Sister Wivine Kisu
Filles de la Charité
140, rue du Bac
75340 – Paris
A Shared Mission
PRELIMINARY
This sharing of about 20 minutes contains an introduction, through pictures, which situate the origin of the Marian Vincentian Youth Movement.
Here are the three areas in which it has developed:-
1. The Mission, a reality in the Church, a mystery
2. The Mission lived with ….difficulties and mistakes.
3. The Challenges and Hopes of the Mission
And finally, a short conclusion to end our sharing
Group work, followed by sharing and exchange in plenary session
INTRODUCTION
1. The Chapel: It was here in this place that the Virgin Mary appeared to Sister Catherine Labouré – who was a Novice at that time.
2. The Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, Only Mother of the Company of the Daughters of Charity.
3. Sister Catherine was kneeling, her hands joined on the Virgin Mary’s lap. “It was there that I passed the sweetest moment of my life”.
4. The message received: “The Blessed Virgin wished to confide a further mission to her. It was the Confraternity of the Children of Mary, for which the Blessed Virgin would obtain many graces. The Children of Mary would receive many consolations”.
Sister Catherine received this message, a mission which was undertaken with the help of her Spiritual Director, Father Aladel.
This message echoed that which was given on Calvary: “Behold your Son, behold your Mother”. (The maternity of Mary confided to us by Jesus on the Cross)
5. Sister Catherine, the Daughters of Charity, the Priests of the Mission (Vincentian Fathers), the Marian Vincentian Youth Movement from different Continents
I. THE MISSION RECEIVED : A Reality at the Heart of the Church, a Mystery
I. 1) The Mission confided to the Church (The Mission of the Church)
What is this mission that we are all called to share in ?
The Company of the Daughters of Charity, the Congregation of the Mission (Vincentians), the Association of Marian Vincentian Youth Movement were born in the Church, so they are members of the Church. Their respective missions are inscribed at the heart of the Church, as an integral part of the Mission of the Church, which is a mission for evangelisation in the service of Christ. As a logical consequence, our being as Daughters of Charity, Priests of the Mission, Marian Vincentian Youth, is ecclesial and that is the Central point. I am and we are, the Church and we are Church.
It is in following Christ that we live the mission requested by the Virgin Mary and confided to Sister Catherine as a mission given to the Daughters of Charity with the support of Father Aladel. This mission continues today with the collaboration of the Priests of the Mission. In accepting the free gift of “Behold your Mother”, in welcoming Mary like the Apostle St. John, the Virgin Mary teaches us the best way to continue the work of the Master in the particular calling which is ours.
This mission does not belong to us, we are simple servants, not “masters”. We are at the service of the mission which we are called to share with others.
This mission confided to us is preceded by our Baptism, which we accept as ecclesial reality, and this becomes a sharing in the measure that we accept to collaborate with others.
I. 2) Unity in Diversity : the experience of Charism
It was a Daughter of Charity who received the message of the Blessed Virgin. Today, like yesterday, each Daughter of Charity is a servant; she is at the same time evangelised and an evangeliser. She is companion on the journey at the service of the young. In sharing her spirituality, the Daughter of Charity helps others to discover the way to find and meet Jesus, present in the person of the poor, and going through Mary.
It is in our ecclesial ‘being’ that our Vincentian ‘being’ is rooted and develops. It is from within herself that the Daughter of Charity must achieve the mission confided to her.
The unity of our ecclesial being, blossoms in our Vincentian being. All of us together share in the Charism, a gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church, which nobody can claim to own exclusively. It is a reality beyond measure. We have been touched, overwhelmed by the Spirit and, faithful to our calling in life, we are trying to walk together by its impulse. Again, as simple servants.
I. 3) The Mission where the poor are “the Meeting with God””.
In the logic of our Charism, the poor person is the place, where the young meet Jesus through the Virgin Mary. The clarity and the vitality of the Vincentian Charism leave us in no doubt. Pope John Paul II said very clearly: “The Vincentian Charism is always in the here and now”.
“Poor” is a theological place where Christ the Servant, continues the mystery of His death and resurrection: the Paschal Mystery. - Mary, at the foot of the Cross, Easter Sunday morning and Pentecost, show us Christ and says to us : “Do, whatever He tells you.”
II. THE MISSION AS LIVED BY VMY, MY, C.M. (COLLABORATION)
The viability of a work requires revision. As regards the evolution of the Association of Marian Vincentian Youth, in a world of permanent change, the Daughters of Charity must commit themselves to revise and review their role in collaboration and in partnership. We, Daughters of Charity in the light of Christ, the Servant, the Good Shepherd, and in following Him, we must clarify and evaluate our being and our doing.
We must not lose sight of these words of Christ: “When you have done all that you should do, know that you are unprofitable servants”.
II. 1) Sharing…
The sense of shared mission goes far beyond work, tasks, or activities relating to common projects. It is question above all, of the profound conviction that we live our ecclesial, Vincentian and missionary being. for and in service. (Carry Christ and His message, as the Blessed Virgin did when she visited Elizabeth).
Sharing the mission in the following of Christ, is to “enter into the process of the Catechumenate like Christ Himself with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. It is also to offer to the young, space for growth and for true love so that they centre and concentrate on the Essential, in all liberty and space, so that they may be able to choose options which give real sense to their lives.
