It has not been easy to let emotions and impressions extol after such an imposing Congress because of the number of participants, of the complexity of the organization, of the richness of ideas and of differences. Thus, the first impression which remained was that of having participated in an event which has been, at the same time, confused and suggestive, provocative and not deprived of a certain perplexity, creative and repetitive. I say perplexity because of the lack of immediate strong and shared options: everything remained as suspended in the air, waiting for it to be settled and to make a discernment of the more valid perspectives and also to succeed in re-dimensioning impressions and disillusionment.

In reading the minutes -which fortunately appeared very rapidly in the different languages -one wonders how is it that so much richness was not gathered together for its own quality, but was mixed up with other interests, more of scenes and of surroundings. The disillusionment because of the failed audience with the Pope, the delay in the writing of the final synthesis, a scarce reciprocal knowledge in the great mass of tables and in the Babel of languages, the fragmentation of the direct, free interventions, the little luminous sensation given by the meeting hall, and even the rainy time in Rome, etc. have been surrounding elements without any value. But there and there they seemed almost equal to the substance of the theological, charismatic, ecclesial, perspectives. Because of this it has been necessary to return to the quies of our own habitat, to find again the just coordinates and to interpret and reread.

At the distance of six months, and after having many times reflected on the results and the horizons which emerged in and from the Congress, it seems to me that a series of projections, affirmed with great clarity can be recognized throughout the whole event. They are windows which are opened and horizons which are extended, but they are also challenges and opportunities. I chose a dozen of them, among the many which could come to mind. I hope they will suffice to arouse interest.

A synergy to be developed yet

The synergy has been a chance and a challenge. Whether in the long journey of the preparation of the Congress under all its aspects, whether in the Roman celebration of the great encounter itself, it appeared clearly that the work is to be done together between men and women, between different charismatic belongings and cultural sensibilities, among multiple generations.

The play of collaboration and of co-responsibility did not only appear visibly in public moments, but it has been along and intense journey of respect, trust, expectation, of dialogue, of synthesis during the years of preparation. Now it is necessary that this macro-experience be diffused in detail in all places and contexts, overcoming reciprocal diffidence, attitudes of autarchy and of marginality creating a local turmoil of encounters and synergy. And it is not only a question of working together with trust and co-responsibility, but also of discerning together, of celebrating and to intuit or understand together, to intertwine also the spiritual and charismatic traditions into new projects of closeness and fraternity, of communion and perhaps also of juridical union.

I think that many participants, silently were convinced that it is urgent not so much to proclaim their own difference, but rather foster convergence in many fields of formation and of activity, of memory and of prophecy. Especially, when the charisma come from one same historical and spiritual origin and, today, for their fecundity, is asked that closings and fears be challenged, in order to converge and to collaborate, even up to the point of sharing and of mixing up. The time has come to an end of giving the historical splitting the sense of a providential opportunity, it is necessary to stop seeing in every separation of the past -not exempt from phantasms and human egoisms -a charismatic impulse. Today this self certifications are frequently a source of weakness and the negation of the fecund and witnessing conviviality

The synergy has to be broadened more, especially to include, with more clarity and efficacy, some forms of consecrated life which remained at the margin in the Congress: I think of monastic life, masculine and feminine. Secular Institutes, the new communities, the non Catholic monastic traditions, the Orthodox who inherited the classical monachism, the Evangelical and Anglican modality. But I also think of the synergy with the laity: this multiplication of new experiences around many religious families, in which the laity have a very evident role to play, and it demands that we go from curiosity to benevolence, to the strategy of co-responsibility, to the acknowledgement of anew creativity in the incarnation of the virtuality of the charisma and lastly to the more open and inclusive juridical models, not purely paternalistic or of a good neighbourhood.

To acknowledge that the new models are already in existence

Many are those who ask in what does the new models of consecrated life consist, which are the characteristics, how to be able to recognize them. In this question I see some problem of sincerity and discernment. Those who have known the consecrated life which was lived at the time of the Council, and compares it with the present reality of consecrated life, can more easily see that the two experiences "toto coelo differunt". Even the external physiognomy is profoundly changed: from the habit to the schedule, from the environment of life to the form of communication, from the exercise of authority to the apostolic activity, from the relationship between persons to the relationship with the laity, from the economic modality to the form of the Liturgy. From the practice of the renewal, in fact, sprang anew model, one could say a new paradigm. The forty years since the Council have not been useless: and the interventions of the Latin Americans, of the Africans and of the Asiatic in the Congress have shown this.

