In a culture where people are becoming more and more alienated, it should come as no surprise that many are expressing a greater desire for Christian community.

Parishes have responded in a variety of ways to meet this desire. "Renew" has been brought into parishes with the hope of generating new life; the OCIA has h elped bond parishioners together as they journey with catechumens. These are only two of the many wonderful works of the Spirit which help to revitalize our Christian faith. After a parish has completed such intense programmes, however, liturgists, catech ists and other parish team members are left with the question, "Where do we go from here?" One possible answer is the "Christian Life Community" (CLC) movement.

There are approximately 400 CLCers in English speaking Canada belonging to one of 50 small groups. Most of these are lay people who desire Christian community, finding it a source of new life. Although there is a formation programme, the CLC movement is a way of life whose spirituality centres upon Christ and participation in the Paschal Mystery. The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola is the specific source and main instrument of CLC spirituality. The Exercises enable persons to participate more fully in Christ's saving mystery. The tools of the Spirit ual Exercises -- the awareness examen and the four-column discernment -- as well as "Social Analysis" assist individucals and communities in discerning life decisions.

Our small communities meet on a regular basis (weekly, or according to the needs of the individual community) in the home of one of the members. Here, an intimate sharing of our personal and spiritual lives allows for growth in our Christian faith and com mitment to serving the Church in every area of life, family, work, civil life and ecclesial life.

As with any community, we have our share of peaks and valleys. Through eyes of faith, these experiences can be transformed, allowing members to take anot her step forward entering Christ's own death and resurrection. It is through our individual and communal experiences, reflection and discernment that we are able to give rebirth to Christ in our dally existence. CLCers seek to develop and sustain men and women, adults and youth in their commitment to build the realm of God. . . .

Those who find themselves yearning for Christian community may wish to look at this way of life.

Compiled by the Formation Team for the CLC of English Canada (Guelph,ON: National Office of CLC, June, 1989)
From A Manual of Formation for Christian Life Community: Phase I

STATEMENTS FROM THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF CLC

1. "Our movement is a way of life . . . which respects the uniqueness of each personal vocation and enables us to be open and free, always at the disposal of God" [GP 2].
2. "To prepare our members more effectively for apostolic witness and service, especially in our daily environment, we assemble people in community who feel a more urgent need to unite their humanity in all its dimensions with the fullness of their Christian faith according to our charism" [GP 4].
3. "We hold the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius as the specific source and as the characteristic instrument of our spirituality . . . which opens and disposes us to whatever God wishes in each concrete situation of our daily existence" [GP 5].
4. "Union with Christ leads to union with the Church where Christ here and now continues his mission of salvation" [GP 6].
5. "Our gift of self finds its expression in a personal commitment to the World Community, in a freely chosen local community" [GP 7].
6. "Our life is essentially apostolic. The field of CLC mission knows no limits: it extends both to the Church and the World, in order to bring the gospel salvation to all people and to serve individual persons and society by opening hearts to conversion and struggling to change oppressive structures" [GP 8].
7. "Since the spirituality of our Community is centred on Christ, we see the role of Mary in relation to Christ: she is the model of our own collaboration in Christ's mission . . . We honour Mary, the Mother of God, in a special way, and we rely on her intercession in fulfillng our vocation" [GP 9].

A Way Of Life:

