Santiago  2000




“To be a Christian couple today
in the Church and in the world”





“In the year 2000, numerous couples
of the Teams of Our Lady
gathered in Santiago of Compostela.
On their return, a new programme
of Christian hope will be outlined !”





“To be, before doing …”

To root ourselves more firmly in the Gospel,
To live out more authentically the realities of our lives,
To feel loved in order to love,
To forgive more deeply,
To commit ourselves further in spite of our weaknesses,
are the paths we are called to tread together,
with faith, from this day onwards and well before
becoming the salt and yeast in tomorrow’s human dough




Teams of Our Lady
International Leading Team


Foreword


The new orientation of the Teams of Our Lady for the beginning of the third millennium, comes to us as a series of questions on the great realities of our times. They are questions that all members of the Teams of Our Lady are invited to ask themselves today as Christians and as christian couples.
· How to live out the Beatitudes concretely and, therefore, how to proclaim the active presence of Christ in our current situation?
· How to live out concretely our baptism and marriage promises in today’s world?
How can we offer and, especially, give to all those we meet on our way in the Church and in the world what we have received and continue to receive from God in the Teams of Our Lady?




Change your hearts
Believe in the good News !
Change your life
Believe that God loves you !

I do not come to condemn the world
I come that the world may be saved
I do not come for those in good health,
nor for the righteous,
I come for those who are sick, for sinners.

I am the Door, says Jesus:
Whoever enters through me will be saved
Whoever believes in me has eternal life
Believe in my words and you will live.


                                                               (Chemin neuf – 162)


"To be a Christian couple today
in the Church and in the world"


Origin of the new orientation

 
The Movement of the Teams of Our Lady is a community of couples who want to live out in the sight of God all aspects of their life...; all aspects of their life, that is to say: their personal life, their married life, their family life, their commitments in the Church and in society. Their spirituality leads them to seek a genuine married life, a life that is as much spiritual as it is human. Such an ideal cannot be undertaken on one’s own. To limit one’s faith and married life to the private sphere only is... untenable. 
"Aware of their weakness and of the limits of their strength, if not of their good intentions, because they experience daily how difficult it is to live as Christians in a pagan world, and because they have unshakeable faith in the power of fraternal mutual help, they have decided to form a team.” (Charter of the Teams of Our Lady).
To form a team is, therefore, to dare to leave one’s house, to be open, to lay aside one preconceived opinions, to leave our well-established security in order to approach others, to look at them, to listen to them, to share with them a “good news”, to take account of their hopes and suffering, never to turn away from the appeals and needs that we each discover on our way.
Following the last great gathering of the Teams of Our Lady in 1994, every team member in the world received this ‘way forward’ as a suggested way of life in the “Letter from Fatima”.
For several years, we have meditated together on the wedding feast of Cana. We have learnt to listen better to the Lord and to act at his bidding. Only he can change our poor water into wine and tell us what needs to be done today for humanity to be happy, even when the wine runs out. 
We are immersed today in a society in process of very deep transformation. This is why, at this beginning of the third millennium, it becomes urgent to reflect in a mature way - that is to say in a conscious, specific, coherent and honest way - on our mission and on our current and specific commitments as christian couples.
Pope John Paul II recently urged lay movements and new communities to give “ripe fruits of communion and of commitment” to the Church and to the world. The new orientation given to the Movement, “To be a christian couple today in the Church and in the world”, seeks to respond to that call.


The context of life today

For a number of years, the world we live in has no longer been the same at all. All that constituted our living environment is in a process of complete dismantling and, at the same time, of being completely rebuilt. In all spheres of religion, economics, ethics, sociology and politics, changes are rife and ever faster. Many of the great ideologies of the past century have broken up. Ancient structures and great institutions which, in the past, gave us security by regulating each age of life, are today showing up worrying cracks and unsuspected weaknesses. Models of the past are no longer accepted and models for today are not yet available.


This is why the framework of values is constantly changing. In this profound crisis of civilisation, human beings are, as it were, intoxicated by the whirlwind of liberalism and of new discoveries. They are most often incapable of seeing the reference points that could help them to rediscover their balance. Without prior preparation, they have suddenly entered a new era: that of personal “be your own boss”.
Each individual is invited to develop his/her own way of life. But this new search for meaning is subject to numerous currents of ideas which have become accessible thanks to the development of information technology. It is also under new sociological pressures that prevent our contemporaries to discern adequately between good and bad. 

People today have hardly been prepared for working out on their own what makes sense. We are also in a state of total contradiction. At a time when scientific progress and modernisation promised us happiness, we see that humanity is not happy. It wanted to liberalise itself, to acquire a new and rational culture, to reject any link between faith and culture, and all relationship between God and humanity. It is an utter failure. 
Possessions have robbed us of simply ‘being’. We own more but we are less. The new culture is becoming a culture of death. Life is no longer respected. We even see new forms of violence appearing. In more ways than one, our present civilisation resembles the near-pagan civilisation that the first apostles knew. Our era resembles that of the Gospel in that Christianity has returned to its initial vulnerability. It is no longer seen, by our contemporaries, as indispensable for the proper functioning of society.


Christian life today

At the end of the 20th century, after having rejected all links between culture and faith, life and customs, in contemporary society, have become completely secularised. We have gradually come to live in a society without God. Reason now distances itself from faith. Politics and economics reject, most of the time, any connection with ethics. Religion looses its public influence more and more.
This phenomenon of individualisation has made some Christians very pessimistic. This is reflected in a great nostalgia for the past, various forms of traditionalism and even a great fear for the future. Others, faced with the prevalent individualism, retreat to their hide-out. They are Christians for ‘themselves’. What happens outside their circle does not interest them. They avoid wetting their feet and getting committed. This state of inactivity creates in them various forms of indifference which, in reality, is culpable and worrying because it turns its back on evangelisation.
For Christians who want to react against this (and it includes us in the Teams of Our Lady), today’s events are a call from the signs of the times. It is a call to questioning, to reflection, to searching, to dialogue, to discernment on the dignity of the individual and on the current vocation of christian couples. This trend must logically end in new life commitments to renew the Church and today’s  society in depth.
If we look clearly and honestly at today’s state of affairs, we can see that everything is influencing our contemporaries to live in the present. But this present requires of humanity, and specially of today’s Christians, not to turn their back on the problems, nor on the new possibilities that arise.
Having become a minority in the current materialistic world, Christians feel more and more isolated and weakened and are concerned about their own influence. But the time has come to ask ourselves whether this new weakness is an inescapable misfortune or whether, on the contrary, it offers opportunities to humanity. The answer to this question will not come ready-made. We have to provide it ourselves in today’s context. It calls on our maturity, on our ability to discern what is positive in the signs of the times, and also on our generosity in responding to the call to live truly in christian hope.            

Cardinal C. M.  Martini,  Archbishop of Milan, referring to a recent Italian survey, distinguishes the following categories of present day Christians:
Christians of the ‘sap’ :    8 %   They are those who are committed
Christians of the ‘pith’ : 44 % They are those who practise more or less regularly
Christians of the ‘bark’ :  33 % They are those who live on the margin
Christians of the ‘moss’:          8 % They are those who maintain sporadic contact at some times in their life.
Others  7 % They are those who, in spite of their baptism, consider          themselves detached from and outside the Church


To live in christian hope entails ‘evangelising’ the present.

To evangelise the present consists in seeking in the life of Christ, new and clear answers to the new problems and questions of our times. It consists, in our current state of weakness, in rediscovering especially a God who loves us and who does not leave us on our own. His Spirit is in us... and his Spirit is also in others.
The formative way of the Teams of Our Lady has taught us that we need fraternal mutual help in order to progress. We cannot manage on our own, we cannot understand on our own, we cannot be a Christian on our own, we cannot be missionaries on our own. It is together that we will be able to give to the world today the ripened fruits of communion and commitment. For, though Christians have become a minority, they have not become marginalised. It is essential that we accept serenely and with faith the fact that we have become a minority. This is because the Church was not founded to be the dough, but the yeast. We are called to become this yeast in all the loafs of bread of the world.

