Behind the achievement of great people lives a clear vision. Jesus had a vision, our founder had a vision and hopefully we, too, have a vision. It is something Jesus and our founder were filled with, that drove them and that gave their whole life a clear focus and purpose. By vision I mean something one can live for, suffer for, work for and ultimately die for; something one cannot keep to oneself; something one is so caught up with that one has to communicate it, let it out, spread it. A vision can be described in this way:

In the middle ages a horse man riding out of castle came across three men each one pushing a wheelbarrow heavily loaded with bricks. He asked the first one: AWhat are you doing?@ His answer was gruff and done with anger he said: A Can=t you see, I am pushing a heavily loaded wheelbarrow.@ Then he asked the second man: AWhat are you doing?@ He told him in a little friendlier manner: A I am making a living by wheeling bricks to a construction side.@ And finally he asked the third man: AWhat are you doing?@ And this one answered him with a glow all over his face: AI am helping to build a cathedral by carrying bricks.@ This is what we might call vision.

People who have a vision are people whose life is guided by consciously chosen principles. They live out of a life principle. By this we mean a generalized, accepted intention of purpose that is applied to specific choices and circumstances. The life principle runs through the fabric of our choices like the dominant theme in a piece of music: it keeps recurring and it is heard in different settings. We might call it our ALeitmotif@. Some examples: the life principle of a person can be: safety, duty, recognition, money, fame, need, success, fun, relationship, approval of others, power etc. Important is that life principles become habits and habits rule our lives; they define and dictate our actions and reactions. There is a fundamental choice, a life principle which will one day possess us in the marrow of our bones and run through the blood of our veins. Everyone has a life-principle, a dominant one. It may be difficult to lure it out of the dark, but it is there ( J. Powell, Unconditional Love).

Questions:

• What is the fundamental principle my life is based on?
• With regard to our SVD community, we might dare to ask ourselves: What is the life principle that we as community live out of - or want to live out of?
• What profile do we show to people today and what is the attractive alternative we offer them?

2. Community: priority of religious life.

To envision and to describe an ideal community is not so difficult but the fact is, in reality, there are no ideal communities. In working - be it in retreats or workshops - with a variety of religious communities in all kinds of cultures and nations, I often wonder not so much about their difficulties and tensions but about the mere fact that they are still functioning at all. Even a casual reading of the Acts of the Apostles reveals the tensions and conflicts caused by a diversity of cultures, ethnic groups, beliefs and human failure. But those early Christians  were able to overcome their conflicts, because they experienced  the Spirit of Jesus present among them. How we understand ourselves as community is described quite beautifully in the Draft Statement in this way:

We are a community of brothers from different nations and cultures and we strive to be a living symbol of the unity and diversity of the Church and the Kingdom of God (c. Prologue). Our communion is ultimately rooted in the mystery of the Triune God who is a community of love; we live and work together in a spirit of solidarity, respect and love. Our fraternal life is a privileged place for us to discern and learn to accept God=s will and to walk together with one mind and heart.  We bind ourselves to Jesus and to one another through the evangelical counsels, and together we give witness to the coming of God=s Kingdom. In this sense community life is already mission (D. St. 63).

As religious community we live in a context of a context, namely, the community of the Church and our mission is no other than the mission of the Church. This mission of the Church is threefold: first, to proclaim the Kingdom of God in Word and sacrament, because the Church sees itself totally in the service of the Kingdom meant for the whole of creation. Secondly, the mission of the Church is to build communities, which are  test cases that  show in an anticipatory way what the Kingdom is all about. Thirdly, since the Kingdom is broader than the Church it is the Church=s mission to engage in dialogue with the world and the other religious traditions as well.

There is quite a considerable number of authors who say that the priority of religious life -  today in particular -  is giving witness to community life. Our life in community must be a distinct sign that Christian faith is capable of creating communities in which peace, justice, love and true brother/sisterhood are a lived reality and not only empty words. Particularly, the witness that we are all brothers and sisters (Gal 3:28) is all the more necessary in a world of cultural, religious, and ethnic conflicts. I have lived most of my life in culturally and nationally mixed communities and I have come to realize the powerful witness such a community can offer. It is not easy and it takes a constant effort and a spiritual discipline to see the power of the Spirit at work in such communities, but it can be experienced.

As communities within the Church, religious are the visible and tangible anticipation of the final community, which God has planned for the whole of creation. The reconciling power of the Holy Spirit creates a community already here on earth, a unity and harmony among men and women which finds its fullness at the end of time. In spite of our brokenness and the impossibility of ever creating a perfect community, the lived example must be given now, to show that God's Kingdom has already begun here on earth and in our time.