In this work of collaboration, living the Mission with…, it is found that material help is one of the aspects that must not be overlooked in our sharing. However, we must be attentive to certain protective attitudes which may make the young always dependent. It could mean placing oneself in unwise situations and giving place to relational difficulties. There is also a danger in suggesting, even subtly, our own path, our own personal expectations. our manner of living……
This shared mission presupposes for the Daughter of Charity:
a) to possess a true attitude of servant : “See that I am among you as One who serves”.
b) to be one who has walked and continues to walk with Jesus, and who can experience being on the journey to Emmaus with the Risen Christ, an experience which leads one to open one’s eyes to the Light, and to Hope.
c) to approach the young with respect and without undue attention, because the other – the young as well as priests, remain a mystery.
d) To show interest in the other person, an effectual way to enter into dialogue, because he or she, however little, however poor he may be, could teach me to become aware of another reality, a richness of being.
e) To have the courage to speak the truth, to explain, to understand the question, of an experience in life without forcing oneself (like the attitude of Christ with the rich young man)
f) listening with attention and respect can help in the understanding of a reality which is beyond us, and inspire confidence.
g) to be concrete in our actions “the sharing of bread” (Cf. Emmaus) in the daily life of the young. What have we to share concretely with them?
h) To know when to remain in the background when the essential has been said. Leave the other time to savour, to interiorise, (to know from within) when to become involved. Jesus must remain at the centre of this journey of the young like a fire that is burning, which energises them to return to Jerusalem to announce, “He is truly Risen” and so, become witnesses.
i) To know how to be a discreet presence, and intervene at the opportune moment like Mary at Cana : “They have no more wine”.
II. 2) VMY, MY : An association of Lay People
The mission of Vincentian Marian Youth, - A movement, an association of young Lay Christians must be respected in its identity and its specificity. Since the Church recognises it as such, the Daughters of Charity have to promote and take personal responsibility which they will undertake in all liberty.
To have confidence and to accept that mistakes are made, as being part of the process of maturation in the life of all human beings. When the young are motivated and well accompanied, these mistakes are sometimes necessary, so that they may invest more creativity in order to discover new ways of how to behave towards others. Special teaching skills are needed for this accompaniment, which frees the young and creates within them a certain boldness and solidarity which would help them to take on responsibility.
II. 3 Challenges and Hope.
a. To desire, - to promote,- to recognise-, and accept the maturity of the Marian Youth Movement. We adopt the spirituality of St John the Baptist : “He must increase and I must decrease”.
b. In the concrete reality of each group, we must respect and allow them to be themselves, proposing to each, the person of Christ, through Mary as Mediator. Mary is the road one must travel in order to know and love Jesus. St. Louise de Marillac had this beautiful expression, “I belong to you, Holy Virgin, so that I may belong more perfectly to God”. Louis Grignon de Monfert said, “To rise up and be united to Him, we must use the same means that God used to come down to us, to become Man and to give us His graces: and this way lies in true devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary”.
The motto of Pope John Paul II was: “I am all yours, O Mary”.
c. Assist the young and allow them their freedom “to fly”. Accept the fact that one or other of them may be “Jonathan Livingston Seagull”, so that he can fly higher, without our imposing our points of view, however rich and good they may be.
d. Accept the maturity of the young, not as a conquest of independence, but as an awareness of their own identity, potentiality and responsibility.
e. To accompany them in order to teach them to break the chains of routine, conformity to all that the world does in society, which in certain ways, imprisons their body, their thinking, their sense of creativity, their initiative, and prevents them from recognising the depth of their true selves, which would enable them to respond with boldness, true love, joy and liberty in their true vocation
f. Situate the mission at the heart of the service of accompaniment. How many difficulties could disappear or be reduced when we are able to situate the mission at the centre of this service, and not through our own schemas, projects, opinions and our own way of looking at things.
Only on this condition can we speak of Shared Mission
WORKING IN GROUPS
CONCLUSION
A Mission has been confided to us, Daughters of Charity, by Saint
Catherine. As servants of the Kingdom, let us share it. Let us live this
mission in Faith and Hope, learning to live together, supporting and
respecting the rhythm of each one. Let us guide the young with
patience so that they may reach the shore with a greater and stronger
love.
Let us accept the challenge and the joy of learning to serve together.
During this year of the Eucharist and the 175th anniversary of the
apparitions of the Virgin Mary to St. Catherine Labouré, the Virgin
Mary continues to speak to all her sons and daughters, “Come to the
foot of this Altar (the table where the salvation of humanity is
perpetuated in unrelenting love) there, graces will be poured out on all
who ask for them with confidence”.
In this shared mission, according to the words of John Paul II, in his
Encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, “… Above all, let us listen to Mary
Most Holy, in whom the mystery of the Eucharist appears, more than
in anyone else as a mystery of Light. Gazing upon Mary, we come to
know the transforming power present in the Eucharist. In her we see
the world renewed in love. Contemplating her, assumed body and soul
into heaven, we see opening up before us, those “new heavens” and
that “new earth” which will appear at the second coming of Christ.
Is it not true that it is towards this world, renewed, in and through love, that the Marian Vincentian Youth, and Marian Youth are journeying?
O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you.