Sisters from the ten provinces of the Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and
Christian Charity traveled to Brazil in October 2007 for the chapter meetings.
Following their days of discussion the sisters concluded their meetings with the
following message:
ARTICLE FROM - AROUND THE PROVINCE - 2/2008
The
theme of the Chapter of Mats was “Our Franciscan Spirituality of
Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue.” The five major presentations
addressing this theme were like concentric circles, narrowing and focusing
in… Professor Faustino Teixeira began our days with the broadest topic,
Interreligious Dialogue. As we listened to him, we came to realize that while
his message clearly addressed interreligious dialogue it also carried a clear
challenge and path to any and all dialogue, be that in community or in any
relationship.
Professor Faustino began his remarks with the
challenge of dialogue… He stated that there is no possibility to serve
interreligious dialogue if we don’t accept the pluralism of religion.
Realizing our history of exclusiveness in the Roman Catholic Church, we also
realize that Vatican II broadened it. He cited recent examples of that
including precious documents from Rome entitled Dialogue and Mission and
Dialogue and Announcement as well as Pope John Paul II’s significant
interreligious dialogue in Assisi in 1986. He acknowledged that there have
been setbacks and contradictions in this arena.
For interreligious dialogue to occur,
Professor Faustino said we need friendliness and courtesy with those who think
differently; and, we need to accept God’s plans through different and
mysterious ways. Dialogue is the search for a unity that preserves
differences… it bridges… We do not have access to God’s nature – no one does
– we only have the scent, the traces of God… Interreligious dialogue calls us
to stretch our perceptions. In relationship with the other, we experience our
own identity which is essential to interreligious dialogue. Dialogue is the
exchange of gifts. We need to open our heart and be sensitive to the whisper
of God in plurality. In the exchange, people need to be available in
readiness to be transformed by the encounter… and, sometimes, people are
terrified of that possibility… that we may experience a new truth or that our
path may be changed… The other may enrich my vision and possibilities and
reveal traces unseen before of the mystery of God… We must enter unarmed in
the dialogue. Jesus is the core and Jesus calls us to get out of our own
axis. Pluralism shakes our worldview and we tend to want securities. We need
to walk in diversity and insecurity and uncertainty.
The “axis” of
dialogue, as Professor Faustino called it, or the practice of dialogue
requires:
(1) humbleness –
availability and openness, a welcoming vulnerability…
(2) an openness to
otherness – to an experience of God in the other self… To practice this
openness to otherness, we need kenosis, emptying. Everyone who seeks is God’s
friend. In its broadest sense, openness provides air, oxygen, to humanity… to
not let Jesus’ dream disappear… we are holders of the dream. The dialogue is
an adventure. In true dialogue, we experience something new that we find in
the other, something that we had not found or experienced before… it leaves a
mark on us…
(3) fidelity to our
identity. We need to be on firm ground before we can fly… we must love our
identity so that we can go deeper into it..
(4) the common search
for truth. Truth denies certainty. It’s a dynamic. Truth is revealed in
communion.
(5) compassion, an
ecumenism of sympathy, the pain of humans requires it. It is a deep desire to
remediate all suffering that attacks humanity. It is a global responsibility
that calls us to unite.
Finally, dialogue starts
within one’s self, the inner zone, and with hospitality, to welcome the
other. One must be at peace with oneself. People who are upset cannot
dialogue. And, we must recognize the link, the intimacy, between dialogue and
spirituality.
For the Brazilian
contingent - Paz e Bem,
Jo-Anne Grabowski, osf
Note: Currently, we have rough drafts of the major
presentations. Final versions and better translations are in process and you
will be notified when these are available. However, if you would like a rough
draft of the English versions please contact Mary Serbacki.
