

We have the tendency to generalize our personal identity. Our identity is linked with our relationships. For God I am not a number in a crowd. I, like everyone else, am unique. God calls me by my name. In calling me by my name, God has given me a “true self”, my “deepest self”, my absolutely unique character. Am I aware of the significance of my name? This is my personal identity, my true self, my personal vocation; my particular identity had been given to me at Baptism.

Apart from the interpretation of the word “charism” with regard to religious life, “charism” signifies in the context of a Christian: an experience of the love of God which gives the person his/her Christian identity: Is. 43:1b

Have I already discovered the name by which God calls me?

All the saints: for example, St. Teresa of Infant Jesus, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Ignatius of Loyola….each one has a different identity, based on each one’s personal relationship with God. Our life is based on experience and on the relationship that we have with God. This is our personal vocation. We receive our personal identity through the experience of charism i.e. personal experience of the love of God. Personal vocation flows from our identity.

Two experiences of Mary of the Passion:

1.  April 1856: Retreat at Nantes

“I will always love you more than you will ever love me”

“Never for a moment did she imagine that God would be waiting for her there…that He had chosen that moment to reveal Himself to her, responding to the immense desire that had haunted her from early childhood…..And now on this April day in 1856 the answer came to her. A truly personal answer: she was being addressed, in intimate terms, in a declaration of love by the One she could never have imagined could love her in this way, He who is perfect Beauty, Infinite Being, God!”

M.T. de Maleissye – “Fifteen Days of prayer

with Mary of the Passion” – Pg. 24.

2.  23 January 1861: With the Poor Clares

“‘Would you like to be crucified in the place of the Holy Father?’…I felt very frightened. But I would never have dared to say ‘No’ and I said ‘Yes’, either by word or by an inclination of the head and at that moment there descended upon me, like a consecration, these words and this name:

Mary victim of Jesus and Jesus crucified…….. the First, the consecration of my vocation and the second part of the name was like an image of my future.”

M.T. de Maleissye - “Short Life of

Mary of the Passion” - Pg.31

“Thirty years later, it would be the same contest to outdo each other in love:

‘I said to Love, “I love you so much that I could die!” and Love replied, “it is I who have loved you so much that I did die!” and all the love of Jesus’ Passion pierced my heart through and through.’”

M.T. de Maleissye - “Fifteen days Prayer

with Mary of the Passion” – Pg.25

How do I experience the love of God?

“Yahweh would speak with Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.”

Ex 33:7-11 –Vs.11

The relationship of Moses with God was one of great friendship. But the Israelites were afraid. There are differences in the way each one receives the love of God. But God is constant in his love for each one of us. Each one experiences the love of God in a specific manner. The experience of being loved gives us the courage to respond to this love.

Charism: Experience of the love of God - The Gift of God.

Response: Surrender: / my gift for God.

Mission: Relationship with God and with others – the gift of myself to others for the sake of God.

In the Bible, “vocation” implies a specific mission in life.

Primarily my mission is my relationship (my being) with God and with others. What I “do” is a consequence of my “being”.

We need to be clear: Personal vocation is not at the level of “doing” but at the level of “being” because it is to do with relationships. There are some persons who interpret “vocation” in terms of function / work. Some day the level of functioning or doing is bound to enter into a crisis. When I am in this crisis, if I am not able to fall back on the resources of my being, I will be in a total crisis. If, for me, the meaning of life is truly at the level of being, in a more profound and more radical way than at the level of doing, I will find a deeper meaning in all that is confided to me as “mission”. Striving to find meaning in one’s life is the primary motivational force in human beings.

Personal vocation is the unique God-given meaning in one’s life.

Example of a Jesuit priest: “The Goodness of God”: for this Jesuit (Jesuit priest referred to in the book by the author), it was his personal vocation, the secret of his mission, his relationships, relaxation, recreation etc. In all this he lives the goodness of God. The unique challenge for him is to be a channel of God’s goodness for others. This became the secret of unity and integration at the heart of his whole life. Personal vocation may look rather general for others but for the person himself/herself it is absolutely unique.

- Cf. “You have called me by my Name” – Personal Vocation – by Fr. Hubert Alphonso S.J.

- Cf. “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor E. Frankl – author of Logo therapy. Logos= word / meaning

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Day 1: Reflection 2

My Identity in Christ

Christological Perspectives of charism

No call comes from God except in the person of Jesus Christ and no one gives a response to the call of God except in the person of Jesus Christ: 1 Tim. 2:5

Therefore every vocation is in Christ. The personal vocation of each one is in Christ. That is to say, there is a facet of the personality of Jesus, a “face” of Christ that is proper to each one of us. We have been plunged into Christ through Baptism: Rom 6:3, Gal 3:27 and we are clothed in Christ in a uniquely personal way.

My personal vocation / my charism is not some abstract ideal. It is a person – the person of Jesus Himself. So I can speak of “my Jesus” which leads me to a deep and intimate personal relationship with Him and opens me to my responsibilities in the mission.

God’s Plan for each of us is that we be “conformed into the image of His Son”: Rom 8:29 that “we all attain…..to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”: Eph 4:13.

Christ is the fullest expression of God’s love. In Christ all relationships can be found in God. “Indeed from His fullness we have, all of us, received grace upon grace”: Jn 1:16

We have our being in Christ. Our relationship with God is the participation in Christ’s relationship with God: Col 1:15.

My experience of God’s love (my charism) is participation in the charism of Christ. Therefore, my identity is to be found in Christ – “He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings of heaven in Christ”: Eph 1:3.

Personal vocation of Jesus is contained in just one word: “ABBA”. It sums the whole of his life, and His mission.

Jn 4:34; Jn 5: 19, 20; Jn 5:30; Jn 7:28; Jn 10:30; Jn 16:15; Mt 11:27; Mk 14:36; Lk 2:49; Heb 10:57.

Our “Personal Vocation” continues to grow throughout our life.

Ph 3:5-11: Spiritual identity of St. Paul:

Human identity: Saul

Natural gifts: Human qualities

Spiritual identity: After the conversion, a new name: Paul

Spiritual gift: Charism for the evangelization of “gentiles”

Final Goal: For Paul, communion with the Cross of Christ is to be in union with Christ in His resurrection: supreme witness

Growth in spiritual identity demands a discernment,

listening to the Spirit

Desires and Needs: Blessed are those who have the need for God; the kingdom of God is theirs. Do we have this desire, this