Brother PASCUAL PILES FERRANDO 

 

                                             Superior General

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                         Let yourselves be led by the Spirit

 

                                                   (Gal 5:16)

 

                          Circular letter to the Brothers of the Order

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rome, 24 October 1996

 

The Hospitaller Order of the Brothers of St John of God

 

General Curia

 

 

                         Let yourselves be led by the Spirit     (Gal 5:16)

 

 

1.             INTRODUCTION

 

 

1.1           JUSTIFICATION

 

 

My Dear Brothers,

 

Two years have passed since our last General Chapter.  During this time I have addressed the Order on many occasions, both orally and in writing.  My intention has in each case been to try to be present with as many of you as possible, in the places where you live and work.  I have visited 34 countries, I have visited about 148 Centres more or less thoroughly, depending upon the time available to me, both alone and accompanied by members of the General Council.

 

Considering myself to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord, I have tried, through my visits, to make St John of God visible.  I have had many opportunities to do this: the Provincial Chapters, Canonical Visitations, moments of reflection, celebrations and events in the Centres or in the personal lives of some of the Brothers.

 

During the Fifth Centenary of the Birth of St John of God I was able to attend many celebrations: three organised at the level of the whole Order and others promoted by the Provinces and Centres.  For all of us, these events were a source of great enrichment.  We intended this celebration to be a Jubilee Year of growth in spirituality for the Brothers and our co-workers.  It would perhaps be an exaggeration to say that we achieved this fully, and yet I have witnessed experiences of our Brothers, co-workers and patients that confirm to me that many of them have grown spiritually.  To round off the year before the summer arrived, we had the joy of seeing the canonisation of Blessed John Grande which has helped us to become better acquainted with and more appreciative of the topical relevance of his witness in a society which is increasingly in need of solidarity with our neighbour.

 

1.2           FOR MY BROTHERS

 

This letter is written to you, to my Brothers.  I intend to appeal to you regarding the ideal of life which we are called to attain.  We have been called to gather from different parts of the world to live together the vocation of the Brothers of St John of God.

 

I would like to tell you many things which I have gathered over the past two years, and I think that it would be useful for us to share them so that they can help us to live.  I am not forgetting the sick and the needy, or the co-workers and friends of the Order.  Indeed I shall be mentioning them on various occasions in the course of this letter.  But for the moment, I want to address you, my Brothers, to think about you, and to share with you the joy of our vocation.

 

1.3           THE TONE OF MY LETTER

 

I want to write in a positive tone, knowing that our world is limited, and that limitations so often surface in the way we behave.  But I want to speak to you about all the things that are beautiful in the ideal that we are called upon to live up to.

 

By adopting this tone, I am inspired by the apostolic post-Synodal exhortation "Consecrated Life" which the Holy Father has addressed to us, in which he examined the problems of today in the consecrated life, treating them positively and hopefully.  Several times he speaks of the beauty of the religious life.  I know that we have a great deal to do, but the real craftsman of the history of salvation, and hence the history of hospitality, is God.  In my meetings with you I have seen the difficulties, but I have also encountered so much life.

 

John Paul II presents the religious life as the form of life that Jesus and Our Lady lived on earth.  I would like to offer you some thoughts on our religious life, which we can use in our reading and meditation, which will help us to re-think our identity, to hold it up against the teachings of the Magisterium to which I shall frequently refer.

 

We have taken on the form of life of John of God, which has been handed down to us by so many of our Brothers: his first companions, Pedro Soriano, John Grande, Gabriel Ferrara, Francisco Camacho, Paul de Magallon, Benedict Menni, Richard Pampuri, Eustaquio Kugler, etc.  We are being called to do the same.  If they were able to be faithful, to be saints, I cannot see why we should not be able to do likewise.

 

1.4           A CALL TO MAKE OUR IDEAL A REALITY

 

Hence the powerful appeal that I made to myself and which I made to you at the closure of the Fifth Centenary of the Birth of our Founder:

 

                “O Lord, as you touched John of God, touch us, transform us, to make us today other John of Gods, living in contact with you, and knowing how to give ourselves to others.

 

                O Lord, let us believe in the greatness of our life; let us enjoy the greatness of our life.  We do not need others to tell us, or to exhort us to live it.  We know already.  But what we do need is to live it, to experience it.

 

                Touch us, so that everything we do is motivated by expectation, by hope, by the desire to build up a better world.  Let us not allow ourselves to remain pinned down by the reality of each day, which conditions and prevents us from living.  Let us be aware that we have been transfigured with you and that we are now your icons, the icons of John of God.”

 

 

2.             OUR IDENTITY

 

I do not know if there has ever been so much questioning about personal identity throughout history as there is today.  Who we are, who I am, how we are being called to live our lives.

 

The religious life has been through a powerful period of renewal which the Church intended and encouraged through the Vatican II decree "Perfectae Caritatis", subtitled "For the appropriate renewal of the religious life".  We have asked ourselves about ourselves, how we lived and how we were called to live.

 

We were given three benchmarks by which to make progress in discovering our identity: the Gospel; our founding sources: the Founder and tradition; and adapting to our age.  We have tried to follow these.  We have not managed in every case, but I am sure that no-one has done so in bad faith.  In the light of these three benchmarks, I would like to reflect on a number of aspects of our identity.

 

 

 

2.1           WITNESS OF LIFE

 

The Gospels are the accounts of the most perfect Witness: Jesus of Nazareth.  And of his followers.  The Church has had many witnesses.  St John of God was, first and foremost, a true witness of life.  As was the life of his early companions, and as is the Tradition of the Order, which ceases to be a real tradition if it fails to bear witness to a life.  "Our world needs witnesses more than teachers, and if it accepts teachers it is because they are witnesses" (Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, 41).

 

It is obvious that the projects of Jesus of Nazareth and of St John of God, as well as the demands of our world, are calling us to be witnesses.  Witnesses of life: the life of the Gospel, the life of St John of God, updated to the contemporary world.

 

Because of our limitations it is easy to become inconsistent: to expect some things which we are unable to achieve and to justify many others which we know are essentially unjustifiable but which we find it difficult to drop.

 

Our witness of evangelical life demands that we live radically: Jesus is calling us to follow him with strength, radically, because he understands our nature.  He showed understanding with the backsliding of his disciples, with their vulnerability, even though we can define Him as the one who is invulnerable.  When inviting us to follow him, Jesus says that his yoke is easy and his burden light (cf Mt 11:28-30): its radical nature is open to mercy, to reconciliation.  Jesus knows our nature and does not demand us to be what we cannot be.  But he does ask us to be icons, to become transfigured, to reveal him through our lives, to continue his living presence in history with our witness of life which must be essentially that of St John of God (cf. Const. 2c; 3a).

 

I have just mentioned some of our Brothers who, with John of God, have handed down our charism throughout the ages.  I have been a Brother for 32 years and I have always joyfully lived the Order's effort to discover its living past in the Brothers who have gone before us, in our tradition, in St John of God.  I have done this with great intensity over the past two years.  I appreciate all the efforts being made to place St John of God at the very centre.  He really does come across to us as a balanced figure: John of God, and of men.  We should all feel carried away by his very being.

 

I am also stimulated by the witness of so many of our Brothers whom I meet when I visit our communities, who make me feel small.  Personally speaking, I appreciate their lives, which I must confess are eminently the lives of St John of God.

 

John of God, as a witness, is a call to us to bear witness to a life which we know is worthwhile.

 

We must be witnesses: in our world which needs witnesses; in our Church, which also needs witnesses.  We live in very different societies, at varying levels of development.  All of them are affected by consumerism, materialism, hedonism, and with proposals which ensnare us.  We wish to enrich all these societies with the light of our charism. 

 

We are called to be hospitality, to embody the new hospitality, changing our patterns of work and conduct.  Not all of us are yet convinced of this, and in some cases it causes considerable suffering.  Responding today to the demands of being witnesses means knowing how to discern the way of better serving our society, as St John of God did in his age: "May Jesus give me time and grace for me to have a hospital, where I can take in the poor without shelter, and those who have lost their minds, and serve them as I wish to"^[1]

 

 

 

2.2           THE PROPHETIC DIMENSION OF OUR LIFE

 

The whole of the religious life is prophetic.  It takes on the features of the being of the true prophet in sacred scripture.

 

The power of prophecy is based on the truth of what the prophet says.  Presenting the oracle of the Lord, whose contents manifest his word.  The prophet is the symbol of authentic life, the figure who radiates transcendency, who acts as an ethical authority, the figure who is in living contact with human needs, who lives in solidarity with others, in simplicity, joy and hope.

 

In one of his reflections, Brother Brian O'Donnell speaks of John of God as servant and prophet,^[2] two mutual complementary aspects which imply the dimension of annihilation (Kenosis) and service (Diakonia).^[3] 

 

In terms of both the prophetic demands of our religious life and the prophetic being of St John of God, our life is also called to be prophetic. 

 

John of God, as a prophet, has shown us the Word of God regarding hospitality, our own form of being hospitality, with his own life.  He did this authentically and consistently.  His figure radiated transcendence, and this is why they christened him "John of God".  He was in total contact with human needs, and showed solidarity with them, living simply, joyfully and hopefully; he stripped himself of himself in order to be able to give himself wholly to others, to serve them and to promote the lives of others.

 

Like him, we are also called to be prophets in a difficult world, in our own world in which we must be the word of God, living a coherent life, bearing witness to transcendence, in a life of simplicity, joy and hope.

 

Is this possible today?  From my own experience and my knowledge of different parts of the Order, I have to say yes.  We are prophets, and we are called to enhance the prophetism of our life.  Perhaps I am being over-optimistic.  Some of you may well think that judging from what we are today, all of this is increasingly less evident.

 

I have faith in the action of God.  I have confidence in the presence of the Spirit who will guide us in the responses we are making as an institution, and which we are called to make, even though not everyone may find them to their liking, and despite our mistakes on occasions.

 

 

 

2.3. WITH A SPIRITUALITY OF OUR OWN

 

John of God has left us a spiritual legacy.  His life was eminently charismatic.  He had an impact on and attracted many people to cooperate with him, and some of them wished to live as he did: this was how the group of his first companions came into being.  For them, St John of God was the icon of Jesus Christ.  It was his great personal integrity that persuaded them.

 

The first written evidence of what happened in those days dates back to the decades that followed, 1570-1580.  John of God left a charismatic community on his death, with a life of its own that was spreading far and wide.  Various people were joining the group, some of them who had already been devoted to the service of hospitality, and as Brothers of Blessed John Grande they pursued his project of serving suffering and marginalised mankind.

