VIATOR WEB n.

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March, 2015

During the month of November, 2013, at his meeting with the superiors general, Pope Francis announced
that 2014-2015 would be a year dedicated to the consecrated life. And here we are! May this year be a time
for listening attentively to the Holy Spirit, who is calling us to understand our world in order to better serve
it. Thus consecrated life, under the powerful impulse of the word of God, will be able to embrace the
prophetic dimension that the Church attributes to it and expects of it.
The Viatorian Community will highlight this year of consecrated life in two ways:
The first issues of Viator Web in 2015 will be dedicated to that theme.
A Congress on the Consecrated Life, especially as lived and desired by our young religious, will be
held in Haiti during this year. The fiftieth anniversary of the Foundation of Haiti will offer an opportunity
to celebrate this important step in the lives of our Haitian confreres by combining these two important
Church events. Further details about this Congress will be forthcoming in the near future.
THREE WORDS, THREE CALLS
I would like to suggest to you three words: frontier, surprise, and presence. From those three words come
forth three missions: to be smugglers, lookouts, and inhabitants. This reflection, in general, is based
upon a conference given by Mrs. Elena Lasida, an economist, at the General Assembly of the Religious
Conference of France. 1
In his letter addressed to all religious, Pope Francis presents us with a strong challenge: I expect of you
what I ask of all the members of the Church: that you extend yourselves out into the existential peripheries.
One of the first borders of existence is that of language. In Evangelii
Gaudium, the Pope focuses on that evangelization requirement: we
see very well that the evangelization commitment is situated within
the limits of language and of circumstances. It always strives to better
communicate the truth of the Gospel in a determined context, without
renouncing the truth (No. 45). It is therefore good to permit oneself
to be seized by different nay, surprising language that calls us
forth to the same boldness in the name of the values that we profess.
1

EN SON NOM Magazine, Septembrer - October 2014, Canada

Frontier

We must, without any hesitation, use the plural form of that word. Those frontiers are very
much present in our world and, without any doubt, they create, in addition to divisions,
even exclusions: genders, ages, ethnic backgrounds, sexual differences, the sacred and
the profane, various religions, educational levels, social and economic situations, and so
forth. Globalization has created a global village that seems to erase frontiers; in fact,
globalization has brought forth exclusions.
Frontiers are not to be eliminated, but to be gone beyond!
The consecrated life calls us to the mission of being smugglers.
We must create passages that can restore communications among people.

Surprise

The ability to be surprised seems to be lacking in our world. We are obsessed with security;
having absolute security means choosing death! Taking zero risks leads us away from
God the creator, from the action of the Holy Spirit, from the novelty of a God who is attentive
to his people and who is always active among them. To deny Gods promise to be with us
until the end of time means that we believe only in repeating that which is already known.
We need to rediscover the ability to let ourselves be surprised.
In order to do so, we must agree to accept the unknown
and to leave space for the unexpected.
The consecrated life appears through experiences associated with the unexpected.
From early dawn and into the future, we must be
not only smugglers, but also lookouts.

Presence

Religious must, first of all, be characterized as persons of faith who love life, the goal of
which is to be artisans of relationships. Restoring confidence to others means giving them
life. It is not the doing that gives life, but rather the being. Over and above technical
progress and rapid communication, the isolation of certain people from others is greater
than ever.
We need a presence that does not produce something quantifiable,
but rather a presence that offers places inhabited by human beings.
Religious are inhabitants of the collective space,
persons who offer a home that unites people.

Thank you to our six collaborators, who will speak to us about the objectives of this Year of Consecrated
Life as defined by Pope Francis.

Alain Ambeault, C.S.V.

