The meeting. The Ordo virginum to the test of ongoing formation

The round table for the presentation of the Guidelines – Ordo virginum

The heart of the first days of the national meeting was the presentation of the “Lines of Ongoing Formation”, the result of the synodal experience lived from 2019 to 2022, by bishops, delegates and consecrated women of the Italian dioceses, coordinated by the Liaison Group.

The aid that is about to be published by the publishing house Áncora, like the previous “Formative path: from discernment to the consecration of 2021”, was born from the conviction that the human and spiritual growth of each person must be looked after throughout the course of life. If the initial formative process prepares for consecration, it is the permanent one that helps the consecrated woman to grow in spiritual maturity, through ascesis and prayer, study and updating, personal and community verification, fraternal relationships, gift of self, service to the poor, search for those who are far away. .

The meeting point between the initial and the permanent path is the docibilitas, or the freedom of the subject to let himself be touched-educated by every existential situation and interpersonal relationship. Therefore docability implies the involvement and responsibility of the person, the first protagonist of the educational process. It disposes the soul to a positive attitude of reconciliation and gratitude, of trust in others, allowing itself to be internally instructed by every fragment of truth and beauty.

The “Lines of Ongoing Formation” were introduced by the testimony of Cecilia Caiazza, Viviana Paliotta, Teresa Mattu, Marzia Rogante, Marilena Civetta, Elena Bolchi, Annalisa Vigani and Emanuela Buccioni, some of the consecrated women involved in the elaboration of the text, who told the beauty and difficulties of working together in the drafting of proposals and itineraries capable of nourishing the passion and desire, the taste and flavor of a permanent formation made up of humility, responsibility and personal creativity. «This long synodal work – said Gloria Mani, moderating the round table – has made us experience how precious it is to harmonize different sensitivities, knowledge and skills.

We have learned to listen to each other, we have trained ourselves to welcome everyone’s thoughts, to urge ourselves in compliance with the times and decisions taken, but also to expect and integrate the new contributions in a constructive way ». “This experience – explained Cecilia Caiazza – has also made us experience our limits and frailties, helping us to welcome them and to live them in prayer, trust and perseverance, with the awareness that the Lord uses the little we are to bring to fruition his work”. The life of the consecrated woman is made up of changes, different seasons, in which faith, love, following Jesus, the practice of the evangelical counsels, the implementation of the charism do not always have the same tones.

There are changes that depend on particular circumstances or critical situations due to the intervention of external factors such as difficulty in work, apostolic failure, misunderstanding or marginalization, illness, spiritual dryness, bereavement or a feeling of insignificance. Hence the need for a solid and coherent ongoing formation which not only allows us to face small or large crises, but can help transform them into precious opportunities for growth. Taking care of one’s own fidelity allows that the disharmonies or the fractures between faith and life, prayer and action, openness to the world and vigilance towards worldliness, do not lead to abandonment of the path taken.

Saying “yes” to the call of the Lord by assuming the dynamism of vocational growth is the inalienable responsibility of every consecrated woman, who must open herself up to the action of the Holy Spirit, confidently accept the mediations that the Lord and the Church offer. However, it is urgent to live formation above all as self-formation, committing oneself to acquire those methodologies, means, practices, to take care of oneself, of one’s humanity, of faith, of the response to one’s vocation, of spirituality, of one’s path towards the definitive encounter with God.