 

The biographies of St John of God and the various Constitutions of the Order have been the expression of the spirituality of the Founder and of the enrichment which this spirituality has undergone throughout history.  We cannot say that they were specific treatises, because that was not their purpose.  Neither can we say that they have always contributed a true spiritual experience.  Yet they have helped to create much of our own particular spirituality.  The fact is that without spirituality our life would have ceased to be life at all.

 

Our world of contrasts, so strongly permeated with secularisation, is also thirsting for spirituality.  This is what we said in Chapter IV of the document of the last Chapter, "The New Evangelisation and Hospitality at the Portals of the Third Millennium".  And we realise this ourselves.

 

For years we, and particularly our Formation Masters, have been talking of committing our spirituality to writing.  We have a text by Father Gabriel Russotto dating from 1958.  The route set out in the doctoral thesis of Brother José Sanchez has also enriched the basis of our spirituality and has placed the figure of John of God at the very centre.

 

Following the desire expressed at the LXIII General Chapter we are striving to put the spirituality of the Order into writing, as the expression of the fact that we have realised that it is necessary in order to remain true to St John of God, and of the fact that this spirituality is truly embodied in us.

 

What I want is to strengthen the need that each of you feel to be spiritual men, and to be so in the manner of St John of God, so that we may make the effort to become more thoroughly familiar with the foundations on which he built.  His letters are full of expressions which spring from his heart, and express his peculiar spirituality.

 

We might be afraid of harping too much on the past, and of distancing ourselves from the present reality.  But we should not fear this.  I am speaking to you about living our particular spirituality in the world to which we belong, which is loved and desired by God, created by Him: a spirituality for our medical and social structures, for the world of sickness and marginalisation, a spirituality to share the mission of our co-workers, a spirituality for humanisation and evangelisation, a spirituality which enlightens ethical issues, a spirituality which is the continuity of being St John of God today, a spirituality for a new hospitality.

 

 

 

2.4           A PREFERENTIAL CHOICE OF SUFFERING MAN

 

The Magisterium of the Church and today's religious life have a great deal to say about the preferential choice of the poor.  I endorse this, even though we know that the concept of poverty is relative, and that our lives are not always a testimony of poverty.

 

John of God stood by the side of the poor, always by the poor, I would like you to understand what I mean very clearly.  I see that he made a choice, incorporating the sick into the concept of poverty, considering sickness to be a manifestation of man's poverty.  Today we also talk about those who suffer as being “the poor”.  This is how the Apostolic Exhortation Consecrated Life (CL 82) expresses it. It is true that today the sick include people who have more resources to ease their sufferings, but that does not mean that they always manage to.  Without wishing to eliminate the radical nature of the preferential choice for the poor, I think that, like St John of God, we must include among the poor everyone who suffers.

 

I endorse all the conclusions of our recent Chapters, both Provincial and General, in which we have decided to reach out to all those who most need us among those who suffer, practising this outreach with the same universality that characterised St John of God and which led him to do good at all times, whatever needs he met, reaching out widely, with a capacity to relate to all, having opted to help "suffering" man, who is the truly poor man.

 

This decision should lead us to become hospitality to the very depths of our being, always receptive to the poor, the sick and the needy, with a universal attitude towards them.  A Brother of St John of God can never cease to be hospitality.  Despite the fact that the pace of life creates difficulties for us, we always have places and ways of continuing to be and to practise hospitality.

 

Hospitality is inherent in our being, through the charism with which we have been enriched through our consecration, through the fundamental choice that we have made.  It is therefore necessary to reaffirm this choice, and not to draw away from the world of pain.  We must remain in it, and bring to it the healing and reconciling experience that St John of God had, which is nothing other than the saving experience of Jesus Christ.

 

Our Constitutions make no bones about it: they say that our resources are a function of our mission, not as a form of power but of service (Const. 13b).  That alone, and nothing other, must always be the nature of our choice.

 

The fact that we have declined in numbers in so many Provinces has led us to take a fresh look at the mission.  This is a necessity expressed by the Holy Father when he spoke to religious in some regions (CL 54, 55, 56 and 63).  But this should not distance us from what we consider to be our fundamental choice: sensitivity to the suffering of others, like John of God, living in contact with the real lives of so many people who suffer and whom we constantly encounter.

 

Any other path leads us away, in my opinion, from our identity.  The present responsibilities that the Order has placed on us might require us to be concerned about other needs.  But that must not prevent us from remaining close to the concrete reality of people who suffer, who are in our centres and to whom John of God would certainly make present his own sensitivity.

 

 

 

2.5           AS RELIGIOUS

 

From our baptism we have been called to live as religious in the Church.  Our identity as religious is different from that of the laity and of the priests (CL 4).  We belong to our beloved Hospitaller Order, founded by St John of God and approved by St Pius V on 1 January 1572 (Const. 1).

 

With the style of life that it is specific to religious we must continue to be hospitality.  In a secularised world which needs the witness of believers, of religious, we must be the manifestation of the presence of the merciful God, the God who is hospitality.

 

The charism of hospitality is the gift of God to the Church; John of God was enriched with it and we, his Brothers, have inherited it from him.  This does not mean that other persons cannot be enriched by this same gift, to live in service to the sick and needy in another style of life.

 

Hence the apostolic need for us to work as religious, so that our co-workers can participate as far as possible based on faith or even human values alone, in the charism of hospitality.^[4]

 

The fact that we have to be constant contact with the secular world in no way affects our identity as consecrated persons, who live in a and who relate to God through prayer, who have opted for a specific style of life, and who know how to be in mission on the basis of their consecration.  The demands of our age have caused us to adapt, but not to lose our being.  Our presence in the Church requires us to be consecrated, and wherever we are, we must manifest ourselves as consecrated men.

 

In CL 25, the Holy Father speaks of making our consecration present as a visible sign, and of the use of the habit as a sign of consecration.  He also speaks of simple dress, using a badge which must bear witness to our consecration.  We must make an effort to use these external signs, without being invasive or exaggerating, following the customs of each particular country, knowing how to reconcile the secular reality in which we work and live with the religious witness that we wish to express.

 

Let us make the effort above all through the integrity of our lives, which are the authentic expression of our consecration.

 

 

 

2.6           RELIGIOUS BROTHERS

 

We are members of an Order of Brothers, and even though some of us may be promoted to the priesthood by virtue of hospitality, they never cease to remain Brothers.

 

Consecrated Life has clearly defined the three states that exist in the Church: the lay state, the priesthood, and religious.  It also deals with the nature of lay religious institutes. And in order to avoid any misunderstanding it calls them Religious Institutes of Brothers (CL 60).  It wishes them to be called by this name in future.

 

The use of this terminology gives the expression Brother a vast wealth of spirituality: Brothers of Christ, the firstborn among many Brothers, Brothers towards one another through mutual love and cooperation to serve the good of the Church.  Brothers of all mankind, through the testimony of charity of Christ towards all, particularly the least of our Brothers.  Brothers, to make greater fraternity reign in the Church.  Brothers who bring reconciliation to society.

 

Brothers who reconcile: this should be one of the fundamental principles of our lives. In a divided world, in a society seeking efficiency and driven by utilitarianism, in a Church which is defined communion, being reconcilers and bringing brotherhood and fraternity begins by ceasing to create distinctions among ourselves which separate, and by creating attitudes which unite.

 

I do not deny that I have frequently failed in my fraternal relations, but I have always felt very brotherly towards my Brothers and I wish to continue to do so.  I believe that I can say from my own experience and from many letters I have received from you that we all suffer when we have difficulties in relating to our Brothers.

 

 

 

3.             THE SENSE OF OUR CONSECRATION

 

When talking about our identity and dealing with the fact that we are religious, consecrated men I alluded to the sense and meaning of our consecration.  We have all read the plentiful post-Conciliar literature and the theological reflections and contributions of the Magisterium.  They all help to enlighten our lives to ensure that our vows are lived with personalised and personalising proposals.

 

I do not want you to think that I am dealing with things of the past that no longer bind us, because we have grown out of them and they have little relevance to our lives today.  It is precisely because I do consider that certain aspects are not being lived properly that I urge you positively to carry out an appropriate reflection so that you can live the true sense of our consecration.

 

 

 

3.1           VIRGINITY FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

 

Through consecration in virginity we express our capacity to love and orient ourselves in a specific direction. 

 

On the one hand this involves ascesis, directing our urges, harmoniously integrating our very being.  This brings with it moderation in food and drink, abstaining from inappropriate literature and films which, without our realising it today, prevent us from living serenely our chastity.

 

I do not want to give anyone scruples, but I am speaking to you quite freely.  I feel fairly liberal, and would even say that in some respects I am too liberal.  But I do consider that our world is very provocative in this area, and it is necessary to fully appreciate this issue in order to overcome certain difficulties and direct our way of life properly. Prayer is a great resource which not only increases our friendship with God, but helps us to focus on the centre of our life.

 

Virginity is a gift.  God calls us to live as consecrated men.  He gives us the capacity to respond to his call, but he also demands a quality in our response, a free response, as an expression of the friendship that exists between us and him.  Both an inadequate idea of virginity, as well as living it without serenity, trying to stifle our urges without giving them the substance they need, will bring out problems and sometimes reach the point where they become an obsession, eliminating the joyful experience of virginity.

 

Virginity lived properly gives us the capacity to love universally.  We do not choose a person in order to love that person exclusively; virginity frees our hearts so that we can love without ties, here and there, this person and that person alike.

 

I do not know whether it is going too far to say that the heart which is not universal is not a virgin heart.  Certain ties must cause us to examine our virginity.  Although we may not sin against what we consider to be the content and substance of our vow, but I think that certain attachments do away with that universality which our consecration demands.

 

Furthermore, being a virgin does not mean that we are sterile.  Our life is called to have an apostolic fruitfulness (Const. 10).  The freedom which our consecration gives us is not to make us self-centred, because that would be selfishness; it is freedom to enable us to give ourselves to others.  And this is where our fruitfulness lies.  We must generate a certain type of life, distinct from our physiological life, but life all the same.  Hence the importance of believing in a culture of life and in a civilisation of love, and working to make these possible.

 

We must attribute importance to things that in the past we considered to be less important.  We must take care of our affections and ensure that they are properly directed, and let them lead us to be close to our Brothers, co-workers, the sick and their families, and our friends.  A Brother who does not experience affection, without gentleness, without sensitivity, cannot perhaps take on everything that being a Brother demands. Without wishing to be absurd, someone has spoken of a feminine dimension of hospitality.