Superior General
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Jos Antonio Lezama, Spain

Two Aspects that make me look to our past with

thanksgiving and hopefulness: the Poor and the Associates.
I first met the Clerics of Saint Viator in 1945 at Saint Joseph School, which the Basconia Corporation had
created in Basauri for the children of its workers. While the school was poor, it was filled with congeniality,
enthusiasm, and joy. The religious teaching there were also poor, living out the Gospel in a simple way,
staying close to the people, loving them, with a total dedication to their work and, in spite of their poverty,
always showing that they were happy. It is possible that, within themselves, being human, they had their
problems, but, in my case, the happiness and joy that they demonstrated is what led me to try to be a
religious like them. Speaking of this, Pope Francis says: Faced with the contagious witness of joy, serenity,
fruitfulness, given the witness of tenderness and love, of humble charity, without predominance, many
people experience a desire to come and see.
In order to know who those religious were, we must go back to their founder, Father Querbes. He is the one
who received the grace to translate the following of Jesus into the concrete Viatorian style of life. He was
a priest of the Diocese of Lyons. In 1822, he was appointed pastor of Vourles, a little village on the outskirts.
Arriving in that village, he noted the spiritual and intellectual poverty
... No
r should we forget
Nor
in which people were living after the ravages of the French Revolution.
that a charism is so- Like Jesus of Nazareth, he also was moved by those human needs and
mething that is alive tried to remedy them. He had to catechize and teach the young. Given
and that, consequently, the impossibility of obtaining Christian teachers prepared to do that
is always evolving... we work, he decided to personally undertake the training of those teachers,
must imagine and do who would be, first of all, catechists and who would work in rural
what our Founder would parishes that were just as poor as his in order to form, from an early
age, religiously and intellectually, humble-class young people (Decree
do today...

today...
of Approbation, September 27, 1838). In the Statutes of the Society,
Father Querbes writes: (The catechist) will not lose any occasion to preach Jesus Christ, especially among
the poor (art. 4). From the study of the documents, it can be clearly deduced that the privileged audience
of the sons of Father Querbes are especially all young people of the poor class (Apostolic Letters, DQ
694A). In the little villages that received Clerics of Saint Viator, the people were poor and lived austerely.
The religious assigned to those villages, according to what they recounted in their letters, lived poorly, just
like the local people. The entire Society of Father Querbes was poor.
Vatican II, in asking us to update our Constitution, reminded us of this important aspect of our charismatic
inheritance. Our Constitution, edited in 1985, says to us when speaking of those to whom we are sent:
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Additionally, through the constant calls of the Church and of the world, Christ urges us to be present among
the abandoned members of our society (Const., 9). Later on, it adds: In order to live out the demands of the