The new orientation, “To be a christian couple today in the Church and in the world’’, points in this direction. It offers to help us to become again “the yeast and salt, full of flavour” by considering together how we can undertake commitments as mature and responsible Christians in this new millennium !



"To be good Christians may seem an undertaking beyond our strength.
But Jesus does not stand watching us and letting us face this challenge on our own. He is always with us to transform our weakness into strength.

                                                         (John-Paul II - Visit to Israel - March 2000)




"Let us not be afraid to become Christians of the ‘sap’! "



To be a Christian couple today in the Church and in the world

1. The proposition 

To offer to Team members throughout the world a programme of reflection and questions intended to lead to a conversion of heart so as to respond to the needs of the Church and of our world of today. This work of reflection will be based on work done by the International Leading Team and by a number of couples from different parts of the world. However, it is first and foremost through study, individually and as a couple, that this work of reflection will produce fruits of conversion, communion and commitment in each member.
We invite you therefore, in the course of the following years, to nourish your reflection with a persevering study of the Gospels, of  appropriate articles, of texts of conferences and of books on all aspects of human sciences from sociology to theology.
We invite the leaders of the various regions of the world to offer to their members information on life today in their respective countries. We are not asking you to do a theoretical work of reflection, unrelated to the realities of life. It would lead to nothing of practical value. The various study topics are a pressing invitation to ask yourselves questions personally, as a couple and even as a team that will lead to changes in your life.
To ask questions is an innate characteristic of all human beings who seek to know and love. It is this that leads them to come out of themselves and progress. Those who stop asking questions and questioning themselves loose a great part of their capacity of openness and of discernment. They loose a part of their humanity and they stunt their growth. To ask questions is also to be trustfully open to the person who will provide an answer. It is to allow oneself to be, so to speak, ‘contaminated’ by the life experience of someone with a different outlook. When we stop asking questions, our reference points become faint and we no longer see the signs of the times.
The most vital questions may not necessarily be those in this document. Ideally they will be those brought up by fellow team members and spiritual counsellors. Are not the best answers those that arise from questions we have the courage to express?


2. The stages of reflection

First year :  Reflection on the human person
· The human person today.
· The human person in God’s plan.
· Christians looking again at their sacraments of baptism and confirmation
· Christians today living out the Beatitudes and causing others to live by them
    
Second year: Reflection on the couple today
· The human couple today.
· The human couple, image of God the Trinity.
· Married Christians looking again at their sacrament of marriage.
· The married Christians living out the Beatitudes and causing others to live by them.

Third year : Reflection on our mission in the Church and in the world.
· Be always ready to give an account of the hope....
· Signs and concrete presence of God in the world.
· Ministers of the couple and of the family.
· Called to heal.

3. Presentation of the study topics

It is suggested that four chapters are studied each year. Each chapter will provide the material for two stages (each stage may cover one or two meetings).

First stage : TO BECOME AWARE OF REALITY
In order to encourage a clear and, specially, honest work of reflection on the real situation of the world around us, we will try to discern the signs of the times. We will then ask ourselves honestly how this situation influences our current christian behaviour. The team will compose questions best suited to the social situation experienced by members. Study individually and as a couple will then be based on these questions and discussed at the next meeting.

Second stage : TO REFLECT IN ORDER TO CHANGE AND COMMIT ONESELF
Arising from the work of reflection done at the first stage, thoughts and new questions from members will be shared. Members will then try, with the guidance of the Spiritual Counsellor, to define together ways of changing their way of life and the concrete commitments to be undertaken at that time.


It seems evident that, to put one’s heart into this programme, it is necessary to pay particular attention to the endeavour “Listening to the Word”. It is only through a personal, persevering and loving encounter  with Christ, who is “the Way, the Truth and he Life”, that we will find answers to the questions and, especially, that we will live in a way that is consistent with what our reflections reveals.  
The Spiritual Counsellor will be able to fulfil his role by helping team members to discover the Gospel passages that are most appropriate to the actual circumstances of their life and by interpreting them wisely. It would be of great value if he could use this opportunity to help members to discover and understand the current teaching of the Church on the subjects discussed.
 


4. Three dispositions of heart and mind  to work through this programme

To respond generously to this call for reflection and commitment, we are invited to see better, to hear better and to share better

To see better :
Our world has evolved more in these past fifty years than during the whole of human history. This evolution is still accelerating today in most spheres that concern human beings and society. In the complex and permanent destabilisation caused by the erosion of ideologies and institutions and also by the current dominance of economics, many people find themselves without enlightenment and guidance.
People have thought that they could satisfy the needs of the human heart by recreation, money and a comfortable life, but it is a way that does not lead to happiness. And so our contemporaries are searching for new vital values and new reasons for hope. They are suspicious of speeches and doctrines. They question the ability of certain institutions (including the Church) to offer a meaning to existence. They are more inclined to pay attention to those who witness by their lives than to teachers.
They are particularly attracted to the actual witness and commitment of those who have discovered new values. Human beings are crying out for signs and yet God never ceases to put into their hands the signs of his presence.
We therefore invite you to recognise these signs, not only by passively looking at all current changes with a critical and even fearful eye, but by taking time to see things with the eyes of the heart. Then we shall discover and be aware that, even today, the blinds see, the cripple walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead come to life and the Good News is proclaimed to the poor.     
Even today, there are numerous values developing that prove to be evangelical and yet we did not even imagine that they existed.

To hear better :
We might be concerned at the tendency of certain Christians today to concentrate on what goes on in their little communities, being primarily attentive to their emotional state and stability. But is not our priority to go out and “bring the Good News to the nations”, as Christ has asked us to do?
We must therefore go out, launch out into the deep, reach the other shore in order to hear the calls that are more and more numerous. They are the calls of a society that has lost confidence in itself and which seeks new reference points. We must hear the increasingly pressing calls of the leaders of the Church who are calling us to a creative and mature commitments, calling us lay people who have been fortunate to have experienced love, faith and hope in our lives.
We cannot turn aside, “go past at a distance”, and remain deaf to these calls. It is not enough to ‘look’, but we must ‘listen’ in order to be welcoming to all and to become available in all circumstances. As our leaders reminded us in Fatima, “we are called today to be ‘signs’ in a world deprived of love. We are called to a mission in communion with the Church. We are called to play a part in the pastoral ministry of the Church to couples and to the family”.

To share better :
Many leaders of the Church recognise today that the Teams of Our Lady have been a gift to the Church in our times. The time has come for us to share this gift much more concretely than we have done so far. We must realise that, for more than fifty years, we have been very fortunate Christians in a very difficult end of century. But what we have received, is not to be kept for ourselves, but to be given to others, for we are invited to be always ready to give to those who ask us, an account of the hope that is in us. 
Who are those who, today, ask Christians about their aim in life? Are we sufficiently aware that we are called to assume a real part in the field of the pastoral ministry of the couple and of the family? How are we to assume this ministry in a spirit of great openness and communion with the Church and other movements than ours?



To be a christian couple today in the Church
and in the world





First year :

Reflection on the human person








· The human person today

· The human person in God’s plan

· Christians looking again at their sacraments of baptism and confirmation

· Christians today living out the Beatitudes and causing others to live by them



First Chapter : 
  The human person today


First meeting :


A. PREPARATION OF THE MEETING


1. To become aware in order to become rooted in today’s reality

What is our living environment today?

