Hello Everyone,

     Greetings again...Well after a late night of celebrating with a lovely mean on the terrace and dancing, we were all up ready to go this morning at 8:45am. Today began the 3rd stage of our Assembly, namely, to get in touch with the frontiers of our society and how we as CLC are being called to respond.  We began the day in prayer led by the Paraguayan delegation, praying for the grace to recognize the poor and marginal in our midst and the grace to respond generously to where God calls us. They then showed us a video as an example of this "reaching to the frontiers". It was a video about how a musician in Paraguay wanted to reach out to the poor to have them communicate their deep concerns through music ("the smile of the soul" as he put it) in order to transform society by recognizing beauty and desiring to deepen their knowledge of their world. Well, that was wonderful in itself - young musicians (in late teens) playing music. But the surprise in the video was that there weren't enough instruments for the youth that wanted to learn to play. One father of a family - who had to collect the scraps from the garbage - said we could build musical instruments with the throwaway garbage - cans, pieces of wood, whatever. Well, they did that and lo and behold they built enough instruments from those garbage scraps for the students wanting to learn. And they sounded wonderful! It was very touching for me to see how much beautiful music came from those young people who themselves began to learn how to make their own musical instruments. The man who thought of this was just an ordinary family man who had the generosity and the creativity to do something more with the scraps we throw away.  In the 16thcentury the Jesuits went to Paraguay and used music to evangelize. They used their voices and the native instruments there. Those "reduciones" (Christian communities) were destroyed by the Spanish conquistadores who did not treat the native people in a human or Christian way (and they were supposed to be Christian!). They were jealous of what the Jesuits were trying to do with the native people. Political factors entered into all this and these communities were dismantled and destroyed. This video, for me, was a beautiful sign of new life coming out of the ashes.

    So we began with this sign of hope!  Then Fr. Adolfo Nicolas, Superior General of the Jesuits, who is also the World Ecclesial Assistant for Christian Life Community gave us an address. He is such a man of integrity and simplicity. He speaks in a transparent way with amusing stories of his relationships with bishops and cardinals in Rome, but in a respectful way.  Last time at Fatima he talked about the "prophetic" role of lay communities. This year he stressed the importance of "wisdom" - going to the depths of our human searching for meaning, truth and love.  He connected this with our multicultural and multireligious culture we live in. His experience of being in Japan and the Far East has given him a rich experience of the search for God. And 'wisdom'  is both a biblical way and a way of the East. He said we - east and west - are walking in this 'way' together. We need to cut through the globalisation of superficiality and get to the depths of reality. He said that the Ignatian spirituality is a search for the depths of both knowledge and spirituality, not just with the head but with the heart.Both Jesuits and CLC are called to accompany (and he used this word many times) people in search of the truth of their lives, not to give easy answers and claiming to have all the truth.

   He gave us a phrase (I think) from Benedict XVI: Better to be an agnostic in search of the truth than a Christian who thinks they have all the answers!  He continued in this line of thinking, encouraging us to immerse ourselves in reality and seek both our human truth and God's truth in the midst of the real lives of people.  He referred to Pope Francis, our Jesuit brother a number of times and the way he is giving a new opening to living the Gospel and being the church today.

    Needless to say, it was an inspiring talk again. And I could say much more of how he developed this theme, but I don't want to write too long. We had lots of time to respond to his talk and ask questions.

   After this we took the 'official' pictures of the whole group and then the various regions - Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Europe - with Fr. Nicolas. I'll include one of him with the World Exco. ....

    This afternoon we had a very clear and challenging presentation on Globalisation: poverty and inequality by a Lebanese professor, Leonel Matar,  who teaches a lot on this topic.  He was excellent with a good power point to help follow.... I thought he showed clearly that globalisation has had both good effects for all countries - both developing and undeveloped countries - as well as negative effects - widening the gap of rich and the poor.  He placed the emphasis on the role of multinational companies who have become more powerful than governments. Giving the effects of unethical type of multinational business, he also said that there were signs of hope that pressure groups and new responses to this 'all for profit at the expense of human rights and dignity'.   He gave us some concrete examples of what is going on the world to redress the balance of the misuse of power of multinationals (and governments who side with them). Multinationals companies provide access to many goods and technologies (like our cell phones and computers) and we all benefit from it. But, he said, they need moral values that place the common good of human beings in its proper place even when we are doing business.

   Like Fr. Nicolas' talk there were many stimulating themes in his talk.  We had a time for quiet reflection after and then we met in language groups (from different countries)  to share what struck us and how CLC members could cooperate in the positive forces at work in the world. We garnered two main points from our sharing and put them up on the wall.  For me, a very help exposé of this huge topic and how we can respond to it creatively and positively in building a more just and loving world.

    At 7 pm we had our Sunday Eucharist led by the African region, a very well done liturgy with African music and a danced procession of the gifts to the altar. As we often do,  the 3 languages (French, English and Spanish) are used during the celebration.

    At 9:30 pm this evening we had  very moving testimonies of young and adult CLC members from Syria. When you hear first hand from people who have experience the tragedy that is happening there, it leaves you almost numb. And yet they are full of hope, faith and courage. There was mother of family, who still working  in Damascus but her husband and children are refugees in Lebanon. Another man lost everything and is a refugee in Lebanon.... Then there were young adult Egyptian CLC members who shared their experience of the 'revolution' that has been going on Egypt the last few years....It's not over yet but they too were filled with hope and courage for a new Egypt.  When you hear these real people talk of such experiences, it makes our struggles in North America seem so minimal. Yet there are similar struggles to work for justice for all members of a society in every country..... We can learn from each other.

    So, you can see it's been another stimulating day.....looking towards the future, and what can be.....to bring God's kingdom of peace, justice, love and joy more a reality in our world.

   Happy Feast of the Transfiguration tomorrow - it is the theme of our Assembly: This is my Beloved Son; Listen to Him.

   Peace... Salam...Shalom...

1. To gratefully remember our roots and how we have been guided over the centuries.
2. To deepen our self-understanding as a Lay Apostolic Body.
3. To touch the new frontiers that challenge and beckon us today.
4. To enthusiastically renew our response to God's call.