Objectives of CLC Process

OBJECTIVES OF THE CLC PROCESS

CLC's ideal is to strive to follow Jesus by being at the service of His mission. God first loved us (I John 4,19). The call of Jesus, source of all Christian vocations, enlightens our way, and permits us to examine and understand the signs of the times and to find hope in them. Following Jesus, guided by the Spirit, our life becomes an adventure. With Him, illness or health, family, work, and society itself take on new meaning. Those who follow Christ know that they have found a treasure, the precious pearl spoken of by the Gospels. The call of Jesus is not just one more call among many but it is the call that gives life its sense. This Christian vocation is the fundamental call of CLC.

A call to which we respond as People of God (the Church), by looking for our brethren, those who are materially and socially poor, those whose cultural identity is at risk, the marginalized Sent by the Father, anointed by the Holy Spirit, we not only announce the Good News to them, but we receive from them the witness of their faith and their hope, and we collaborate with them render our world more human and more divine.

In order to respond to this vocation and mission, the communities and each one of their members go through a gradual process in which intellect, affections and the ability to communicate play an important role. Reflection on Jesus' message, on the social and ecclesial context we live in and on Ignatian spirituality, helps us look for the proper solutions to the problems and challenges we are faced with. Throughout the CLC process, we learn to appreciate the importance of the affective dimension of our relationship with God, with others, with ourselves and with nature; to recognize the presence of our tendencies, desires, emotions and passions,- to integrate them coherently, being guided and moved by the Spirit. In CLC,, we learn to communicate the others on a personal level, through team work as well as publications and modern means of communication.

In this process, we can distinguish three, intimately inter-related, objectives:

1. CLC AS A PLACE FOR A REAL EXPERIENCE OF GOD

This experience of God is acquired above all during the Spiritual Exercises but also in our daily life. It is a progressive and Trinitarian experience:

- Discovering God as a friend, Emmanuel, Creator and Redeemer of the human family and mine in particular;
- Listening to the call of Jesus who invites us to be with Him and to share in his mission,
- Putting ourselves at the service of the Kingdom;
- Learning to recognize and to welcome the movements of the Spirit.
- Seeking and finding God in all things, becoming Contemplatives in action.

2. CLC AS A PLACE WHERE WE LEARN HOW TO MAKE CHOICES

The CLC's formative process leads us to make choices which are more and more important in the light of our fundamental option: the vocation. The CLC formation is not carried out in a greenhouse but in the turmoil of daily life in order to:

- awaken in our hearts the deepest and truest desires
- put them into practice by courageous choices and commitments in daily life,
- put one's own life on the line, not for self-love, nor for a personal advantage, but for love of God, animated by the question: What will I do for Christ?
- to purify our desires so that they manifest the vocation given by God;
- as to the style of life, the option for CLC has an impact in all aspects of daily life: in our affective life, the use of money, time, political options, the workplace.
- in the process of choosing a state of life (in CLC-Youth) adequate space should be given to marriage as a vocation as well as the priesthood and religious life.

3. CLC AS A PLACE OF DISCERNMENT FOR APOSTOLIC MISSION

In CLC, the group is called to become: first a group of "friends", then a group of "friends in the Lord" and finally an "Apostolic Community". A listening community which allows itself to be questioned by the problems and the challenges of society, so that it may become a "sign of salvation", capable of telling others about conversion to the Gospel which gives salvation. Mission is not something we should be doing; rather it is a relationship we are called to foster. This mission can be:

- An individual mission (in the context of one's own family, profession, society and Church.)
- A common mission: the way in which the whole community and each of its members announces the Good News in a concrete historical context.

20th. December 1997