FCU - Female Secular Institute of the Heart of Jesus

Trend Report 2002-2008 - Banneux
Poursuivre l’actualisation de notre charisme
 
The 1996-2002 stage is deeply marked by two events :
-  The Gospel and Mission Groups (GEM) become the Cor Unum Family and adopt a federative text, "a new inspiration for the Cor Unum Family" (as an experiment) ;
-  Our female secular institute is acknowledged by pontifical right by pope John Paul II, and the Constitutions it has set up can take effect./td>
The transitional measures taken in the 154-159 articles of the Constitutions for the official setting up of the structures have been implemented according to the principle of gradual change (homogeneous groups, etc.), and the sharing of reciprocal helps and responsibilities between the Institutes of the Cor Unum Family has been fostered.
Then the extraordinary general Assembly 1999 in Paris fixed the top priorities in the life of our Institute. For the service of mission, they emphasised our relations within the Cor Unum Family, worldwide fraternal life, concern for training and research, as well as call and welcome of new members.
All that is still relevant and is of help to better live this Consecration to the Lord which has given and is still giving a meaning to our lives. However, the experience of these last years and also the impact of international events suggest us today to stress a few special points. In that view, what we have heard during the visits or received from regions urge us to lay priority emphasis on four fields of effort for the coming years :
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- 		 training,
call,
care for the most destitute and commitment to justice and sharing,
attachment to our Ignatian roots.
Because our sisters do not place the same emphasis on each of those points, we are going to consider them according to the stage of emergency seemingly required by their complexity. This report makes the choice not to mention international life because everyone of us, whatever her origin, has insisted on the urgency of the afor mentioned points. Thanks to these points we will be able to deepen our effort of mutual communication, inviting us to be a true kaleidescope of experiences.
 

1) Training
Obviously, its care comes first. The need for it is expressed at all the levels of ISFCJ. If our sisters generally express their will to live their consecration generously in and for the world in answer to the call from their Lord, if they commit themselves with evident courage and confidence, they as often express their feeling to be destitute, both poor in number - like the little rest Holy Scripture speaks about - and poor in training.
As regards training, the feeling of insufficiency is stated more especially according to two aspects : importance of initial training till perpetual commitment and importance of training accompaniment.

Initial training
Its main problem fits in with what the hortation Vita Consecrata said :
"for initial training as progressive evolution, through all the stages of personal maturation - from psychological and spiritual maturation to theological and pastoral maturation - a long enough time must be provided." (Vita Consecrata, 65)
-  More and more, we understand it takes time that candidates for the life in the Institute may be mature enough for a process of discernment of vocation sufficiently free. Spiritual maturity cannot occur unless a minimum of human and affective maturity is acquired. Besides, some evolutions of the world do not always make it easy to understand what consecrated life demands. Some candidates for the life in the Institute may have already gone a long way, nevertheless it seems we often had better prolong the periods stipulated in our texts.
-  Then we must ask ourselves about the how of this human and spiritual training : it is very obvious we are not able to ensure all its dimensions, and that is still more evident in certain regions more destitute.
-  Those difficulties also raise the question of training in view of assuming the responsibility of welcome and discernment in the prospect of perpetual commitment : training of the responsibles and discernment boards.

In spite of the progress made - notably with the writing of the guides -, it will be the priority task for the coming years to think about this question and make suggestions.

Training accompaniment aspect

It is always about training. But the word 'accompaniment' may seem more appropriate to account for what is really at stake here : constantly updating one's consecration to Jesus Christ full in the world. From every sides, our sisters express their urging need of greater help :
-  To feel at ease in a world they wish close to their hearts, and where they want to be able to assume choices : many of them feel without resource in that world undergoing constant changes. Two needs are particularly expressed : going always deeper in to our identity and getting always more acquainted with the realities we have to live. The two dimensions are truly indissociable, reacting the one on the other.
-  To equip themselves to check their choices. Each of them feels never anything is stuck for ever. With humility you have to keep on making your choice again and again and strengthening it, then equipping yourself to check it.

Those two requirements steadily recur when we express our wishes They show we are aware of the vital necessity of a training always to be started again and appraised according to needs differing for each one. It is up to each one, to follow in Christ's footsteps, to adjust her personal course in that field. In that perspective, several sorts of support are mentioned :
-  steady inducement to revision of life or group questioning, parts of our tradition,
-  creation of a real space of dialogue so that each member may be encouraged to ask herself regularly about her efforts regarding training, starting from her commitments, our Constitutions and the possibilities available where she lives. Without creating any new bodies, it may be possible to make good use of what is already set up so that each of us can have this fraternal support at her disposal and be helped to live her consecration better in a world in evolution.

Once more, it seems to be the urgent task for these next years to estimate those needs expressed probably a little differently nowadays, clarify the stakes and give a strong boost to answer them.

2) Call
Although we are aware of the fact that it is Jesus Christ who calls us, the call remains prioritary. The evaluation of past years has noted that even though welcome was making progress, we remained timid regarding call. Yet many members say it is their first concern. Nevertheless we can wonder whether we are really at ease in the proposition step. Of course, we are well aware of the means to be used for that ministry - depending mostly on the vocation services, days of vocations or consacrated life, parish life, etc. - in other respects often regretting the lack of interest of some of our partner in the Church. Yet, an individual proposition is relatively little frequent, it seems.
Since the care for call is constantly mentioned but the steps to dare to propose life in ISFCJ seem difficult, the responsibles of the Institute must doubtless consider it a priority task for the next years to think about this subject and also make available some concrete tracks for that proposition. Maybe that reflection should be encouraged at the Cor Unum Family level as a whole.

3) Commitment for Justice and Sharing
Even though, presently, the cares of training and call are seen priority, nevertheless, for each of us, the dimension of attention to the poorest remains a constituent part of commitment in ISFCJ, no matter our insertion. The care of the lower people and the commitment for justice and sharing are not optional, but they are a place to check whether our steps behind Christ are genuine. .
"We will take the means to discover the forms of poverty and to look for its causes. We will be courageous enough to talk and act, even if it can lead us to be compromised with the victims of injustice" (Constitutions, n°39).
That's why we are waiting to be constantly reminded of it by the Institute, to encourage us incessantly along that path and ask for an explanation for the manner we step this way.

4) Attachment to our Ignatian Roots
Although this point appears last here, it is the basis of our life : all of us, we want to be women of prayer, women anxious to stay back for a moment with our Lord in order to contemplate him better in the world after that.
" Jesus invites us to give enough time to prayer. Even if it requires an effort, we have to make room in our lives for the prolonged prayer, not to fullfill an exercice but with freedom and joy given by love. " (Constitutions, n°56)
How could we say the tender love of God for the world if we do not live on the tenderness of the Heart of Christ ? That's why we want the Institute also to remind us constantly of this necessity, invite us to go deeper into the Igantian spirituality and give us the means to do it.

To live the coming years...
In the beginning of this third millennium, the female secular institute of the Heart of Jesus is well alive. After the starting period, here is that of deeper studies and consolidation. Let us thank the mercy of the Lord who has called us. But we must also estimate our diversities, especially through our international dimension, and live them as the richness they are : source of mutual emulation and stimulation in the steps of Christ. The meeting and dialogue between the diversity of cultures we represent can then take on a priceless meaning. That is the reason why, if we can express another wish, each of us should be anxious to participate in the common life and might never esteem it useless. It is maybe time to give new colours to our Family life. Then, we shall really be able to live a thanksgiving time.

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