The Meeting was attended by 5 members of the World Council: Antonio Boccia, world coordinator, Sister Lucrecia Uribe, world delegate, Duc Nam Nguyen, world delegate, Borja Pérez, World Councillor for the Iberian Region, and Raúl Fernández, World Administrator.
Maribel Merina, Salesian Cooperator CL Sevilla San Vicente
More than 300 Salesian Cooperators met from 1 to 3 November in the diocesan house of Malaga to “take a further step and put our charism in tune with the ecclesial reality outside the Salesian house, from the conviction that the Salesian charism is a gift for the Church that we must guard, but not retain”.
An essential part of our lay Salesian vocation is the sense of belonging that is nourished by encounter, prayer and common formation. On Friday, on All Saints’ Day, the Malaga-born cartoonist and religious educator Fano moved us with the naturalness of the Holiness that lives in everyday life, but above all, as Don Bosco tells us: “holiness consists in always being happy.”
But above all, he reflected on the 21st century Church in which we must be with new languages to transmit the joy of the gift of Faith and a clear commitment to evangelize with the heart.
Don Pascual Chávez, Rector Major Emeritus of the Salesian Congregation, urged us to be “Salt in the world, leaven and ferment in the Church today.” Drinking from the sources of the writings of Pope Francis, especially from the Aparecida Document, Don Pascual shook us to stop being self-referential, since we fall into this too often due to laziness, comfort and lack of creativity. Pastoral ministry requires us to go out into the city, to the new peripheries to be leaven from the proximity, kindness and authenticity of the action from the contemplation of the God who enlightens us.
Salesian Cooperators must dream of a church that goes out, that puts the young at the center and bravely faces the new challenges of the 21st century.
And our favorite saints visited us
This year two meetings coincided in one: the Assembly of all those present and the Congress of the Iberian Region to which only the Provincial Councils were summoned to renew the members of the Regional Secretariat, animation, management and coordination bodies. Meanwhile, the Assembly prayed with the help of the Betania group, formed by several Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and SSCC who unite their voices and talents to accompany the prayer.
And at night came the great FEAST of HOLINESS: a healthy and fun vindication of our Saints to see them more closely and discover so much that they have to teach us all today.
You are the branches
Fermín Negre, a priest from Malaga and musician from the group IXCÍS, invited us to be branches of life, of joy, of faith, of love, of truth… and from his hand came the music and the experience of life and of the Church of Unai Quirós.
From there we set out to visit different experiences of the local Church in Malaga: Sisters of the Poor, Cantera Project, San Juan de Dios, Carmelite Convent, Brotherhood of the Cautivo… Feeling the dedicated life of the Church that gives different answers to the many needs of today’s society.
Musical Getsemaní
This musical is a commitment by the Province of María Auxiliadora to turn music into an instrument of evangelization and fidelity to what Don Bosco taught. More than 6 years shaping and improving a staging of the Passion with live voices and music. Due to space constraints, they devised a special format, “Gethsemane behind the scenes,” where they accompanied their songs with testimonies of what this pastoral commitment means as a transforming engine of their own lives.
Young Church, Church in the family, Salesian Church on the move
Experiences nourish and enrich, but they cannot remain in the moment; they must be the catalyst in local reference centers, in parishes, schools, youth associations, jobs, families… Branches that bear fruit. Light and life for the many projects and dreams of our Association of Salesian Cooperators.