Gospel, we must, in our administration and use of temporal goods, bear witness to our detachment from
the goods of this world and contribute generously, with our resources, to meeting the needs of the Church
and of the poor. In that way, we will do our part to promote justice and will, personally and collectively, give
testimony to poverty and to charity (Const., 39).
Another aspect of hope and of thankfulness to the Lord is the fact that we have associated lay persons with
us religious to participate in our mission, our spiritual life, and our community life. Father Querbes tried to
do that, but in his day and age such was not possible. Today this possibility of integrating lay persons into
our ranks, as our Founder would have loved to do, has become a reality and is one of the greatest riches
that the Lord has given to us in these recent years. Our Constitution tells us: in accord with an idea that
was cherished by our Founder, the Congregation agrees to welcome other persons who wish to participate
in our mission, our spiritual life, and our community life (Const., 5).
Nor should we forget that a charism is something that is alive and that, consequently, is always evolving.
Our faithfulness to our Founder will not consist in remaining stationary and meticulously copying what he
did in his day; rather, by attentively examining before the Lord the current signs of the times, we must
imagine and do what our Founder would do today. We cannot deny that the two points noted are very
current needs for the Church today. I believe that, in our history, we Viatorians have always been faithful to
those two essential elements of our identity: the poor, from the very beginning, and lay persons, from the
time of our aggiornamento, as requested by Vatican II. And here are several details that confirm that fact:
Many of our schools are located in poor neighborhoods; one can also see a great spirit of generosity among
retired Clerics of Saint Viator, who freely dedicate themselves to working with organizations that have
been specifically set up to help the abandoned members of society. Additionally, to the invitation of Father
Lonard Audet, the Superior General, To Open New Viatorian Foundations, there was a very generous
response on the part of the provinces, with all of those new foundations being established in poor countries.
Several provinces were even able to use extraordinary means to assure the success of their new foundations.
All of that provides a good reason to have hope and to be thankful to the Lord.
Besides, while the number of religious is diminishing, the number of lay Viatorians is growing. Those lay
persons are co-heirs of, and co-responsible for, our common charism. The Viatorian charism remains alive
and wishes to continue living. Therein we find another reason to hope and to give thanks to the Lord. The
charism that Father Querbes bequeathed to us is a gift granted by the Lord to the entire Church, with all of
us Viatorian religious and lay persons having the responsibility to see to it that that charism continues
to be alive and vibrant. We are opening doors and windows wide in order to make room for that burst of
fresh air that comes with having lay persons within our ranks. Let us welcome that burst of fresh air with
the gratefulness and the joy of someone who receives a beautiful gift from God.

