Dear friends:
May the grace of our Lord be with us always!
Greetings from the International Secretariat on this feast day of St. John Bosco, father and teacher of the youth! His joy and commitment to the service of the most needy and the least fortunate young people inspire us at the start of this year, the first of our five years, which we hope will be filled with dreams and achievements.
Throughout this year, the International Team would like to place the bases for the carrying out of the decisions of our 2nd International Assembly held in Paris in August 2005. The Council, after meeting in Madrid during the first week of December, chose some priorities for 2006. We would like to share them with you, certain that from your own countries each member, center and Council of the Association would help and place their grain of sand in the fulfillment of these objectives.
1. Communication
- We would like that the laypersons and Advisors of the National Council and the International Secretariat may have closer communication in order to achieve better knowledge about their achievements and difficulties. It is important that the lay officers assume the leading role in this communication. On the other hand, next month you will receive a letter from the International Councilor who will be in-charge of your country, presenting herself and her disposition to accompany you during the next five years.
- We hope to update our International Webpage. We expect that it will be a more flexible and interactive for an exchange of experiences, testimonies, concerns and materials. In a special way, we would like to emphasize the living out of the Marian Consecration, collaboration with the Vincentian Family and the missionary experiences.
- We wish to promote the visits to countries as an instrument which encourages personal contact with the National Councils, formation and motivation of leaders.
2. Spiritual Life
- The previous Council came up with a new formula and proposal for the celebration for the Marian Consecration. For us, it is a very important element of identity which we have to continue harnessing. Thus, this year we would like to gather information how is the "consecration" being carried out, such that we may compare experiences and materials concerning its preparation and celebration. We shall be sending you a simple questionnaire regarding this in the next few months.
- The Final Document invited us to encourage an education of prayer within our centers. It is important to seek materials and exchange experiences about this topic. We would like to request that whenever possible, you send us a copy of your inculturated, enriched or translated "Book of Prayers" and/ or other materials that you are using in your countries.
3. Formation
- We are looking forward to "compiling existing formation materials" in the different countries and create a data base in the Secretariat which may allow us to encourage possible interchange among countries and continents. In this sense, it is also important to exchange formation materials with the other branches of the Vincentian Family. We count on your collaboration for this arduous yet essential task in order to make the quality of our catechetical materials better.
- We wish to continue disseminating the document, "Formation Processes and Endways in VMY." Thus, we wish to invite you to make it as a working document during national assemblies and encounters. The Spanish, French, English and Portuguese versions are now ready for distribution; we hope that you place your orders soon (2 euros each.)
- Considering all these, it is necessary to create a Commission on Formation that will take charge of evaluating, revising and or drafting the formation process in accordance with the situation of the Association and the guidelines in this document. We would appreciate it if you can send us the names of the persons-in-charge of the said commission. The International Secretariat would like to be in touch with them so that we may be enriched with their experiences and accompany them in this task.
- We would like to joyfully announce that this year, with the support of the Latin American Conference of the Vincentian Provinces of the Congregation of the Mission (CLAPVI) and the VMY Latin American Council, we shall be having a Vincentian Youth Pastoral Course for the Advisors and Officers in Caracas (Venezuela) in October 2006.
4. Collaboration with the Vincentian Family
- We believe that it is very important for each VMY National or Provincial Council to participate (or help create where it does not exist yet) in the Vincentian Family Councils. We can contribute something to this process and we have so much to learn from the other branches.
- This year we would like to spread the Vincentian Family Triptych and hope that each country may come up with a national version that may allow the different branches to know each other’s charism (you may download the international version from our webpage.)
- To motivate this collaboration further, we wish that you may share to as many members as possible the pamphlet which contains the talks of the Vincentian Family International representatives during the Round Table Discussion in the 2nd AG 2005. This will be made available in our website within two month’s time. We request you to study them in the different levels of the Association in order to come up with concrete proposals and commitments. Perhaps the Directory of Some Branches of the Vincentian Family prepared by the CM Curia may also help you in this reflection. We shall be sending it to you during the 2nd semester of 2006.
5. Auto-financing
- As we may recall auto-financing was one of the strongest challenges that we identified during our past Assembly. In this sense, the first commitment of each country this year is to be more motivated in sending the annual contribution in order to collaborate with the maintenance of the International Secretariat. In the next months Fr. Pedro will be in touch to remind you of the specified amount that your country will contribute this year. We are counting on your co-responsibility and generosity! “God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Cor. 9:7)
- The Assembly asked us to come up with an orientation document for the National Councils about some economic aspects (accounting, patrimonial fund, presentation of projects and petition of subsidies, etc.) We hope that these guidelines may be welcomed positively so that it may allow us to reach a transparent and serious administrative practice, in the Vincentian style.
- This year the Secretariat initiated an interesting project wherein each National Council may be able to collaborate: Selling of typical objects or artistic articles during the different encounters of VMY Spain. It is a simple way of collaborating. We request you to send us simple and typical objects from your countries so that in this manner we may be able to help in maintenance of the international structure of the Association.
6. Service and Mission
- Another interesting proposal that we have to realize is the promotion of “twinnings” among the countries. The Secretariat is at your disposal to establish contacts among the National Councils based on concrete needs and prospects. All of us have something to give and much to receive.
- I also invite you to continue promoting the realization of concrete service projects in your own countries.
- As you may know, starting from the month of March, we shall be welcoming to the International Secretariat a new batch of volunteers who will be dedicating three years of their lives in the service of the Association. They hail from Italy, Cameroon and Mexico. Let us accompany them with our prayer and support
There is so much to be done this year! I invite you to keep in mind three attitudes in order to reach these goals: communicate, share reflections and collaborate. We hope that year 2006 may be marked by a close communication of the member countries among themselves and with the International Secretariat, placing our formative and financial strengths in the service of others, making our activities and achievements known in the Association and in the Vincentian Family. The future of the Association depends upon our generosity and creativity. Uniting our strengths and hopes, we can achieve the dreams that God placed in our hearts for the Association, the world and the Church. I request all the National Presidents to make this letter as a point of reflection in the next National Council meeting.
You can count on the prayer of all the members of the VMY International whom we place at your service in order to continue the wish of Our Immaculate Mother Mary. May God help to bring us close to the experience of the first Christian community which was united, heart and soul, faithful to the word of God and to the sharing of the Eucharistic bread, placed everything in common, testified to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and attended to the needs of the more needy brothers and sisters! (Acts 4:32-35)
VMY International Presiden