But above all, the great axis of the spirituality have changed and been recreated profoundly. Think of the language and the spirituality which surrounded the vows: nobody speaks now about the distinction between vow and virtue, but rather the "evangelical counsels" are placed in the great Biblical horizon of radicalism, which includes many more things. Life in common itself, on which there was so much insistence, in view of the "regular observance", now is characterized by insistence on the fraternal dimension, of dialogue, horizontal, respectful, of the anthropological, and personality diversity, of the ecclesial, cultural and social contexts.

Spirituality lived and practiced has, decidedly, made itself Biblical and liturgical, creative and refined, less depersonalizing and less bound to the multiple obsolete ascetical practices. Truly, mountains of pious practices have disappeared, and everything has become more essential, and also more participated and relational. The "fleeing from the world" and the constellation of precautions which accompanied it today no longer has any sense nor words to express it. Thus, there is insistence so that the essential and qualifying elements of consecrated life -imitating everything that the Pope proposes in Vita consecrata 84-95, where it speaks about the vows, of the community, of the Liturgy and of the Lectio Divina -be lived as a prophetic witness in the face of the great challenges", acting with a purpose of alternative culture and at the same time, of "spiritual therapy for humanity" (VC 87).

The great works, so typical of the previous model, are now on the way of being demolished, to let a more flexible, provisional, experimental form, be the protagonist in the midst of the new poverties and the new emergence. And consequently, so that the formative itineraries in view of co- responsibility in the mission of the Institute where one belongs, may develop, respecting the personal gifts and not in support of the functionality and efficiency of the existing activity. This implies not only the closing of. very heavy activity or also of substituting which now is useless, but the exploring of new models and spaces of diaconia, guided by the primacy of the exigencies of the poor, with new forms of response to the emergencies in each field. Consequently, even the style of government has been obliged to great changes of sense and of priority, of co-responsibility and of projecting: no longer supervisors of the discipline and supporters of submission, but guides, to discernment, inspirators of prophetic initiatives, guarantors of a dialogue in nets, efficacious and participate., not strangled by centralism or oligarchic structure..

The "new model"- of consecrated life, therefore, is already amply existing. And just the same, it needs other exodus, other courageous and passionate exploring, of prophetic risks and of wise creativity. The fragility which we are suffering in so many sectors, can be the womb of great fecundity. The Lord asks us to grow with him, bringing us "others". And the more authentic and healthy spirituality that we live can be the womb for the new seasons of prophecy and freedom. But it is necessary to improve our spirituality even more.

To discover the true source of the spiritual life

The Word of God can still give us original ins iration, which obliges us to less repetitive and lazy reflections. The Charisma of foun ation have always found nourishment and inspiration in the Biblical Word, particularly in the Gospels and in the ecclesiae primitivae forma. There is still a valid and efficient paradigm. This is very well seen in the biblical inspiration of the Working Document: It has been possible to express many of the traditional values of consecrated life, but in a diverse language and new horizons, and everything is still to be explored. With the stimulus and the support of the two not usual Icons, we have been able to say noviter that it was classical as a value, but repetitive as language.

Many were surprised, even happily surprised, of this richness and renewing freshness of language and of provocation. It would be opportune for the future that this exercise of digging and of illumination -of which even Vita consecrata had given us a very interesting example with the Icon of the Transfiguration -should be continued for the future. But not only in broad and general perspectives, but with greater pertinence and precision also in what concerns, for example, the so called "evangelical counsels" and the evangelical radicalism, the models of community, the passion for humanity, the prophetic and eschatological dimension.

It appears evident today, that many Biblical resources used by tradition have to be submitted to abetter exegetic and theological verification, to purify them from ideological readings that instrumentalise them. And, at the same time, it is necessary to introduce a binding a series of radical "counsels" which -even if they are very well affirmed in the Gospel and in the Word of God (cf. the studies of Th. Matura) -nevertheless, they have been confined to the sector of personal spirituality and of the good virtues of fervent people. Think in the commitment for justice, in forgiveness and reconciliation, in the obedient listening of the Word, in assiduous prayer, in the centrality of the little ones, in fraternity and service: these are very clear and evident counsels, those which in the second millennium have been isolated and made absolute to make them the substance of the vows (and thus called tria substantialia). 

Recreate our spirituality

To re-elabarate the spirituality putting together the radicalness of faith and the empathetic proximity: this exigency is like an extension of the indication mentioned above, but also as re- elaboration of all the dynamics of the life in the Spirit. We have inherited an enormous patrimony of experience and of orienting schemas, fruit of histories first lived and then re-elaborated in the light of the great theological paradigms and of the ecclesial exigencies.