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Mathieu Bard, Burkina Faso

Our Viatorian Past

Lord!!
Gives Us Many Reasons To Thank the Lord
A quick glance at our Viatorian history from 1831 to 2015 leads me to discover many excellent reasons
for giving thanks to the Lord insofar as our past is concerned.
It was first of all he, the Lord, who gave us our Founder, Father Louis Querbes. And for all of us, as well as
for the Church, that gift represents a powerful grace that made possible the emergence of a new charism,
fruit of the Holy Spirit, in the midst of the People of God. Father Querbes certainly was not able to carry out
his initial intuition in his time. As was pointed out by his latest biographer, Brother Robert Bonnafous, he
was constrained in many ways in his original proposal. But, going against the winds and the waves, he had
faith and confidence that his ecclesiastical superiors would be able to adapt his proposal to the prevailing
viewpoints. And then Vatican II came along to make it possible that the missing wing that he held close to
his heart the group of lay catechists would come to birth with the welcoming of Viatorian Associates
according to Article 5 of our Constitution. Thank you, Lord, for having given us such a Founder, well
anchored in his day and age, but equally the bearer of an avant-garde inspiration that would be
officially recognized by the Church one hundred and twenty-five years later!
It does not appear to me to be appropriate to look at our past history with a nostalgia that prevents us from
accurately appreciating the richness of what we have lived out over the course of these last decades.
Nostalgia most often turns out to be sterile, but not humble pride. In this perspective, we must recognize,
as highlighted by Pope Francis, that our past includes a number of extraordinary, even glorious,
accomplishments that are the result of ongoing efforts carried out by ordinary people who did not hesitate
to profoundly live out the Viatorian mission in their apostolic commitments, their community life, and their
spiritual life. For that also, Lord, we give you thanks! Rather than enumerating those wonderful
accomplishments, let us re-read our historical publications and let us be edified by the biographies of our
deceased confreres.
Are we saying that our past itinerary scarcely experienced any trials? We have only to think about the
material setbacks experienced at the time of Father Querbes by our newly-born congregation, as for example
the 1903 French Laws (Combes) that abolished religious institutes and nationalized their goods. We can
think of the 1904 financial disaster for our Canadian religious province; we can think of the dispersion of
the religious of the Chicago Province at the time of the economic crisis of the 1930s and of the loss of our
prestigious college in Bourbonnais. All of those were major crises! And yet, out of those heavy trials came
forth new advances and new apostolic works: Our Province of Spain is a good example of coming to birth
and then giving birth to apostolic works in the Province of Chile and the Foundation of Bolivia. The Clerics
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of Saint Viator, when faced with those serious difficulties, were able to demonstrate a great capacity for
resistance in their entire body, a spiritual firmness that came forth from the religious faith in the future
and from their determination to convert the negative into the positive. Thank you, Lord, for the courage
and the bravery of those who have gone before us!
Strictly speaking, our congregation was not founded to win, for Christ and for his Gospel, non-Christians in
mission lands, with the exception of Father Querbes unfulfilled dream to go to preach Jesus Christ in
Algeria. During the lifetime of our Father Founder, there was also an (aborted) attempt to go to India. And
yet, more than seventy years after the death of Father Querbes, the Clerics of Saint Viator agreed to
respond to Pope Pius XIs appeal in favor of the Orient (China first, then Japan and Taiwan later on).
Afterwards, positive responses were given to Pope Pius XIIs requests in favor of Africa and Latin America:
Ivory Coast, Peru, and Colombia. When Pope Paul VI approached us in the mid-1960s in favor of Haiti, the
Province of Montreal agreed to accept the challenge of replacing, on short notice, the Jesuits, who had
been expelled from the country. In more recent times, the 1994 General Chapter asked the Viatorian provinces
to think about opening one or more new foundations. Central America and Africa welcomed three new
Viatorian foundations (Honduras, Belize, and Burkina Faso) thanks to the involvement of our Provinces of
Spain, the United States, and Canada. For these last cases, just as for all the others since the 1930s, if our
different religious provinces had had eyes only for their own internal needs, none of those foundations
would have been able to be imagined. For this ability of our superiors to let themselves be challenged
oftentimes in unsettling ways and for the availability of the many religious who, for their part,
were called upon by their superiors with a view to these different implantations in foreign lands,
thank you, Lord, very much!
Recent years have led us to return to our Viatorian essentials. We are certainly in a period of decreasing
numbers. But we are also in a period of returning to our vital beginnings, of purifying our apostolic
motivations, of strengthening our spiritual life, and of working toward greater openness in our community
life. I sincerely believe that we must have sufficient faith to also give thanks to the Lord for everything
that remains perfectly compatible with the Joy of the Gospel preached with the new language of
Pope Francis. From that viewpoint, with the past providing a guarantee albeit it a different guarantee
of the future, our Viatorian past deserves to be regarded as a whole with a sentiment of great and sincere
recognition towards the One who has filled us with so many graces.

