Letter from the Coordinator, No 21 (19.09.2015)
Dear Confreres,
Dear Lay Missionaries of the Most Holy Redeemer,
Dear Partners in Mission.
The summer time is over. I wish to thank everyone who was involved in the various evangelization and formation projects during these past months in the CRE. Every common meeting gives us not only the opportunity to know each other (Redemptorists and lay people from 22 countries in the CRE) but also gives us more experience for collaboration and evangelization at present and in the future. I am happy that some of our meetings continue every year because they give the opportunity for improvements in our collaboration. In this letter I would like to underline three main mission-evangelization actions and two formation meetings.
The Interprovincial Community in Albania celebrated its first birthday. Our Confreres arrived to Albania on 13 September 2014 and the community officially started its mission on 22 September 2014. Congratulations to Laureano, Andrzej and Dominic!!! I recommend the article written by Fr. Laureano (superior in Albania) about this first year in Albania (at the web-page of the CRE: www.cssr-europe.com). As you know one of our missionaries, Fr. Dominic, became seriously ill two months ago. Please pray for him, for his quick recovery and for his successful return to Albania.
Our mission is growing very fast and we have new plans; so we are hoping for new confreres who want to work in Albania. Whoever wishes join this mission project should write to me (jacekwsd@wp.pl). Special thanks go to Redemptorists and Lay Collaborators who dedicated their vacation time for various activities organized by our community in Albania (the Dublin Province – the courses of English language for youth; the Madrid Province – works for the restoration of the chapel; the Warsaw Province – the student helped during his pastoral experience stage).
ASTORGA 2015. For the third consecutive year the Secretariat for Evangelization of the Province of Madrid, with the support of the CRE, has established an international community for the pastoral care of pilgrims on the “Camino de Santiago”, in Astorga (Spain). This year the community was composed of 20 Religious and lay Redemptorists: 3 priests CSsR (2 Prov. Madrid and 1 Prov. Buenos Aires); 1 deacon CSsR (Prov. London); 4 students CSsR (1 Prov. St. Clement and 3 Prov. France), and 12 lay people from Spain. During these 47 days of this pastoral work this year, the community members met thousands of pilgrims on the streets, and 1190 pilgrims took part in the evening prayer service. The biggest groups of pilgrims were from: Spain, Italy, France, Germany, USA, Great Britain, Poland, Canada and Korea. (more at our web-page: www.cssr-europe.com)
The school of evangelization (REDCAMP 2015), organized by the Commission of New Missionary Initiatives of the CRE, was held in Venice (27.07-1.08.2015). This course, composed of catechises, workshops and prayer and was a preparation for evangelization organized during the last part of this school. Certain specific preparations were conducted in various churches in Venice. The starting points for the teachings were the famous paintings expressing the reality of our faith: the Resurrection (by P. Veronese), the Road to Calvary (by G. Tiepolo), Pentecost (by Titian), The Last Supper (by J. Tintoretto), the Assumption (by Titian). REDCAMP 2015 was attended by 35 persons from the following countries: Italy, Philippines, France, Vietnam, Poland, Slovakia, Portugal, and Brazil. The mixture of mentalities and cultures was a great treasure during this course. (more at our web-page: www.cssr-europe.com)
The second meeting of Formators from the CRE involved directly in initial formation was held in Dublin, Ireland (2-4.09.2015). Twenty five formators from 13 Units took part in this meeting prepared by the Secretariat for Formation of the CRE. We are happy that there are 123 formandee in Europe (as of 3rd September 2015) but of course they are not equally present in the different parts of Europe. Some of the Units are struggling with the shortage of formandee. The Units with the biggest number of formandee are: Warsaw (48); Lviv (24) and Madrid (10). (more at our web-page: www.cssr-europe.com)
The month of preparation for Perpetual Vows for our clerical and brother confreres took place in Tuchów, Poland (14.07-5.08.2015). The programme included lectures and discussions about pastoral issues, Redemptorist spirituality, and other issues relating to the human dimension of religious and priestly formation. The students were from five Units: The Province of Warsaw (5), The Province of Lviv (4), The Province of Madrid (1), The Viceprovince of Bratislava (1) and The Region of Zimbabwe (2). Also other confreres who are in the Transition to Ministry programme or who are ten years professed or ordained, joined this course for two weeks: eleven from the Province of Warsaw, one from Saint Gerard Region and one from: the Province of Lviv and the Vice Province of Michalovce. (more at our web-page: www.cssr-europe.com)
Two more invitations:
On behalf of the working group ‘Partnership in Mission’ I extend an invitation to the First Interprovincial Meeting of Partners in Mission (Laity) and Redemptorists of the CRE. The meeting will be held in Madrid (11-13 December 2015) (more on web-page of the CRE).
The registration for World Youth Day started on the 26th of July 2015. All necessary information can be found on the web-page of the CRE.
Once again I would like to say thanks to everyone who accepted the invitation for the vacation meetings and I hope that your work and experiences will help us also for future.
In the Redeemer
Jacek Zdrzałek CSsR
Coordinator of the CRE
