Monday, Aug 5, 2013 (7TH DAY)

We began with a contemplative prayer led by French Belgium delegates, orienting us in our 3rd stage of the Assembly: looking to the future and the frontiers for apostolic mission.

   Another very stimulating and inspiring presentation, this one on the Family.  This is the 2nd theme of the frontiers . The  presenter, a prof of Family Studies in Madrid, Spain – Fernando Vidal – has been a CLC member for a number of years. He gave a clear outline of the different kinds of family models in the modern and post-modern world. We could see how much family life has changed in the past 60 years. Yet each form of family life has to be recognized and respected and supported. He concluded with the hopeful  kind of family that has foundations yet is open to change and adaptation…..

   Before the 2nd part,  another CLC member, the delegate from South Africa –Sabe- described very personally her family life experience. (Her mother had just been killed a month or two ago). This was very moving to see how she had been adopted and had struggled in her life to find meaningful relationships. Her involvement with CLC in South Africa enabled her to find a wider family that sustained her in her own difficult situation. She spoke with simplicity and sincerity and one couldn’t help be moved by her witness.

   In the 2nd part of Fernando’s talk, he spoke of how Ignatian spirituality can help in family building. I was impressed with the ease with which he used Ignatian concepts and tools and how they helped him, and could help others, to build stronger family relationships   He concluded by proposing a plan for the next 5 years of how CLC could contribute to national and international efforts levels in supporting family life. A wonderful and hope-filled analysis and suggestions for this important dimension of human society.  As most of the CLC members here are committed family people, this theme resonated with them. It did with me as well as I reflect on the influence of my own family in the choices I’ve made in my life. Then  45 mins of quiet reflection and prayer and we met for an hour in language groups and shared what had struck and helped us from the presentation and how as CLC members they could bring some of this to the local and regional groups.  Then each group had two short points from our discussion to present to the whole group. 

    We had the afternoon off!  I chose the option of going to the beach. . Leanne did as well. Mary went to one of the ancient villages. The Mediterranean water is warm – too warm for my liking. I like water that is refreshing. But it was great to stay in for a while. There was also a large pool near the entrance to this beach. So a few of us swam in both the sea and the pool.  It was a very relaxing afternoon.

    In the evening there was a good presentation by CLC’s  delegate to the UN. CLC is one of the non-government organization (NGO) that participates at the UN.  One of events was the movement for 4 % for education in the Dominican Republic that the Canadian CLC took part in.

   Tuesday, Aug 6 – Feast of the Transfiguration – (8th day)

    I got a little surprise last night. The secretary who is looking after the rooms said there was a free room I could take (actually it was Fr. Nicolas’ room and he had left yesterday morning)! My life in the linen closet was finished!  I had a great sleep in a comfortable bed. Thanks be to God for small blessings….

   Input today on the last of the three `frontiers` – on Ecology. The grace was to be able to appreciate that we are co-creators with God of his creation.   There was a video with some beautiful scenes of nature, then contrasted with pictures of what we have done by our misuse of creation.  

    Our main speaker today was Fr. Pedro Walpole, Sj  who works extensively in this field.  Title of this talk: Poverty, Creation, Evolutionary Frontier of Ignatian Ecological Commitment. He spoke clearly, gently but with great intensity. He didn`t go into a kind of `apocalyptic` language about what we`re doing to creation. But spoke of the theology and spirituality of our call to care for the creation with love, with God`s love who created our beautiful world.  It was always an invitation to respond in gratitude to what we have received by God`s graciousness. Only when we are truly grateful for what we have received in creation will we be moved to do loving actions of service for creation, neighbour, God.  He talked as well of `reconciliation and healing`. He spoke of Christ as New Creation and that we are work with him in bringing this about in our world.  He said:  if you don`t love what you doing to be stewards of creation, don`t do it! It`s just obligation or ideology.  God`s creation is much more precious than just doing it out of duty. 

   After group sharing, we ended the morning with a plenary session. One point our group made was: to pray with the Principle and Foundation and the Contemplation to gain love in the Exercises of ‘St. Ignatius  in a context and perspective of ecological concerns.

    The afternoon session was more stressful. The World ExCo brought to the whole Assembly what they were hearing during the Assembly, namely a search for `depth` level and `openness` to the frontiers. Then we were asked to complement these topics,  to round them out and develop them.  Then we met in small language groups and around some of the topics, asking ourselves: where is God directing this Assembly for the next 5 years.  It was a little more `unstructured` but we had good small group sharings. We reported on them before the evening Eucharist (led by the Asian delegation).

    The Eucharist was very prayerfully done with songs in Chinese, Japanese. The Japanese Jesuit gave the homily – connecting the feast of the Transfiguration and the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. Those two events are such a contrast – Christ`s transfiguration is a sign of hope; the bombing with atomic bomb of Hiroshima a devastating moment in human history and a  transfiguration of the earth that we are still affected by….

