General Principles

Last year, the Executive Council of the Italian CLC asked all the local communities to devote some time to eeking a deeper understanding of the GPs and GNs. Given that the groups were at different levels of growth and maturity, the Council thought that the following guidelines might help each towards a reflection both prayerful and fruitful.

1. If CLC is in itself the response to a vocation, then the General Principles should not be seen as a rule book, but rather as the written expression of our allegiance to God. "The General Principles express the way we want to respond to Christ's call. They are our covenant with God, with the Church and with all

people. They will help us to fulfil our deepest desires of service. We will use them as a focus for our prayer, as individuals and in community. They will be inspiration and guidance for us...." So spoke World CLC's Executive Secretary, as he addressed Cardinal Pironio, charged by the Pope with returning to CLC the text of the General Principles after its approval by the Holy See.

2. The importance of Putting it into practice: The GPs, are general guidelines valid in any part of the world, but which have to be lived out personally, here and now; "These principles are to be interpreted not so much by the letter of this text but rather by the spirit of the Gospel and the interior law of love. This law, which the Spirit inscribes in our hearts, expresses itself anew in each situation of daily life." (cf GP 2 and GN 6)

3. It is important to live out this reflection on the General Principles in the spirit of the Church, and to bear in mind those elements which come from the tradition of the Church or which link us today with this tradition.

4. We must allow the better of our life experiences and our desires to come to the surface in the light of the different points of the General Principles. Naturally, and inevitably, problems and difficulties we have lived through will come up, and here it is important not so much to concentrate on the problems themselves but on our own experience of growth from them.

To put all this into practical terms, it may be helpful to consider the following questions :

a) What experiences of mine, or of my community's, do these few lines call to mind ? What desires do they stir in me ?
b) What themes of the Revelation and of Jesus's message do these articles of the General Principles call to mind ?
c) What is the next step for me, personally, and for us as a community to take in order to follow this way of life more fully ?

5. On the basis of previous experience, we would not particularly recommend reading straight through the General Principles and General Norms. Rather, we would suggest as an initial, deeper approach, a thematic reading. Here are some examples of how to go about it:

a) A unique calling, a total response:
GPs 4, 1, 5; GN 2
... and some particular means of development and growth:
Spiritual Exercises: GP 5; GNs 2 and 8
Discernment: GPs 8c and 12a; GN 9

b) Towards a particular lifestyle (centred on Jesus, guided by the Spirit):
GPs 5, 2) 12

c) What makes us friends in the Lord (called to live in community):
GPs 12c, 7; GNs 3 9, 40

d) Following Christ in poverty: simplicity of life, working for justice, preferential option for the poor, putting into practice, ... all of this following the example of Mary:
GPs 4, 9

e) Part of a church with a mission (not forgetting as well the Pope's persistent call to a New Evangelisation):
GPs 6, 3, 14

Being called to show this apostolic zeal both as individuals and as a community:
GPs 8, 1; GN 10

Of course, these are just a few illustrations of how to encounter the GPs in a way that can be fruitful; these examples don't need to be followed rigidly.

Experience not only at national but also at the world level, has shown that a group reading of the GPs, using these guidelines, can be very helpful.