 

I accept, approve and understand the character of each one of us.  My first attitude towards everyone must be respect.  But for us, who are hospitality, virginity brings with it certain things that relate to the affections, which are not at in contrast with the fact that we are chaste, or the fact that we are men.  It is a frame of mind.  Hence the richness of genuine virginity.

 

 

 

3.2           EVANGELICAL POVERTY

 

The concept of poverty is relative. There are many types of poverty.  Even if we live in straitened circumstances, there are still those around us who judge us by the many things that we possess.  People see us with far more resources than they have, and they judge us to be wealthy.

 

We have consecrated ourselves in poverty.  We know very well that St John of God devoted his life to the poor and needy, taking on their same condition. 

 

Most of us live with a medium to high status.  In recent studies on St John of God we have been invited to break away from the baroque John of God that we have created and recover the real John of God, the pure John of God, freed from all ties.  I believe that stating this implies not only the desire to recover the real John of God in the historical/literary sense, but also the fact that we are being called to take him on into our own reality.

 

As in the case of virginity, we are not going to rend our garments.  There are things that have now become part of our heritage: art, culture, expressions of the faith, that we have to respect and cultivate.  This is all relevant to the mission in which we must place all the resources we can in order to properly care for the sick and needy.

 

Our concern must be more with the way we live, the attitudes we adopt, to see how far we are swept along by the consumer mentality of our society, to see whether we can take on the poor, the humble, the simple man, and make him our cause.  Our personal work must be geared to genuine liberation, sharing with others all we are and all we have.  The theology of the religious life speaks of a personal poverty and a community poverty, and we must ensure that they are real.

 

I think that the thesis kenosis-diakonia leads us to this, to detachment from material goods, making us more available and solidly behind the needs of others, making us increasingly able to speak out for those who have no spokesman, to work for human development and the defence of the needy.

 

Inside me I fear that I am merely saying fine words, and that I am not sufficiently committed to the realities of poverty which surround us, justifying many of my attitudes and my conduct by the responsibilities vested in me.  But I do want to tell you how strongly I wish to be with the poor and the needy as John of God was.  I pray for conversion and courage, for myself and for us all, so that we can express our consecration in poverty.

 

 

 

3.3           OBEDIENCE IN THE FREEDOM OF THE SONS OF GOD

 

My remarks on obedience are intended to express the need we have to be open to the will of God.  We are accustomed to an obedience which used to be a matter of sticking to the rules, following orders issued by our superiors, which led us to live a uniform life.

 

Our culture has left a great deal of room for the personal element, for freedom.  Yet I do not know whether there is any basis for the claim made by some of us, that we are worse off today than we used to be.

 

In theory an act of obedience is seen today as a personal act, facilitating maturity, facilitating freedom.  We should use dialogue as an instrument and we should encourage joint responsibility, because obedience includes within itself the fact that we are active and responsible.  It ought to help us in our personal and community growth. 

 

The rationalism in our culture, the failure to make proper use of our freedom, feeling self-sufficient, having had to redeploy our mission, thereby giving our work a different complexion whereas it was previously closely bound up with obedience ¾ all of this has narrowed down the area left to our consecration in obedience.

 

We talk about mediation.  At the universal level, the word of God, the Magisterium, tradition, this means our proper law. At a more concrete level, it is our superiors.  The truth is that it is difficult for us to view our superiors as mediators in obedience.

 

In his exhortation Consecrated Life the Holy Father has given us no norms or rules whatsoever; he used exhortation.  Neither do I want to lay down any rules.  We must move ahead out of conviction.  We must make the demands of our ideal our own, so that we do not do things simply because we are ordered to, but as our own personal, interior adult response.

 

As I said before, what is important is to be open to the will of God for our lives.  The Superior must know that his function is to serve.  We all know that we have to work in order to build up fraternity, in order to place the common good above all particular things.  I do not wish to spiritualise, but I do believe that we have to connect the dimension of the faith to our own lives.  We cannot use freedom as a justification for everything.  Neither can we abuse others, or oppress them in the name of obedience.  Sometimes, depending upon where we are, we find it difficult to be the animator of a community, or we feel that we are not being shown due consideration.  I believe that all of us are being called to conversion.

 

The document Fraternal Life in Common calls out loudly to us to live our vocation well in everything that has to do with communion; this requires maturity and holiness.  We must live our obedience using present-day categories, but with a genuine spirit of consecration.   We need to be open and to accept the will of God for our lives through different mediators. In practice, I believe that we have emptied obedience of much of its real meaning.

 

 

 

3.4           HOSPITALITY FOLLOWING

 

THE AUTHENTIC SPIRIT OF OUR FOUNDER

 

If we need to clarify the content and substance of consecration in poverty and obedience, the content and substance of both virginity and hospitality are very clear.  Virginity is an evident feature of the consecrated man.  What defines us is Hospitality.  We are hospitality, as we have said on more than one occasion, and we must continue to be hospitality according to the spirit of our Founder.

 

Hospitality has theological roots.  So many attributes have been applied to God!  Even though this does not emerge in theology books, I wish to state that God is Hospitality. 

 

Our charism is a gift of God which makes us participate in his being hospitality; the basis of hospitality is the theological reality of charity; hospitality which also has a human basis, which leads us into the space occupied by others, and to leave space for others in our own being.

 

John of God was hospitality: he welcomed in, respected, assisted, healed, reconciled, shared with, served, helped and understood others.  If we wish to live hospitality in the manner of St John of God we are called to do exactly the same.  This is what we are calling the new hospitality.  "We want to be like him, touch us as you touched him".  That is what we have asked our Lord to do.

 

Like every institution with a history, our Order has had to adapt.  We have changed according to the criteria in different ages across history, according to the way in which people have felt as they succeeded one another in the Order.

 

Our generation, possibly more than any other, has experienced far-reaching changes in the practice of hospitality because of the restructuring of our Centres, the change in direction that some have taken, the presence of the Order in new medical or social situations, and the different needs of human beings when they are sick.

 

Hospitality is what defines us: our consecration is made to God through the four vows, but the attitudes inherent in the other three make us capable of being hospitality (cf. Const. 24).  I think that if we do not respond in harmony with the three vows, this will prevent us from being what defines us: hospitality.

 

By approving the present Constitutions, we have recovered the full sense of the vow of hospitality, incorporating into it everything that refers to the theological-spiritual dimension, even though it is less measurable as the content of the vow.

 

I wish to appeal to everyone to live this defining dimension of our lives without playing down anything.  I wish to say that hospitality has nothing to do with the possibility of being able to work or not to work where we have always done in the past; it has nothing to do with being in direct contact with the sick, or doing only duties that indirectly relate to the sick.

 

The sense of our hospitality goes much more deeply than this; it has to be materialised in acts, but we can always be hospitality just the same, as St John of God was: in his hospital and in the street; in the house of the duchess, or the bishop, or the prince, accompanying prostitutes in Toledo, or finding a house for them in Granada; setting up a school with his first companions, allowing himself to be helped by workers and volunteers or entrusting the work to St Raphael; planning a hospital, running it or leaving it in the hands of others; being very active or experiencing sickness. Like him, we must always be hospitality.

 

 

 

4.             THE PRESENCE OF GOD IN OUR LIVES

 

At this point I should allow each one of you to speak.  We have all experienced the presence of God in our lives: through the faith we received in baptism, lived in our own family, celebrated in the local church to which we belonged before we became Brothers.  In our local church we had the great manifestation of God, feeling ourselves called to live as consecrated men. 

 

We did not fall off our horse like Paul, or have such a powerful experience as occurred in the life of St John of God.  But we have experienced the action of God which has moved us to follow him and to try to imitate the merciful Christ and the merciful John of God.

 

The presence of God in the life of the people of Israel, in the Church, in history, is a real presence: God the saviour became man in order to communicate this saving power to all.  He is the God who is close to us, who is expecting an appropriate response, but the God who understands, pardons, reconciles, always.

 

Post-Conciliar theology does not exclude other definitions, but it sees God as being very close to us, much more of an Emmanuel than a judge.  I see him much more as the God who, at the moment of death, comes out to meet us to welcome us in, rather than as someone who decides the eternal future of our existence in the form of a judgment.

 

God is always the same God.  We are the ones who have emphasised one side rather than another, with the danger of misrepresenting his being. 

 

This God has enriched us with the gift of grace, the climate in which our relationship develops: "where sin increased, grace abounded all the more" (Rom 5:20). These are things that we have forgotten.  These are things which, if they are taken into account, enable us to feel that we are loved, wanted, and accompanied by God in all the ups and downs of our life.  Grace as the source and the well-spring of life: a life which God has transmitted to us, and which continues in us in super-abundance, until eternal life.

 

These are simple elements that we studied in our children's catechism, which we deepened as we grew in faith, placed on a sounder footing in the novitiate and in our study and reading of theology books, but they are elements that we must turn into personal experience.  It is precisely the experience of God that has made it possible for us to cultivate the spirituality that we must allow to grow every day.

 

In this climate of grace, we heard the call, we followed it, and we found ourselves trying to respond to it.  We heard God in a very personal way.  Nothing would stop us.  It caused us to leave our home, our family and work, and threw us into the adventure of being Brothers of St John of God.

 

How many wonderful moments we have experienced!  How many moments we remember, and look back to with yearning, that we still desire, based on the evident experience of God-love!

 

The fact that we feel called to follow the life of Christ has filled us and continues to fill us with satisfaction.  It has fascinated us, and still fascinates us.  Life goes on.  Our life force changes, but the mysterious presence of God continues to live on.  He has put us to the test, bouncing us like a ball.  Perhaps he has tried us through our own Brothers, but he stays with us.  Every day we have the possibility to reaffirm our following and support for him.

 

 

 

4.1           ENRICHMENT OF HIS PRESENCE THROUGH PRAYER

 

I am not going to define prayer.  We have many treatises that define it in terms of the experience of the great saints.  Our Founder also had an experience of prayer, with which he built up his friendly relationship with God.

 

During my visits to our communities I have felt stimulated by your prayer, both personal and communitarian.  This does not mean that some communities should not improve their style and the form of community prayer, or that some of us should not break out of a personal routine and mediocrity into which we very often find ourselves, without realising it.  I can see that we are all praying, but it would be a good idea to pray more.

 

It is necessary to encourage and build up our relationship with God through prayer.  We have to create this climate of trust between God and ourselves which is sometimes difficult for us to enter into, because it belongs to the world of mystery.