We are experiencing a profound crisis of civilisation. The framework of values and of life is constantly changing under the double pressure of an economy in process of globalisation and of a new rational culture which seeks to liberate itself by rejecting all relationship between God and humanity. Furthermore, we are in a state of complete contradiction. Whereas modernism  promised to help us to achieve happiness, one sees that humanity is not happy. We ‘have more’ but we ‘are less’ ! In many ways, our present culture is a culture of death. Life is no longer respected and the dignity of the human person is more and more ridiculed.

We have entered the era of the independence of the individual but we have not been prepared for it. Many of our contemporaries are in a state of ‘weightlessness’, not knowing to whom nor to what to cling to restore their balance. Individualism tends to grow in an increasingly influential way, affirming self-centredness and indifference to the common good. Individuals retire into the quiet reality of their own shells. They belong to a world in which the individual is valued according to appearances and seeks to live in a crowd that all behaves the same.

On the other hand, at the end of the 20th century, very important values acquired official acceptability in society in many countries of the world: such as freedom of conscience, of thought, of religion, equal rights for women, tolerance towards differences and many other values. These have undoubtedly given rise to greater freedom and democracy. But these changes have also released negative forces, such as nationalism, dictatorship and totalitarianism which have led humanity to the arms race, violence, wars and genocide.

We are also experiencing a new attitude to time: more immediate and spontaneous and less planned and long term. A lack of trust in the future has led to a focusing of our desires on the urgent present objective. It is a matter of “everything, immediately”.

How does the dignity of the human person stand today ?

- On the ‘shadow’ side :

From time immemorial, human beings have sought happiness by trying to ‘fulfil’ themselves. To succeed, they must establish a harmony between their spiritual and physical dimensions. But even now, this harmony is far from being reached because the modern world continues to dismember the relationship between body and spirit, as though they could exist independently of each other. The contemporary thirst for freedom has, for a long time, caused the neglect of the whole spiritual side of human beings

People today are more and more immersed in a wild technical revolution in which machines have overtaken the human being’s productive capacity and the human capacity for memory and  for working things out. Human beings have themselves a superseded machine.  Modern society has institutionalised industrial competitiveness. This competitiveness has slowly but surely destroyed the foundations of essential values, such as fraternity, compassion, commitment, free giving and time itself. It has led people into individualism which, in reality, devalues people in order better to exploit them, isolate them and even imprison them in a false relationship with others and in false values centred on the ‘easy way’. The great danger of individualism is that individuals becomes prisoners of themselves.

One must also add that, because of economic pressures, personal and family values are often sacrificed in the interest of obtaining or keeping a job. In the whirlwind of modern life, men and women no longer give themselves time to stop, to ask themselves questions, to read, to think, to meet others, to talk, to pray, to find sensible answers to their most essential questions. 

Having become very isolated, human beings try to create a full life for themselves. To that end, they seek to liberate themselves from everything, even from God. But then, they no longer find anyone in whom to confide their own vulnerability and failures, so as to be forgiven and live again. Through experiencing this new type of emptiness, they aspire to new values. But without God, and without guidance, they often find themselves in ‘a state of weightlessness’. In this uncomfortable situation, they then seek to cling to anybody or to anything to acquire a new balance. The most vulnerable have become easy prey to the purveyors of drugs and sects. Many of our contemporaries turn to esoteric forms of religion or to mixtures of eastern religions. 

The individual is no longer respected. From their youngest age, individuals are attacked: children by paedophiles and employers of child labour, adolescents by drug pushers or taken into prostitution, elderly people by euthanasia.



"The collapse of ideologies has created a void and has, at the same time, awakened memories of the roots and riches inherent in each person. How can one not see that the question of God is at the heart of this problem?”
John-Paul II - Visit to Slovenia - 1996.
  

- On the ‘light’ side :

With the assertion of individualism has come a growing awareness of the dignity of the person. Knowing and accepting differences between persons of different countries, cultures, religions and social backgrounds, has led to more constructive relationships between people in society and to the emergence of a universal conscience. Even if a lot of progress remains to be done in the pluralism of ideas, in inter-church dialogue and ecumenism and in many other areas of problems, people recognise today the mutual benefit that comes from these relationships.

Although social standards have been reduced today to the point that there is an unhealthy permissiveness at the heart of civil society, an awareness is beginning to emerge in our society that life and death do not belong to us. This allows one to raise certain taboo subjects: public debate on the family, exploitation of children, euthanasia...  For example, the debate on euthanasia has brought to light the sufferings of people who have become vulnerable through old age or sickness. These people were to be found in places where they were progressively forgotten, for suffering is disturbing and it is much easier to isolate than to keep the sick person company.

Thanks to the very rapid development of information technology, a much greater number of people have direct access to world-wide information (e-mail, Internet commerce). The world has become a global village. This phenomenon opens new horizons and significantly improves the capacity of numerous people to think and make decisions. This is what creates widespread reaction against mass culture, against the excessive value set on material things, against the slide to liberalism, against pollution, against excessive exploitation of natural resources, against violence, against pornographic literature... etc.

In our present society that so readily rejects those who no longer go along with widely accepted economic norms, there are men and women who dare to value, not only their individuality, but also their vulnerability and their need of God and of others. And so it is that, here and there, new movements, new communities and spontaneous manifestations of solidarity are arising.

There is a clear tendency - which varies from county to country - to accept the principle of the equality of the sexes. The role of women is more widely recognised in various sectors of activity, although there is much that can still be improved.

The new millennium is therefore opening with the prospect of a time when the witness of some people’s life will set other asking questions. When people start to ask questions, is that not the start of finding new solutions?




Have you not got a saying : “Four months and then the harvest ! Well I tell you “Look around you, look at the fields; already they are white, ready for harvest !”
(John 4: 35)


2. To question oneself in order to discern


A few questions  that many christian couples ask themselves today :
1. What is or should be my personal attitude to my own vulnerability?
2. Jealous as I am of my freedom of conscience, what must I change in my attitude so as to be willing to dialogue with those who think differently from me, and yet respect their freedom of conscience?
3. Is diversity of opinions a value or a danger for you?
4. Is it sufficient to accept our personal differences or would it be better to take a step further and ‘welcome and celebrate them’ as gifts from God?
5. How can we feel ‘more responsible’ for others beyond the proprieties and obligations of our daily life?
6. Without loosing our own identity, how can we improve our capacity for discernment through listening and dialogue and, especially, through openness and kindness towards those who express new ideas, who believe in new values or who have new positive life styles?
7. In the current climate of scepticism, what is your reaction to the disappointment at the unfulfilled promises of the modern world?
8. Exclusion, social inequalities and poverty affect more and more people, and it is particularly isolated people who are most affected. Among these, we meet every day on our way people, wounded by life, who are excluded but also some who voluntarily exclude themselves from society.  How can we rid ourselves of all the excuses that make us ‘pass by on the other side’ from them?
9. In the context of the present growth in social inequalities, how do we currently use our daily earnings and our riches?


Personal questions :
1. With regards to the dignity of people we meet everyday, what are the most pressing questions that challenge your conscience in your married, family, social and work life?
2. Do you have other questions that are particularly close to your heart?



3. To discover the Word in order to change the heart.
(This passage of the Gospel can be chosen as text of meditation for the team meeting)

Who is my neighbour ?…The person who is “other”?

