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Celebration of
the Centenary the Presence
of the
Brothers of the Holy Family in Spain
Dear
Brothers:
Starting from November 16, 2008
until November of 2009, we will live
an important event in the history of
our religious Province: the
celebration of the Centenary of the
presence of the Brothers in Spain.
This event has the character of a
family commemoration and we should
open our hearts and our houses to so
many people with we share our life,
our mission, our faith, spirituality
and hope.
The
Lord has been great with us and we
are happy!
We have received the testimony and
the witness of our elder Brothers,
from the Brother Martin Dumas until
the Brothers that today have their
lives in plenitude. So many times
our vocational answer has been
encouraged by the example and the
word of this or that Brother! So
many times we have wanted to be like
one particular Brother! A testimony
sealed by a generous heart, faithful
to the vocation in our
congregational project. Let us
remember their names, let us know
their lives and let us honor their
memory.
Although we don't have any holy
Brother in the calendar, we have
many in the heaven and in the earth;
witnesses of the love of God,
faithful to the evangelical
commitments, strong in taking the
cross, educators in humanity and
examples of fraternity. The
testimony of many Brothers that we
still take in our memory and in our
heart should be a lesson of life in
order to give our vocational answer.
Thank you, Father, for these so many
Brothers that you have given us as
your gifts! May our life of prayer
overflows in thanks to you!
We have been called in the second
hour! Other Brothers have come
before us who have carried out an
evangelical sowing in the furrows of
the life of many children, young and
families, also in ours; and today is
the day to acknowledge it. If we
deepen in the ins and outs of the
provincial and personal history with
a gaze of faith, we will see that
the Lord of life has given us his
life abundantly. Let us celebrate,
Brothers, this Centenary history,
made with warmth and love of those
who have given their life to the
cause that one day the Vble. Bro.
Gabriel Taborin started for the good
of the mankind and the glory of God.
Let us thank and celebrate for these
hundred years of grace!
Let
us unite ourselves to the joy of the
Vble. Bro. Gabriel when he said:
"For us it is a great satisfaction,
dear Brothers, seeing that the
branches of this lovely tree extend
for a great number of dioceses and
that under its shadow, thousands of
children come to be sheltered" (New
Guide). With these words he showed
his gratitude seeing the fulfillment
of his project, so many times dreamt
and frustrated, and so many times
begun from the trust in God. It is
not only a personal satisfaction,
since he also shares it with the
rest of the Brothers.
This
celebration is source of joy for all
of us, because today we can also
say: This tree extends its branches
for several dioceses of Spain,
Ecuador, India and Colombia and
under its shadow thousands of
children and youngsters come to be
sheltered. I wish one day we can
celebrate hundred years of the
presence of the Brothers in Ecuador,
in India or in Colombia! To reach
that horizon we have to give
everything and to continue, step by
step, building new realities.
It
is not the first time that our
Province is summoned to a major
feast. In the past we were able to
celebrate important events as the
Fiftieth anniversary of the arrival
from the Brothers to Spain, in 1959;
the Centenary of the death of Bro.
Gabriel, in 1964 and the Bicentenary
of the birth of Bro. Gabriel, in
1999. These moments contributed to
honor the memory of our senior
Brothers and to encourage in each
Brother the spiritual desire of
devoting to a vocation lived in
sanctity.
This new provincial event that we
are about to celebrate should be
located in the same way of this
spiritual experience; that is the
desire of many Brothers manifested
in the first questionnaire sent by
the Commission of the Centenary to
our Communities. The XIII Provincial
Chapter taken place in Valladolid in
2006 also pointed at the same
direction:
"To experience this event like a
significant moment of spiritual
renovation:
- Deepening in our historical
memory, as a fruit of the sowing
carried out during these hundred
years.
- Sharing our celebration and
thanksgiving to God and to all the
main characters of this work.
- Accepting and feeling this
opportunity as a stimulus and
renovation of our life and work,
with the hope of opening future
ways."
We are children of the history and
of our time!
A group of Brothers has carried out
an intense work of research of
documents and of data to hung
together the sequence of the events
that allows to cherish our
historical memory and to understand
the background of each decision and
experience. These Brothers invite us
to read and to savor each story and
each piece of the intra-history,
rescued now partly from the silence
and from the forgetfulness. To know
the Centenary history and to give it
to know is already an act of
valuation and recognition, but the
most important thing is that it
serves as lesson to confront the
present moment. We are children of
the history and of our time, and it
is there where we should locate
ourselves in order to grow.
The People of
Israel kept the memory of the events
of the History of salvation of the
past in order to live faithful to
the Alliance. When Moses speaks to
the people about the memory of the
departure from Egypt, of the trials
of the desert or the promise of the
Promised Land, he does not make it
with the nostalgia of a heroic past
closed, but to affirm that the Lord
has never deserted his people and he
continues accompanying it in each
situation. The experience of the
Christian faith demands the
remembrance and the update of the
events of the History of salvation.
