“In three years 49 religious left our Congregation” said a religious speaker based in East Asia.

This was the most shocking – but at the same time stimulating - news I received during of the six-day renewal course in which I contributed to animate in Manila in October 2008.

Shocking, because it is appalling to hear that so many religious decided to quit the state of life they had been living for quite a time! One cannot but put to himself the question: at the time of their consecration were they aware of what was awaiting ahead? What kind of problems could have arisen in the existence of those 49 persons that brought them to the decision of making a U-turn in their life? Surely, something must have been wrong or amiss.

Stimulating, because a consecrated person cannot hear a news like this and continue unperturbed in his routine without being hit by the challenge of showing to himself and to the world that it is still possible – in the secularized world of nowadays – to live a happy religious life.

During the six days of renewal course, many presentations were offered by different speakers: one was about psycho-sexual issues, another on lay collaboration. Then there was a presentation on Camillian spirituality and another one on bioethics; finally one on consecrated life. All of them were interesting and enriching as far as our life as Camillians is concerned. However, the one that affected me most was that  on consecrated life. It really firmed up my mind to confirm – if there was still a need – that a  consecrated life cannot be understood and lived apart from a “life of love”. Love and total self–giving to God, to the community and to the neighbours. Only a mature person who has a strong bond with God and is fraternally living in unity with his consecrated brothers – in a community – will be able to find the daily resources and strengths to empty himself for the cause of complete self-giving to the suffering brothers and sisters, the Camillian way.

I can see with my eyes and confirm with personal experience that the statement made by Cardinal Hume some 15 years ago is true and prophetic. Card. Hume used to say that there are two big challenges the religious have to face: the challenge of spirituality and the challenge of community life. No doubt that only a strong personal relationship with God, through prayer and meditation, and a serene, fraternal life shared with our fellow consecrated brothers will create that atmosphere of serenity, interior richness and availability that will work as a springboard to the hectic ministerial work in the world of health.

A second topic struck me in the course of the renewal: the hunger for wholeness in our religious life. We are surrounded by conflicts, most of them due to the difficult relationship with our confreres or with partners we meet along our journey. Often our hearts are wounded, our life lies in fragmentation, we struggle for unity amidst conflicts of different nature, particularly if we are going through the mid-life crisis. In such cases the search for holiness becomes the search for wholeness! It is difficult to find a balance in all the dimensions of our personality; the desire to be strong and firm in facing adversities will be resolved if we accept the healing power of God as author and shaper of our life. To pretend to solve our conflicts only by ourselves is an… impossible mission.

We need to journey in company, in intimacy with the persons who travel with us, since nobody is an island and human nature needs to interact. But what a job to interact respecting the others’ dignity and our own expectations! A strong relationship with God and the harmonious interaction with our community members constitute the ground where we can attain wholeness, that is a relationship that accomplishes our need of intimacy – and not simply of relationship – with those we live and work with. Let us not sacrifice the community, since it is the community that preserves our vows.

I see it as opportune that all religious take part frequently in a renewal course. Better if the frequency is annual, possibly in accordance with a planned program according to which every year different areas of reflection are brought to focus. That will help us to be more in touch with our need of being whole, that is in harmony with all the dimensions of our being that most likely cry for attention in spite of our attempts to silence it.

Fr. Paolo Guarise served as resource person who animated the sessions on “Camillian Charism and Spirituality.”