 

I do not know if I am doing the right thing in saying it, but for years now I have experienced the presence of God in my life; it is a liberating, healing, perceived experience that has to be cultivated.  I have had moments of weakness in my own personal history, times when I have questioned God with all my whys and wherefores, with my doubts, and with my failure to understand reality.  At the present time I sense God in a very personal way, close to me within me, even though it continues to be a mystery.  I also feel very closely accompanied by St John of God.

 

With both of them I try to dialogue frequently.  I would like to do it always, but I am not worried that I have not yet reached that level.  I have the impression that my future will go on like this.  But I find that I am receptive to the will of our Lord, when I feel that my prayer life is becoming arid.

 

Our prayer includes the liturgical dimension, as you all know, with the celebrations of the Sacraments, and the Liturgy of the Hours.  There is also another type of prayer which we perform in common.  For all of this we need to build on our personal attitudes.^[5]

 

This requires the power of grace.  But it is also necessary for us to make a personal response: from meditation, from seeking peace, serenity and harmony in our own being; from silence and the wilderness; from the traditional moments of prayer itself: petition, thanksgiving and praise.

 

The climate of prayer facilitates our receptiveness to the will of God.  He is the one who is taking us forward, moulding us, guiding us in all our steps.

 

I am saying this to you so that you can appreciate the importance of prayer in our lives, so that you will make the most of and appreciate the prayer that you are offering.  By appreciating and making the most of prayer I mean that we must tell ourselves that prayer is a key instrument for living our lives focused on our own vocation.  Prayer helps us at all times in our life, in joy and in suffering, in our youth and in our old age.

 

I have said this on many occasions: we must move ahead until we can manage to read our lives in the light of the faith.  John of God managed it.  And his was by no means an easy life because he was always in contact with the grim side of life: the sick, the poor, the abandoned, the unloved, the disoriented.  At every moment he was bold, and this was a source of consolation to everyone, for in everything he saw the hand of God.

 

I do not intend to remind you of the way we pray.  It is set out clearly in our Constitutions.  We can add or we can cut back, and depending upon the time available we may feel more hard pressed by activities.  But what we cannot do is to live without prayer, without deep prayer.  The example that many of you have given me is what urges me on to generally exhort all of you.  We will be the first beneficiaries of prayer well done.

 

The Vatican II Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium purified the devotional life of the Church, focusing it on the mystery of Christ.  Over the past thirty years we have all been educated in this way.  The saints and Our Lady have their mission in the history of the Church and society.  Let us place our trust in Mary, in our three saints, and in Blessed Benedict Menni and in our Blessed Martyrs.  Prayer will make it easy for us to communicate with them, and through them, with God.

 

 

 

4.2           SUFFERING, A REALITY WHICH IS DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND IN TERMS OF A GOOD GOD

 

The reason for the presence of evil, suffering and death is something that has attracted the concern of all philosophical systems and theological thought.  Some have tried to take a more benevolent approach to the being and the action of God, while others have taken a more severe approach, and have been more critical regarding the existence of evil in humanity.  Despite all, it is still one of the ineffable mysteries.^[6]

 

 

Holy scripture has also tried to explain this both in the Old and the New Testaments.  The Church has tried to clarify the saving action of God despite the existence of evil, suffering and death.  The dogma of original sin is one explanation, but without challenging that dogma it is now presented in another manner, using other languages.  One thing is certain: from our own experience and above all through the pastoral mission that we are called upon to perform, we often find ourselves faced with suffering, anguish, anxiety and death.  Not always, but almost, it is difficult to help suffering people to accept them.

 

We must bring the saving presence of the God we spoke about before into these situations, to enlighten them.  We must be open to this presence first and foremost ourselves.  Because sometimes. even though we are called to be agents of the pastoral ministry in the world of health care, we often go off at a tangent in order to be able to invite others subsequently who, without knowing why, have had to suffer more, and have had to be part of a reality which marks them for ever.

 

Our Centres are places where we ask God many questions, hoping for a favourable answer, which does not always come.  They are places in which people experience frustration, aggression, and a rejection of relations with this God whom we define as the God who brings freedom and goodness.

 

In our apostolate we must put across the God who, even in the experience of suffering and pain, continues to the God of mercy, the God who does not hide, and gives our lives a transcendental dimension, the God who is liberation and who helps to incorporate suffering as a path to maturity.

 

But it is not easy to incorporate suffering, and it is not easy to help others to accept it.  We frequently have to show the merciful God by silently accompanying others.  On other occasions, we can help them to accept the saving presence of God as an experience which is considered negative.

 

May our Lord, who is grace, help us in these situations and work throughout all our apostolate.

 

 

 

5.             CALLED TO LIVE IN COMMUNION

 

We have been called by God to live in a community.  In addition to forming part of the community of the Church, we also belong to the Hospitaller Order and form part of our local community.

 

The local community is a theological reality for us.  It is the place in which God is present because "where two or three are gathered in my name there I am in the midst of them" (Mt 18:20).  With the other members of the community we must live communion, brotherhood and outreach, respect, acceptance, and love for our fellow men, and we must live the gift of fraternity.

 

In addition to being a theological reality, the community is a human reality, made up of people, each person with their own individuality, each endowed with values and limitations.  We must make a constant effort to manifest to our divided world that, through communion, human coexistence and practising in common the values of the kingdom are possible (Const. 26 b).

 

We are Brothers and we must make the effort to reconcile society.  But this can only be done if we manage to reconcile our own communities.  We must be witnesses of communion, "experts in communion".^[7]  Love is the essence of the Christian life; our charism enriches us in such a way that it makes us capable of being hospitality forever.  If our lives must manifest love at all times, they must try to do it within our communities which are called to be "schools of hospitality".^[8] 

 

5.1           THE NEED FOR PERSONAL GROWTH

 

The ideal of life to which we have been called brings with it the personal need to grow continuously in order to adjust our lives to Christ, to live with the demands that John of God has placed upon us.  Both of these throw out a powerful call to holiness.  We know that this holiness cannot be attained unless we adjust our human nature to the values and the attitudes that they had, and have testified to in their lives.

 

Human sciences today do much to help us to understand ourselves and to work on ourselves, to help us to identify with Christ and St John of God.  The construction of the ego is a task that has to be carried out, enlightened by reason, taking on the world of feelings, in order to reach the necessary level of harmony and balance, as the expression of holiness.

 

Each of us is encoded in a form, with a particular character, temperament, and with different human qualities.  These are all elements that can be moulded, and we must improve and work upon them to ensure that our conduct is really harmonious.  We have potential that must be made explicit, which we must cause to grow, and on which we have to work in order to make them evident.

 

The ideal which we are called to live and make present has been indicated by Christ who called his disciples, and John of God who formed a community of Brothers. 

 

Our community is a gathering of Brothers who are called together, one of whose purposes is to live fraternity.  Despite sharing this common purpose we are different.  However much we may resemble one another, no two people are the same.  We are unique.  This enriches us, but it means that we must place this diversity at the service of our common ideal, of the common good.  Otherwise we will be seen too often as individuals that find it difficult to establish cohesion for the sake of our common ideal of fraternity.

 

I am fairly familiar with the state of our communities.  When I visit you, particularly on the canonical visitations, I have always exhorted you to create communion in our diversity.  Some people have been living for 60 years and more as Brothers, while others are just beginning their religious life.  In some regions the communities are made up of fairly old people, and it is difficult to incorporate young people.  There are some places where the Order is growing in numbers, and in others where numbers are falling.

 

I invite you all to grow personally.  We must create in ourselves a sense of personal satisfaction with our own life, and cultivate the security we need to be able to run our life.  We cannot falter in this challenge, even though we have tried very often already, and know that we have not made the progress we desired.  The document "Fraternal Life in Community" invites us to this.  This is a new challenge, because of the possibility it offers for personal and community growth; it is a new doctrine which offers scope to our possibilities.

 

I know that in many communities you have studied this document and many others are still doing so.  We spoke about it at the LXIII General Chapter, and we placed it in the programme for the Sexennium and it appears in the objectives in many of the conclusions of the Provincial Chapters.  Our Lord will help us to make progress along the path of this ideal of communion to which we are called.

 

I believe that in order to grow as persons one vitally important task is to accept ourselves for what we are as we are, as a necessary step to advance along the path of personal construction.

 

Having the capacity to forgive our own weaknesses, being always open to the mercy of God who understands us, finding the right measure of self-esteem, without this becoming selfishness or an exaggerated appreciation of our own being.

 

 

 

5.2           PERSONAL FREEDOM AND THE COMMUNITY

 

Freedom is an element of personal self-fulfilment.  And also of salvation.  In theological discussions, the participation of the individual person in a salvation which is freely offered has always been present; theologians have discussed how far the strength of grace leaves room for freedom, and freedom has always been defended as the expression of the autonomy of the personal being.

 

Some inadequate concept consider our freedom as being conditioned by obedience.  Yet our Constitutions define obedience as a personal act which helps us to attain the freedom of the sons of God and encourages our comprehensive maturity (Const. 17). 

 

The theology of the religious life is singing a song to freedom as the ambit for the human self-fulfilment of the Brother.  Living in a community, each one of us must be ourselves, and we must respond to the personal demands that our Lord is making on us, which is not in contrast to the authentic search for the common good.  With regard to the personal space which every one of us requires, we are called to build up fraternity in and from freedom.

 

Today, our external forms are less uniform than they used to be.  We have taken up the meaning of the apostolic exhortation Consecrated Life which tells us "communion in the Church is therefore not uniformity, but a gift of the spirit which passes through the variety of charisms" (CL 4).

 

Despite this, we must bear in mind that singing a song to freedom belies the fact that sometimes we do not advance, and by affirming our ego we make it difficult for communion to become a possibility based on the identity of each one of us.

 

It is by defending personal independence that our society has fallen into an exaggerated cult of the ego, abusing the use of freedom, and individualism has emerged as a feature of our culture.  The document, "Fraternal Life in Community" refers to the difficulty of living in community because of individualism and criticism, despite the personal growth that has occurred (cf. BLC 39).  We have gained in terms of freedom, but I appeal to the responsibility of each one of you so that you can know how to reconcile what is demanded in terms of respect for individuality, and what is demanded in terms of respect for communion.

 

One of the constants which often emerges is to think that it is impossible to do anything new.  There is disappointment, discomfort and a negative approach to all the things that I am speaking about here.  If we speak well about the past, some people think that everything was better then.  Others, because of a misuse of freedom, place us in a position that is difficult to reconcile with the path of fraternity and brotherhood.  I do not want to distress or denounce anybody.  But it would be interesting, on the subject of Community, to devote some time to reflecting on the Rule of St Augustine.