“There was a lawyer who, to disconcert him, stood up and said to him, ‘Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’. He said to him, ‘What is written in the Law? What do you read there?. He replied, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself’. ‘You have answered right’, said Jesus ‘do this and life is yours’.
But the man was anxious to justify himself and said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?’. Jesus replied. ‘A man was once on his way down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell in the hands of brigands; they took all he had, beat him and then made off, leaving him half dead. Now a priest happened to be travelling down the same road, but when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. In the same way a Levite who came to the place saw him, and passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan traveller who came upon him was moved with compassion when he saw him. He went up and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. He then lifted him up on his own mount, carried him to the inn and looked after him.
Next day, he took out two denarii and handed them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him’, he said, ‘and on my way back I will make good any extra expense you have’. Which of these three, do you think, proved himself a neighbour to the man who fell into the brigands’ hands?’. ‘The one who took pity on him’, he replied. Jesus said to him, ‘Go, and do the same yourself’  (Lk 10: 25-37).





  Poi nts for comments :
· “This is a ‘key parable’ for a proper understanding of the command to love one’s neighbour” –
· John Paul II in Veritatis Splendor. 
· See passage about lawyers in Lk 11: 52.
· To obtain eternal life: one must love God and one’s neighbour as oneself.
· Think of all the excuses people make for ‘passing at a good distance’, specially placating their conscience because they are going from one holy city to another (Jerusalem to Jericho). 
· It is not for others, nor for the Law, nor for ‘principles’ to tell us who is our neighbour. It is for ‘us’ to discover who lies in our path and to make a neighbour of him by helping him with the means at our disposal.
· To the question “Who is my neighbour?” (in other words “What category of individuals deserves my attention?”), Jesus substitutes the question “Which of these proved himself a neighbour?”. It happened to be a Samaritan, despised by Jews. It depends therefore only on me, on my charity, whether anyone, even an enemy, is to be my neighbour.
· What is essential is to be good to those we meet on our way, without choosing who is to be helped and without limits on what must be done and given.
· “Go, and do the same yourself.”

Other comments
We invite you to make a note here of other references that you have discovered as you read the Gospels as well as the comments of your Spiritual Counsellor.


4. What does the Church say about the human person today?


There are many recent declarations that can be found in the latest speeches of the Pope, in the pastoral documents of many Episcopal conferences, as well as in the writings of bishops and priests the world over. We invite you to discover them with the help and guidance of your Spiritual Counsellor.


It is interesting and useful to read “Gaudium et Spes” again, specially the chapter on the human condition in the world today (Chap 4). We will restrict ourselves here to recall certain significant passages. In the declarations of the Second Vatican Council, man (that is to say the human person) is the central element of the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the world today.

“The Church has always had the duty of scrutinising the signs of the times and of interpreting them in the light of the Gospel. Thus, in language intelligible to each generation, she can respond to the perennial questions which men ask about this present life and the life to come, and about the relationship of the one to the other. We must therefore recognise and understand the world in which we live, its expectations, its longings, and its often dramatic characteristics” (4§1)

"Caught up in such numerous complications, very many of our contemporaries are kept from accurately identifying permanent values and adjusting them properly to fresh discoveries. As a result, buffeted between hope and anxiety and asking themselves questions about the present course of events, they are burdened down with uneasiness. This same course of events leads men to look for answers. Indeed it forces them to do so.” (4 §6)

"Meanwhile, the conviction grows, not only that humanity can and should increasingly consolidate its control over creation, but even more, that it devolves on humanity to establish a political, social and economic order which will, to an ever better extent, serve man and help individuals as well as groups to affirm and develop the dignity proper to them. (9 §1)

It is also interesting to read again para. 40 of Pope John Paul’s Encyclical “Veritatis splendor”
“On the one hand, the teaching of the Council stresses the role of human reason in determining and applying the moral law: moral life entails creativity and ingenuity on the part of the individual, for it is the source and cause of his deliberate actions. On the other hand,  reason draws its part of truth and authority in the eternal Law which is none other than the divine Wisdom itself.
Moral law comes from God and always finds its source in Him. Because natural reason flows from the divine Wisdom, moral law is also man’s own law. In fact, natural law is none other than the light of the  intelligence God has given us.
The rightful autonomy of practical reason signifies that man possesses his law within himself, received from the Creator. Nevertheless, the autonomy of reason can not mean that values and moral norms can be created by reason itself.
If this autonomy implied a denial that practical reason has a part in the wisdom of the Creator and divine Legislator, or if it suggested that man was free to create moral norms in response to historical situations or to the diversity of societies and cultures, this would contradict the teaching of the Church on the truth relating to humanity. It would be the death of true freedom.” 


B. TO HELP US TO REFLECT DURING THE MONTH

Ten practical suggestions
to build and promote peace
with those around us:

1. To accept ourselves joyfully as we are
2. To take the view that we have received more than what we lack; to give thanks rather than complain.
3. To accept others as they are, beginning with those closest to us: our spouse, our parents, our brothers and sisters, our family, our neighbours.
4. To speak well of others, and do so loudly.
5. Never to compare ourselves with others, since such a comparison will lead only to pride or despair, without making us happy.
6. To live in the truth, without fear of calling ‘good’ what is good, ‘wrong’ what is wrong. To resolve conflicts through dialogue, and not by force. Harbouring resentments can only imprison us in sadness.
7. To speak of people behind their back only leads to saying something wrong about them or to complain needlessly. It is better to open one’s heart in a real dialogue.
8. In a dialogue, begin with what brings you together and only broach what divides afterwards.
9. Take the first step before nightfall: “Never let the sun set on your anger” (Eph 4: 26)
10.  Be persuaded that ‘forgiving’ comes before ‘being right’

  (Cardinal Godfried Danneels - "Happy are you" - Easter 1986)



Suggested questions for a ‘sitting-down’ :

What do I mean to you? What do you mean to me?
What do others say about us? Can we see ourselves as others see us?
Who are those ‘I exclude’ and who are those ‘we exclude’?




Suggestions for a rule of life :

Choose a specific effort to undertake in the following month: what can I do to help someone around me, that I normally try to avoid, to grow as a ‘person’? 



C. DISCUSSION  ON THE STUDY TOPIC


1. Reminding ourselves that we are gathered in the name of Christ in order to share and understand, let each team member in turn express (without interruption) what he/she wishes to say on the situation of the human person in the world today. On this occasion, members may ask their own questions. They may also recall experiences they have had and some of the problems which they specially have to face today.
2. With the help of your Spiritual Counsellor, try to make a limited choice of questions and problems mentioned by each team member. We suggest that you think about them more deeply during the following month and discuss them at the next meeting. 





Questions and problems to be discussed at the next meeting :

(Write below what you have decided today to think about more deeply during the following month and to share at your next meeting)



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D. PRAYER FOR THE END OF THE MEETING


O God,

You have created us by the breath of your Spirit;
You have redeemed us by the breath of your Spirit;
You sanctify us in your holy Church by the breath of your Spirit;

That we may be persons of this breath,
That our flesh and blood,
That our life, our activities and our sufferings,
May be a constant inspiration of your Holy Spirit,
Not for us, no, but for the salvation of the world.
We are not called to remain lazily in you, hiding ourselves in you;
We are called to be in your love.

So that you ‘tip us out’, and scatter us to the wind,
So that you throw us in a gust of wind to the four corners of the world,
O Lord, you must come with all your impetuosity,
O Lord, you must come with all your strength,
O Lord, you must come with all your power,
O Lord, cause your Pentecost to descend on us !

This is why we give you thanks, Lord,
If we begin to feel your Spirit,
Who roars and acts, who wants to force us, who wants to push us,
And who wants to carry us away impetuously !
Lord, even if we burn with anxiety,
Even if cowardice troubles us, we beg you,
Do not listen to our anxiety, do not take account of our cowardice,
Take us as a whole, take us flesh and blood,
Take us soul and body, take us heart and mind !
Take us completely in your sacred storm,
That we may blow, spread and light up
Your holy love !
          Erick Przywara

References :

The following is a list of  French references given as an example. Each country is invited to offer to their team members a list of references suited to the needs of their country.