1. Ignatian spirituality is an integrated spirituality, i.e. a 'process' which brings together our faith and daily living, so that we may become more aware of Christ's presence in our life, and respond to the Lord's invitations, in an on-going way, to carry on the mission of Christ in our world today.
2. This process is based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius: a) as a retreat experience; b) as a way of life on the personal and communal level.
3. As a retreat experience, the spiritual exercises 'speak' (if experienced) for themselves. However, the process takes a person through various prayer experiences that assist the person "to better love and serve God in all things."
4. The experience of the Spiritual Exercises is continued on the personal level in two ways (of course, these two ways are not exhaustive):
   • Through the sort of prayer that begins by surrendering to God and revealing every aspect of our lives. We surrender to the Lord and begin telling how we feel - we tell the Lord what is on our mind or in our heart. This may take all the time for prayer, or only part of it . . . but it is where we begin. We only grow in intimacy with a person to the extent that we reveal ourselves to that person and let him/her reveal himself/herself to us. This sort of prayer makes for the integration of our faith and daily living, and is a growing experience of 'conversion' - we begin to see life, and turn to it where before we saw nothing, or only something negative.
   • Through the daily examen of consciousness. There are various models for this - perhaps one of the best known in CLC is the model proposed by Fr. George Aschenbrenner, S.J. The aim of this exercise is, through a growing attentiveness to our inner 'movements' - e.g. our feelings, our motives, our inspirations - to come to know the well-springs of our actions, and the patterns of our behaviour, so that we may be attuned to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit, and more alert to the prompting of the forces of evil.
   • On the community level: the usual CLC process in a group reinforces the movement of integating our faith and daily living.
   • There is a time for quiet prayer, from a passage of Scripture. (Sometimes this leads into shared prayer, depending on the group).
   • There is an exchange, on the level of experience, of some aspect of daily life (decided in advance).

Other 'activities' may follow, but these two 'moments' are essential. For what they do is to bring the light of faith, in a community context, to the different concerns of our life. Moreover, these moments further reinforce the movement of integration because they bring together prayer and listening. Prayer, basically, is surrender to the Father - to let God be God in my life. Listening is 'surrendering' to the other - to let the other freely be himself/herself. We know how real our prayer is by looking at the quality of our listening.

Which is Missionary:

1. Mission is not so much what we do as the whole quality of presence we bring to the world in which we live.
2. Our mission is to carry on the mission of Christ, to be Christ-bearers, like Mary. Christ's mission was not just what he did, but what he was, his whole life. And his whole life, in human terms, was the full revelation of the Father's love.
3. His dying reveals that the Father's love is unconditional and completely 'vulnerable' to creation, in the sense that when God's love is fully revealed, what we see is a 'man with a broken heart.' And Christ's rising reveals that the Father's love is undying and unconquerable.
4. So, our mission is to carry on Christ's mission, as being people who reveal the Father's love.
5. We not only do this but are this - i.e., a revelation of the Father's love -through seeking to build the sort of world in which people can live as brothers and sisters, children of the Father.
6. That is the CLC mission; and it is further specified by our experience as members of the Church; in the world today, we cannot be - live as - brothers and sisters:
   • Unless we have a simple life-style - poor with Christ poor, for a better service.
   • And unless we carry the spirit of evangelization, a concern for the service of faith and the promotion of justice.
7. So - that is the CLC mission in the world today - so to live as brothers and sisters that we reveal the Father's love, and that the people around us may also come to believe that the Kingdom of the Father is both possible and true . . . a Kingdom of Justice, Peace and Love.

Patrick O'Sullivan, S.J.

THE SPIRITUAL EXCERCISES OF ST. IGNATIUS

The basic spirituality of the Christian Life Communities began with the person of St. Ignatius Loyola. He was given an extraordinary grace of conversion, and in the process he had a profoundly mystical experience of the Lord. The experience became the source of Ignatius' total dedication to the person and mission of Christ. The record of this experience was written down and perfected by lgnatius over the years as a guide to assist others in opening themselves totally to the Lord and allowing him to be the centre of their lives.

This record is entitled the SPIRITUAL EXERCISES OF SAINT IGNATIUS. As other persons were guided through this experience of the Lord, the Spiritual Exercises became the source of a new religious order, the Jesuits, and of congregations of lay persons which became the Marian Congregations from which the Christian Life Communities developed after Vatican II.

In deciding to make a retreat, we start to share St. Ignatius' experiences first on a sickbed: considering what life is all about and what we were made for. In successive stages we come to:

Liberation: What holds me back from a full Christian life?

