The four steps proposed below can be used for personal reflection. Subsequently, a form of community sharing and celebration can be organized.
1. Consideration
The years of Saint Benedict and Saint Scholastica in Nursia lead us to reflect on the roots of our monastic vocation.
Roots in the land, the family, the religious life of the parish and the school. Roots in the dynamism of baptism.
Take time to remember what we have received, the people and communities that have been important to us.
2. Thanksgiving
Become aware of all that we have received. Our vocation, our fidelity, are largely the fruit of initial experiences, of an inheritance, within a context of transmission of life that leads back to the Father.
Take time for thanksgiving, naming the people who have been the Father's presence on our path.
3. Healing
Nursia was certainly not a perfect world. The family and communities that allowed us to grow in our Christian life were also marked by sin.
Take time to offer painful memories to divine mercy and defuse the defence mechanisms and reactions we may have instinctively put in place to respond to them. Renew the choice for forgiveness and life.
4. Liberation
Baptism has planted the seeds of holiness within us, which is participation as full as possible in divine life.
Take time to ask the Holy Spirit to release the energies of divine life in our hearts and in our communities.