    This evening we had a simple review of the day with some Taize chants. Then at 9:30 pm the candidates for the new World ExCo were introduced and we were left to meet them more informally.

    Fr. Tony da Silva. SJ who gave us the talk on Collaboration  said this Assembly reminded him of the last General Congregation in Rome. He was quite impressed with how things were unfolding.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013 (9th Day)

     We are on our second last full day of the Assembly. This is when we have to make decisions as an Assembly about the final document, amendments to the General Principles, financial co-responsibility, etc. And doing this with 220 people?? We are either crazy or we believe in the power of the Holy Spirit to do something beyond our capacities!

      Our first presentation was on Social Networking and Advocacy.  Maurizio Lopez, from Mexico gae a clear and fine presentation on how CLC as a lay apostolic body could take part in the different kinds of NGO’s (part of UN) to influence and effect social change. He showed us the process (see, judge, act) and then, with the help of PowerPoint gave us the interconnections between local/national projects and the international level through the medium of regional level. He then gave us a concrete project example – the Amazon Project – that has already been part of international concern by various NGO’s and by the Society of Jesus. This Amazon Project ( he gave us a clear breakdown of what the Amazon forest is, its extent, the population there, comparison to other parts of the world, and how important this is to the world’s eco system) would involve CLC on an international level (one or two persons specifically chosen who would work with other groups in the Amazon). Really quite exciting that CLC as a lay apostolic Ignatian community would have this kind of witness.

Following this, we had a look at the first draft of the final document for the Assembly from the writing team as well as the summary by the world ExCo on the topics discussed and of concern during the past 8 days –  Who we are?    What we are called to do and how we can best do this…We then divided into the 5 regions of the world and discussed the feel, the tone of the documents and  what we wanted to add or change in these draft documents. Since the World Assembly is the main decision making body of CLC, it is important to get feedback from its delegates. We had a good meeting with French Canada CVX and the USA delegates and English Canada.

        We met in plenary in afternoon to hear the main points of each of the regions and got good feedback. The ExCo told us that they would work on a revision of these documents and present them to the Assembly  next morning.

         Then we had to discuss amendments that had been presented many months ago to the delegates for preparation). Two of them concerning membership and commitment were not passed because they were redundant given that one of first proposals to be voted on was to create an international committee for the revision of the General Principles and General Norms. 

       The European delegation prepared a prayerful celebration of the Eucharist. It was mainly in French with some of readings and songs  in Spanish and English.

      Thursday, Aug. 9 – 10th Day.

     So we have reached the top of the mountain of the transfiguration, as it were. This was the scripture passage that was the backdrop of the Assembly……Jesus went up with James and John and Peter up the mountain and he was transfigured before them…..a voice came from the cloud saying: This is my Son, the Beloved, listen to Him. And now we must come down and proclaim what we have received.

    We began our last full day with the usual quiet time of prayerl. We had  to make decisions on some financial proposals for the coming years. As always with finances there were some tensions.  But the ExCo leaders led us through the votes and we came to some good decisions……

  Then we had a look at the next draft of the final document – which is supposed to be an inspiring document expressing what we experience in the past 10 days and how we feel that we are being called forward to the frontiers…. the theme `from our roots to the frontiers` was basic backdrop to this document. The second part of the document is intended to articulate concrete recommendations for the coming 5 years.  We had time for feedback to these two parts of the final document. Most were very happy with the first part, suggesting a few changes here and there. The writing team responding to each of the suggestions (and we had the document in English, French and Spanish! – no easy task to have a document that would be acceptable to these 3 language groups!)….. we came to lunch and we were still `haggling` over details in the document.  I felt drained and a bit discouraged that we couldn`t come to a consensus on this document….It was sent by to the writing team who worked till 3:30 pm to make a new revision from the suggestions given….. Well!,  it happened! There was a clear change of mood after a few hours break….and the document was approved unanimously, leaving small details to the ExCo and writing team to complete.  A huge round of applause and a sense of joy pervaded the rest of the afternoon.

    The election of new World ExCo members proceeded calmly and in a spirit of prayer. The result was a wonderful new team of Executive Committee members for the World CLC –  a Mexican for new president,  a Kenyan woman for vice-president, a Lebanese woman for secretary, plus 4 consultors – a Belgian, a North American (USA), an Australian, and a woman from Zambia. Really top notch  people. All committed to the Ignatian spirituality as lived in CLC. It was a moving moment to be part of the choice of this new leadership team.

     The closing Eucharist presider was our world vice- Ecclesial Assistant, Fr. Luke, sj from India.  The liturgy was in English, French and Spanish and at the end we `commissioned` the new leadership team with a prayer and imposition of hands.

    The evening concluded with wonderful Fiesta outside,  with music from Latin America, Middle East and dancing.

    It`s hard to summarize such a wonderful ten days with such a diversity of peoples, nations all united in the Ignatian vision of prayer, community and