(SUMMARY of the contributions that reached us from Brazil, Vietnam, Algeria, Tunisia, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Ireland, France, Malta and Spain)
Meeting of Responsibles of the Fraternities of Charles de FOUCAULD.
CASTELFRANCO, Italy, April 2015
Theme: CHARLES DE FOUCAULD, THE MAN WHO PRAYS, THE MAN WHO WORKS, HOW DOES HE CHALLENGE US TODAY?
1.- Each group and each person has their own way of undertaking work… How do we in our group undertake work in different contexts? To what extent?
As priests, we have to do everything. It is our mission. Most important is to serve our people, giving of our time, our health, our energy…All this in order to build the Kingdom, a better world, to make people happy, despite the grave difficulties experienced in some countries.
To act with joy, even when we are tired or overwhelmed by work.
2.- (Optional) Who am I when I am I am not involved in my profession, when I am retired, unemployed, sick, etc.?
We have to live Jesus and his Gospel message in the present moment. There is no retirement for us, and when there is illness, old age, different energies to when we were young: contemplating God present in life, people, and events. It is the stage of life when the Prayer of Abandonment makes most sense.
3.- For us, what is the link between work and prayer?
To be a companion, allowing ourselves be accompanied. Prayer is the source for our work, to be able to go about daily affairs with a new spirit, with joy and enthusiasm.
We should be working for Jesus: this comes through adoration, the celebration of the Eucharist, from listening to the Word and the call of our brothers both in the Revision of Life and in our gatherings.
We cannot choose one over the other: both are part of our life, and sometimes it is hard to have the time and the quiet necessary for a life of prayer that makes us friends of Jesus and of others. In Luke 10, 38-42 Martha and Mary, in the Gospel, teach us to spend time with Jesus and to work with love. In short, to work for Jesus.
4.- How do prayer and work shape our fraternities or communities and how do they shape each one of us. To what extent are prayer and work an expression of our embodiment?
We have a clear need of fraternity, of brothers, their lives and their words. Fraternity is a source of prayer; Charles de FOUCAULD, a model of how to embody friendship with Jesus; and where manual, social and pastoral work, accompaniment, the struggle for human rights, are sustained by a life of prayer and friendship with Jesus. This leads us to believe in the universal brotherhood that Jesus and Brother Charles dream of. That is why, for us, incarnation is the life witness that we ought to give, not running away from human situations we don’t like, since we are part of them.
We must share people’s situation, not impose our rules.
Work and prayer gradually change us to be bearers of peace and joy to those among whom we live.