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Pierre Demierre, France

Living the Present with Passion

Having been sent to the Bassin-Vallon Apostolic Sector (near Decazeville, France) a year and a half ago, I
had to leave a well-organized parish for a rural, working-class sector encompassing three parishes. Our
Diocese, which is changing rapidly, could not do otherwise than to call upon the Viatorians; and we, as a
community, responded and were sent there. Working with two diocesan priests, we undertook our project
with a confrere from the Aveyron Department, with a confrere from the Ivory Coast, with myself, and with
five associates attached to this local community.
In this milieu, we are called upon to be in covenant with the Lord and to live out his Gospel. We rub elbows
with other religions. Our neighbor, wearing his typical dress, prays in his mosque every day. As for ourselves,
we wear ordinary clothing, knowing full well that the sacred is not necessarily found in visible signs
Roman collar, cassock, or other insignia but in the way that we put the Gospel into action.
What makes me joyful is that I belong to a family: the Catholic Church. I note, especially nowadays, that the
Catholic Church, in France as well as elsewhere in Europe, no longer has a monopoly on religion. Our
Catholic religion is totally different, since it refers us to a God of incarnated Trinitarian love who strives to
live with us a mysterious covenant, which is simply the outpouring of Gods tireless generosity. To him who
can strengthen you, according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation
of the mystery kept secret for long ages but now manifested through the prophetic writings and, according
to the command of the eternal God, made known to all nations to bring about the obedience of faith, to the
only wise God, through Jesus Christ be glory forever and ever (Romans 16:25-27).
It is by accepting to live out the Lords generosity for us, for this part of the People of God, that, personally
and in community, I have accepted to give witness to a God who is present in people who are suffering. Our
parishes are characterized by precariousness, decreasing populations, unemployment, and immigration.
Rural departments are those that have the greatest working-class tradition.
I strive to live in Gods here and now by carefully developing my relationship with the Lord; by being a
messenger of the joy of the Spirit; and, as Pope Francis loves to say, by embracing the future with hope.
People here say that the formation of religious and their way of interacting are different from those of
diocesan priests, which leads me to think that our personal and community response to the call of Christ is
profoundly a joy for others.
Gods generosity is made manifest in every person of good will, and especially in those to whom we are
sent. Christ awaits us in the hearts of others. As religious of apostolic life, we become, in those places
where we live and work, witnesses of the goodness of a Father God.
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We have not come here to be administrators of the Sacred (Masses, sacraments, devotions, and so forth),
but rather to deeply involve ourselves with a poor, servant Church. I must tell you that it is not easy to have
such an attitude. We are in a Church in which numbers of parishioners and collection amounts are still
what count.
Our bishop, Father Franois Fonlupt, invited us to a re-reading of our history that helps us to grasp how we
have arrived in another world. It is no longer a rural society with its Christian traditions, its luster of
yesteryear, that characterizes our diocese today, but rather the re-establishment of grass-roots communities
that pray and act.
I am happy to be living out this change, as well as that of our Viatorian Community. When I entered the
Congregation forty-three years ago, the Viatorians were a known entity. We were visible through our
principals, our teachers, our students, our schools, and our academy. We did not go unnoticed in large
gatherings. I lived through all of that transformation. Today, generally speaking, we are all retired. We are
what we are, guardians of a treasure, the treasure that Father Querbes bequeathed to us; we move forward
slowly, without any great weight.
Our non-material poverty permits us to live as middle-class Frenchmen. Fortunately, in the history of our
Community as well as of the Diocese, we have walked side by side with lay men and women who, today,
are on the same footing as ourselves. As our people like to say, because of our baptism, we are co-heirs
with equal rights. I live in coherence with every other person, even if, at times, a false step impedes our
progress, but I know that being men who are following the Risen One is the correct path that leads to
eternity.
Living the present with passion means knowing that Hope comes to birth out of poverty; it means advancing
toward others with confidence; it means living with a wisdom and a serenity that come from elsewhere and
that we all have to share.
We must ask ourselves, every day, who is our strength, our rod, and our rock.
My religious life is more than a life based on possessions, power, and knowledge. That is why I take great
joy in being able to be involved in a parish community and in close contact with those with whom I share
humanity. The role of lay people in parish tasks encourages us to share our responsibilities and it is together
that we become servants. Priests, the Lords servants, are not men set apart with their own particular
lifestyles and residences. While certain people wish to restore that concept, such is not my case. I want to
always live and act in genuine fraternity with those whom the Lord has placed in my path.
I implore you, friends, be as I am.
(Galatians 4:12)
In concluding, I would like to once again say that living with passion can be accomplished only in a spirit of
great reciprocity and fraternal sharing. Fraternity is an essential action. What counts is not the beauty of
the stones used in the temple, but that of the persons.
I know that the aging process at work in our different situations runs the risk of blinding
us. We must not be closed in upon ourselves: my parish, my diocese, my province or
my delegation, my Congregation. Rather, we must expand our horizons and verify the
quality of our relationships amongst ourselves. Perhaps the breath of fresh air must
come from elsewhere! Yes, living the present is my passion!

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Corey Brost, Chicago

How could I not be passionate about our Community?