 

I said at the beginning that I wanted to reflect as a Brother, to exhort you with a positive approach, and I intend to continue in this tenor.  I would like us to believe in the growth of our community and our communities in fraternity.  If we label ourselves, if we reject ourselves, if we do not accept ourselves, if we exclude ourselves, it is difficult to move ahead on a common path.  We can help ourselves to move towards holiness, but we cause quite considerable lot of suffering, and we should avoid this in order to be able to bear witness to communion.

 

There are many calls which constitute a challenge to us: the Gospel, John of God, the Magisterium, the theology of the religious life, the human sciences and the world in which we live.

 

Charity is the basis of fraternity.  St John of God did not leave us any doctrine about his way of living the community with his first companions.  So far, at least, we have no knowledge of any such doctrine.  These were people who had been converted, touched by God, with a great desire to do good, enlightened by the witness of the life of the saint.  I believe that it is worthwhile rethinking certain fundamental aspects which will help us to regain the sense of our community with equanimity.

 

 

 

5.3           COMMUNITY ANIMATION

 

We often talk about community animation.  We have adopted this expression to get away from such words as government or authority.  This does not mean that people who are elected to exercise some responsibility ¾ and I am referring now to superiors ¾ do not have to accept the obligations that this entails; but the religious life has tried to distance itself from attitudes which appear more as a exercise of power than a concern to strengthen the lives of others. 

 

Authority is a service, according to Jesus' principle, "I came to serve and not to be served" (Mt 20:28).  Animation is discussed in the theology of the religious life when addressing the role of superiors, the fact that they are animators of communities, animators of the apostolate carried out in their centres. 

 

Animation of community life and of apostolic works have always been considered as one.  We came into being with this experience.  At the present time we have seen the need in many places to share or to delegate the animation of some of our apostolic works to coworkers.  Furthermore, it is clear that a Brother who is totally engrossed in administrative and management duties in a particular Centre can devote very little space to animating the community.

 

If we wish to be communities in which there is personal and community growth it is necessary to have an animator.  Many of our communities today are small in numbers.  This has to be borne in mind, even though each one of us usually appraises communities in terms of the experience of community life that we have had personally.  But if we see the figure of the animator as such to be less necessary in these communities because it can be combined with the management of the Centre, it is vital that space should be devoted to animating the life of the community.

 

The first thing to consider is the figure of the animator.  It is a service that cannot be performed without worrying about the form it takes.  Some people might think that they do not have the qualities for it.  Perhaps there are cases where this true; but without diminishing the animators' importance, it involves taking account of a whole series of principles of life and of putting all our goodwill into it.

 

The animator must be a witness.  He is called to be consistent, to be a person who is concerned about the spiritual life, to live his life identifying with the figure of our Founder and the tradition of the Order, to cultivate what our Consecrated Life demands of us today, being concerned with how best to perform his task within the life of the Community, in a spirit of service, welcoming and reaching out to all.  In a sense, if you will allow me to use the expression, it has to be democratic.  Like Jesus among his disciples: evangelising, exhorting, relying on them, knowing them, understanding them, respecting them, forgiving them, and loving them.

 

Animation must mean showing concern for the personal being of each Brother.  An animator must speak to the Brothers.  It must not only be in public places that we talk with our Brothers.  We must not only talk about superficial things.  I think that we do discuss serious matters with many of our Brothers, but with others we only talk about trivialities. Basically speaking, because we consider them to be superficial, or because it is much easier for us to take up a superficial attitude to be able to relate to them, and this is why we cannot enter into things in greater depth.  I am aware that we need personal meetings, to listen to one another, to get better acquainted, to help each other, and to build up the community.

 

Animation must necessarily deal with the spiritual life, the life of prayer, the connection between prayer and life.  It is not a question of easing our consciences with a spiritual varnish.  Our life is a spiritual life or it is nothing.

 

Today we need genuine spiritual animation. I have said this at virtually all the recent Chapters, when electing the Provincial Superiors, the Provincial Councillors or local superiors.  I have tried to sketch out the profile of an animator, an ideal one of course, but I have said that throughout the three-year period we must look at the animator as if in a mirror, to remind us what we are called upon to achieve.  We need leaders who are religious leaders.

 

Animation must take up the issue of fraternity, and communion.  The Church's documents have spoken to us about the resources we have within our reach in order to enable fraternity to grow in all of our groups: dialogue, community meetings, the life project, continuing or ongoing formation. These are not really the only ones, but they are resources; and when we are urged on so many sides to use them, there must be some reason for it.  It may be that we have started using them with high hopes, and then found that they have not brought the benefits we expected of them.  Yet all of these means require the basic and fundamental attitude in each one of us to wish to continue walking ahead with all the demands of what is involved in building up a community.

 

I believe that we have to take account of certain psychological blockages, which are often unconscious, but which may exist, such as certain stances taken up by some Brothers against others which we consider to be beyond redemption, and which a sound guide and trust in God could help us overcome.

 

I am happy to have met so many Brothers, and not only superiors, on my visits to different communities, whose lives are centred with great authenticity around their response to our Lord, which I have found very edifying.  But I have also found certain distances between the Brothers, and these should be eliminated.  I feel called, without criticising or blaming anyone, to exhort everyone to seek to change.

 

Lastly, community animation must necessarily involve the issue of mission.  If the superior is not the manager of the hospital it is not his responsibility to manage it.  But he certainly does have the responsibility to be concerned about the way the Brothers live the mission, and how they feel, to help them in everything and assist them in directly and indirectly standing up to the difficulties that may arise.

 

Together with the community, the superior is called to be a charismatic presence of St John of God, attempting to hand it on, animating the hospitality project in the style of St John of God, and in permanent contact with the guidelines laid down by the Provincial Curia.

 

I have said in a number of Centres through which I have passed that we must enable the charismatic presence of St John of God to grow through the different groups in the Centres and if possible through all the people who belong to the therapeutic communities.  But it is we Brothers who make up the charismatic group which lives like St John of God and his early companions, which is why we must take on the responsibility of feeling that we are on a mission, sent to make the mercy of God present in the world of pain and marginalisation.

 

I do not want to frighten anyone, but I do want to appreciate the life you are living and help you on your mission.  Many of the things that I am saying today, for you alone, as my Brothers, are thoughts that I have already mentioned in reflections that I have addressed to the whole Order, speaking to the Brothers, Co-workers, the sick and needy, particularly in the messages for the Fifth Centenary of the Birth of our Father.  They are also ideas which, as you can see, are in agreement with the messages of previous Superiors General.

 

6.             THE FORMATION DEMANDS OF OUR VOCATION

 

The formation process gives rise to a whole series of demands.  New candidates must know the Order as it is, to ascertain whether it is the place in which they can respond to the call of God.  Through the Formation Masters, the Brothers and the Communities, the Order must help to carry out this formation process.

 

There is a contradiction between the fact that in some places vocations are plentiful and there are large numbers of Brothers under formation, such as in Africa, some parts of America and Asia, while in others the candidates are few and far between. 

 

In order to offer appropriate formation for new candidates, the Order has promoted Inter-provincial Formation Centres and Formation Communities, with a better use of their resources.  This enables the persons in formation to have a much more enriching experience, even though at some moments there may be a loss of identity with their home Province.

 

So far we believe that there are more positive aspects in these Formation Centres than negative ones.  The intention is to respond to our Order's need in terms of its life, for it is concerned about guaranteeing the continuity of our charism in time.  As I have said on other occasions, "it is bad not to have any vocations at all. But it is much worse to have them and not know how to form them".  We think that this will enable the Brothers in formation to find the environment they need.

 

The formation process brings with it a whole series of aspects which I will now try to enlighten.

 

 

 

6.1           THE PASTORAL MINISTRY OF YOUTH AND

 

THE PASTORAL MINISTRY OF VOCATIONS

 

In many of the historic places in which the Order is present in western society we have to make a great effort today to encourage people to perpetuate the charism as Brothers of St John of God.  We must deal with this situation, calmly and serenely, because we are not getting the results we would like, and we must be convinced that the persons responsible for whether or not the Order are continue are God and St John of God, without forgetting that we must also offer our cooperation.

 

We have to do everything possible to encourage contact with the young and the not-so-young, to whom we hand on the experience of God which St John of God had, and in which we participate, by serving the poor and the sick which this experience brings with it.

 

We cannot remain passive observers: in many places there are vocations which will not come along of their own accord.  We have to maintain contact with the world today, knowing the distance that exists between our language and that of many people in our society.

 

I do not mean that there are not so many good people about as there used to be.  The fact is that they feel called to live their Christianity and to express it in a different way.

 

One of the things that the exhortation Consecrated Life has done has been to show the religious life once again as a value, as a form of Christian life, different from the others that exist in the Church, emphasising the need to be enthusiastic about the possibility of being consecrated as religious.  In our case we must make the effort to hand on the charism of St John of God to new people.

 

I vividly recall the Brothers who are devoted to the pastoral care of youth and vocations in different provinces.  To be an instrument of the call of God is not an easy matter today.  This call always imposes a number of demands on our response with which candidates are not always capable of coping. 

 

The task of those who are devoted to the pastoral care of youth and vocations, carrying out appropriate animation and making contact with possible candidates, must always be supported by the personal prayer of all the Brothers and the communities. It must be underpinned by a welcoming climate so that the candidates can become acquainted with us and can appraise the quality of our lives.  It must be sustained by cooperating in all the activities that are organised to make the transmission of our charism feasible.

 

Indifference or criticism because of the poor results is unfair.  God, the creator of the world, continues to love his creatures despite the difficulties that our culture may encounter.  It is to that culture that we have to try to bring our light.

 

The crisis in vocations to the religious life in western societies is a fact.  Far fewer people today are joining the religious life in these countries, with the result that there is a quantitative reduction in the charismatic presence of our Brothers in the apostolate.  We must be grateful to God for having brought us so many good co-workers who identify with the spirit of St John of God and who enrich the mission with the apostolic creativity and dynamism it needs.  But we must still go on working so that our Lord will continue to call people to be Brothers of St John of God. 

 

When there exist charismatic persons in our institutions who joyfully live their vocation and who live a life in a manner that makes it worthwhile, they attract others and one can see the results, despite the difficulties.  Father Benedict Menni went to Spain to restore the Order there and within 17 years he had a Province with about 100 Brothers.

 

What I have said here relates mainly to the countries in which there is a shortage of vocations, but I am also thinking of the importance of going on working with the pastoral care of youth and vocations in places where our Lord's call is more evident. 

 

In the first contact with candidates it is very important, according to the data we have available to us, to carry out a discernment of their vocation, to avoid wasting time and creating groundless expectations that will subsequently frustrate the persons concerned and all those who are expecting more from them than they are able to give.

