On April 26 and 27, 450 educators from our schools met online for the II International Meeting of Educators of the School of Mother Candida . The objective, according to the Call received by the XVIII General Congregation, was to promote the union and articulation, at the universal level, of the educators of the schools that follow the educational way of M. Candida, in order to reflect on the educational challenges posed by the world. Candida, in order to reflect on the educational challenges of today’s world and to plan ways for the future. In this process, we have identified the Global Education Pact with the educational challenges facing our world.
The Superior General, Graciela Francovig, said this in her opening greeting:
We had a first meeting on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Congregation, in October 2021, in which we shared formation and reflection on the educational challenges of today’s world and we recalled the advice that M. Candida gave to the first Maestras. Candida gave to the first teachers. In this II Meeting we wanted to delve deeper into what constitutes us as a network of educators and, to this end, we looked back to our roots, to the spirituality of the Exercises of St. Ignatius and to our own way of educating. May the Lord send us his Spirit, that every day we may bring and live the Good News of Jesus in our schools. Good experience in these two days.
On the 26th, the team formed by Javier Cía, Vicente Hernández and Elisa Pérez from the Universidad Pontifica de Comillas from the Universidad Pontifica de Comillas facilitated the work with three interconnected presentations that took us to the root of our being in the school.
- The school that prepares to serve. The educator of Ignatian spirituality looks at the world as God looks at it and loves it.
- Vocation as an educator. Interview on vocation.
- The cura personalis in a school that prepares to serve.
Working in groups helped to share and connect. In the second part, some testimonial videos of Daughters of Jesus, educators and students were shown.
- Testimony of Rosario Remigio, FI
- Video 1: “The school that prepares to serve”.
- Video 2: Teachers discover…
- Video 3: Students thank…
On the 27th, Rosa María Romo, Daughter of Jesus of Spain, president of the Jesuitinas Educational Foundation, shared with the educators a rereading and reflection of Our Own Way of Educating (NMPE) from the perspective of the Global Education Pact.
After the break, three more videos showed us how this linkage of NMPE with the PEG is happening in some of our schools.
- Video 4: Links with links to NMPE (I)
- Video 5: Links with links to NMPE (II)
- Video 6: Students who dream…
Teresa Pinto closed this part by recalling the two stages worked on so far: Knowing and adhering to the PEG (stage 1) and analyzing the life of the center from the PEG and seeing if we are coherent with its objectives; and inviting us to enter the 3rd stage: making alliances. It requires going out of the center itself to establish alliances with our environment.
Graciela was in charge of closing the meeting with some words that she herself called Open conclusions . She thanked the team for the meeting, recalled what she had experienced during the two days and encouraged us to return to our classrooms feeling that we are a Mother Candida School scattered throughout the world.