We make memory of the main events of
Jesus' life and of the life of the
saints. Every day in the Eucharist
we celebrate the memorial of the
Paschal Mystery. And the Eucharist
is the heart of each one of our
communities (C. 132).
The
Constitutions invite us to discover,
remember, deepen and meditate the
family life of Jesus, Mary and
Joseph in Nazaret to renew and
prolong the dynamism in the prayer,
work and love (C. 91). To make the
daily memory to the Holy Family has
the double mission of imitates and
honors. In the same way, to know the
life of Bro. Gabriel has the purpose
of helping us in the spiritual
growth. To know the history of our
congregation and our Province
approach us to the sources, to the
origin, to the essence, aspect
requested by the Church in order to
renovate the religious life in
authenticity and communion. It is
about to accept what was lived in
grace during the past because it
carries the seed of vitality and
holiness for the present and for the
future.
Therefore, to
make memory of our history supposes,
not only to enter in the environment
of the recognition and of the
thankfulness, but mainly the
discovery of the pedagogy of God
that has made in each Brother and in
the provincial community a “History
of salvation”. God acts upon his
people and directs its steps because
he is committed with the human
cause.
This
supposes an invitation to continue
giving answers of generosity. It is
time to learn the lessons that teach
the experiences happened along the
years, even when those human
histories have not ended up well.
The hope of the believer always
knows how to take good from evil and
to be ready for learning and
conversion.
We must acknowledge that our
history has not been easy. The
beginnings of the Congregation in
Spain have their origin in the
expulsion of the Brothers from
France and in the lack of Brothers
in the first years of the 20th
Century. The difficulties have never
abandoned us and the walked way has
been covered with humility, work,
perseverance and the daily sacrifice
of so many Brothers and
collaborators that have offered the
best they had: their life, their
faith, their knowledge, …
everything. The tiles of this
hundred year-old mosaic not always
have bright colors, there are also
gray and black tones. But, the
trials, although not all the
Brothers overcame them, in many of
them made stronger their vocation of
Brother and educator; an example to
imitate in order to be faithful and
strong.
The better we know the events of our
past and the life of the people that
have wove this history, the more
wisdom they will give us to
illuminate the signs of the present
time and the daily changes that
question us. I invite all to read
the publications that are seeing the
light with the interest of the
speleologist that goes into the
depths, even not very well-known,
because he knows that his effort
will be rewarded.
Thank you, Lord, for your love made
true in realities and people!
"Hundred years educating in
family” is the motto and the reason
of our celebration. With that one,
we wanted to synthesize a time, a
project, a work and a style. If the
constancy of hundred years is itself
a value of exemplary perseverance
for a time like this, characterized
by the temporary, it has more merit
the art of educating in a time when
the educational task becomes more
and more complicated and it is
little valued. We know that to
educate has never been easy and it
has always needed of a good
pedagogy, of a lot of love and of
the support of an educational
community.
Today we acknowledge the importance
of the shared mission, and none of
our works is conceived without the
contribution of all of us:
religious, lay partners and priests.
All together, educating in family,
like the style of the Holy Family in
Nazaret. We acknowledge, in the same
way, that the past has been
communitarian because of the
commitment of all of them at the
service of the collective. We thank
them all sincerely.
We want to thank Bro. Gabriel for
the testimony of his life and the
legacy of his charisma that it has
allowed us to develop a personal and
communitarian experience,
characterized by the Nazarene
spirituality and the spirit of
family, by the educational action
and the missionary enthusiasm.
We want to thank the General Council
of the beginnings of the XX century,
presided over by Bro. Carlos Viricel,
for conceiving the project of
establishing the Congregation in
Spain, as well to the French
Brothers that with a great trust in
the Providence and a constant work
knew how to put the bases of our
Religious Province. Their work was
appreciated by the simple people to
whom they tried to help and today
they should be esteemed and exalted
among us.
We want to be grateful with the
benefactors, donors and
collaborators that have contributed
with the best they had in order to
make possible the beginning and
development of the works in many
places of the national and
international geography.
We want to thank the generosity of
the parents of the Brothers that one
day favored the vocation of their
children and supported them in their
election. Also we want to give
thanks to all the families that have
trusted and trust us the education
of their children, with the
certainty of finding in the Holy
Family School the style of education
that they want.
We want to thank to all those who
shared their life with us as
Brothers of the Holy Family and
after they took other paths. They
are also part of our history and our
life, and we want to show our
appreciation for that and to give
them a fraternal embrace.
We want to be grateful with the many
lay partners that have continued or
continue today the vocation of being
educators and catechists in the
works of our Province, with true
love to their mission and the
school, collaborating in the
educational and evangelizing project
of the children, youths and
families. We also thank for the
ministry, the dedication and the
attention of the priests who have
collaborated with us as chaplains
and formators.