 

 

 

6.2           THE IMPORTANCE OF INITIAL FORMATION

 

We use the expression "initial formation" for the whole process of integrating a candidate into the Order.  This period runs up to the moment of the new Brother's solemn profession.

 

I have spoken about prior vocational discernment before entering the postulancy.  But true vocational discernment is required precisely in this period of initial formation following the strategy that what can already be clearly seen in the postulancy should not be left to the novitiate, and what is clearly seen in one particular Centre must not to be left to the Scholasticate, even though new situations may always arise.

 

Discernment brings with it knowledge of reality, openness to the spirit, clashes with the opinion of Formators, contributions from the communities, experimentation on the mission, finding out how far this is the place to which the person in formation is being called by our Lord for his personal self-fulfilment: "God knows what is best and where the truth lies.  May God who knows everything enlighten us" (St John of God, Letter to Luis Bautista 6 and 8).

 

This process must begin by clarifying not only concepts, but also their very existence.  In the novitiate, the Brothers must have a true experience of God in which they can clearly see that consecration in hospitality according to the manner of St John of God is the project with which they identify.

 

After commitment through temporary profession, they have to live the experience of the charism and the community in the Scholasticate, preparing for the mission and for their final commitment.  It is difficult to stratify things totally, but I am trying to emphasise what is most important in each Formation Centre.

 

It is easy to say all this, but we all know what the process really means, and the effort that it really entails.  We must accompany it with our prayers.

 

Every vocation is a mystery: the mystery that God continues calling, that he listens to us, that we have the capacity to overcome difficulties of incorporating ourselves into the Order.  Where there are few vocations, this incorporation has to take place with groups of Brothers who have already spent many years in the religious life.  Where vocations are plentiful, they may perhaps be asked to take upon responsibilities quite early without having been sufficiently accompanied through the whole integration process.  Do not let us be afraid.  Our Lord has guided us all throughout our lives and has continued to help us whenever we have thought that we were not sufficiently ready to deal with certain situations.

 

The period of the Scholasticate is usually the most critical in the formation process. It is necessary to reconcile the obligations of our life of faith with the demands of the community, with the experience of the charism in the mission, and with our vocational and professional studies.  All of this is done in climate of greater freedom and autonomy for the Scholastic Brother.  Very often we feel ill-at-ease, misunderstood and even criticised, because we cannot respond at the same time to everything.

 

A great deal of common sense is needed in this period both by the Formation Masters and the Brothers in formation.  I believe that if we try to meet every need, one or other will inevitably lose strength and space temporarily.  This does not mean that we must play down the value of any of these needs, or that we should get used to living this way for the future.  If we are coherent we shall find the fidelity and the ability we need to respond to everything which our Lord is asking of us.  Let us remember that at no time will he ask us to do something that exceeds our possibilities.

 

In the Scholasticate we must carry out our professional training which sometimes has to continue subsequently.  I do not want to disenchant anyone. You know, and I am thinking of the younger ones among you at the moment, that very often we train professionally for a particular speciality or specialism and then our life takes a different path from what we had originally anticipated. 

 

I will repeat once again what I have repeated so often over the past two years: we feel called to promote a project of hospitality according to the spirit of St John of God, and we have to ensure that this is how it will be.  Our studies will form a basis, a bridge, which will launch us out to take on any responsibilities that are demanded of us. 

 

We have to prepare ourselves for the mission which must always be brought up to date.  Otherwise we would remain static, with the danger of stagnating or dying.

 

Formation Masters are responsible for encouraging the synthesis of life that this period demands.  They themselves must constantly cultivate their own formation, if possible promoted and organised on an inter-provincial basis, so that they can meet up to the expectations of the persons in formation and the mission which the Order has entrusted to them.

 

 

 

6.3           CONTINUING OR ONGOING FORMATION

 

The renewal of the religious life, as Perfectae Caritatis tells us, depends above all on the formation of its members (PC 18).  Formation must embrace all the levels that make up the very being of a religious.  Formation must not remain purely theoretical, but must have repercussions on our lives.

 

This is why many courses have been organised and attempts have been made to meet this need of our vocation today.  For our human, spiritual, and charismatic culture we constantly need to be up to date.  We must prepare ourselves personally and as a community using all the structures within our reach: the diocese, or the civil structures and those of the Order.

 

The last General Chapter asked us to carry out ongoing formation jointly with our co-workers.  It is not possible to implement the new hospitality if we fail to give teaching the importance it deserves.  The document Consecrated Life speaks about continuing formation as an intrinsic need of religious consecration (CL 69).

 

I do not wish to insist on something that is of no interest to anyone.  But precisely because I consider it extremely important I am offering it proof.  The statement in the decree Perfectae Caritatis is so strong, and it is expressed even more strongly in the Post-synodal Exhortation Consecrated Life, that I feel that I am being called to promote continuing formation.

 

Continuing Formation is the instrument which we have to prepare ourselves in human terms, to ensure that our mission is up-to-date, but above all to deepen our identity as consecrated men and to enrich our spiritual life with the experience of those who had preceded us, and particularly to discover the very being of St John of God.

 

History must enlighten our reality but we must acquire all the knowledge which give us the possibility today to make a substantial contribution to hospitality of high quality, to implement an adequate pastoral ministry in the mission, to seize on all the ethical challenges of care, to integrate an appropriate social dimension into our relations with our co-workers according to the social teaching of the Church, and to offer our culture of hospitality.  In this respect, we are enriched by the values and experiences of our co-workers and we enrich them with ours.

 

The formation process for each one of us ends with solemn profession according to canon law, but all of us know that we have to continue with it if we are to respond to contemporary demands.  Everything in life has an effect on our response and everything must help us to integrate and to render our being harmonious.

 

Formation must help us to enter into the serene and friendly climate of communication with God and with men, in the true realisation of our vocation, in which each of us finds happiness.  Despite the difficulties that we may encounter. being happy is a consequence of understanding life, and I think that formation is an instrument which facilitates this for us.

 

 

 

6.4           FORMATION TO EXPRESS THE CHARISM

 

We might say that in the Order there is a long tradition of preparing professionals.  In the past there were Brothers who were outstanding surgeons, or nurses, or in natural medicine, thanks to their knowledge of the properties of plants and herbs; we have had distinguished pharmacists who have promoted their own products.  In their day, and in the places where they lived, they founded schools of thought.  Some of them achieved fame that exceeded the bounds of the countries in which they lived.

 

Today the Order is trying to respond to the need for the new hospitality with different schools or courses for the practice of medicine or nursing, to cultivate the values of hospitality and the ethical and pastoral formation of our Brothers and co-workers.

 

In this regard, the nursing schools and specialisation schools at various levels are making a major contribution in all five continents.  These are extremely useful for the formation and training of our Brothers and the nursing professionals whom we wish to enrich, not only by giving them the expertise they need for their profession, but also to imbue them with the spirit of St John of God.

 

 

 

7.             CONTINUING THE WORK OF ST JOHN OF GOD: THE MISSION

 

We have been given the good fortune of continuing the work of St John of God.  Throughout our history there have been many Brothers who have handed it down to us today.  We have a great spiritual heritage, enriched by their lives.  We know many things about many of them.  Others have remained anonymous.  Yet all of them are of great spiritual value and they sustain the life of the Order from heaven, where they live with St John of God, the sick and the needy, our co-workers and so many other Christians who are close to St John of God.

 

Our duty to continue in this tradition requires us to bear in mind our past.  We have almost five centuries of history behind us.  We must live in the present, and be open to the future.

 

Very often we have asked the question "What would St John of God have done today?"  "How should be build up the future of the Order?"  The fact that this is not the first time we have asked this question means that we have already tried to find an answer to it.  An answer that is never certain, but this was also true of our predecessors, which means that we must look towards the future hopefully.

 

 

 

7.1           EMBODYING THE IDEAL OF LIFE OF ST JOHN OF GOD

 

It is becoming increasingly clear to us what the ideal life of St John of God really is.  We have unique and charismatically rich persons to look towards.  Without belittling in any way our own personal discernment, we can allow ourselves to be guided by these charismatic persons.  And we must do this in communion with the Church and in communion with the Brothers with whom we have been called together.  The communities, and our local, provincial and general meetings are, with their various responsibilities and authority, the expression and the guide which we should follow in order to see how we should embody the ideal of St John of God.

 

Much of our effort must be directed towards becoming more familiar with the way in which John of God lived: his conversion, his discipleship of Christ, his allowing himself to be guided by his spiritual director, his self-giving, his ascesis, the fundamental criteria that he followed and applied, his experiences, the way he related to others, his devotion to the poor and sick, the way he founded the hospital, the way he presented to people the kingdom of God, his special preferential choice, his sense of Church, his consecration, his prayer and his first community.

 

Each one of these issues is something that should analyse. Are we responding today to what he would want us to?  Sometimes when we talk about the spirit that should exist in our Centres, I often say, "We must act so that if St John of God were to come down from heaven he would wish to stay in each one of Centres, because he would find in them something that would make him feel that he was in the hospital he set up in Granada".

 

 

 

7.2           EMBODYING THE IDEAL OF ST JOHN OF GOD ON THE MISSION

 

The whole of the third chapter of the document of the LXIII General Chapter explicitly deals with various points that the Order has taken on board to respond to the demands of Vatican II in relation to our life.  Chapter V also lays down guidelines for the future.  I believe that Chapter III, which deals with what the Order has already achieved, prepared us for Chapter V which is intended to shed light on the future.  We are not going to repeat here what that Chapter has already told us. I would just like to make reference to one or two points.

 

*              We are called to maintain the sense of mission at all times: we must accept that the years are passing, and that we can no longer work as we did in the past; we have to accept the social difficulties that we come up against; we must make it clear that in order to exercise hospitality today we need professional training.  With our charism, the Lord has enriched us with three, two or only one talent, and we must always make that talent bear fruit, at all times, in order to be faithful to the expectations that God has of us.  We can be Hospitality in many different ways, and nothing will prevent us from being Hospitality forever.

 

*              I will repeat what I have said on various past occasions: taking up the wish of the Holy Father on the subject of the new evangelisation, we are directing our future in terms of the new hospitality, which John of God and our predecessors lived, using contemporary methods, but with the burning zeal that they had.  We are being called upon to change.  We might say that we are much less zealous than they were.  We have so many witnesses amongst our Brothers who are faithful in the zeal for hospitality that St John of God had!  The new hospitality is a call to imitate them.