But precisely the rhythm of the centrality of the Word in the life of the church and in Christian experience today, the recovery of the paschal mystery as dynamic criterion of authenticity, the koinonia tau Theou as a theological g1ft-fn the heart of the Church, should above all, bear their purifying consequences, and also, liberating and transforming, in all the synthesis of the spirituality which consecrated persons live and propose. It is not only a question of giving a bit of "varnish" ( cf. EN 20) to the things that have always existed, in order that they may appear newer. It is a question of rediscovering the true primacy of the Word and of its great categories, of the Passover and the kainania, as active virtuality, as sacramental mediation not purely verbal but efficacious, by our history and our life in the Spirit.

Very easily, even God's Word is transformed into devout support for old schema, to soften paradigms which are harsh, obsolete and bitter, elaborated in other cultural contexts where voluntary asceticism and spiritual individualism reigned. The renewal of the spirituality can be realized only if the possibility is given to the Word of God to truly realize as "pure and perennial source of spiritual life" (DV 21). Sargente that is, and not only pure blessing of projects inspired by other anthropologies and other sensibilities of faith and of hope.

The Lectia Divina therefore -I limit myself to only one example -cannot be the privileged way for a total and radical "regeneration" which no theological illumination can guarantee, and neither any ecclesial planning can pretend to realize. The method used by the Congress in illuminating reality with the Word and thus opening the way to judging and acting, has to continue, more broadly and with greater depth, so as to scrape or strip off schema made sacred as idols and encourage all to open new seasons of creativity and of exploration, guided and nourished by the Word. The centrality of the Word is evident in all the phases of the creative renewal of consecrated life: it is a constant element to be noted.

To begin again to do theology

One of the concerns explicitly mentioned in the Congress was that of not repeating the theology already known. Certainly, we do not need another theology of consecrated life, to add to the others which are already numerous. Nevertheless, this does not mean that one should not take theological reflection seriously, especially in what concerns the identity of consecrated life in the Church and within history .

Precisely because there is a great springing up of new practices, we need to select the themes from what has been lived, which also comes from the impulse of the Spirit. Perhaps in the recent past sometimes, the theological proposals were the elaboration of theologians, who wished that in practice they would function afterwards They were suggestive proposals, perhaps at the utopia limit in certain passages, which nevertheless, in reality it was difficult for them to take shape. Today, we are tired of this type of theology, while the practice by fragments and provisionally is exploring new ways and new horizons. Therefore, we need a theological reflection on this new practice.

Not to lead back the new to the old schema, but to discover in the new the continuity with its previous nucleus, as well as the new unpublished seasons given by the Spirit and which demand discernment and systematization. For this we need of a "second word" -such as a theological reflection on lived experience -which will give to the new practice an honest interpretation but at the same time, encourage, consolidate it in its principal values, but also point out further passages to confirm it.

The diminished passion for theological reflection, evident in the last ten year period, has perhaps obtained the positive advantage that the value of the practice has gained vigour and attention. But we feel that it is necessary to go back to raw thinking, to elaborate once more a theoretical vision which will strengthen the practice itself, orientate it and consolidate it. A congregation or an Institute which does not appreciate nor stimulate theological reflection from its experts, is impoverished of reasons of life and of orientating wisdom by its same practice. And the interpretation of the Charism risks to be left to superficiality and rashness of the initiative (cf. VC 98) or to the purely ideological repetition of formulae and schema outside life.

To dwell within this history

The present history is still a providential kairos to think radically on the reasons and the horizons of our life. In the Congress, through the various reports, conferences and all the work of the groups, it was evident to all that we are living specific events (such as the long wave after the fall of the Berlin wall and the trauma after September 11, 200 1) which were transformed into cataclysms which do not permit us to return to the status quo. But also the well known or silent mega trends of which much was spoken about in the Congress -and which, in general, can be traced back to post-modernity, of which the surroundings and the specificity are not as yet clear - they have shown that they influence pervasively the thoughts and life styles, emotions and processes of identification. The conference of J. B. Libftnio was very enlightening on these points.

This reading of the opportunities and of the challenges for consecrated life -in backlighting with the bonds and the utopia of the contemporary world -has shown, to those who want to understand, that we cannot delay in extracting criteria of identity and of ecclesial or historical function limiting ourselves to the world of the essence, to abstract clear and distinct ideas, to a detached vision regarding history. But only getting off from our horse and from our precautions of purity and Legality, will we be able to find sense and function, languages and transforming presence, new enthusiasm and concentric solidarity.

