Did you know that the Constitutions are intended to be a binding reference for all options related to the presence and mission of the Congregation anywhere in the world?
My name is Bernardita Bolaños Ahumada. Sister Hospitaller and provincial Superior for the Latin America Province.
Reviewing the Constitutions and their practical implications for Hospitality
The Constitutions express the history of Hospitality, as it was lived by the first community and has continued to be by the successive generations of Sisters Hospitallers, rescuing the origin, the essence of charisma and spirituality, the way of life and mission of our Congregation, as well as the fundamental principles of consecrated life: spiritual, theological, charismatic, ecclesiastical, legal… A Sister Hospitaller is called upon to renew the ways of carrying out the mission, in communion with other laypeople, non-denominational even, while preserving our charismatic essence. Our Constitutions are intended to be a binding reference for options related to the presence and mission of the Congregation anywhere in the world.
The participatory methodology followed has involved all the sisters in the process of reviewing our Constitutions, helping us to become aware of the need for personal and community conversion, going deeper into the identity, values, vision and mission of the Congregation, in order to revitalise our following of Jesus, in a way that is consistent with the Charisma of Hospitality. A Sister Hospitaller is called upon to continue along the path of conversion-renewal, through a process of continuous education and training, which guarantees vocational fidelity. Participation, therefore, is a duty and a right.
The needs of life and the Congregation’s mission are challenges contemplated in the process of reviewing our Constitutions. A Sister Hospitaller is called upon to accept the great challenge of combining fidelity with creativity, in the practice of Hospitality, rooted in our spiritual heritage and the demands of organising and managing our apostolic work, integrating the realities of an ever-changing world, in various areas, so as to act today as prophets of Hospitality.
The process of reviewing our “golden book” has helped each sister to recreate the “gift, to deepen it and develop it within the experience of the Spirit, within the Church, under the guidance of the hierarchy and the superiors of the Congregation (MR 11). A Sister Hospitaller is called upon to discover the living incarnation of the Gospel in Hospitality, with its nuances and richness, in the joys and shadows, of men and women, as well as to perceive the passage of God in these humanly divine realities.
