We believe that it is important for our young people in the Calasanz Movement, in our parishes and schools, for those who volunteer, to offer them some basic experiences that allow them to make a leap in their experience, in their understanding, in their motivation and in their commitment to the faith.
This can be a pilgrimage, a volunteer camp among the poorest, a deep spiritual retreat, a youth Easter, a camp, a month in a Piarist mission in a country of the South, a meeting… All these moments, if well accompanied before, during and after, can be an opportunity for conversion or vocational discernment, because we know that these experiences affect all dimensions of the person.
They begin with the transformation of most of the sensory bases: smells, flavours, music, landscape, architecture, contact with people… the senses are re-educated, he and the young woman leave the screen that enslaves sight and awaken the remaining senses to come into contact with a reality that is perceived as new and with an experience of God that also enters through the senses. How could we forget the flavour of a meal shared with the poorest! How could we forget the song we sang together on the mountain!
Affectivity is then re-educated: new relationships emerge that bring the young person out of their emotional torpor, moments of encounter are experienced from the depth that unites us and not from the competing individuality that divides us. The young person is connected through love and not through the need to be accepted or recognised. Feelings of genuine compassion, social friendship, co-operation, authenticity, closeness and true joy emerge. And of course an affective experience of faith, an emotional and transformative encounter with Jesus, a falling in love.
The awareness of values and the understanding of losing in order to gain are also clarified. New criteria emerge to interpret reality critically and on the basis of reason. There is a need to question how I live and whether I believe in the values I claim to live in order to recognise the need for a life project that gives true meaning. Utopia is illuminated, the future is sought, what is wanted for all of humanity is already being lived. Values are no longer a cumbersome ethic and a law imposed from outside, but become something incarnate that characterises my deepest identity.
And finally, decisions are made from a spiritual experience: The experience is real and not a fabrication. All the functions of my ego have been activated and I am freer to make decisions. Faith is not lived as an ideology, but as a way of life adopted in freedom. I am now part of a “we” in which I can find myself the more I go beyond myself and my interests. I am discovering that the key to life lies in surrender, not in a moral way, but in an existential way. That I live life as a gift, as a gift, and that I can therefore also give it away. That I live fragility in a liberating way and not as a mania for perfection. That I see God in all things.
In addition to the reference groups of faith, we need these meaningful, provocative and attractive experiences so that young people can begin to develop as protagonists of a life of self-giving with trust in God. These are experiences that we can build in a network, using the structures, charisms, work realities, spirituality… that the Church makes available to us. And above all, we can use the Piarist networks that we have.
Looking ahead to the summer of 2024, the provinces of Betania, Catalunya and Emmaus offer young people many experiences that will certainly help them to advance in their process of following Jesus and Piarist discernment in this sense.
To organise one of these experiences, the pastoral leaders of the three Provinces met on 11 April at the Casa de Espiritualidad de Santa Teresa in Zaragoza.
There we reflected on how we can better offer young people the Calasanz Way, a pilgrimage through the places in Aragon and Catalonia where Calasanz spent his childhood and youth and where he discovered his priestly vocation. It is a path that the province of Catalonia has been developing for a long time and that all Pious Schools can use.
In addition to these experiences, we would also like to highlight some experiences that have been organised inter demarcational at European level and in which young people from our groups and presences have been involved in international experiences of great importance.
-One of these, which has become very well established, is the PYM, the Piarist Youth Meeting, which will take place this year in Vác, Hungary, combining culture (theatre, music…) with sport (in many forms) and faith (reflection, prayer, celebration). More than 500 participants from all our European Provinces are expected.
-And also the Close to Calasanz, a pilgrimage through the Calasanctian places in Rome, for about 18 participants who wish to deepen their Piarist vocation and participate in the network that we form the Calasanz Movement at European level.
We are grateful to all those who organise these initiatives, which give greater meaning and a broader horizon to the daily pastoral work with the young people of the Pious Schools.
For more information, please visit
https://escolapiosbetaniaonline.org/
https://escolapia.cat/educacio/inscripcions-obertes-als-6-dies-diferents/
https://experienciasmc.itakaescolapios.org/