* Ahoum, A    L'illusion sociale. Essais sur l'individualisme,    Paris PUF, 1989.
* Baudrillard, Jean  La transparence du mal
      Paris, Galilée, 1990
* Caffarel, Henri  Les Equipes Notre-Dame - Essor des couples chrétiens
      Paris, END, 1988
* Concil Vatican II  Documents conciliaires 3
      Paris, Centurion 1966
* De Rosnay   L'homme symbiotique
      Paris, Seuil, 1995
* Guelluy, Robert  Présence de Dieu
      Tournai, Casterman, 1972
* Jean -Paul II   La splendeur de la vérité 
      Artistic - Tournai, 1993
* Lipovetsky, G  L'ère du vide - Essais sur l'individualisme contemporain   Paris, Gallimard, 1983
* Axel Kahn   Et l'homme dans tout ça
      Paris, NiL éditions, 2000
* Jacqueline Russ  La marche des idées contemporaines - Un panorama de la       modernité  Armand Colin, 510 pp.
* Semaines sociales de France D'un siècle à l'autre - L'Evangile, les chrétiens et les  enjeux de la société Paris, Fayard, 2000
* André Touraine  Critique de la modernité
   Fayard  (Livre de poche Biblio Essais 4217), 510 pp.
* Académie d'éducation et d'études sociales (AES) Questions pour le XXIe siècle -        Des chrétiens s'interrogent - Paris, Fayard, 1999


First Chapter : The human person today

Second meeting :

A. PREPARATION FOR THE MEETING


1. A brief reminder ...

We tried, in the previous meeting, to define how our life fitted today in the precise context of the current crisis of our civilisation. We attempted to review briefly the situation regarding the dignity of the human person today. There were many negative points but also numerous positive points that give us hope again. We then looked afresh at the parable of the good Samaritan to try to understand the value that Jesus attaches to the human person that we meet on our way without having chosen this encounter. Surprisingly, Jesus turns the lawyer’s question back to him. His question was: ‘Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ . And he knew perfectly well the answer to his question: ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself’.
‘Go, and do the same yourself’. This is what is asked of us: to go and love our neighbour, like the good Samaritan. To be good to all those we meet on our way, without choosing who is to be helped, without excuses for “passing by at a distance”, without limits to what can be undertaken, to what we can do and give so that the person we meet on our way is loved, as we love ourselves.
In the Teams of Our Lady, we have been offered a precise formative way to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength and with all our mind. Is it not time, however, to devise in our Movement a formative way of compassion: to love, to welcome, to help and to heal all those we are called to meet and still, at the same time, to raise high, in the sight of people around us, our ideal of the christian couple. Such a formative way would not be a new Charter, nor a set of great principles, nor an authority that defines it for us. It is we, ourselves, who have to create it within our marriage with the fraternal mutual help of the team.
It is in this spirit that we invite you to prepare and live out this second meeting. To avoid too theoretical an exchange of views and to encourage a clear and honest reflection on the human person today, we asked you, at the previous meeting, to specify a few questions and a few problems that are particularly close to your heart (see page 17). We ask you to prepare these questions and problems bearing in mind what has just been said. The value of the exchange will depend largely on your research, individually and as a couple, and also on sharing the experiences you have had. Don’t be afraid to search the Gospel for passages that will enlighten your thoughts.


"At the same time as we offer to the world and to society the ideal of the christian couple, we must totally remain people of compassion for those who have failed. It is easy for someone to show and offer an ideal and to speak about it; it is not difficult...you only need to be a good speaker !
It is not more difficult to be men and women of compassion, of mercy. It is easy because we have a heart ! But it is very difficult to keep at the same time the ideal and a merciful heart, to combine these two.
You have to be God to know how to do that; but since we are children of God, and brothers and sisters of Christ, it becomes possible.”
Cardinal Godfried Danneels - To the members of the International Leading Team - July 1998.

2. A few more references that may help you with your study...

· "So always treat others as you would like them to treat you; that is the meaning of the Law and the Prophets”. Mt 7: 12
· “Then Peter went up to him and said: ‘Lord, how often must I forgive my brother if he wrongs me? As often as seven times?’ Jesus answered, ‘not seven, I tell you, but seventy-seven times’.” Mt 18: 21-22
· “Being a ‘person’ means that each of us must find the right balance in a free and conscious relationship with reality” K. Rahner
Man is created in the image of God. The living breath of the eternal God is in each human being and thus gives him/her the immortality of children of God. Since man is created in the image of God, it is in each person - even the weakest and most disadvantaged - that shines the light that reflects the greatness of the Creator. True, human beings are not all a clear and pure mirror reflecting, without distorting it, the light of the divine sun on the people around them. Yet it is within each individual’s competence. God, for his part, makes his sun and the light of his grace to shine on all human beings. Human beings are so precious in his eyes that he seeks out each weak and lost beings that we are, like the shepherd seeks out the lost sheep, so precious to him (Mt 18: 12).
The dignity that God confers by his love, makes of every human being a person, a personality that rises above all that is base. God has taken the existence of humanity so seriously that He became man himself. Jesus, the Son of God made man, has revealed by his life and action how much every human being, every person, is important to Him. Jesus does not address himself to the crowd around him who follow him and are surprised by his miracles. He addresses himself to each person individually; he speaks to the man or woman who stands before him and invites him/her to be a disciple; he heals and consoles this man or this woman.
The person has such value for God that “even every hair on his head has been counted” (Mt 10, 30). Through personal faith, the human being responds to the value and importance which God attaches to the person. It is incumbent on every human being to bring his relationship with God to life: his love, his trust, in a word: his faith in Him and to live out this faith. Even when we pray together, we all say the same credo: ‘I believe’.
Unlike animals, human beings are created by God as persons. They receive a divine destiny from the first moment of their existence: it is as children of God for ever that they are called to be loved by God. The evolution of the world finds its end in man. It is achieved in Christ, Son of God, its alpha and omega: its beginning and its end. Human beings become fully persons in the divine environment that the incarnate Son of God has created, by offering himself on the Cross. This environment is the Church, intimately united to the Eucharist and to the Word of God in Holy Scripture. Human beings find their destiny in it. They enter into communion with the divine life together with all persons throughout the world who, without distinction of race, colour, culture or religion, say ‘yes’ to God.
Human beings do not find this kind of fulfilment in societies - even democratic societies - whose actions are limited to earthly horizons. They do not find it in mystical experiences, even the most lofty such as Buddhism. Although they may benefit psychologically from these, they end up with an impersonal reality from which the personal God is absent. Nor will they find it in the societies who form the men who govern us. Under the influence of ‘atheistic humanism’, this brought about Nazism and Leninism. Our societies have tried to mould men their own way. The tragedy of atheistic humanism is that it suppresses the hope that comes from the promised divine life, a life that opens the way to the ‘new man’ who lives by God in the Church.

I. Discovering Saint Paul’s call for a change of heart
(This passage from the epistle to the Philippians can be used as the text for meditation for the meeting)

“If our life in Christ means anything to you, if love can persuade at all, or the Spirit that we have in common, or any tenderness and sympathy, then be united in your convictions and united in your love, with a common purpose and a common mind. That is the one thing that would make me completely happy. There must be no competition among you, no conceit; but everybody is to be self-effacing. Always consider the other person to be better than yourself, so that nobody thinks of his own interest first but everybody thinks of other people’s interest instead. In your minds you must be the same as Christ Jesus.