In the Congress emerged very well a great trust in the possibility -of consecrated persons today -to live in this history with the capacity for discernment and for critical vigilance, but also with the midwifery art of seeking and making emerge from one's own womb new seasons of justice and of authenticity, of fraternity and of healing. It is necessary to continue to "stand as sentinel" on this history which is extended to global dimensions, making itself lucid and free interpreter of evangelical exigencies but also launching signs in such away as to arouse hope and courage to live. We must get our hands dirty and intervene to repair the results and the destructions of the catastrophic tsunami at the level of the earth, but also go across with a passionate heart and vigilant eye, the moral and spiritual ones, less apparent and that nevertheless, shake and shatter values and significance of life, and (perhaps) even in a more irreversible manner.

An established breaking

Another model of consecrated life can be thought of and is possible: even if as yet we have not succeeded in indicating well the profile. The real difficulties derives from the fact that the model in use in the last century -made sacred in thousands of ways by saints and traditions -is so all-absorbing and steadfast, that it is not easily pulled down, not even by parts. And nevertheless, precisely, this taking apart of the monolith, beginning by some important elements, is a necessary operation if we want to begin a significant restructuring process. As long as one turns around this sort of intangible and one block "black rock", it is not possible to bring about any changes.

Then it is necessary to proceed by parts, strategically significant, even if such procedures demand provisional certainty and critical vigilance, and no alarms will be lacking and inquisitorial warnings. That is what happened in the aggiornamento after the Council, with some errors and risks, but also with many advantages. It is necessary to distinguish strategic paths.

Under this profile, in the Congress appeared the foreseen choice of two key sectors of government and formation. We can say that from this head and this heart depend all the other vital functions. A new phase in the reshaping of the models is in reality emerging with the appearance of the new forms of consecrated life formed by the laity and the clerics, celibate and married, men and women, and even believers and non believers. It is a question of giving form to the religiosity of life, to the passion and compassion for humanity, to the dance and the fatigue, to solidarity and the healing of the wounds of the heart. It seems to me that for a long time and in an exaggerated way, consecrated life was shaped according to the categories of a Herculean perfectionism that had very little to do with the evangelical category of the little ones, of the poor, of the last.

Many times consecrated persons identified themselves with the great structures and the criteria of efficiency and of omnipotent visibility. An excessive emphasis was given to diversity and also to superiority, and also to pride (theoretical and Pharisaical, frequently) of a life which intentionally would have had, instead, to express greater closeness to Him "who came to serve and to give his life" (Mk 10, 45), and identified himself "with the smallest of the brothers" (cf. Mt 25, 40,46). A new model of consecrated life will come into being and will consolidate itself in the measure in which the principle of compassion, of empathy, of moved proximity, but also of dialogue with an open heart, of vulnerability and of the patient and healing respect, will become a sacrament which shapes life.

Many times consecrated persons hold (or have held) that these values called "of the world" are the negation of their "identity" of specialists of the following of Christ and of sanctity. Instead, precisely, recuperating these values, in today's society pushed to the margin and not sought at all, consecrated life will be reborn: perhaps less numerous, less apparent, but certainly inspiring other forms of existence and of utopia. Logically, in order to arrive to this threshold, it is necessary to accept that the whole system -the activity of diaconia and theological vision, criteria of discernment and languages/itineraries of formation, journeys of spiritual mystagogy and modality of managing responsibility -will be lightened, will become flexible and rich of improvisation, will generate audacious protagonists to run risks, but also patient and trustful in the simple and fragile means. This is the conviction claimed in the conclusive synthesis of the Congress.

When the dust is attached to the feet

To live daily life allowing oneself to be surprised: it is one of the spontaneous teachings which could be drawn from the two guide Icons of the Congress. The Samaritan woman knows the daily walking to the well, boring and in an hour which indicated that she was careful to hide herself; and the Good Samaritan has that unforeseen encounter on the road which would lead him towards another goal and other urgent affairs: episodes which indicate how on the roads of daily life there are encounters which can have infinite significance. Many times consecrated life has been exercised in the most luminous prophecy and diaconia through simple, daily encounters, down to earth: measuring thus with the wounds and the petitions which come from the real world, with the concerns which, in fact, torment the concrete person, and demand concrete responses and partners gifted with factual proximity, of bandages and oil and wine, a jar or two denarii and a simple horse.