A conversation on a plane last summer reminded me why Im passionate about our Community.
Jason, 17, was next to me. He and six other teens had just joined me and Associate Cathy Abrahamian as
the St. Viator High School delegation at the Fifth Annual Viatorian Youth Congress, the U.S. Provinces
annual youth leadership conference. The conference annually brings together more than 15 Viatorians and
about 60 high school and college leaders from Viatorian schools and parishes for four days of formation in
the Viatorian charisms of prayer, liturgy, and justice. Jason was returning from his second Congress.
During the conversation, Jason told me how important it will be for him to stay connected to the Viatorian
Community and its values during his college years and beyond. He talked about how our charism helped
direct his life and give it meaning. Indeed, his exposure to our charism, he said, helped him find his true
self. It was our charism that has helped him believe in himself and find his true gifts as he has taken
leadership in ministry to immigrants, retreats, and interfaith dialogue.
All I could think was that Fr. Querbes would be proud. His mission lives on. More than 180 years after he
founded us, Viatorians are still changing the lives of young people, pointing them toward Christ and walking
with them into the world where, together, we change lives especially the lives of those accounted of no
importance.
How could I not be passionate about our Community? Each day Im reminded of the transformative power
of our charism as I walk the halls of St. Viator High School in Arlington Heights. I see young people healing
the broken and announcing the Good News through retreat leadership, worship, and service as they tackle
a rigorous academic curriculum that will land them in great colleges. I see my brother and sister Viatorians
doing the work of Jesus as they form boys and girls into young men and women of faith by the way they
mentor, teach, support, and challenge them. I see the faces of the kids who can attend our school only
because our Community provides generous scholarships so that the Viatorian Charism is open to people at
all income levels.
How could I not be passionate about our Community? On a regular basis, I meet college students and
professionals doing Christs work in the world only because they have been formed in our schools and
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parishes. I can tell you about the successful attorney who graduated from St. Viator High School whose
priority is to defend accused criminals because he learned from Viatorians that we must defend the human
rights of ALL men and women. I can also tell you about the St. Viator graduate who made it a priority to join
a Catholic mens group as a college freshman because he learned from Viatorians the importance of
Catholic Community and spiritual growth. And what about the young woman who discovered her calling as
a youth minister at St. Viator Church in Chicago or the young men who tell me they are considering life as
a religious because they too are passionate about our Community?
How could I not be passionate about our Community? The Viatorians in the U.S. are struggling in the
trenches for the basic rights of immigrants, people so forgotten and abused in our country. I can proudly
say that my Community has embraced the struggle for their rights by doing everything from sheltering
them when they are homeless to teaching young people and adults about

How could I not be

How
the Catholic responsibility to speak out for them. Meanwhile, we have
passionate about our
marched for them in the streets and advocated for them in meetings
with politicians considering laws that affect their future.
Community?...

Community?...
How could I not be passionate about our Community? The Viatorians have helped me hear the call of Christ
and experience his healing powers. The Community accepted an eager but spiritually immature young man
named Corey Brost in 1987, showed him immense patience as he matured, offered him incredible ministerial
and educational opportunities, embraced him in loving relationships, and has trusted him to represent a
charism so special and sacred.
Indeed, I am passionate about our Community. Somehow Ive been blessed enough to live more than half of
my life with holy men and women who are clearly and concretely building the kingdom of God.
Thank you, dear Fr. Querbes. I am so grateful.
Adored and Loved Be Jesus!

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Elkin Abey Mendoza Mendoza, Colombia

We live in the present looking to the future.

I would like to share with you that my hope is placed in a person, in the person of Jesus Christ. Since this,
I believe, is something that all of us are clear about, I would like to express several other reasons that lead
me to embrace the future with hope.
I begin by recalling some words of a religious sister: may your life be word; may your life be prophetic. That
makes me think about wherein lies our life witness as Christians, about how we are conformed to or
configured with Christ. And that is where I find the first reason: it is always possible, with Gods help, to
bear witness to being a good Christian.
... however, I believe that It is that condition of possibility that strengthens me and that I intend
we can personally trans- to live out from a faith perspective, since it is not only a question of
knowing that something is possible, but also of believing that such is
form the life of one person,
the truth, with Gods grace.
or of many persons, with
While the possibility of being is already a gain, nevertheless, in the
our witness...

