Looking to the future hopefully and boldly

2 February, 2016

To all the Brothers and Communities of the Order

Dear Brothers,

I send you all my greetings and best wishes for the World Day for Consecrated Life which we shall be celebrating on February 2 throughout the Church. This year it will also coincide with the closure of the Year of Consecrated Life which we have been celebrating throughout the past year, and I invite you all to celebrate the Day joyfully, thanking God that the whole Church has focused our attention especially on the Consecrated Life, acknowledging its mission and place within the People of God.

It has given us the opportunity to celebrate, promote, and reflect on the reality of the Consecrated Life and its projection in the Church and in the world, consistently with the motto “Gospel, Prophecy, Hope” - three  words which sum up the identity, mission and depth of Consecrated Life. Many activities, meetings and celebrations have taken place, and they will certainly bear abundant fruit and bring great benefits. I would also like to draw particular attention to the document recently published by the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of the Apostolic Life: “Identity and Mission of the Religious Brother in The Church “.

This is a long-awaited document, addressed to the whole Church, to place is the vocation of the Religious Brother in his rightful position within the Church, and at the same time help Religious Brothers to deepen and grow in their vocation, more clearly acknowledging their identity and mission. I am therefore inviting all the Brothers and Communities to read this document, study it and share it, and I am asking the Provincial Superiors to encourage all their Provinces and Communities to do likewise.

A few days ago, on January 20, we closed the Hospitaller Vocation Year which our Hospitaller Family of Saint John of God had been celebrating under the motto “Come and See Hospitality”. The official closure took place in the course of the Meeting of officials responsible for Vocations Promotion and Initial Formation which we held in Rome on 18-22 January, attended by sixty-three formators and officials responsible for Vocations Promotion from every part of the Order.

During Hospitaller Vocation Year we arranged many different activities, meetings and celebrations, at the initiative of the General Commission on Vocations Promotion and Formation and by the various Provincial Commissions, for whose dedication, commitment and service I am indeed grateful. I believe that we have  attained the objectives of the Year, and we have sown the seed, and above all I believe that all the Brothers and many of our Co-workers have become aware of the need for us all to become involved in Vocations Promotion/Pastoral Care, praying for vocations, with bearing witness to a coherent, consistent and joyful Consecrated Hospitaller Life, and being in readiness to do whatever we are asked, however insignificant it may be, in order to play our part in everything being organised by those responsible for Vocations Promotion in our Provinces and Communities.

Even though we have closed the Hospitaller Vocation Year, our mission to promote the vocation to Hospitality in the Consecrated Life and as Lay Hospitallers is never done, and the Year has send out a permanent call to the whole Order to actively sow and promote the vocation to Hospitality. It has also urged us to give priority to Vocations Promotion and Formation throughout the whole Order and the whole Hospitaller Family of St John of God. This is how I wish it to be, and I hope that those who attended this Formation meeting in Rome will soon have the opportunity to share with you the work achieved and the concerns raised there.

It has therefore been a year full of celebrations and activities directly connected with our consecrated life and our vocation to Hospitality. Let us not waste the impetus given, and the grace received. On the strength of that, we must now look forward, in the hope that our project is God’s project and is firmly rooted in God, and then with the boldness of those who looking ahead, let us fearlessly race towards the future without being held back by doubt, knowing that we are treading the pathways traced out by our Lord. We must continue making progress in the Order with this intention in mind, knowing that we are being called to discern what the Holy Spirit is asking of us to remain faithful to the Hospitality of Saint John of God in the future. This is something that we are already beginning to do in some parts of the Order, and we shall be dealing with it in the Regional Conferences being held in the Order in February and March this year.

Having only just closed the Year of Consecrated Life and Hospitaller Vocation Year, we are already right in the heart of the Jubilee Year of Mercy. This is a new opportunity being offered to us by the Church to grow in our spiritual life and in our Hospitaller consecration. Consecrated Life, Hospitality and Mercy are three elements that are united in our vocation and in our lives. During this Jubilee Year, I entreat you all to experience the merciful love of God for each and every one of us, and to practise mercy and hospitality to the sick, poor and needy in the suffering people we see around us, especially in these difficult and troubled times through which our world is passing, in which so many people are suffering from exclusion, violence, hunger and destitution.  

Let as make the World Day of Consecrated Life on February 2, the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord, a fresh occasion for us to celebrate and renew our Religious consecration and bear witness to others with the joy of those who know that they have been graced by our Lord with the vocation and charism of Hospitality.

United in our Lord and St John of God, and I send you my fraternal Hospitaller best wishes.

Bro. Jesús Etayo

Superior General