ONGOING FORMATION

Formation does not end on the day of professing perpetual vows. We read in the Constitutions of the Congregation: Each sister is personally responsible for continually cooperating with the grace of God, for developing to full maturity as a person and a religious in an atmosphere of faith, prayer and humility. By dying to self ever more completely, she lives the life of the Risen Christ, a life of sacrificial love for God and concern for the salvation of all (C 106).
The sisters strive for the dynamics of fidelity during the various stages of life, in accordance with the truth noted in the apostolic exhortation: “Vita consecrata”: There is a youthfulness of spirit which lasts through time; it arises from the fact that at every stage of life a person seeks and finds a new task to fulfill, a particular way of being, of serving and of loving. (§ 70).
The sisters experience a youthful enthusiasm in realizing their vocation and a passing from the stage of learning and helping others, to a full responsibility for their involvement in places where they live and serve. At this stage we see the development of the gift of spiritual motherhood. Advanced age is also fruitful from a formational point of view, since weakness of the body or illnesses demand progressive resignation from active live. Here there is an occasion to submit to the forming influence of a paschal experience and the grace of a special resemblance to the crucified Christ, who in everything fulfills the will of the Father and entrusts himself entirely to Him, even to surrendering His spirit into His hands.