‘Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect’.
This is Jesus’ call to all who follow him. Spirituality offers a path/means towards this perfection. Many schools of spirituality are available to help disciples of Christ walk toward that perfection. Bishop de Marion Brésillac, influenced by the spiritual currents of his time, proposed a path to holiness for missionaries, a missionary spirituality based on the way of doing and being of the apostles of Jesus: “following Jesus in the manner of the apostles”, he said. Undoubtedly, he is affirming the apostolic nature of the spirituality that he proposes. In his view, the way of following Jesus and of being apostles should nourish our desire for holiness.
The SMA General Assembly of 2019 reaffirmed the apostolic and missionary nature of our spirituality and called for continued reflection to better develop and transmit the quintessence of this spirituality. In accordance with the decisions of the GA 2029, the Superior General and his Council have formed a commission whose role is defined in article 49.2 of the text of the 2019 GA. The members have held sessions since this committee was set up. And they will continue to hold sessions with other resource persons of the Society.
With a view to deepening our spirituality, the members of the commission have drawn up a plan of action which aims to draw from the rich treasure of the writings of our founder, the official documents of our Society, the magisterium of the Church, the Bible and so on. To this end, the expertise of some of our Society’s resource people is being called upon.
To carry out this reflection methodically, the members of the commission decided to start from the characteristic elements of our spirituality as they are listed in the texts of our Constitutions and Laws, especially in the Preliminary, numbers 5 and 6. Consensus was reached on the following three characteristic elements of our spirituality:
- The proclamation of salvation in Jesus Christ, with priority given to ‘those who have not heard the good news’.
- The missionary virtues.
- A spirituality based on “the service of peoples, especially the most abandoned”.
For each element taken, a resource person is asked according to his expertise and/or knowledge:
- to give its biblical meaning,
- to see how the meaning has evolved in the history of the Church and spirituality in general,
- to look for what de Marion Brésillac says about this element.
- and finally, to see what meaning it has today in the church in general and for us sons of Marion Brésillac in particular.
Before the end of 2024, the members of the commission hope to gather all the data and turn it into a manual that will serve to spread SMA spirituality further.
Members of the Commission :
François de Paul HOUNGUE
Coordinator
François du PENHOAT
Member
Samuel AGBEME
Member
Dominic
ANTHUVAN
Member
Richard ANGOLIO
Member