A first…
For as long as anyone can remember, there has been no specific session organized for religious brothers of the congregation. So this is a first, and the session taking place in Rome from June 26 to July 4 is well underway.
It brings together 15 religious brothers out of the 40 or so Assumptionists living their AA vocation in this way in the congregation. “Religious non-priest” is an unfortunate appellation, so other expressions were evoked: “true brothers” not very kind to “false brothers”; brother-brothers or brother²; “lay brothers” by difference from “clerical brothers” is difficult to understand outside the initiated; it’s rather the appellation “Religious brother” which is more appropriate, in the line chosen by the document “Identity and mission of the religious brother in the Church” published by the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (DIVCSVA) in 2015.
The different aims of the session :
- Bringing together religious brothers of the Congregation, from many cultures and generations, in the service of greater fraternity between them.
- Rereading their apostolic experiences together: getting to know them, reflecting on them, formulating them.
- Discover other realities of the Church that can inspire us, taking advantage of Rome: Roman basilicas; the dicastery for consecrated life; congregations of religious brothers; the footsteps of Père d’Alzon…
- To share with the whole congregation our convictions, discoveries, questions and suggestions for better promoting and accompanying this vocation of religious brother.
