ELECTIONS – ROOTED AND AUDACIOUS MISSIONARIES

PROVINCE OF EASTERN COLOMBIA AND ECUADOR

XVI PROVINCIAL CHAPTER

December 11

We began our journey by celebrating the Votive Eucharist to the Holy Spirit, to ask him to enlighten us in the process of discernment that we will live during the phases of choosing, designing and committing. The presentation of the Dream of the province was carried out, which was approved by the capitulars and after an exercise of dialogue between them, we went to the elections for the Provincial Superior. Fr. Josué González Jaramillo, cmf, was elected. After the inauguration and the oath he addressed a few words to the capitulars.

DESIGN PHASE:
The second session began with the introduction to the Discernment phase, animated by Fr. Enrique Aponte, cmf, who explained that in this phase, the capitulars are invited to focus on discovering what concrete features could help make dreams come true. Using houses or temples as an example, he explained that the dream tells us what kind of temple or dwelling we want to build. The so-called ‘designs’ helps to calibrate how we want the main door, the windows, who will occupy the altars, where the choir will be located, the baptismal font … Without ever forgetting what has been evaluated and discovered, the Chapter will try to make the dream more understandable and achievable. That is why it is very convenient that – as is done in Querida Congregación – we read each of the elements of the dream together with the design that aims to describe and concretize it: what do we mean by a province “rooted in Christ, who proclaims the Kingdom”?, and by a province “reconciled and fraternal”? The Capitulars were asked to formulate the designs in the present. The Province speaks as if it has already achieved what it designs. Hence the phrase, which we will repeat will be, the expression “when we reach 2024.”

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