   His state was divine,  yet he did not cling  to his equality with God,  but emptied himself  to assume the condition of a slave,  and became as men are; and being as men are, he was humbler yet,  even to accepting death, death on a cross.   But God raised him high  and gave him the name  which is above all other names  so that all beings  in the heavens, on earth and in the underworld,  should bend the knee at the name of Jesus  and that every tongue should acclaim   Jesus Christ as Lord,  to the Glory of God the Father. Ph 2: 1-11.


Points for comments :

- This hymn, which expresses the heart of the mystery of Christ, is introduced to underpin what should be our attitude to our brethren in daily life! It is given in the context of his very practical recommendations that Saint Paul gives us this remarkable text on Christ who died and rose again. Our faith in Jesus determines the way we should act, being its foundation and justification: morality is the consequence of faith.

- Something of the ‘humility of God’ is revealed to us in Jesus made man.

Other comments :













B. TO HELP YOUR REFLECTION DURING THE MONTH

The human person wanted and loved by God

God wanted to create human beings... He gave life to all men and women. All men and women have been made as multiple images of Himself. Hence, no one will ever be able to claim to be uniquely the image of God. Rather, every man and woman will always be able to recognise in their neighbour, in their brother and sister, an original image of God. And everybody will have to address God, not as ‘my Father’, but as ‘our Father’. This difference was wanted by God.
· He created different people so that everybody would be able to recognise themselves as unique persons and be called by their name.
· He created unique people so that they could have brothers and sisters who are loved as they are.
· He created space so that every one could either stand back or draw closer to another person.
· He created beauty and goodness to awaken the desire to meet, to draw closer, to be one.
· He created time for reflection, for dialogue, for sharing, for conversation, for healing, for forgiveness, for compassion, for hope”
God saw that all this was good... even very good.

“I created you as a man”, says God,“You are therefore free !Free to sleep, free to stand, free to walk,Free to look, free to talk, free to listen,Free to keep quiet and free even to refuse.”“I created you as a man”, says God,“You are free also to feel loved and to love in return,For I made you free to receive and free to give,I made you like Me, capable of giving life, And, therefore, even to give my own life”“For I made you man in my likeness,” says God.“And so, to be that man still today,Be not afraid of your brother !Go, this day, to encounter his freedom,And open your arms to him, ...my arms,For I made you into a man” says God.


Suggested question for a ‘sitting-down’

When and how am I concretely for you the face and arm of God?


Suggestions for a rule of life

- Review the rule of life of the previous month.
- Make an effort to be concretely the face and arm of God for the person I will meet    tomorrow.

C. TO MEET TOGETHER TO SHARE AND TO UNDERSTAND

At this first stage of your reflection on the ‘human person today’, you had agreed to think deeply, with the help of your spiritual counsellor, about certain questions in order to see better, hear better, and share better, with the other team members, your situation as men and women in your life as it really is today.
As you respect and welcome your differences, your problems and your riches, we invite you to offer the fruits of your study to the other members of your team. Make a point of being mature in your way of contributing, that is to say to be true, open, responsible and available.


NOTES :

































“If you go to the end of the world, you will find God’s footsteps;if you go to the depth of yourself, you will find God himself.Madeleine Delbrêl

D. PRAYER FOR THE END OF THE MEETING


Holy Spirit, our counsellor,
Complete in us the work commenced by Jesus.
Grant that the prayer that we make in the name of the whole world
may be intense and ongoing.
Hasten in each one of us the coming
of a deep interior life.

Give impetus to our effort
to reach all human beings and all peoples,
  for all are redeemed by the blood of Christ,
all linked to his heritage.
Stifle in us our natural self-sufficiency
and raise us up to the level of humility
of the true fear of God, of generous courage...

Grant that no earthly bonds
may prevent us from fulfilling our vocation;
That, out of cowardice on our part, no self-interest may
stifle the demands of justice;
That no personal considerations may reduce,
to the limitations of our selfishness,
the immense scope of charity.

Grant that all may be outstanding in us:
the search and veneration of truth,
the readiness to sacrifice,
even to the cross and even to death;
That your spirit of love may spread over the Church,
over institutions,
over each of us and over all peoples.

Pope John XXIII

“I am not asking you to remove them from the world, but to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world, and for their sake I consecrate myself so that they too may be consecrated in truth.Jn 17: 15-19

Next meeting :

Date :
Place :
Time :

Second Chapter : The human person in God’s plan

Third meeting :

A. PREPARATION OF THE MEETING

1. To become aware of the reality of being a Christian today

We have become a minority
Our society has become more and more secular. The current prevailing culture is totally imbued with rationalism and positivism . A philosophy based on ‘being’ has been abandoned and the result is an ‘emptiness of thought’.  We are also witnessing an important and widespread loss of faith and of religious practice. The number of priestly and religious vocation has considerably declined. Religion is considered a purely subjective experience and has lost much of its public influence.
“We have left the era of a sociological Catholicism when the Church settled all the major events of life, from birth to death. It formed and guided consciences, it offered ordered and consistent answers to every question and it created a social influence that guaranteed the observance of norms and maintained the community in the right path” (R. Rezsohazy – UCL – LB 22.12.1998)
We have progressively come to live in a society without God. But, as Pope John-Paul II reminded us during his visit to Slovenia, “the collapse of the great ideologies has created a vacuum and, at the same time, it has reminded us of our roots and of our innate riches.”
Our society has therefore a profound need of saints , of persons who have a close relationship with God and can, in some ways, interpret his answers.

... but we are yeast in the dough
When we look around us, what we see gives us cause for pessimism. But then, the Church was not created to be the dough, but the yeast. Every time, during its history, that it was liable to become a rich and powerful majority, the Holy Spirit, who guides it, made it His business to drive it back to the poverty of its origin. Since today’s neo-paganism, in spite of all its power, has widely failed to bring about a happier and friendlier human society, we are called therefore to consider the ‘inner state’ of our situation as Christians today, to look at it in a mature way and with the eyes of faith.  
“To be mature in Christ is to live through him of a mysterious free gift. It is not a question of refusing to see and live our human life as it is, but to seek its meaning in the light of the “Good News”. It is to look with the eyes of faith at what is invisible and to recognise truly that our ultimate destiny is beyond our human power. This forces us to take seriously, in our own particular way, all that is human” Robert Guelluy

What is the situation facing Christians today ?

On the ‘shadow’ side
· The collapse of a christian environment: decline of vocations, ageing of priests and religious communities.
· Being a minority in the present world gives rise to many problems for Christians: fear, feeling of helplessness, withdrawal, indifference, temptation to traditionalism...
· The religious upbringing of children is made much more difficult in a non-religious, and often, even hostile environment.
· Lack or refusal of access to the media for christian information.
· Diverse, unclear and sometimes inconsistent advice by certain members of the hierarchy on ethical matters. This gives rise to a sense of unease, a distancing and even increasing difficulties in accepting the teaching of the Magisterium, particularly with regards to sexual morality.
· Growing ignorance and lack of interest in the social teaching of the Church.
· Lack of respect and growing indifference to Church authority.
· The invasive growth of non-religious culture together with a progressive rejection of God and calling into question of dogmas.
· Certain Christians feel that their uniqueness as woman and as man is not sufficiently recognised in the Church. They feel slightly treated as children.
· Decline in the practice of religion and in knowledge of the very fundamentals of faith.
· Growing success of oriental religions and philosophies and of esoteric cults.
· Growing interest in mixtures of religions (New Age).
· Ongoing creation of sects. This phenomenon affects all social classes.
· In the current economic climate and in the face of ever increasing poverty, Christians seem at a loss on how to manage their money in keeping with the gospel.