We meditate on three questions:

1. What have I done for Christ and God's humanity?
2. What am I doing for Christ and God's humanity?
3. What ought I to do for Christ and God's humanity?

Come and See! Christ answers the last question: "Come and See". So we meditate on his life, see how he gave himself for us, listen to his invitation to share in his work.

Passover: "The Trinity give themselves continuously to all persons and invites all people to give themselves continuously to them, in and with Christ." Loving his own, Christ loved them even to the Cross.

We try to share what the Cross meant to Jesus and to us: how it led Jesus (and can lead us) to a new and risen life for out world.

Finding God in all Things: With a new and vivid personal knowledge and love of the Lord we are better able to recognize Christ in our daily lives and grow in our ability to practise.

Choosing in Christ: By making our daily choices, big and small, not by mere human prudence but as part of a growing ability to see all things in God, according to the mind and heart of Christ.

In Action: Ignatius assumes that we start where he started: as convinced Christians whose religion has not yet invaded the whole of life and that we have not yet seen and felt the full challenge of Christ . . . but that we wish to do so.

Back to Ordinary Life: Powerful as the Spiritual Exercises are, one retreat is not likely to last for life. The real work must be done in ordinary life. The spirit of the Exercises must be continued from day to day, in regular prayerful pondering on the life of Jesus so we get to know Christ better and better and can recognize the Lord more clearly in others and daily circumstances.

We also need a retreat each year, to renew our spirit. CLC not only organizes such retreats, it also helps you to live the gospels in the midst of daily life, sharing your insights and difficulties with like-minded people of similar type to yourself, encouraging them and being encouraged by them to carry on Christ's work in a world that is often not very Christlike.

CLC INTERNATIONAL:

The World Christian Life Community is presently comprised of 55+ member National Communities. The world movement is directed by a General Assembly of delegates from all member nations which meets for two weeks every four years. This assembly elects an international executive council (ExCo) for 4 years and assigns this executive council tasks for the next 4 years.

The executive council members, elected in Hong Kong, are:

• President: Jose Maria Riera (Spain)
• Vice-President: Maria Clara Lucchetti Bingemer (Brazil)
• Treasurer: Vitaliano Nanagas (Philippines)
• Secretary: Ingeborg von Grafenstein (Germany)
• Consultor: Johan Vlogaert (Belgium)
• Consultor: Mary Nolan (Australia)
• Consultor: Victor Kachaka (Zambia)
• Co-opted by the ExCo: Alberto Gossweiler (Uruguay)

The Following are also Ex-officio members of the ExCo:

• Ecclesiastical Assistant: R.P. Peter-Hans Kolvenback, S.J.
• Vice-Eccles. Assistant: R.P. Julian Elizalde, S.J.
• Executive Secretary: Roswitha Cooper

The executive council has a secretariat in Rome to assist it in its work. The day to day work of the World Community includes providing training programs, being the liaison of communication among member nation communities and with the broader Church. PROGRESSIO the journal of the World Community is published by the International Secretariat in Rome. The secretariat is staffed by the Vice-Ecclesial Assistant, Executive Secretary and assistants.

Address:
World Secretariat Christian Life Community,
C.P. 6139, Borgo S. Spirito 8,
00195 Rome, ITALY.
e-mail: r.cooper@agora.stm.it

Themes of Past World Assemblies:

• 1973 AUGSBURG: A community at the Service of the Liberation of the Whole Person and of All Persons
• 1976 MANILA: Poor with Christ for a better service: The Vocation of CLC in The Mission of the Church
• 1979 ROME: Toward One World Community at the Service of One World
• 1982 PROVIDENCE, Rl, USA: This is what is asked: To Act Justly, to Love Tenderly and to Walk Humbly with Your God
• 1986 LOYOLA, SPAIN: Mary the Model of Mission
• 1990 GUADALAJARA, MEXICO: CLC at the Service of the Kingdom
• 1994 HONG KONG: CLC Community in Mission
• 1998 BRAZIL: