PROGRAMME LAVIGERIE File no 1

ROOTED IN THE TRINITY FOR MISSION

“To be consecrated means to be all things to all because one has said to the God of all: I am all yours…” Lavigerie

Cardinal Lavigerie was very clear: “To be all to all,” is only possible “if I have said to the God of all: I am all yours.”
This is still true for us today. Only if we are rooted in faith can we face the challenges of our mission.

“Each one of us at some time in her life, experiences a love of God in a special way. Something simple yet wonderful happens to us. This is a total gratuitous gift: Someone divine touches us profoundly in our life history. Jesus becomes for us an irreplaceable friend. He reveals the face of God to us, full of love and tenderness. Consequently, we have only one desire: to live for him and to make him known to other peoples, in Africa.” (CA 1999, pg 34)

Our life experience
What do you feel when reading the above?
Looking at your life experience, what is your special way of being touched by the Lord? What impact does it have on your apostolic spirituality?
How has your image of God been shaped by your missionary experience?

Our founding experience
Yes Lord, at the beginning was your call. Rooted in our MSOLA spirituality, I thank you:
I thank you, Lord, because a passion for Christ shapes my life, as it shaped the life of Cardinal Lavigerie. For Lavigerie the missionary must realize that s/he is a person of prayer, that s/he must belong entirely to God, because s/he is God’s envoy.
Therefore, to focus my life on you, my God, is the source for living my daily commitments and this nurtures my apostolic zeal.
I thank you, Lord, because like Mother Marie Salome I lay my life before you in all simplicity. Her personal notes reveal in a humble and discreet way the interior spiritual path to which she felt called and which she invites us to follow: “To live for Jesus, live through Jesus, live according to Jesus, live like Jesus, live from Jesus.” This is what gave her the strength to hold fast in adversity.
I thank you, Lord, because formed by Ignatian spirituality, I discover your Spirit at work wherever I am sent.  I try to discern what you want me to do.
I thank you, Lord, because our elderly Sisters discover your faithfulness in their lives, and bear testimony to your presence through joyful as well as difficult experiences in a humble and honest way.

A changing context
These days we experience a growing questioning, a shaking of our foundations, when we realise that for many people our faith is irrelevant:
- in many places our way of presenting the Gospel is no longer meaningful; - religious indifference is regarded as one of the greatest challenges to the Church’s mission today; - many people search for a spirituality but without an organized Church; they choose the faith and spirituality they want.
Many of us complain about post-modern religiosity and lament the growing trends of New Age, of sects and fundamentalism, or those having recourse to sorcery.  But we don’t know how to counteract it.
In many parts of Africa, in the midst of extreme misery, the Churches are full. There is a genuine spiritual thirst, but also many spiritual fads that seem only to console but do not help transform the situation in which people find themselves.
Facing these challenges, we feel overwhelmed and even overtaken by events. We are faced with a choice: either we let ourselves become discouraged or we acknowledge that the mission is beyond us; it is God’s Mission. And once more we realise that to reach out to this world we must be deeply rooted in our faith.

Strengthening our roots through deepening our apostolic spirituality
a) Following Jesus
Jesus lived in continual communion with His Father, beginning at his baptism right to his total abandonment into his Father’s hands at the moment of His death. The most profound expression of this communion is found in St John. The Father and I are one. By Himself, the Son can do nothing.  He can only do what He sees the Father doing and whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him everything He Himself does. Here is a mystery revealed to the poor and the little ones!
To those who receive Him, He gives the power to become children of God and to live in the same depth of communion with the Father. St Paul sees that this communion penetrates the lives of those who are baptised in such a way that we live no longer for ourselves but for Him who died and was resurrected for us. “It is no longer me,” St Paul says “but Christ who lives in me.”
It is neither a glamorous nor an easy way, as Jesus told his disciples:  “Are you able to drink the cup that I will drink?”  Following Jesus is a way of incarnation with Jesus, a path towards others right to the end of the world. It is to share in the life of a people and to be one with them in solidarity right to the finish. It is a way of service just like that of Jesus who came not to be served but to serve.
This spirituality of Incarnation and kenosis is truly ours. It is clear in our Constitutions as in the hymn in Philippians. And throughout our lives we yearn to be “sent to,” in order to “live with.” This desire to serve lives deep in us and urges us to find ways to serve the Church and Africa today. How shall we discern the call to be where God wants us to be?

‘Following Christ, we surrender our liberty to the Father so as to share in the work of the Son who, by his obedience gives life and restores communion between God and man.’ (Const. no 28).
This Incarnation spirituality is not just a one-way affair… a going out to others.  We are well aware of how much our own lives are enriched through meeting others - other peoples, cultures and religions. Today the Mission is a mutual enrichment through both ‘giving and receiving’, through dialogue and reciprocal sharing.

b) The Trinity, source of Mission
In Vatican II, Ad Gentes places the origin of missionary activity in the Trinity itself, in God’s eternal plan of salvation for all, seen in the sending of the Son and the Holy Spirit into the world. This means that the very nature of the Church is missionary. Mission is something the Church is, before it is something the Church does. Mission is more than expansion of the Church. It moves from conquest to invitation, dialogue and sharing and its purpose is to bear witness to the very life of God.
For this reason, from the time of Vatican II, today’s theologians  prefer a Trinitarian approach to mission.
Let us try to deepen this way of looking at mission in contemplating the Incarnation as St Ignatius proposes, and let us be inspired by his Trinitarian outlook. 

c) The Trinity in the meditation on the Incarnation according to St Ignatius
Let us look at the three Divine Persons as proposed by St Ignatius, on the throne of Divine Majesty.  How does God see us?

First, God is a God who observes. The Three Persons look at the entire face of the earth with all its peoples. With them we are invited to see the vastness of the world where a huge and diverse number of people live. Just as in the time of St Ignatius when new places were discovered, so it is in this time of modernisation which makes us aware of the immensity and diversity created and willed by God.
But as St Ignatius says, in this diversity we take into account the concrete situations of individuals; “some white, others black, some living in peace, others at war, some in tears others who laugh, some healthy while others are sick, some are being born, others dying…”
Yes, we believe in a God who observes.

A God who is concerned.  The Three Persons see a people so blinded that they die and fall into hell. One could blame Ignatius for this very negative view of humanity and creation. But God has his eye on every situation and God doesn’t remain neutral though is touched by those who suffer violence and injustice.
Yes, we believe in a God who is concerned.

A God who speaks, consults and dialogues. “Listen,” St Ignatius tells us, “to what the Three Divine Persons are saying: Let us redeem the human race.” At the deepest level of the Godhead is found this incredible communion and desire, an empathy that goes out towards others and seeks their salvation. God in Himself is all otherness, yet recognises the other, listens and converses.
Yes, we believe in a God who speaks, consults, dialogues.

God participates in our history.  God acts: St Ignatius invites us to see what the Divine Persons decided to do from all eternity namely that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity would become man to save the human race. God decided to come very close to us and so touch the depths of our reality. Our God is not a distant God, but is everywhere. God is one of us, identified with us, for better and for worse.
Yes, we believe in a God who acts.

God counts on our cooperation. Ignatius doesn’t lose sight of the Virgin Mary. He tells us especially to visualise the house of Our Lady at Nazareth in the Province of Galilee. Salvation operates in practical terms. God offers salvation but doesn’t impose it on us. The dialogue at the heart of the Three Divine Persons resonates in us and demands our “yes,” our cooperation.

May our Mission today
draw its strength from the Blessed Trinity;
so that we may enter into this divine dialogue,
into this deep yearning,
especially for the salvation of the world.

How has the Congregation helped us deepen our apostolic spirituality?
Looking at the last twenty years, what did our Congregation promote, emphasise and develop?
A. There is this continual invitation to return to our founding roots, to value our apostolic spirituality: the ”All to All”, rooted in the “being all Yours,” accompanies us throughout our Writings.
B. We are continually called to discover God at work in our history and to enter creatively into God’s vision for the world. We want to form communities of faith which seek to discern the signs of the Spirit in order to reach a common vision of mission.
C. We are invited to find meaning for the whole of our lives in the mystery of the Trinity.

Proposals

Let us reread:
CA 1987, no 21-22
CA 1993 no 25
CA 1999 pg 34
CA 05 pg 36-38.
In our Constitutions we rediscover our Apostolic Spirituality and the Trinitarian aspect of our mission.
Let us take the means and time in community to articulate our faith in order to be strengthened,
to share it with others in our changing world.
Let us encourage one another to read ‘The Well’ received on Missionary Spirituality : Walking on the two Feet of Love by Sr Susan Rakoczy (as well as Le don: démarche missionnaire fondamentale by Fr Bede Ukwuije), accompanying this paper. Let us also search for other articles to enlighten our faith journey.