1. Paradigms of Religious Life Modified: M. McGuire 2007

2. Paradigms of Religious Life
WE COME FROM A SEARCH…
Religious Life has emerged as a way to be “ a lived memory of Jesus”. His original desire was to affirm with his life the “ primacy of God.” This vocation in its origin, does not have its’ foundation nor in action in a definite style of working. It is a personal call that very soon begins developing a communitarian dimension.

3. ASPECTS OF a New SEARCH Religious Life has been discovering:
a new consciousness that allows us to question, rethink not only the structures and
life styles but also
the main symbols.

4. a new milieu in which to think about:
GOD – Today we interpret God in a different way because our life experience is different.
THE PERSON – We are recovering and discovering new dimensions of the person.
THE WORLD – we are having a new understand of the world from diverse sources: a different experience of the world, a new spirituality and a different experience with creation.

5. These ways of understanding the experience of God, the person and the world…and the interaction among them has generated and continues generating today, different models or paradigms of religious life.

6. PARADIGMS OF RELIGIOUS LIFE
What is a PARADIGM?
A paradigm is a group of articulated ideas that allows the interpretation of reality. It is like a MODEL.

7. PARADIGM?
It contains a mentality,
an experience of God,
a communitarian lifestyle,
the way to understand mission, relationships…

8. Developing Inner reality Outer manifestation
Interaction of phase of a personal spiritual life
-verbal freshness of symbols

9. These should not be labeled as “good” or “ bad”
These should not be labeled as “good” or “ bad”. Each one of them has had its’ contribution and it also has had its’ “limits.”
The important thing is to see what each one of the paradigms has given me and where do I find myself now

10. CLASSIC PARADIGM: it looks for the “ state of greater perfection”
GOD
The norm: to fulfill the rule
The will of God is expressed in the constitution and is represented by the authority
The ideal is PERFECTION. There is a clear way to see what it means to be “ a good religious”. We had to assimilate objective values, to adapt, to assimilate…
PERSON
COMMUNITY
WORLD
MISSION

11. The important values are:
CLASSIC PARADIGM: it looks for the
“state of greater perfection”
GOD
The relationship is vertical…(up – down)
The important values are:
effort, overcoming oneself, interior life, observance of the rule, sacrifice, mortification…
It does not pay attention to the milieu (mission)
PERSON
COMMUNITY
WORLD
MISSION

12. It is important to identify the “footsteps” it has left in us.
CLASSIC PARADIGM
 This paradigm is very consistent and efficient …it continues today, it is strong.
It has contributed to and contributes very important values that are good to recognize and keep.
It is important to identify the “footsteps” it has left in us.
GOD
PERSON
COMTY
WORLD
MISSION

13. Formula – not personal FollowWe the rule - doesn’t make you perfectI
We are never sure we are doing it all the tme
Have mjany lapses- failures
I am still only a human- who forgets, makes mistakes and I disagree ‘ I have my own opinionm
Own decisions are wrong = disobedient

14. MODERN PARADIGM:  is born from the impact of modern life after Vatican II
At the ecclesial and religious life levels, the coming of Vatican II is strongly lived.
The referential norm: the fullness of the person in God. And for some the commitment with the world.
GOD
PERSON
COMTY
WORLD
MISSION

15. MODERN PARADIGM
Motto: “ To break the rule because God has made us free.”
The incorporation of human sciences takes place. A kind of “pop-psychology” appears.

16. Pop Psychology Self-fulfillment – humanistic I want to be happy!!!!
Express yourself – your Needs
Express your feelings…..
Self-actualization.
Valuing the human person
Vat 11 = listen within to God
Listen to the movement of God within
Person is at Center= though optimistic view.

17. MODERN PARADIGM:  is born from the impact of modern life after Vatican II
Relationships can be vertical or horizontal …they are diffused and confusing.
Values: conscience, freedom, free and critical expression, affectivity, independence…
GOD
PERSON
COMTY
WORLD
MISSION

18. Person at Center Be prepared to Risk
To accept possibilityof being right / wrong
To be open to uncertainty – don’t know what is coming
Responsibility = automomy – make up your mind –consult and then act.
How do this”\? = practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice practice
Fully human and fully alive!!!! (fearfull 0

19. MODERN PARADIGM Milieu and commitment with the world become a value.
Important moral, social, religious aspects are being lost and not mentioned.
Pop psychology is one-sided
No sense of obllgation to others

20. POSTMODERN PARADIGM (move forward): is built to try to overcome the deviations that took place after Vatican II and also is an attempt to recover the essence of religious life.
In practice, the ways of living it out have been various diverse depending on the concrete milieu and historical moments…Some of the ways focus on mission and others on “the person.”
GOD
WORLD MISSION
PERSON COMTY

21. POSTMODERN PARADIGM
Formation tries to recreate the charism of the congregation, to return to the roots…
there are considerably less vocations.

