Circular Letter # 16 of Graciaela Francovig, General Superior
In November 2019 the Daughters of Jesus began an itinerary proposed by the Superior General to deepen the Determination of the XVIII CG and the Calls in Apostolic Action. This five moments. And yesterday, March 25, the feast of the Lord’s Annunciation, Graciela presented us with the fourth installment: “The Determination Enlightened by Ignatian Spirituality”. Previous work attempted to illuminate determination from the Constitutions, the Word of God, and Laudato Sí.
The work presented to us today, which has been prepared by HH. Dayse Agretti and Raquel Amigot, has two parts: one intended for the Daughters of Jesus and one for Daughters of Jesus and laity.
The FIRST PART of the Work: The Determination and the Ignatian spirituality is addressed to the Hijas de Jesús.
It deals with a proposal of prayerful listening of the Determination, inspired by the itinerary proposed in the Spiritual Exercises.
For this type of listening, we need moments of silence, of prayer, of reflection
and from there, to share with other sisters our Faith experience.
What we offer are simple instruments.
– a title taken from the phrases of the numbers of the Determination;
– some brief pastoral considerations on the weeks of the Spiritual Exercises;
– a suggestion of exercise which compiles some of the means which the Ignatian spirituality offers us for the growth of our vocation as Hijas de Jesús.
This is the schematic outline:
FIRST BLOCK: Introductory Aspects
1. Contemplation of the Incarnation as a hermeneutic framework
2.The SPEX, a Christological itinerary:
2.1 Jesus and poverty
2.2 Jesus in the face of ambiguity and conflict
3.The SPEX, a practice of discernment
SECOND BLOCK: The Determination following the itinerary of the SPEX
Sheet 1: Principle and Foundation
Sheet 2: First Week
Sheet 3: Second Week
Sheet 4: Third Week
Sheet 5: Fourth Week and Contemplation to attain love
Annex: Synthesis of the experience: the Examen
The SECOND PART of this work is addressed to the Hijas de Jesús and lay. It is a material that presents a method and a dynamic to carry out apostolic discernment in common. The chosen focus comes from the first call: “it is urgent to practice discernment in common so that our apostolic projects respond to the greater universal good and to the greatest needs”
What it intends:
– inspire and animate to carry out in every place a concrete exercise of apostolic discernment in common to choose the more urgent call/s in every context.
– offers us points for deepening and reflection on the necessary conditions and elements to accomplish the said discernment.
This is the schematic framework:
ORIENTATIONS FOR THE APOSTOLIC DISCERNMENT IN COMMON
FIRST BLOCK– Some preliminaries.
1. What is apostolic discernment in common?
2. Matter for discerning and guide question.
3. Persons who intervene.
4. How decision is made and who decides.
5. Phases of discernment in common.
SECOND BLOCK– Conditions for discernment in common.
1. Conditions in the person.
2. Criteria for discernment.
3. The practice of the examen.
THIRD BLOCK– The deceptions in the process of discernment.
FOURTH BLOCK– The discernment in common of the calls.
See HERE for other stages and materials.
Download the materials of this stage: Determination and Calls in Apostolic Action.
It is an invitation to:
We end with Graciela’s words in her letter to the Daughters of Jesus:
Let us not stop praying for each other and thus pray together from the different places and the most diverse situations in which we find ourselves. Let us always remember that“faith in the person of Jesus and the living experience of his presence is the strongest bond that unites us. In Him is rooted the fraternity that we try to live and express among ourselves and in openness and service to all” (CND 113)