We want to thank many people that
have shared and share with us
nowadays their faith in the groups,
in the Christian communities and in
the Nazarene Fraternities. Their
growing interest for our
spirituality has been a mutual
enrichment and has produced new
expressions of our charisma.
We want to express our
thankfulness to the congregational
authorities as well to the
ecclesiastic and civil authorities;
their approval and benevolence have
allowed the establishment of the
communities and works in different
parishes, dioceses, towns and cities
in order to fulfill a mission that
is, at the same time, humanizing and
evangelizing.
We
want to thank to the other religious
congregations, those that have
welcomed us and helped us in the
beginnings in the different
countries where the Province lives;
and those with those we share every
day the same testimony of religious
life and the same concern for the
mission of the Church in this
world.
Finally, we want to be grateful with
the targets of our mission who have
shown themselves open and have
committed themselves with our
educational and pastoral proposals.
Many of them have also expressed us
their thankfulness or have continued
working at our side.
With the conviction that all gift of
the Holy Spirit is at the service of
the construction of the Kingdom, we
recognize the different vocations
that today are enriching our family.
They are the new gifts given by the
Lord in this time and we must
receive them with very concrete
attitudes: acceptance, recognition,
spirit of family, accompaniment,
attentiveness and thankfulness. May
they feel all this because we make
them perceived.
Put your eyes in the future!
“You
have not only a glorious history to
remember and to recount, but also a
great history still to be
accomplished! Put your eyes in the
future, where the Spirit is sending
you in order to do even greater
things” (VC 110). Maybe we have “a
glorious history” to tell, although
our characteristic style has not
been that of being given to know the
great public. We should not live
from the success of the past, but to
look at the future with courage and
without complexes, in order to
continue working and being what we
have always been: simple Brothers,
catechists, animators and educators,
in family.
The logo designed for the
commemoration of the Centenary has
chosen the six-tip star of the
congregational emblem, symbol of
faith and of human and divine
wisdom. From the star comes out a
trail in “C” shape, evoking the
number hundred in Roman numerals, to
mention our centenary history. The
trail finishes in two “HH”,
abbreviation of Brothers in Spanish,
transformed in people. The group
evokes dynamism, a way, a process…
where people who walk united finally
reach the light. All of this
transmits a clear message: the
centenary is not a goal but a stage
or a link that is demanding to
continue further on. Put your eyes
in the future!
The
satisfaction that takes us to the
enchantment and that can create
vainglory, nostalgia or immobility,
is not good. The Gospel is active,
creates life, and is for all the
human beings of all times. Following
Jesus Christ means movement and
continuous conversion. These
convictions must force us to
continue taking the steps that each
time is requesting from us with
creative fidelity. We should
maintain the renewal and refunding
spirit that the documents from the
Church to the religious life are
reclaiming from us, and we should
encourage formation processes that
lead us to give evangelical answers
to the people’s needs of our time.
The present circumstances are
changing very much and affect to the
way of understanding the life and to
the structures that we create; this
is why we cannot get distracted, we
should revise with discernment the
way of living our consecration and
of carrying out our mission (C.
120). We should be ready for changes
and new proposals. The great
reformations of religious life have
always had as main lines the
evangelical poverty and the prayer.
Looking at Nazareth we can renew our
personal and community life in this
same direction.
Our last documents emphasize three
identities that should characterize
us: “Brother of the Holy Family”:
“simple Brother” that in the
Congregation lives the filial
relation with the Father and the
fraternity with the human people;
“disciple”: “come and follow me”
that follows Jesus Christ in the
Church; and “prophet and
missionary”: “go and preach” that
continues the redeeming mission in
the world. We have spent lately a
time of reflection on these three
identities but it is necessary to
continue making it life.
The last General Chapter has invited
us to be educators of humanity.
Whenever we look at the people from
Christ we will make it with a loving
look. Our identity of Brothers, lay
religious, offers us many
possibilities of living the
fraternity with all the people,
having humanizing attitudes. The
Project of Life of the Institute and
the recent letter of our General
Superior, published in
L'Entretien Familial,
nº 195, give us enough hints so that
each Brother can develop what he is
and he does as an educator of
humanity.
We
are few Brothers. We would like to
be more and for this reason we are
praying and working in different
fronts in the vocational promotion.
The evangelical image of the yeast
that ferments the dough elevates us
to the category of necessary ones.
We cannot be under the protective
roof of our structures. Our goal is
that of the disciple who follows and
announces Jesus, committed with his
project in favor of the human being.
Our Province is neither for the
service of itself nor for its own
greatness, but for the service of
the Kingdom. This requires being
attentive to the people and their
needs.