22. Milieu and commitment become very important concepts.
POSTMODERN PARADIGM:
Values: time, attention to what is personal, communication, self-giving, relationships.
Milieu and commitment become very important concepts.
GOD
PERSON COMTY
WORLD MISSION

23. combination Elements of the Classical Elements of the Modern
Interact in religious experience today

24. A recourse for Religious Life is to create a sacramental model
Dilemma: a) the ecclesiological tradition of Trent and Vatican I, which strongly accentuated the external elements of belonging to the Church.
b) the tradition of the Reformation that stressed the opposite pole
the Council found in the category “sacramentum” a bridge between the two traditions

25. The external dimension of the Catholic tradition is maintained
The external dimension of the Catholic tradition is maintained. There is no sacrament without visible sign.
But the invisible side of interior grace communicated and received is also present, accentuated more in the evangelical pouring out.

26. The fundamental question with regard to this model is to ask about the meaning, significance and inner reality of the rules, regulation, signs, symbols and the practices of Religious Life
If they do not promote any personal experience, spiritual or inner, they have no reason for being
if the inner does not become external in some form or practice, one can fear Religious Life becoming pure arbitrary subjectivity.

27. This sacramental structure becomes a criterion for discernment
Religious Life withdraws from pure interiority, affirming the incarnation of grace, as well as
rejecting pharisaism, legalism, and the externalization of religious rites without a corresponding inner experience

28. The sacramental model, however, tries to articulate internal convictions, the conversion of the heart, and the
conscious commitment to address social and external needs, as consecrated life within a social body

29. modernity and post-modernity that values the inner person and his autonomy.
Capitulation here runs the risk of degenerating into subjectivism and arbitrariness.
Being committed to strengthening the external signs of Religious Life, much to the liking of an insecure generation, formed through the media culture of appearance, can have an immediate success, fascinating and ecstatic.

30. the sacramental model seems to be the path to construction
Mere Externalism: does not respond, however, to the deepest part of Religious Life and is a dangerous disfigurement of that life.
What is at stake in SACRAMENTAL MODEL is the Christian mystique of a passionate following of the person of Jesus and his style of life as an option for life, and a founding experience of Religious Life

31. Kingdom of God Reality!
The Kingdom of God figures centrally in the life of Jesus and of God of the Kingdom. In this we find the unique and singular role of the poor, the excluded, and the sinner as the prime receivers of the Kingdom and the preferred loved ones of God. In following Jesus, the religious meets once again the figure of the poor in all its clarity and exigency

32. Jesus Christ is the door to the experience of God, in which there is no separation between God and the world of one’s brothers and sisters.
The evangelical model of living Religious Life necessarily involves this openness to the poor, thus becoming significant for the religious and for those outside this form of life.
any re-founding, renewal or reinvigoration of Religious Life must go through relationship with the poor. The option for the poor is the greatest sign of the credibility of Religious Life

33. New Situation of Religious Life.
A number of factors, from the dearth of new members to the rapid aging of persons, along with the weight of apostolic work and a new theology of laity, have moved Religious Life to a new and promising relationship with lay persons.

34. new social movements
What will be the participation of Religious Life with regard to ecological movements, pacifist, anti-armament activities,
to questions of ethnicity, gender, the defense of human rights,
the struggle for land for indigenous peoples and the landless and homeless, the state-less, in other words, with regard to an innumerable number of movements?

35. in a growing post-modernity
Nothing seems to mobilize people. All energy is expended in the “carpe diem”, seeking the enjoyment of the present moment. In all of this, people are enclosed in a sad narcissism and materialism.
They cannot bear the mystery of the self, the loneliness in the affective life, failure or any suffering. The body receives the care and attention once devoted to the spirit

36. The young are extremely sensitive to the double cult of an induced happiness and the well-muscled body. Religious Life wants to find followers among them, if it wants to continue.
The first message to give them is one of hope. Spes contra spem, hoping against all hope. The cheerfulness of the religious, his enthusiasm for his life, and his joyful going forth into mission spread hope among young people who are prematurely aging. Life is losing meaning

37. The relationships that youth establishe with, and where there was the newness of love, there seems to be only the enjoyment of the body of the other. They learn a great deal about sex and forget love. Religious can show a new form of Loving!
A mature balance in relationships will continue to be an ongoing challenge, especially in the young generations with their open affective natures and in the flower of their youth

38. Hope and love are two important realities for Human Existence.
All the works of the Church are about the Faith, Hope and Love, to be instilled in the hearts of men. (Rahner).
The Church seeks the heart of people, the believing, hoping and loving heart that yields to the mystery of God.
The agape dimension of Religious Life is its greatest sign of credibility

39. “Only love is worthy of faith “
The rejuvenation of Religious Life will depend on the signs of love it can radiate inwardly and outwardly
The spirit of service and of poverty is closely linked to gratuitousness. Both of these—service and poverty—offers a new way of recovering the professional and vocational relationship.
The spirit of service is a quality that any professional work or activity of a religious should display. It is the vocation that provides the elements of grace and spiritual beauty to the career

40. I believe because I pray (Rahner)
we are religious because we pray. The experience of prayer nourishes Religious Life, without it, the spring goes dry.