To make the Kingdom of God present on earth, at least in its initial stages, is the task of the whole Church.  But religious communities in particular should offer themselves as concrete test cases to show that the Kingdom has indeed already appeared in this world.

John Cassian comments that the first religious Christians went to live apart to practice those things which they had learnt and which the apostles had recommended for the whole body of the Church_ (Collationes XVIII, ch. 5). Accordingly they formed communities to show that these ideals were not only preached about but lived. Religious life came into existence as a protest movement against a Church that had conformed herself too much to the society. Consequently, religious life was then seen as following the model of the prophets in the Old Testament.

These communities were formed according to the pattern of the early Church as described by Luke in Acts, where everything was held in common by people of simple hearts who called themselves brothers and sisters. The first Christian communities lived in a society that did not share their values. Thus they automatically became what Lohfink calls a “contrast-society,” witnessing to a different scale of values and way of being human. In the moment the Church became a State-religion the religious communities developed and carried out the task of becoming the Acontrast society@ in the Church and for the Church.

In short, religious orders had to fulfill a therapeutic task for the Church. It seems there is a connection between the Church's task to be a “counter society” and the existence of monasteries and religious orders in the history of the Church. Religious communities turned up whenever the Church forgot or betrayed her most important mission, to follow the Lord and offer herself to society as a “counter society”.

It is not wrong to say that when the Church began to get sick, God ordained monks, nuns and cloisters as its therapy. When the Church forgot that it was to be a contrast society, a contrast society was created in its midst (G. Lohfink, Religious Orders).

In times like these where people hunger for a sign of God's Kingdom, the question arises: Who can give witness to genuine community if not religious communities? Who can provide a more visible and tangible sign of reconciling love in the Church if not religious communities, who have made it their business to follow the Lord more freely and to imitate him more exactly?  Again, the function of religious communities is seen as being a “counter society”_ or a “contrast society” for our time. Sandra Schneiders put it this way when talking about the future of religious communities:

What religious can bring to the worldwide struggle against domination is a deep hunger and thirst for justice based on their own spiritual experience of liberation in Jesus Christ. Religious are people who know that justice and holiness are finally identical, and that justice is not merely the way humans can and should relate to each other as brothers and sisters which is given to us by the God who created and re-deemed us all. It might be suggested that religious should be on the cutting edge in the development of new forms of community life and organization structured by and for justice. Here, if anywhere, it makes sense for the members to trust one another and thus to be able to abandon all forms of domination, coercion, intolerance and forced conformity...Religious should offer a prophetic witness that it is possible for a group to live together in love and justice celebrating their own freedom and equality in the very act of celebrating God's absolute and respectful reign in their lives. (Sandra M.Schneider, New Wine in New Wineskins)

The Draft Statement on Community presents a series of concrete proposal for reflection on our Community life done with the proposed lens of living prophetic dialogue. There is no need to add or stress particular aspects in these proposals they do capture adequately, what is asked for of us as community today.

3. Religious life as group charism

To look at religious life as community life leads to see it in terms of being a AGroup Charism.@ This is not new but it challenges the individual member of the group in a unique way. How far does he identify himself with the group and how far does he feel personally responsible for the Group Charism?

If every call and charism is for the benefit of the whole community (Rom 12; 1Cor 12), then religious life itself has to be seen as a charism, i.e., a gift of the Holy Spirit to the individual person to be exercised for the well-being of the Church and the redemption of the world. One can speak of a “group charism”. Religious life should be regarded as such. This means that the whole group is called to exercise a charism for the benefit of the entire Church and its mission.

The Holy Spirit calls one person to take up a particular function in the Church for the benefit of the whole and, in turn, to gather a group of men or women around him or her to undertake this task in common. In such a case, the charism is seen as a collective gift.

One could also explain it this way: the Spirit, who inspires the founder or foundress to form a new group in the Church, gives to other persons a kind of sensitivity so that they feel drawn to join this group. The whole group then becomes responsible for the group charism.

The spirituality of a particular congregation normally illuminates one aspect of the Gospel so that a better understanding of that aspect may be had. The group is then seen as a gift of the Holy Spirit which enables all in the group to live the initial insight of the founder or foundress. These insights are insights into the life of Christ and his mission. Each institute, therefore, is a perpetual renewal of the work of Christ in the Church and the world. We see that our charism has been dealt with in almost every section of the Draft Statement for this chapter. What might be new this time is the invitation to see our charisma through the lens of prophetic dialogue as the text says (3).