witness...
final analysis, it is believing that moves us to take the first step so
that what is possible will become reality. Believing (Faith) keeps alive my hope; I strive to live out that Faith
while being aware of the reality in which I find myself immersed, since we develop as human beings in a
determined context, in which we find ourselves desiring to face various realities of our world.
It is in these realities of our world that we try to respond to the wherefore of our life. Therefore, throughout
life, we make decisions that lead us to act, decisions through which I hope to respond to what I want in my
discernment and understanding of the will of God based upon the ordinary things of life.
This desire for what I want and hope for myself, with Gods help and grace, is an important part of what
impels me to live the future with hope, since it is with time and development that things become increasingly
possible, that my motivations continue acquiring meaning, and that my hope must grow stronger and keep
itself alive.
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So, while I have explained a personal reason, there is also a collective reason: all of us share responsibility
for, and must commit ourselves to, our history, knowing that, as Pope Francis would say, we have a history
to build.
By that, I wish to say that I am responsible for, and that I must commit myself to, building a better society,
knowing for certain that transforming or making history is not dependent upon a person, but rather upon a
community, and that we can personally transform the life of one person, or of many persons, with our
witness.
Finally, I wish to conclude this reflection with the following sentence: The family nucleus occupies the first
place in the living out of fraternal life; but, in religious life, we live the joy and the challenge of making it
practical. Thus, my last reason consists in the joy that we can experience when we share our lives in an
attitude of transparency and faith, which makes possible the discernment not only of a person, but also of
a community.

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Toms Ignacio Villalobos Herrera, Chile

How to embrace the future with hope?

In order to embrace the future with hope, I have thought of three foundations that can serve not only for
those of us who are beginning the road of the Consecrated Life, but also for those brothers who have
already spent a good deal of time in that journey. I will present them here with great humility, knowing that,
in the year 2015, I will have completed only one year in temporary vows. For that reason, what I will
attempt to contribute here, more than past experiences, are my present expectations and dreams. I hope to
be able to enrich the community reflection based upon my recent experiences as a young religious in the
Province of Chile.
The first foundation that encourages me to embrace the future with hope comes from contemplating the
history of the Congregation and of the Church from the viewpoint of faith. The times of greatest fragility
and difficulties were precisely those times in which God also manifested his presence more strongly, in
such a way that men and women might recognize that, before success, the Lord expects faithfulness of us.
I think of Father Louis Querbes and the economic crisis that befell
Today, given the shortage the Congregation at than ever.
of vocations (and, for that
And here appears the second point: in order to embrace the future
reason, fewer religious),
with hope, it seems to me that it is absolutely necessary to
should we lose heart and sit recognize that every one of us bears a personal responsibility and
down to lament our
that, among ourselves, we share a community responsibility with
situation? No! We should do respect to our mid-term and long-term futures. If we are confident
that Father Louis Querbes project remains alive and genuinely
just the opposite!
valid, then we must all work so that his project will continue being
fruitful in the world; and when I say all, I am not only referring to the religious, but saying according to
our Founders example that it is absolutely necessary that we work in union with all of those lay men and
women who, in the Viatorian Community, are united in the mission to raise up communities where faith is
lived, deepened, and celebrated. Responsibility and co-responsibility are the work of one and all.
The third reflection is the fruit of the two preceding ideas. If there is a history from which we can learn and
a mission for which we must make ourselves responsible, it is thanks to God, who has confided in us and
left in our hands the gift of life in this world. For that reason, in order to embrace the future with hope, we
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must first of all welcome it as a beautiful gift from God, who believes that we, his sons and daughters, love
life and the world past, present, and future in the same way that God has loved us (cf. John 4:19). The
key to hope is not that our projects will attain the success that we desire, but rather that Gods loving
project, as expressed in Jesus Christ, will have the last word in everything. If God has confided in us and
accompanies us with the grace of the Holy Spirit, how can we not embrace the future with hope?

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