In
the humble beginnings of La Horra we
find a masterful lesson of
sensibility toward the real and
specific needs of the people. In
that moment they were the primary
and technical education, and the
solution to the problem of the
phylloxera. We also find the same
attitude in Venerable Brother
Gabriel. The needs of today's people
are more hidden, but we will be
significant only if our words,
expressions and actions are
understandable for our
contemporaries and respond to their
true needs. What they are requesting
more from us is authenticity of
life, experience of God,
understanding, advice and help. We
can offer them what we have
discovered and what gives sense to
our life: the enlightening Word,
divine wisdom, justice, peace,
spirit of the Beatitudes,
encouragement… and to this we should
dedicate all our strength and
resources with a prophetic and
missionary spirituality, mainly in
the fields of education, catechesis
and liturgical animation.
Many
are the challenges that we have to
face. The XII Provincial Chapter
summed up some of them for these
years: “to consolidate our
identity of Brothers, to boost the
formation, to maintain the personal
and community meaningful presence in
the mission and to revitalize to our
community life.” These
objectives, which we have been
repeating as necessary, continue to
be valid for strengthening the
future. In our identity as much as
in our work we are called to aspire
more than what is expected humanly.
The situation of our Province, with
challenges like those above
mentioned and with tasks like: to
maintain the missionary spirit, to
promote new vocations, to accompany
the whole family Safa or to maintain
the apostolic works with smaller
number of Brothers, it demands that
our answers must not be lukewarm,
but very generous and in community.
Everyone
is invited!
From
a Christian point of view, all the
human beings are invited to the
banquet of the Kingdom prepared by
the Father. We, the Christian people
are called to participate in the
Eucharist, food for the way; we are
called to live the values of the
Gospel. In this way we receive the
promise of the hundredfold and of
the eternal life, and we are
predestined to be dressed with the
glory of the Risen Christ. Sadness
or pessimism cannot have place in us
but peace, hope and the joy of
Easter morning. It will be the best
sign that we live in the hands of
the one who has called us and is
sustaining us.
We
should frame the celebration of the
Centenary in this general context of
our life. The diverse acts of the
program will underline some or other
values, but all of them want to be
expression of our inner happiness,
of our gratefulness and of our
commitment. From this moment we are
all invited to the acts programmed
by the Commission of the Centenary
or to those that are organized in
the different places. We are the
first ones in being called, and we
have to attend them with the feast
dress. To celebrate means to
remember, to be together, to see the
good, to cheer up mutually, like in
the gatherings of friends or
relatives and in the official or
popular parties. We hope that each
Brother and each person that join us
can feel at our side the good side
of the life and their dreams
renewed.
Some
of the Brothers will not be able to
participate with their presence in
the main celebrations that will take
place along this year because they
will be in other countries or
because of other circumstances. We
have a special remembrance for the
Brothers in Ecuador, India,
Colombia, and for the Spanish
Brothers in Argentina, Brazil and
Uruguay. From now on we want to feel
united to them and to thank them
their generosity and courage to
answer the call of God: “Go to
the whole world and preach the
Gospel”. At present we are
having a rich provincial reality and
a glorious past of missionary
cooperation that we should keep.
To conclude we can return to the
text of the Venerable Brother
Gabriel mentioned at the top of this
letter. If the first words were for
giving thanks, the same paragraph
continues with a hopeful song:
“May the Congregation grow even more
so that it can be a shelter for a
bigger number of young souls… Yes,
may God want this tree spreading
bigger and bigger, the fruit of our
efforts; that its roots deepen in
piety, humility, purity and
obedience... In the same way we
desire it remains steady amid
struggles... Finally we desire it
produces only good fruits. These
must also be the desires of each
Holy Family Brother.”
I invite
to all the Brothers and the people
related to the Institute to give
always thanks to God for these
hundred years of graces and to
request Him to continue sustaining
us in our vocation. I offer you this
special prayer of the Centenary that
summarizes the feelings and desires
that we have inside. We can use it
in our personal prayer and in the
various meetings that we can
organize along this year:
God,
our Father,
Lord of life and history,
in Your hands is our future.
We give You thanks for these
hundred years educating in
family.
Give us the strength of your
Spirit
to continue living the charism
of Venerable Brother Gabriel
Taborin
and to keep alive his mission in
the building of Your Kingdom
with the humble, fraternal and
simple life style
of Jesus, Mary and Joseph in
Nazareth,
praying, working and loving
every day. Amen.
May the Lord
fill us with His blessings in this
year of the Centenary that we are
going to begin in La Horra, the
cradle and the memory of the Holy
Family Brothers in Spain.
Congratulations, Brothers!
Given in La Horra, on 20th of October, 2008, anniversary of
the arrival to Barcelona in 1908 of
the first two Brothers who reached
Spain.
Br.
Francisco Javier Hernando de Frutos.
Provincial Superior
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