Applying it in future perspective, I would say that rooting in the concrete, historical, local context should be recovered, with more decision and determination, if we want that it has the sense of function and the prophecy of consecrated life. Many times out of love for harmony and of transversal and global communion, prophecy evaporates in general proposals, in reverberating slogans but far from the bleeding reality and from hearts thirsty, as well as from the true culture and religious sensibility of concrete people. We elude ourselves fideistically, that a good slogan has saving or miraculous effects, independent of the corresponding quality of our life. How many nominalisms in our life !

It would be better, instead, to mix one's own charismatic function with the other charisma in the place, with the diaconia and the local responsibilities, without identifying oneself platonically with the great sidereal schema of central curie, far away from what is real. A more evident and tenacious local incarnation, a solidarity more down to earth, an acceptance in the less canonical hours towards those who seek words of life and of healing, it could give impulse and be a prophecy for certain life-styles. Why do our pretension of universal missionarity never succeed to make us descend down to earth, to really get our hands dirty, to make us sit down near the wells where we dialogue and drink, where we recall and ask, where we dance and where there is confidence?

I think that consecrated life has exaggerated in its running towards omni-comprehensive glabalization, because then it found itself disenchanted, supra-temporal dreamer of a world in which dawn never arrives. It is necessary to really know if the hour of the sunny midday is that of the evening which conciliates the violence of the bandits and that of the morning which solicits solidarity and care. It is not licit to live an anthropology without time and without real faces, because it will end being without history and also without compassion.

Symbolical and critical leaven

To find again the symbolical, critical and transforming function. This quality of consecrated life could be read in the Working Document of the Synod on consecrated life (DL 9) and also in the final propositions of the same Synod. It is difficult to say if truly in the present experience of consecrated life and in the gestures and in the life of consecrated persons, it is possible to find these qualities which seem to escape the pan-economic and efficient calculation. And just the same, precisely on this point, I think, we are led by many references which were expressed in a transversal way by the Congress.

The Biblical Icons, as well as many references of the groups, and the final synthesis, suffer or feel this request and this exigency. In a historical contingence in which the language of the icons is exploited too much -and up until now predominated the art of suggesting and of impressing shocking -we must again find the forms of a discreet fascination which springs from lives which have more wisdom and transparency, peace and liberty. Consecrated life must find, precisely, this virtuality again, this "transfigured existence capable of surprising the world" (VC 20), which shines with transparency and gratuitousness (VC 104).

We can speak, as in fact, Vita consecrata has done of 'philokalia" (VC 19), as interior beauty and serene equilibrium, but also as civilization of sobriety, of solidarity, of compassion in an idolatrous consumerism society, of egoism which snatches everything, of the hybris of violence and of prepotency. I consider as probable that precisely the crisis in numbers of members and especially the non significance of so many structures and works administered in a worldly managerial manner, should help us to demolish mythologies and anti-evangelical criteria which guide our way of thinking and of acing. To recover, instead, an audacious role to give form and citizenship to alternative values, to life styles which show, which give intuition, that are parables and symbols of existence which are constructed on other values and other virtues, on meanings which "lead elsewhere", but in the meanwhile violate the reasonableness, here and now, made a myth and an idol of a mentality which is not evangelical.

But to arrive to this threshold, I would say rather to this vertiginous and disturbing frontier for many, it is necessary still to decrease force and resources, to know a scraping " diminutio " and a "restitutio " to life to the bare earth, but which at the end will be the true womb of a transformation not of an exterior appearance nor opportunistic. The transforming function before being an operation within history and the world, has to be verified within our own flesh, should be an experience of annihilation and of despoiling, because only in that way will it be proposed in a liberating and redeeming authenticity. Otherwise it is only empty ideology and sick utopia with an idol miracle working.

Concluding...

Certainly, there are other open perspectives which would deserve to be the object of a serious reflection, on the traces left by the Congress. for example it would be urgent to find forms and channels for a better communication between the Unions of Superiors General -men and women -and the Roman Dicasteries. The Congress has suffered because of this incomplete communion and not only because of the failed audience of the encounter with the Pope. Another theme which could merit attention would be the right of consecrated life to a process of enculturation in the continental contexts (especially Africa, Asia and Latin America) more decided and more open to novelty, at least as an initial strategy. Another place to explore, because it was hardly referred to, is to find and to test pedagogies of formation (initial and permanent) which are adequate to the new cultural and religious situations. And so many other themes...

I am satisfied with these nine great perspectives. And I hope that they will be sufficient to reflect and to inspire new paths. Or, at least not to lose sight of the opportunity and the challenges stressed by this great world experience.