Three days workshop
with Claretian brothers in Jogja
It was a great joy for us to have the opportunity to share
our lives, our personal experiences and our ideas in living the vows in the
community with father Paul Smith and all the theologians’ brothers as well as
the formators. The workshop brought us to reflect upon the ideal thinking and
the reality of the Religious Life. We
are asked to identify the differences of the ideal thinking of religious life
and the reality that we are living in the community especially in the formation
house. We can not deny the fact that some times the ideal thinking is not put
in to practice in life. The ideas about the religious life are good but it is
hard to put into practice. The idea is only in side of the mind but not reach
to the heart of the person, that’s why it is hard to put in practice.
In order for us to understand more about the religious
life, we were asked to reflect our history of love. The history of God’s love and love for God
Himself, love for the Congregation and our personal love history. This
reflection brought us to understand more the journey of our vocation and our
identity as Claretian. We can not separate the history of God’s love, the love
for the congregation and the personal love history. The more we know about our
history the more we know our identity. We are being challenged to know more our
personal history.
At the end of the workshop we are asked to present the
ideal thinking about the vows and the reality. How do the members of the
community live the vows? We identified
the difficulties in living the poverty, obedience and chastity in the
community. Poverty does not mean misery, but we are called to live in
simplicity and creativity. To live in poverty is not misery but mystery because
we are called to live in the spirit of Beatitudes. The
vow of obedience bring us to dialogue in the community to seek the will of God,
though some times the decisions in the hand of the formators or the superior but
we have to accept. The most important in the obedience is the prayer, the deep
relationship with God that we are able to accept what ever the decision will
be.
The vow of chastity is our commitment in answering
God’s call. Our Commitment to love God and to love
our brothers and sisters in the community before we go outside our community. We
expand the Love of God toward our brothers and sisters inside the community.
Each members of the community has the responsibility to build the community
based on love and forgiveness.
By
Lermin Nurhayati Siahaan