 

*              The new hospitality bears within it the fundamental decision to come down on the side of the suffering, the sick, the marginalised and the poor.  This is what St John of God did, with the apostolic movement that he began in Granada and which overflowed beyond the boundaries of his hospital.  It was a healing and welcoming hospitality; it was a hospitality that spoke of God to men, and of men to God.  It was a hospitality that always gave a welcome to others in his own heart despite the fact that he may not have been able to offer the solution that people wanted.

 

*              The new hospitality is inherently evangelising.  We have experienced the salvation of Christ and we cannot fail to communicate it to our fellow men.  But how?  Firstly, by living it ourselves truly as salvation, and then handing it on to others. 

 

                Sickness, deprivation, and poverty provide us with opportunities to ask many questions about the meaning of life and the saving presence of God.  Depending upon the occasion, we must know how to respond with silence, with being humanly close to others, showing them respect, and through the direct witness of our life and words. 

 

                Some of you may think that this is not very apostolic, and that John of God was more penetrating than this.  I must confess that you would be right.  But I think that today we have a different theological and spiritual culture, which trusts in the mercy of God and is based more in a God who reaches out to man.  Those of you who are devoted to the pastoral ministry know better than I do which principles are the ones on which you have to base your work, and I feel satisfied with what you are doing.

 

*              The new hospitality inherently involves an ethical project for providing care.  We are working on it.  I can see many gaps and shortcomings precisely because of our lack of formation and because of the new demands that are emerging.  This is one of the elements that we should study in greater depth.  Both for our Brothers and for co-workers.  I am satisfied when I hear about what is being done in all the different provinces.  I would like all of us to have all the necessary know-how to be able to apply the ethos which care requires.  And I would particularly appeal to the responsibility of all of those whose duty is to direct it.

 

*              The new hospitality implicitly involves taking on the demands of progress and technology of the modern age.  We are in favour of a simple world, but we are also in favour of having a specific place in the world of culture and, like John of God, to be able to make an appropriate response to the demands of our age.  Even in the less developed areas of the world we are working with the technologies of the present; we are using computers, and managing our hospitality using the resources we have in order to respond to what contemporary man is asking of us.  We are looking to the future, and we do so drawing on progress and moving forward at all times.  Our responsibility is to direct this to serve the human person.

 

*              The new hospitality also involves implicitly ensuring that we diversify our presence depending upon the type of sick for which our Centres cater.  We have studied the choices that we wish to pursue and we have made the effort to follow them up.  Sometimes we consider that some types of response are not for us.  Every structure brings with it certain constraints, such as the relationship that we establish with public or private institutions. 

 

                What we have to do, as John of God himself realised, is to ensure that these constraints interfere as little as possible with the care that we provide and that the care itself is based on the values that we know must underlie them: "May Jesus Christ give me time and grace so that I can have a hospital where I can take in the poor without shelter and those who are out of their mind, and to serve them as I desire"^[9] 

 

*              The new hospitality also means that we must be animators of a project of hospitality in the style of St John of God.  Everything we are saying in this part defines the parameters for our hospitality project being implemented jointly with our co-workers.

 

                It involves re-thinking our position as communities on the mission.  This is something that we have been trying to do for a long time.  It is in our General Statutes (GS 162 and 164) and in many of the Chapter documents both Provincial and General, and has also been proposed in the document "The Hospitality of the Brothers of St John of God on the Eve of the Year 2000" (Chapter IV), it is set out explicitly in Fraternal Life in Community (FLC 67 and 70), and the Holy Father has emphasised it in his Consecrated Life. 

 

                It is true that we are not successful in all our attempts.  But it is also true that we have been filled with goodwill and have tried to respond to the demands of hospitality, and have done so wisely.

 

*              The new hospitality means acting with the spirituality of work based on the principles of the Church's social teaching, according to which the human person is a value, and which does not tend towards the accumulation of capital.

 

                We must use the resources available to us, and distribute them equitably, but we also need to grow in social awareness and conscience despite the fact that some of the struggles taking place in our Centres must cause us pain.

 

                We must advance in order to clarify all of this.  We are committed to this.  We cannot talk of a movement for our co-workers if we are ambiguous ourselves, and if we do not embody the social principles.  The challenge that we have to face is to reconcile the rights of workers with the rights of the sick, but there is no reason why these should be irreconcilable in themselves.

 

                Many companies are concerned to enhance the values of their workers and their sense of satisfaction in order to achieve greater financial profit from them.  Our mutual interest, namely caring for the sick and needy, is much greater and it is for this cause that we have to work.

 

*              The new hospitality leads us to respond to new needs.  I am merely repeating what I have said elsewhere.  Today, people suffer from different types of sicknesses than in the past, and we must cater for the needs that our world has created for them.  People today suffer from new illnesses that have emerged, but for which science has not yet found a cure or only a partial cure, and we must take the decision to accompany these persons.

 

                If we wish to work on the frontier as John of God did, we must take that choice.  If we take our distance from what underlies modern society, which does not understand marginalisation, which lengthens life but is not sufficiently concerned about the quality of life which it offers the old people, we would be betraying the whole point of our existence.

 

*              Lastly, the new hospitality means that we have to continue opting to be present in the developing countries in order to provide primary care and promote health in and from our own health care institutions.  We are looking to the many young Brothers who have followed our Lord's call and joined our Order.  We are thinking of the many missionary Brothers who have given over their lives with such generosity to serve the health and the development of the human person in the developing world, risking their lives, as we can all see.

 

                I would like to pay tribute to our missionary Brothers, and to the Sisters and the co-workers who have decided in recent times to stand by the side of the peoples who are suffering and to look after the sick and needy, carrying out their services in time of war.

 

                Since the strength of the Provinces that have taken the initiative to take the Order into these countries is declining all the time while the indigenous vocations are increasing in virtually every place, thank God, we must prepare our indigenous Brothers so that they can go on taking up responsibilities in our Centres for the benefit of the sick.  But this does not mean that we cannot continue sharing the mission with them.

 

 

 

8.             A SHARED FUTURE WITH OUR CO-WORKERS

 

The Order has always carried out its apostolate with great people participation.  This was clear at the time of St John of God.  He had many benefactors, friends and some paid workers.  We do not wish to mention here everything that the co-workers did in the very early days of our Order, but we do know their names and we know what they did.

 

This continued throughout four centuries and a half in the life of our Order.  The industrial revolution gave the workers their own Charter and brought about the development of a corpus of law which was hitherto unknown. 

 

There has been a fall in vocations in many of the places where the Order has a long tradition, but at the same time the awareness of the front-line role that our co-workers can play has emerged, and there has been a surge in the numbers of volunteers associated with us.

 

With the new demands of care today we have re-directed our social and health centres, trying to take account of our aims and of the labour laws in different countries.  We have become organised like companies sometimes, with a certain confusion of ideas. 

 

The lack of clarification has hampered the process of outreach and openness, and has created a certain amount of resistance among us.  We have been through difficult moments in particular Centres and in whole Provinces.  I have the impression that at the present time we are much more serene and that our ideas are continuing to be clarified.

 

 

 

8.1           WORKERS AND BROTHERS UNITED TO SERVE AND PROMOTE LIFE

 

I will start with a title that is practically the same as that of the document in which we dealt with the question of our co-workers.  I would like to speak for a moment about what sharing the mission involves.  We have developed our Law in order to work better; we have written manuals and regulations for the operation of our Provinces or Centres, to clarify the way in which we have to live united on the mission; we have directed it above all to the workers, and employees.  But in this process we have also taken account of our volunteers.  It is difficult for us to understand all of this, and some find it more difficult than others.  There are different perceptions which are not always easy to reconcile. Moreover, difficulties arise in our daily round which justify the reasons why some of us do not have a great deal of confidence in it.

 

John of God did not have to live with this organisation of labour.  I feel that he would have taken it on and would have been faithful to all its demands, despite the difficulties that he would have encountered.  I believe that he would not have pulled back.  I feel that he would have had particular attitudes of responsibility, dialogue, avoiding in-fighting, and showing the understanding that characterised him at all times.  In him I can see a great trust in God and in man.

 

I see the capacity to identify with his journey with the prostitutes in Toledo and trust in himself and in God as the key to seeking the solution to every problem.  I think that this would also enlighten the way he would manage the modern hospital.

 

I do not know if I am putting things too mildly.  I do know that trade union relations in our Centres become difficult at times.  And it is difficult for us to take on board the concept of being a company which modern society requires.  What we have to do is to respond, either ourselves or the persons we have chosen to work closely with us, in the spirit of St John of God.  The attitudes that I have spoken about are what we must always take, but above all at the most difficult times, even though it is hard for us.  I believe that we are called to make progress in this field so that in our Centres there must be a genuine climate of St John of God.  Sharing the mission means trusting the people to whom we give responsibilities, demanding responses and answers, delegating functions, and working as a team.  But everyone of us must, at the most critical times, ask how St John of God would act today, and then do what we feel he would do.

 

 

 

8.2           BROTHERS AND BENEFACTORS UNITED TO SERVE AND PROMOTE LIFE

 

Our benefactors have always been present in the Order.  At some times they have played a very important front-line role.  They have supported virtually all the social action that the Order has been carrying out for the poor, the sick and the needy.  Five of the six letters that we have of St John of God were written to them.

 

We have carried out a great apostolate with them.  Depending upon the various customs in different Provinces, they were frequently visited by our Brothers who were devoted to collecting alms and offerings.  Even though there are still some Brothers who do this today, we have changed systems since then and our relationship with them is more modern, but also much more impersonal.  Yet there are some personal relations, and it must be admitted that we receive a great deal of support from our benefactors.

 

We remain in contact with them through correspondence, and the propaganda material and the journals that we have instituted for this purpose.  We consider that this must continue.  There are so many who remain anonymous!  Precisely for this reason we have to encourage and strengthen the bonds which make them members of our institution.  Firstly because we enable them to share the much or little that they have with the needy because they are instruments of solidarity.  Then, because with their help we can provide care for people who would otherwise remain without the support they need to live.

 

I applaud and support everything that is being done.  In our relations with them we must encourage devotion to our saints and beatae, particularly St John of God.  We must make them more familiar with our institution and we must use the language which sets us aside from any commercial concepts, and enable them to feel that they are members of our family and participants in our apostolate.  In addition to being the alms-collector of Granada, we also have in Father Francisco Camacho in Lima a great apostle of alms-giving.