On the ‘light’ side
· The remarkable audience given by the Pope to the youth and to leaders of other religions.
· The positive evolution in theology which helps the individual and collective conscience to reject all inhuman practices and which advocates a liberating evangelisation of man.
· Pope John-Paul II’s acknowledgement of the present action of the Holy Spirit among lay people and of the prophetic role of lay movements and of new communities in the Church and in the world.    
· The growth of voluntary humanitarian action by religious and lay people.
· The refusal of certain young people to be carried along with the crowd.
· A more active ecumenism, greater tolerance, a spirit of greater openness towards the other great religions of ‘the Book’ and other religions.
· The Pope’s acknowledgement, in the name of the Church during the Jubilee year, of all past faults committed in the name of religion and his request for forgiveness.
· The greater participation of lay people in the pastoral work of the Church and in parish life in particular.
· The emergence of numerous forms of mutual help and of fraternal communities.
· The growing recognition of the role and participation of women in the taking of responsibilities and decisions within the Church.


"To be Christian means to be human"

2. To question oneself in order to discern
 

A few questions  that many Christians are asking themselves today:

1. What am I doing personally today to form my conscience and to face up, as a Christian, to the void around us?
2. As a woman, I see myself in a man’s world. How can people’s attitude be changed?
3. As a Christian, I see myself in a non-christian world; as a liberal Catholic, in a non-liberal Church; as a mature person, in a Church that treats its members as children. Who will respond to my concern?
4. It seems to me that it has become essential and urgent for Christians to be seen, in our present world, as example to be followed. Can this happen unless we courageously take the necessary and adequate time, in spite of our heavy burden of activities? 
5. How can we promote christian values in our place of work clearly and with determination?
6. What steps must we take to bring up our children in a non-christian world?
7. Are my commitments in society inspired by my christian faith? How could they be more so?


Your personal questions :

· What are the most essential and urgent questions that you ask yourselves with regards to the vitality of your christian life today?
· What other questions are close to your heart?







3. To discover the Word in order to change the heart.
(This passage of the Gospel can be chosen as text of meditation for the team meeting)

To be a human person today in God’s plan

“Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up the hill. There he sat down and was joined by his disciples. Then he began to speak. This is what he taught them:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for their’s is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peace makers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for their’s is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.     
You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men.
You are the light of the world. A city set on the hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”
Mt 5: 1-16


Points for comments :

· The first part of this Gospel passage has been called “The Charter of the Kingdom”. It ought to be the charter of Christians today. We must have the courage to take the Beatitudes seriously as the ‘ideal’ for our christian life.
· Blessed are you... when you are persecuted: What forms do persecutions take today: the difficulty of not doing like everyone else in a society that imposes its way of life? the condescending smile of others, of relatives, of one’s family? the difficulty of bringing up children today in the spirit of the Beatitudes?
· “You are the light of the world”. It is a matter of being quite simply ourselves in the way we live and not to try to give the good example at all cost: “Beware of practising your piety before men in order to be seen by them” (Mt 6: 1 and following).
· Note that the parallel texts in Mark (4: 21) and in Luke (8: 16) have Christ in mind whose teaching cannot be hidden.

Other comments :






4. What does the Church say on the place of the human person in God’s plan?

We live in ambivalent times; we are filled with confusion by the fact that several things seem simultaneously true. Every day we see the gulf progressively widening between spiritual values and prevalent social ideas. We witness an apathy towards religious things and yet there is an abundance of spiritual publications and centres and a flood of initiatives and sessions which try out the therapeutic virtues of all sorts of techniques and sources of wisdom.
We can show ourselves extremely generous, but also terribly pragmatic and impervious to self-denial. We hold on to what is good, true and beautiful, but we think and live in an ‘utilitarian’ way. In the modern culture, a worm is eating away the health of the Church. It seems sometimes as though everything is being opened to question: from morality to doctrine. Atheism has led many people to live as though God did not exist and was not even necessary.    
Christ and the Church are considered as obstacles to freedom. On the one hand, freedom to decide what one does or does not do is considered as the absolute human right and is divorced from truth. Against this, some consider freedom as a participation in divine freedom. But God gives both freedom and law, and law is the recipe for happiness. The difference between these two attitudes hinges on whether or not one accepts God as the Father of human beings.
There is an ever widening gulf between public life and private convictions. Laws ignore truth and standards of values more and more; they are the fruits of opinion surveys repeated at every election or the result of countless incompatible private lobbies (ethics and protection of life, regulation on marriage and family life). It is in this kind of environment that faith must germinate, grow and blossom. It is liable to become a purely private affair.
There is also a growing thirst for religion. But this religious need tends to relate to emotion and therapy and to be seen as a consumable. Religion is used like so many other products. People do not expect ideas, principles and rules from it, but only feelings, preferably related to healing. The main problem for our contemporaries is to relate to each other the three elements of behavioural control: truth, personal conscience and civil law, elements which should normally agree. Consequently, our contemporaries either retreat to the safety of their conscience, or take shelter in the minimal moral civil law. Many people in our society live without any moral concepts.
The Church has its own shortcomings: wealth, power, honours as well as lack of transparency or credibility. There is indifference sometimes to the real moral anguish of people who, at some time, have gone astray in an irregular situation. Some priests are afraid to trust lay helpers. The Church is not careful of its image in the media.
And yet, the Church has a vision for the future; it has remedies for the ills of our times: a spirituality capable of healing the sense of emptiness and of frustration caused by consumerism and a community spirit capable of pulling down the barriers of prejudice, nationalism and of ethnic sensitivities that have done so much harm. It has well-tried resources to bring hope to our times. Christians are not of this world, but are immersed in it. The Church’s one and only instrument of power is the Word of God. It knows with certainty that the conscience of every human being  seizes this Word and understands it. The Church has the mission not to be silent about what is and what is not human. It can test the degree of humanity of everything that goes on in society. Politics, economics, legislation, social security must all be established for the good of the person.
The Church has followed the way of Christ. It has gone beyond the Mosaic Law by introducing gentle values such as reconciliation, forgiveness, sobriety, ascesis, solidarity with the poorest, evangelical detachment, non-violence and self-denial, even to the giving of one’s life. The Church is like the light; it helps us to find the right way in the maze of values. It is the salt that purifies the scale of values of all non-values. It is the yeast that raises the dough from the level of  valid human values to the level of Evangelical Love. 
Extract from Cardinal Danneels’ 1999 Christmas message “Passport to a new millennium”.

B. TO HELP YOU ASK YOURSELVES A FEW GOOD QUESTIONS DURING THIS MONTH

"Be always ready to give an account for the hope that is in you to people who ask you for the reason for this hope. But give it with courtesy and respect and with a clear conscience” 
  (1 P 3: 15-16)
 
"Be always ready ..."
- Ready to give an account of what ?
- Ready to give an account for whom ?
- Ready to give an account to whom ?
- Are we ‘always’ ready to give an account ?

"... to give an account for the hope that is in you..."
- Do we have a christian hope ? if so, can we express it ?
- Is it sincerely in us ?
- If so, is it justifiable from a christian point of view ?
- Are we ready to justify it by our way of life ?

"... to people who ask you for the reason for this hope."
- to people who make the most pressing pleas today
- are they those who are tired of believing ?
- are they those who are rejected by society ? rejected by the Church ?
- are they those who are at the ‘super-market’ of religions and of esoteric     cults and who are lost and disappointed in their search ?
- are they those who are attracted by sects ?
- are they others that you know ?

" But give it with courtesy and respect..."
- What needs to be changed in us in order for us to speak and especially to convince with courtesy ?
- What must we do, first of all, to respect others ?   

" ... and with a clear conscience, ..."
- What do we do to go on forming our conscience ?    

Suggested question for a ‘sitting-down’  :

Choose, from the above meditation, a question that seems important to you to discuss as a couple.


Suggestions for a rule of life :
- Look at my rule of life for the past month and review it.
- Be welcoming and available to the first person that I will meet and who will ask me for help to see clearly in the trial he/she is experiencing.
.


