Bloom where you are planted!  Be what you are, be at its best!! To be nothing, if not human!!!    -SFS

Statement Call of the General Chapter Action Plan Memorare

Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales   18th ORDINARY GENERAL CHAPTER 19 May - 05 June 2007   Statement    Call of the General Chapter   Action Plan    Memorare           STATEMENT OF THE GENERAL CHAPTER 2007 General Chapter 2007       We, the capitulants of the Eighteenth Ordinary General Chapter of the Missionaries of St. Francis De Sales, have gathered in prayer and fellowship in the spirit of Jesus, moved by the spirit of St. Francis De Sales and Fr. Peter Mary Mermier to reflect on our life and mission and discern ways and means of deepening our commitment to God in the Church. Thirty three delegates and five invitees have participated. The main theme of the Chapter was: “Following Jesus, the first Missionary and Leader in Every Mission”. The preparation for this chapter included special personal and community prayer and reflection on the theme throughout the entire Congregation during the past two years. The icons of the Samaritan Woman, The Good Samaritan, Jesus washing the feet of his disciples, the Chablais experience of St. Francis De Sales and the “I want Mission” Experience of Fr. Peter Mary Mermier have become images of hope and challenge for all in the Congregation.             We are deeply grateful for all that has been, all the blessings we have received, all that we have been able to do, the people who have blessed us and the people whose lives we have touched. Our hearts remember and we celebrate the joy of God’s loving concern for us and for those we have served.             With profound gratitude, we renew our religious consecration and rededicate ourselves to the mission of the Congregation in the Church as we make the following statements:   1.   We reaffirm our commitment to be deeply rooted in the Gospel of Jesus, in the spiritual tradition of the Church, in the spirituality of St. Francis De Sales and that of Fr. Peter Mary Mermier.   2.   We are convinced of the centrality of the Eucharist in our life and mission. We commit ourselves to drawing Grace and strength from daily Eucharist and let the Eucharistic experience bind us together as a community.   3.   We will make a conscious effort toward a meaningful integration of action and contemplation. We want to live a life rooted in prayer and a prayer rooted in life. We want to focus on nurturing a contemplative presence in the world.   4.   We are convinced and want to reaffirm that we are one family, one community, one Congregation. We want to reaffirm our identity as Missionaries of St. Francis De Sales (Fransalians) and not just a Fransalian of a particular province or region.   5.   We need to strive for a community centered life and mission. It is urgent that we plan all our apostolic activities in such a way that no confrere is left alone, that we live in community, work as a team and fulfill our mission in and through our shared life in community.   6.   We have many confreres in ministry in many countries, often living and working alone. We resolve to take the necessary steps to gather them into communities so that our apostolic activities become more and more community centered.   7.   We affirm our commitment to each other as brothers. We want to be specially sensitive to our senior members who have given their life in service to God in our congregation. We resolve to find ways and means of taking care of their needs and helping them to feel an integral part of our communities.   8.   We are men with a mission on a mission. We are men of vision.  We pledge to deepen this sense of Mission and Vision. We resolve to go deeply into the charism of our founder, Fr. Peter Mary Mermier.   9.   God continues to bless us with many vocations. It is important that we help those in formation develop an attitude of being Missionaries of St. Francis De Sales, rather than just a member of a particular province or region. We resolve to reorient our formation program to meet this urgent need.    10. We are missionaries of St. Francis De Sales. It is important that we know, understand and appreciate our special charism. It is also important that we share this charism with the people we serve.   11. At this General Chapter we re-affirm the missionary Charism of being sent to the people who need our presence and assistance to grow as persons as best as they can in situations that systematically destroy human development and unfolding. We resolve to be effective missionaries to side with the victims of globalization, religious fundamentalism, and discrimination in the name of class, caste, gender, language and race.   12. Knowing that together we can achieve much for the Lord and his mission we resolve to cooperate with all priests and religious, committed laity, people of movements inspired by Gospel values, people of good-will from other religions to work towards a society built on Kingdom values.   13. We affirm that we need to revitalize our original apostolate and remain always open to the new ministries. We have already entered into innovative and creative ministries. We recognize that  many more of our confreres need to take up new and creative ministries and many to make a preferential option to commit themselves to the mission in the third-world countries rather than affluent countries of the world   14. We re-affirm our commitment to offer a Fransalian thrust to our Apostolate of Education. While making our confreres competent to face the challenges of present day education we are resolved to make the heart of our education as the education of the heart and make a qualitative difference in the lives of the students we serve. We take positive steps to enroll our collaborators to share our Fransalian vision of education. Besides improving the quality of education in our urban schools we are determined to move in a big way to the rural areas where the poor cannot afford a quality education for their children.   15. We are convinced that our apostolate of the renewal of Christian life demands that we seek creative and innovative ways to deepen the faith of the people that they  become committed to the kingdom values. The benefit of our leadership must reach  also the people of other religions. We are convinced of the need to enter into solidarity with all people of good will through dialogue for the good of the society, learning from them and sharing with them the values of the Kingdom. Together with them we devise effective means to care for our environment.   16. Our option for the poor should challenge us not only to reach out to the economically poor but also to the intellectually and spiritually poor. We resolve to become more sensitive to the growing economic inequality, violations of human rights, abuse of women and children and other such slings and arrows. With Prophetic courage, we must take a stand and work toward the transformation of such evil conditions in our world.   17. God has blessed us with the material goods that we need for our life and mission. We have a responsibility to respect them and take good care of them. We resolve to find ways and means of being and becoming more accountable to God and to the congregation in all matters entrusted to us.   18. We are Men Sent For Service (MSFS). We resolve to immerse ourselves into the culture of the people we serve without losing our identity. With joy and renewed enthusiasm, we respond to the call of the Lord to each one of us and to the congregation to “Let your light shine” (Mt.5:16).   19. We are aware of and very sensitive to the needs of Provinces or Regions with diminishing number of members and those which are in the process of consolidation and expansion . We resolve to reach out to them  in their need and share our resources in a spirit of love and fellowship   20. With the re-structuring of the administrative system of the entire Congregation at different levels as demanded by our revised constitution, we affirm that for the effective fulfillment of our mission we need to be better organized to meet the demands of our congregation that is growing fast and we need to be more transparent and accountable in fulfilling our various ministries. We realize that the all superiors especially the local superiors need to be empowered to animate the community.   21. It is our faith that the wonderful things that the Lord has accomplished through us in the past will continue to sustain us, challenge us to be and to do better enthused by the spirit and spirituality of St. Francis de Sales and with the courage and commitment of the Servant of God Fr Peter Mermier, our founder. We march forward with a new vigour and enthusiasm to commit ourselves to the cause of the Gospel, even to the ends of the world.                              Statement    Call of the General Chapter   Action Plan    Memorare