 

 

 

8.3           BROTHERS AND VOLUNTEERS UNITED TO SERVE AND PROMOTE LIFE

 

Voluntary service is a phenomenon of our own age, but it has always existed.  It has always existed in our Order too.  Without going into every detail, I have thought about voluntary service in connection with the celebrations of the Fifth Centenary of the Birth of St John of God.  We have called St John of God "the pioneer of voluntary service".  He involved many people in his hospital, and created a movement of solidarity not only through financial support but also with the services to the sick and needy that many other people provided free of charge.  I consider that the Order, like John of God, is a pioneer in this field, and has fostered a sound form of voluntary service and has even created a university of voluntary service.

 

It is impossible to refer to the groups in different Provinces and particular Centres.  But I would just like to highlight the value of their presence to the new hospitality, to the hospitality of John of God.  Volunteers come to our institution because they feel that they identify with his spirit, and they carry out a number of actions quite freely, voluntarily, expressing their solidarity with the sick and needy, and they complete the action which is performed by the professionals, helping to give life to our project of hospitality.

 

I consider that we must work on voluntary service so that it can be strengthened, and we Brothers must be the first to help it to grow and increase, so that everyone can live the richness of the spirit of John of God with their own identity.

 

 

 

8.4           GROWING IN THE SPIRITUALITY OF ST JOHN OF GOD

 

In each one of the sections devoted to our employees, benefactors and volunteers I have spoken about the spirit of St John of God.  We must all make an effort to live it and to hand it on to our co-workers.

 

In our Order, in different parts of the world, associated groups are emerging endeavouring to live their Christianity according to the witness our saints and beatae and particularly Saint John of God and Saint Richard Pampuri.  These groups comprise a great variety of different people, and many of them are our co-workers.  I believe that this is a blessing to us and as Brothers we should encourage it.

 

The LXIII General Chapter studied the possibility of setting up a confessional association for the whole Order, as mentioned on previous occasions, and the legal basis for its constitution was also prepared.  But it was felt that the time was not yet ripe for it.  Nevertheless I consider that we must go ahead with these prayer groups and commitment groups in harmony with our charism, enlightened by St John of God and some of our saints, and that we should do this in the Provinces and the Centres. This will enable all of us to enjoy the spiritual goods.

 

 

 

8.5           THE DIVERSITY OF IDENTITIES MUST ENRICH THE SAME END

 

We are all different.  We and our co-workers have a different identity not only in the Church but also in society.  But in terms of St John of God this is a source of enrichment.  The co-workers who attended the LXIII General Chapter told us in their message that "they consider their incorporation into the mission of the Order to be important, necessary and vital" (Introduction).  Our strength in the hospital or in any of our Centres comes from the call we have received from our Lord to consecrate ourselves like St John of God to promoting a project of hospitality.  But there are many ways of doing this.

 

In a talk I gave for the Fifth Centenary of the Birth of St John of God entitled "Charity and Justice in the Hospitaller Order of St John of God Today", I concluded with the following words:

 

                "In the Order we have a movement with all our co-workers, respecting the identity of each one, which sets out to foster the spirit of St John of God in mutual cooperation, for the good of the service that we have to provide to the sick and needy.

 

                This is not a movement reserved for the friends of the Brothers.  It is not a movement to silence those who might be thought more critical.  It is a not a movement to be joined in order to benefit from it; it is not a movement for us to agree only on what might be considered the pious aspects of our vocation.

 

                It is a serious movement which desires the personal and spiritual growth of all those of us who make up the Order, because we have all been enrolled into it, in all our different situations.

 

                It is a movement which does not have to agree on the accidental aspects of what we are, but must encompass all the elements of the Order's culture of hospitality with all the implications this means for care and assistance.  For the good of all, the sick and the needy, the co-workers and the Brothers, I wish this movement to grow".

 

I would like you all to understand exactly what I mean here. It is not that we are more on the side of the co-workers than on the side of the Brothers.  To me there is no sense in even discussing this.

 

Because of the demands of our mission, because we are faithful to St John of God, and because we are faithful to the demands of our age and try to improve the way we live our service to the sick and needy, you and I must make progress in understanding what the co-workers’ movement means: it means living the mission together, helping them to know what we want, to get them to identify more closely with the principles of the Order, to foster the spirit of the charism in individual persons and in the professional groups in our Centres, and on the committees that we have set up so that the spirit of St John of God is always present.

 

I know that what we are doing as an Order is not perfect.  We may be mistaken, we can improve things, but I want to be with you in this reflection, in this search, in order to respond to our age.  I want us to be a closely-knit group, to create communion in everything that has to do with this movement.

 

 

 

9.             THE JOY OF BEING CALLED

 

I have been looking forward to writing this letter to you.  Two years have passed since the General Chapter.  I was given the responsibility of continuing the work of St John of God in his Order, as the animator of the Order.  I began this ministry trustingly, I support it and I feel God and St John of God close to me.

 

I have had many opportunities of being with you.  There are some Centres that I have not yet been able to see and there are still many of you whom I have not yet been able to meet.  I also feel restricted in terms of language, even though I am making an effort.  There are many things to attend to at one and the same time.  But a letter written with affection and also read with affection gives us the possibility to meet.

 

As I have been writing to you many situations have come to my mind and I have shared them with you and tried to analyse them lovingly.  I imagine that the same happens to you as you read this letter.  I wanted to give you a realistic message.  I am not interested in filling up pages babbling on about things that are unrealistic.  I am interested in your lives, the life of the Order, the response that we are making and how we can do it better.

 

I have carried out this reflection realising my responsibilities, but also with the desire to be helped by each of you.  Perhaps you may disagree with some of the things that I have said.  It is difficult to address everyone using the same words.  Having different criteria about our reality is a source of enrichment to us.  But I can tell you that everything that I have written here has been thought over many times and at very specific moments in these two past years.

 

I want you to live your vocation with joy and I want you to feel at peace with yourselves.  It pains me when I cannot find communion, when I find some of our Brothers downhearted.  Because we do not understand ourselves, or we do not understand others, or think that they do not understand us.

 

 At the beginning I spoke of the need to show ourselves charity.  This is what John of God recommended (1 DS 13; 3 DS 9).  The best friend that we have, as reflections on self-esteem tell us, is ourselves.  The best friends that we have are ourselves.  This should not be the expression of egoism but of a balanced judgment of ourselves.  Of growth of our being, of growth in serenity, in focusing our lives, in harmony, in having found happiness in responding to our Lord's call.  We do not have to put up with injustice, but we ourselves are the first who have to ensure that our life is easy, fine and happy.  Our Lord and St John of God both help us.  Of that I am certain.

 

 

 

9.1           THE FUTURE, A POSSIBILITY FOR HOPE

 

Let us all look to the future with hope.  Real and theological hope.  Let us set aside pessimism.  We are irrevocably launched out into the future.  I have said this on several occasions: the future is the possibility offered us to do what we have not been able to do in the past, or to do better what we are already doing, if that is possible.

 

I refuse to think that there are no real reasons for hope.  The new vocations are a reason for hope.  You may say to me that in some places there are not many new vocations, and no-one can deny that.  But it is also a reason for hope.  The apostolate that we are carrying out is a reason for a hope.  The integrity of the lives of so many of you is a reason for hope.  The fact that so many people appreciate our lives is a reason for hope.

 

If some of you do not have much confidence in these human elements, we also have the theological dimension of the virtue of hope.  For otherwise our faith is vain.  God is calling us to be agents of his mercy towards the poor and needy. 

 

We must be witnesses of hope.  John of God, John Grande, Richard Pampuri, Benedict Menni and our martyred Brothers, are all our witnesses of hope.  Of real hope, even under difficult situations, and of theological hope too.

 

In the history of each of us it is essential to live life with meaning.  Finding the meaning of our existence.  In the Easter mystery of Jesus Christ we find the explanation for situations that are otherwise inexplicable (Gaudium et Spes 22).  From Jesus Christ we draw the meaning for the Easter mystery of our own existence. 

 

It is very important to be happy, to know how to read reality in the light of the faith, and not to be evasive or seek false answers, but precisely in order to see where we stand, and to be happy in terms of and thanks to Christ.

 

 

 

9.2           THE YEAR 2000: THE CHURCH'S JUBILEE

 

The Church is now preparing for the year 2000 as a Jubilee Year.  The year in which we shall be celebrating the anniversary of Jesus Christ's coming into history in order to bring us the fullness of salvation.  A salvation which gives us, all of us, interior joy.  And that also includes the sick and needy.

 

In his Apostolic Letter, Tertio millennio adveniente the Holy Father has defined the year 1997 as the year of Jesus Christ.  The year of 1998 as the year of the Holy Spirit, and 1999 as the year of the Father.

 

We have set out a programme for the Sexennium in the Circular Letter with a series of activities for each of these years which we are tying to put into practice.  1997 is the year of the first Centenary of the Birth of St Richard Pampuri.  I invite you to bear this in mind in your celebrations.  We have decided to convene an Extraordinary General Chapter in order to approve the General Statutes, and we wish to hold this near his birthplace.

 

At these times I wish to remind you of the need for us to be united to the Church, and to ensure that these next three years are a means of deepening the Trinitarian dimension of our lives, emphasising in each one of these years the Christological, pneumatological and theological sense of our existence, uniting ourselves in this way to the desire of John Paul II and the whole Church.

 

By so doing we shall enter into the new millennium with a genuine spirit of the new hospitality and following in the footsteps of John of God.

 

 

 

9.3           CALLED TO ENSURE THAT JOHN OF GOD CONTINUES TO LIVE ON

 

John of God is not ours.  He belongs to society, to the Church.  Neither are we solely responsible for making him live on throughout history.  But, with the help of God, we must ensure that both he and his Order live on in time.

 

I am working out all these reflections thinking of how we ourselves can keep the sign of St John of God alive for the benefit of the sick and needy: we must not lose the richness of St John of God, and of the early days of our Order.

 

We are now present in 46 countries throughout the world, and we are members of 54 different nations.  I believe that we must ensure that the Order continues to be present in all its diversity, because this is also enrichment.  We must be concerned about continuity, fidelity, but a fidelity which is creative and is not afraid of the demands made by the contemporary world, which is able to face up to the challenges of our history of hospitality quite naturally, and tries to respond to these challenges.

 

I have entitled this letter with the words of St Paul "Let yourselves be led by the spirit". I have not made any reference to this in the letter, but this has been present in everything I have been sharing with you here.  All I hope is that we may be bold and look towards the future, allowing ourselves to be carried forward by the Spirit.

 

May our Lady, our Saints and our Beatae, and especially St John of God, accompany us along our path.

 

Rome, 24th October 1996

 

 

 

Brother Pascual Piles, OH

Superior General

 

Brother Valentín A. Riesco, OH.

General Secretary