Proposal for a formative course designed for contemplatives
The formation of the human person in consecrated life
In dialogue between theological and psychological anthropology.
Proposal for a formative course designed for contemplatives.
7 October 2024. The Pontifical Theological Faculty of the Teresianum and the Higher Institute for Formators have organized a three-year training course designed for contemplatives with the aim of fostering the acquisition of tools for integral formation, based on a Christian anthropology.
This year, the organizers of the course, which began in 2018 and is now in its third year, invited the Dicastery for Consecrated Life for a reciprocal familiarization and a deepening of the project.
The Prefect of the Dicastery, Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, and the Secretary, Sr. Simona Brambilla, who were absent because they were members of the Synod, sent their greetings through Sr. Carmen Ros Nortes, Under-Secretary, and Fr. Vincenzo Mancusi, Dicastery official.
Presenting the course, the organizers (Fr. Betschart and Fr. Garbinetto along with Carmelite Sr Margherita and Sr Maria Manuela addressed the experience of the Dicastery on some issues in consecrated life that hint at a lack of formation, both initial and ongoing.
Sr. Carmen and Fr. Mancusi appreciated how a formative path was given concrete form, and later with the Discalced Carmelite Sisters participating in the course, they reiterated that formation is a path of transformation that helps one grow in relationship and responsible freedom and prepares one to assume the vocation as a gift that is committed in service to the People of God. They then recalled the witness of saints Teresa of Ávila, Teresa of Lisieux and Teresa Benedicta of the Cross as a stimulus and model.
The positive experience of participating in the course encourages the formulation of new and bold proposals for the future, hoping for a greater and expanded presence of Institutes of contemplative life, to deepen the common vocation and enrich it with each other's charism and holiness.
The meeting concluded with the celebration of Vespers, for the memorial of the Our Lady of the Rosary.