Questions:

• How do I regard my distinct and specific vocation as an SVD?
• In what way is it a gift, first of all for me personally, and then for the well-being of the community and the mission of the Church for the whole world?

4. Personal responsibility for the group charism

Since my concern in a recollection is to remind and invite you to reflect on the spiritual atmosphere in which all your work during the Chapter should be conducted, I would like to say something about the personal responsibility of each member of the congregation for the Agroup charism@. I will do this in the setting of the vow of obedience - strange as it may sound.

If religious life is a group charism which the Holy Spirit wants to see exercised in the Church, then the individual religious who joins the group must assume personal responsibility for this charism. This he or she does in union with the entire congregation in a twofold way:

Firstly, with the rest of the community I am responsible for constantly asking how the charism is to be understood in the setting of our time, ever faithful to the original inspiration of the founder or foundress. This is, of course, the explicit task of the administration and in particular the task of a General Chapter.

Secondly, I am, together with the community, responsible for the way this charism is exercised in the Church of today. I cannot leave it up to a few persons in the congregation to worry about.

If I embrace the group charism, I will have to agree that it is going to determine, to a considerable extent, my personal life and my concrete life-style, i.e., my life as a religious is going to be concretized according to the charism of the congregation I join. In short, I put myself at the service of this charism and this charism in turn is going to determine my whole life.

This is very important for each religious to understand. If I join a missionary congregation, my religious life, i.e., the way I live the vows, will be determined by a missionary aspect and not vice-versa. This can have far-reaching consequences for me. It implies, for example, my willingness to leave or accept tasks and obligations once the group as a whole realizes that the charism of the congregation demands a shift in my apostolate.

Evangelical obedience is not a simple response to a norm, a commandment or an order, that is, to a purely juridical and disciplinary reality, but, rather, an habitual attitude of communion with a group and its leaders in faith and in love. It should be noted that obedience, not only as communion in faith but also as communion in charity, has an essential relation with God and his salvific will. (John M. Lozano, Life as Parable)

I once asked the head of a major religious superiors' association what she regarded as one of the main problems concerning obedience in religious congregations. She answered, “Our main problem is that many of the sisters do not feel personally responsible for the congregation. They are obedient in the traditional sense, i.e., they ask permission, etc., but what is lacking is a real feeling for the group charism and for the responsibility that should flow from it.”

Here we are at the core of the matter. How far are the individual members aglow with the  charism of the group and live the spiritually of the congregation with conviction and even with enthusiasm. The vitality of the congregation depends on the number of those members who have made it their life principle to live according to the charism of the congregation.

This was Father Musinsky=s most burning worry. As he would have it: AWe will have a great future in the measure we are able to make the charism the personal vision of each member of the SVD.@ The three vital elements of a congregation=s viability are: the vision, the members and the organization. The strength of the congregation does not depend on its organization and on the number of members, but ultimately on the vision and how deep this vision is burning in the heart of the members.

If the prophetic dimension of our faith is something with which the Holy Spirit has entrusted particularly us religious, then the prophetic dialogue which this Chapter has made as the key phrase of all your deliberations, then let us not forget that being prophetic means first of all not so much to criticize but to energize, which means to radiate energy, to put people on fire and to excite them about God and his mission. Prophets are most often conservative rather than progressive, something we often tend to forget. They are not concerned with programs and organization but first of all with the zeal and the passion for God. They are ecstatic and exuberant because they had been touched by the Spirit who put them on fire. Prophetic dialogue presupposes that we are touched by the prophetic Spirit and put under a compulsion to dialogue about what we ourselves have seen, experienced, lived with and have been touched by, to quote from the First Letter of St. John. We proclaim what we have experienced ourselves first. This reminds me of Pope Paul VI who wrote in his Encyclical Evangelii Nunciandi:

And may the world of our time, which is searching with anguish, sometimes with hope, be enabled to receive the Good News not from evangelizers who are dejected, discouraged, impatient or anxious, but ministers of the Gospel whose lives glow with fervor, who have received the joy of Christ. (par 80)

Questions:

• How do I again and again try to know the SVD vision, identify with it and let it shape my spirituality accordingly?
• How much enthusiasm and joy do I radiate in my life as an SVD in the service of God=s Kingdom for the sake of the world?

Summary

Following the principle of the early Church in their decision making processes: The Holy Spirit and we have decided, I presented to you in the first Conference what should be the background for all the processes you undertake to make this General Chapter a spiritual renewal for our Society and to decide in which direction we have to move in order to respond to the challenges of our time today. I argued: