Sr. Nurya Martínez-Gayol Fernández, Handmaid of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, accompanied the Delegates to the X General Chapter reflecting on how to live consecration in the synodal journey and how to carry out a personal, community and congregational discernment.
Starting from the Trinitarian life that is essentially Love, “Love supposes the One (Father), the Other (Son) and their unity (The Holy Spirit)”, she made a tour of the meaning of living communion from the inclusion that has two essential characteristics: to welcome and give oneself to the “other who is different” and freedom to “let be” the different one as the way to be more themselves.
She concluded the first part of her intervention by assuring that “an inclusive synodality demands that we take charge of reality. In the first place, from the recognition of a situation of exclusion that affects people and social groups and that, not only occurs within the Church, but sometimes becomes a reality among us religious and secondly, from a look at reality with the desire to walk “with others” and to build”.
In the second part of the morning he introduced us to a “culture of discernment” aimed at seeking the will of God in life, in the various choices and decisions made at the personal, community or congregational level.
He spoke of attitudes to be taken into account in every process of discernment, highlighting listening, an attentive listening as a method of approaching what the other person thinks and of stopping to listen to the word that the Spirit brings forth in her.
He concluded his talk by pointing out features of community and congregational discernment, insisting that no one should feel excluded from it, assuring that “the exercise of discernment in common strengthens a style of being and relating that is an expression of communion and has the capacity to be a witness of the Good News of the Gospel in today’s societies”.
In the afternoon, Sr. Jessy Augustine invited us to visit Malawi by the Memory of the Six-Year Term, giving a tour of the life and mission of the four communities in this African country.
