Formation Cum Live-in Session for Central & Indian Provincial Administrations

Prerana, Bangalore | 20–24 August 2025

The Formation Cum Live-in Session for the Central Administration and the Indian Provincial Administrations of the Brothers of St. Gabriel was held at the Prerana Spirituality Centre, Bangalore, from August 20^th to 24^th, 2025. In all, we were 56 in attendance. In his welcome message, Rev. Bro. Dionigi Tafferello, the Superior General, welcomed the Provincial Superiors, Councillors, and Committee members for Evaluation. He recalled the mandate of the 33rd General Chapter, which prophetically recognised and denounced certain evils prevailing among us, such as manipulation and dishonesty in leadership consultations. He emphasised the importance of evaluating the impact of the 2020 Decree, addressing governance challenges, and discerning ways to foster authentic fraternity. He reminded the participants that leadership in religious life is at the service of all Brothers, and for the good of all Brothers, not at the service of groups or factions. He invited us “to have the audacity to accept and denounce what is wrong in us, in our communities, in our mission, so that we become prophetic witnesses of our times”. He concluded with a call to discern, to dare, and to embrace change, always trusting in God’s guidance and seeking the good of all.

The first three days sessions were animated by competent resource persons from the Prerana Jesuits Spirituality Center. Fr. Jossie D’Mello SJ spoke on Discernment in Governance. He explained the importance of Spiritual Conversation and Discernment in the process of decision-making and decisions taken. The insights shared were inspiring. He stressed that the community and its individual members must be animated and led through the dynamics of dialogue, discernment, decision, inspiration, mandate, and accountability. All decisions in the community are to be arrived at after a prayerful reflection. Therefore, every community can foster spiritual conversation, and all provinces should have a proper process of discernment in place. The following guiding principles must be respected in our lives and mission.

• Communities must be mission-owned, not gossip-driven.

• The majority voice may not always be God’s voice.

• Discernment should be a daily practice in community life.

• Religious communities are not NGOs; they must remain rooted in their charism and identity. Religious governance encompasses spiritual, social, personal, and prophetic dimensions.

He invited the participants to reflect on their origins, their present realities as communities and Provinces, and to develop “We Feeling”. The atmosphere of mutual transparency, trust, acceptance, appreciation, affection, attachment, with some ambivalence and anxiety about how far to go in transparency, and even some fear of rejection, and at the same time, there must be a "We Feeling". The members live and work as one, single body for the common mission, with a great deal of depth in sharing life, work, prayer, faith, joys, sorrows, pains, problems, successes, and failures.

Fr. Freddie SJ invited the Brothers to make the necessary quality transition from the functional vision that prioritises the management of works to the charismatic model and style. We need to go back to the roots of our identity as consecrated persons. We must have the desires and dreams of a world based on Gospel values and the charism of the congregation, and live according to them, through a process of interiorization, so that our world vision becomes the world vision of Jesus, and we live by the gospel values. Instead, we are led by purely individualistic and self-centred desires and dreams. Hence, the tension between the professed ideal and a life led by self-centred dreams and desires,

Ours is also a fragmented world riven by cultural, ethnic and racial conflicts, violence and war. Internationality demonstrates that people of different cultures and nations can live in fellowship and solidarity, peace and harmony, if they embody the values of the Gospel.

Practice transparency and disseminate as much information as possible, except for what is strictly personal and therefore confidential. Then, your administration will be more honest, sincere and transparent. Hence, there needs to be good communication, both vertical and horizontal. Transparency is crucial in financial matters, with strict adherence to accounting and accountability. Dialogue, discussion, debate and discernment need to precede all decision-making.

Our Provinces must become Kingdom communities built up through (30 Cs formula): Contemplation, Communion, Compassion, Companionship, Care, Commonality, Co-responsibility, Communication, Consultation, Co-discernment, Compromise, Consensus, Commitment, Collaboration, Co-ordination, Conflict Management, Crisis-coping, Confrontation, Correction, Cure, Conciliation, Creativity, Confidence and Concelebration.

The third day's input sessions, led by Fr. Dion Vaz SJ, added greater significance as they touched the very core of our lives as lived today, with its challenges. He also very much dwelt on the themes of Vocation of Leader, inviting us to imitate the leadership of Jesus who had authority not control but to love. It was an authority of service, prophetic, creative, rooted in the Father. He also initiated a group workshop for the participants to discover the current crisis in Religious life in our provinces and the ways to surmount them. It was an eye-opener to realise that the challenges we face in our communities and provinces are often caused by challenges within rather than external challenges. “Religious life seems to be irrelevant today because the Religious have not taken Jesus seriously, and the same with the signs of our time” The best and urgent way to mend this situation of crisis is to return to Jesus and his Gospel. Create a fraternity rather than groups. Listen to God in the cry of the poor, to be with the excluded and not with those who exclude”.

The last two days were primarily spent in Spiritual Conversation with God and with one another in respective province councils, where each council worked out the strategic plan as a way forward. The sessions were opportune moments to discuss at length to discern the aspirations, dreams and concerns of all the Indian Provinces and to make the needed course correction in our journey as religious Brothers.

Brother Superior General, in his concluding remark, exhorted the participants that “If we wish to learn how to love those around us genuinely, the path is to cultivate, first and foremost, our love for God. Only a heart connected to the source of Love can welcome, forgive, and support. The further we move away from the God-centred source, the more difficult it becomes to be in communion with those who are journeying alongside us. If we renew and genuinely uphold our spiritual values, many challenges in our communities will lessen, helping us unite as a cohesive body rather than just a group.”

The sessions were an invitation to return to the Montfortian Gabrielite charism of authentic spirituality, transparent governance, and impartial leadership, which will renew the vitality of the Montfortian mission and restore our identity as religious Brothers. We need to constantly remind ourselves of our common mission, our mutual belonging, and the shared goals and purposes of the province, which all of us strive to achieve in the best interests of our people and all our units. It was a feeling at the end of five days to perceive that something new the Lord is doing for us, Brothers, as we read in Isaiah 43:19.

-       Bro. Shine Alex

Provincial, Hyderabad Province