- formation
- / PANAM / BRC
- / Meeting
Meeting with SVD Students in Brazil Highlights Intercultural Formation and Mission Preparation
Raúl E. Acosta, SVD
What emerged was an enriching exchange, marked especially by the group’s cultural diversity. Although everyone present was serving in the Americas, the presence of students from other zones is an increasingly common and enriching reality within the SVD. This diversity provides us with opportunities to better understand and embrace the global nature of our mission.
“The purpose of this gathering—between novices, theologians, and the PANAM Executive Committee—was to open a dialogue between the students and the Committee,” noted Bro. Jairo. “We affirmed that the primary goal of formation is to prepare us for mission, and this mission must increasingly be intercultural. That requires openness and proper preparation. We must learn to know, love, and commit to the mission.”
During a period of reflection, participants also raised the need to consider ways to make the formation process more effective in developing individuals capable of autonomous discernment and decision-making. This calls for mature and responsible self-formation.
With the growing number of mature vocations today, there is likewise a need to review and update formation programs across the PRMs and in the common formation centers of the zone. We find valuable and renewed guidance in the Ratio Formationis Generalis and its ongoing adaptation to different regional contexts. Each place must respond creatively to its own realities and challenges. As Guimarães added, “Formation should help me gain self-awareness, let go of, and heal the wounds that prevent me from adapting to the realities of mission. That is why proper preparation of formators is so important, along with adapting formation programs to suit the needs of new generations and the signs of our times.”
Ultimately, the goal of all our congregation’s formation programs is to prepare young people—whether as priests or brothers—to embrace their missionary vocation in the spirit of the evangelical counsels (RTG 1.3). As we continue this journey of becoming more deeply identified with the Word, we entrust to the Lord the lives and callings of each young formandus who is ready to offer his life for the mission.