C. DISCUSSION ON THE STUDY TOPIC

1. Reminding ourselves that we are gathered in the name of Christ in order to share and understand, let each team member in turn express (without interruption) what he/she wishes to say on the situation of the human person in the world today. On this occasion, members may ask their own questions. They may also recall experiences they have had and some of the problems which they specially have to face today.
2. With the help of your Spiritual Counsellor, try to make a limited choice of questions and problems mentioned by each team member. We suggest that you think about them more deeply during the following month and discuss them at the next meeting. 



Questions and problems which will be discussed at the next meeting:


(Write below what you have agreed today to study in depth during the coming month and to share at the next meeting)


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“The day on which we  discover the meaning of a passage of the Gospel, is for us the day when it was written”

Jean GROSJEAN – Araméennes – 113, 114


D. PRAYER FOR THE END OF THE MEETING


Lord,,

You who are above us, You who are one of us, You who are also in us,
Grant that everyone may see you also in us and that we may prepare your way,
That we may then thank you for all that happens to us,
That we may then not forget the poverty of others.

Keep us in your love just as you want
Everyone else to remain in ours.
Grant that everything that is part of our being
May serve to your glory and that we may never despair.

For we are in your hand,
And all strength and all kindness is in You.

Give us a pure heart that we may see You,
A humble spirit that we may hear You,
A spirit of love that we may serve You,
A spirit of faith that we may dwell in You.

You, whom we do not see, but to whom we belong.
You, Lord !


Adaptation of a prayer by Dag Hammarskjöld




Dwell in me, Lord, and then I shall be able to radiate like You,
So that I may, in my turn, be a light for others,
A light, Lord, that would completely emanate from You.
It is You who, through me, will illuminate others. 

Cardinal J. Henry Newman

Next meeting :

Date :
Place :
Time :


References: 

The following is a list of mostly  French references given as an example. Each country is invited to offer to their team members a list of references suited to the needs of their country.


* John Paul II   Encyclical « Veritatis splendor »

* Blaquière, Georgette  « Oser vivre l'Amour »
      Edition des Béatitudes, 1993

* Catéchisme de l'Eglise Catholique  27 -35, 362-384
      Tours, Mame Plon, 1992

* Sesboüé, Bernard    N'ayez pas peur! Regards sur l'Eglise et les ministères  aujourd’hui
        Desclée de Brouwer, 1996
   
     - Croire - Invitation à la foi pour les femmes et les hommes du
        21ème siècle -   Lonrai, Droguet et Ardant, 1999

* Guelluy, Robert  « Présence de Dieu »
      Tournai, Casterman, 1972

* Madelin, Henri  « Sous le soleil de Dieu »
      Mayenne, Bayard / Centurion 1995

* Monbourquette, Jean  « Comment pardonner »
      Novalis - Centurion, 1992 (249 p)

* Pontificum Consilium pro Laïcis Laymen today - Rediscovering baptism
       Rome, Vatican, 1998
                                                                      Laymen today - To hope is to change
       1rst Congress of lay Catholics of the Middle-East
       Beyrouth, 1997

* Varillon, François  « Joie de croire, joie de vivre »
      Centurion 1990

* De Rosnay   L'homme symbiotique
      Paris, Seuil, 1995

* Thévenot, Xavier Un éthique au risque de l'Evangile - entretiens avec Yves de       Gentil-Baichis
      Desclée de Brouwer / Cerf, 1996




Second Chapter : The human person in God’s plan


Fourth meeting :


A. PREPARATION FOR THE MEETING


1.  A brief reminder ...

We tried at the previous meeting to define the Christian’s current situation. Times have changed a lot ! This raises new problems and you have agreed between yourselves to discuss together at this meeting questions that are closest to you (see page 32). To help you to prepare your discussion well, we offer you below a few helpful elements concerning God’s plan for the human person.

In what kind of God have we placed our faith ?
Before becoming better aware of God’s plan for the human person, it is good first of all to ask ourselves what image of God are we. Is God a distant God, master clock maker of the universe, a master jealous of his power and rules, thirsty for praises and penance? Is he like a worried judge casting a searching eye on the faithfulness of human beings?
Is God rather a father who, not only gives life to everyone, but who seeks continually to share with them the happiness of his own life? A God so fond of human beings that he has written each one of our names in the palm of his hand so that he would not forget us? A God for whom the greatness of humans is to be upright and not bent over? Would it be a God who forgives 77 times

“God created man in the image of himselfin the image of God he created him.male and female he created them.God saw all he had made.and indeed it was very good.Gen 1: 27 & 31

"This is what is in all of us: all human beings, however fallen, have in themselves the call to become more and more the image of God, just as we say of a child: “he has become the very image of his father”. The Gospel’s great revelation is that Jesus has come to reveal to us the face of the Father, so that “we shall be like him because we shall see him as he really is”. (1 Jn 3: 2)
So many human beings seek the Face of God to find their true face! So many human beings aspire to it dimly, without knowing the way ! It was all given in the beginning, but in embryo. In the course of time, with the full thrust of their freedom, human beings are made to become more and more human, that is to say, more and more in the image of God, more and more ‘holy’, which means the same. From the beginning, holiness was the human being’s horizon”
Georgette Blaquière

The antithesis of faith is not unbelief, but violenceErasmus

2. God’s plan for human beings

"The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God, will he find the truth and happiness he never stop searching for: The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God”.   
Catechism of the Catholic Church  (§ 27)

“It is only between persons that one can enter into communion. The Trinity is a communion of persons. Love in the Trinity is not a feeling but a person: the Holy Spirit who makes the Father and Son one. Furthermore, to enter into communion with God can only come about if we are ‘divinisable’. We are divinisable through Christ who, as Son of the Father, has not only received life but His life. Christ reveals who is God and who is man. It is when we become fully human that we will be divinised. There is no question of divinising ourselves. It is always God who comes to us. There is no individual’s way to God: God cannot divinise individuals in isolation from one another, but all humanity. All human beings are called to constitute the People of God. We cannot divinise ourselves, nor in isolation. The Church is the part of humanity which visibly receives the gift of God.”  
Varillon - “Joie de croire”     

God’s great concern is to communicate himself to human beings, to give himself personally to them in order to establish a communion with them. According to the image frequently drawn from the Old Testament, he reveals himself to us as a bridegroom reveals himself to his bride in order to share his life. The communion between God and human beings is presented in the Bible as “sharing the divine nature” (2P 1: 4).  
This divinisation is not in inverse proportion to humanisation, as though the more we are divinised the less human we become. Rather it is in the following proportion: the more one is divinised, the more human we become. Therefore, the more we meet God, the more we become what we are and the more we fulfil our human vocation.
Bernard Sesboüé.


We must always remember the answer that Father Caffarel, the founder of the Teams of Our Lady, gave to the couples who had come to find him in order to know better the mind of God on human love, a love that was their joy, which they treasured and which they did not  want to live out on the margin of their faith. Not wanting to disappoint them cruelly by simply giving them legalistic definitions and moral rules, he said to them: “Let us seek together, let us unite and let us set out on a journey of discovery !” 
Let us seek together, let us unite and let us set out on a journey of discovery... Such was the essential step taken: the initial step that was to remain permanent in the life of every team of Our Lady! There were three attitudes common to couples and spiritual counsellors which underlined Pope Paul VI’s message to them. He asked them expressly to help couples to   “walk in the light”(1 Jn 1:7) by “helping them to think wisely, that is to say to assess their conduct in truth; to want wisely, that is to say to direct their will, as responsible persons, towards what is good; and to act wisely, that is to say, through the ups and downs of their existence, to bind progressively their life to the ideal of christian marriage which they are generously pursuing”.