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 Nineteen of
us, from the five families of the Assumption have just met in the
Assumptionist Generalate in Rome for a workshop on our shared charism.
This initiative of the General Councils of the family took place exactly
five years after the Colloquium on the Origins of our Assumption Family
which inspired it. We met with the twofold aim of clarifying the
particular gift we bring to the Church and of deepening our
unity
. Our method was to share our understanding of the spiritual
experience of our founders and our own lived experience of the
charism, while at the same time building communion among us
by common prayer, moments of recreation, by visiting Rome together “in the footsteps
of Fr. D’Alzon” and by an unforgettable celebration of the Eucharist in
the crypt of St Peter’s. It was a rich and very
enjoyable experience.
 What did we discover? Certainly
our congregations all have common historical and cultural roots: in 19th
century France and in the Augustinian tradition. This is reflected in the
common language we all speak - about Incarnation, Kingdom, Church and
society etc. But more than this, we realised firstly that the
friendships between our founders bound our Congregations
together at the beginning and that we are called to nurture
friendship between us today. We realised that we all share the
main traits of the charism, but that the different Congregations emphasise
different facets of it. So we need each other. It is together that
we will be able to manifest the charism of the Assumption fully and
completely.
We were excited by these discoveries and want to share them with you.
We are preparing a full account of the workshop, which will include the
papers presented by each Congregation on the spiritual and human
experience of our respective founders and a selection of the foundational
texts we shared. It will also include the ways we saw to answer
the call to go forward on this road of friendship and communion.
We see this as a prophetic path in our fractured world. The ties which
unite us can be signs of hope in the Church and in a world which thirsts
for unity.
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