41. Statistical Vocation Demography
Vocations come for the poorer social classes to a middle-class life of abundance, from the rural to the urban world, from work to study, from public schools to better schools, from lack of social status to a place in society, and with an affective transference from the father/mother structure to that of the institution/formator

42. Post-modernity Gains!
ability to experience pleasure while being sensitive to the playful, to the festive; it values the body and one’s own subjectivity without being easily dominated;
it develops a sense of self-evaluation along with a care of the self and intimacy with the self as a defense against a dangerous, violent and fragmented society; it can see its own limits

43. with strong self-affirmation as an answer to insecurity with regard to self-realization;
it displays rebellion in the face of backward institutions and impatience with despotic authority;
It shows feelings of belonging with regard to its motivation and broad, democratic experiences;
it cultivates bonds of friendship between groups with desire for a fraternal community life and shared prayer, personal life and mission

44. Post Modern Paradigm
This paradigm is very diffuse; the ways to implement it were very diverse depending on milieu, institutional processes, values. The real and positive is the intent to move forward.

45. THE INTEGRAL PARADIGM?..... It is emerging
It is called “integral” because
 It contemplated the continual search for God: BUT takes in to account:
Within the circumstances of life
All the dimensions of the person (body, psychic, spirit...)
and the essential experience of “ knowing that God dwells within us and we are lived by God.”

46. EXPERIENCE OF GOD IN THE ENCOUNTER WITH MY SELF (INTERIORITY)
INTEGRAL PARADIGM
Schema
EXPERIENCE OF GOD IN THE ENCOUNTER WITH MY SELF (INTERIORITY)
GOD present in each person through the HOLY SPIRIT
EXPERIENCE OF GOD IN THE COMUNITY (RELATIONSHIPS)
EXPERIENCE OF GOD IN THE MISSION (COMITMENT)

47. Some important Elements:
INTEGRAL PARADIGM
Some important Elements:
The call to experience God in the totality of reality,
personal responsibility,
the sense of having been called together as a community
solidarity with the excluded ones,
life understood as a PROCESS… on going and developmental – dynamic = changing

48. INTEGRAL PARADIGM
The central nucleus of the congregation is the “ passion-seduction” of God. A God that is creator and savior; God of Life, Mercy, “partial” to the impoverished…the God who is Mystery and “always greater”.
It is a PROCESS for the whole of life… a way of understanding LIFE AS A PROCESS, is the key of this integral paradigm

49. INTEGRAL PARADIGM
This paradigm is characterized for its’ attempt to SYNTHESIZE and HARMONIZE.
It presents the possibility to be CONSISTENT with our values and the understanding of : God the person, and the world.

50. INTEGRAL PARADIGM: SOME CONTRIBUTIONS
The key is PROCESS
The Attitude of SEARCH and DISCERNMENT
The HARMONY of the diverse elements
The possibility to overcome some DUALISMS
Integration understood as something PROGRESSIVE

51. CONCLUSION
All the Paradigms of Religious Life have searched and continue to search for the “Treasure” that the Gospel speaks of.
Our present culture has a real hunger for meaning, for reasons to live and to hope. We, like the person in the parable, have experienced that the “hidden treasure” exists. That the Creative and Liberating LOVE of God dwells in the “field”, our world, our history, each person.

52. CONCLUSION
As Religious Life Today, we are called to reveal with our personal ad communal lives that God is LOVE… to follow the lifestyle of Jesus living in the way as suggested to us by the parable of the Treasure.
Witness to the Resurrection - of a destiny to be entered into.

53. Personal Experience of God Vocational Core of Motivation

54. Let us take some moments to reflect on our personal experience of God…
Guide Questions for Reflections:
Let us take some moments to reflect on our personal experience of God…
Go back to the time when God became a real person to you…Recall the event how you felt… joy pained tried tested challenged?

55. What moved you to respond to the situation?
What did the response demand from you?
What obstacles did you meet?
What give you strength to overcome them?
What does this say about you – who you are and where you are going?

56. Allow yourself to feel once more the personal and unconditional love of God…
(5 minutes reflection)

57. It is a unique experience…
It is your experience and not someone else’s…

58. Therefore, it is an experience based on reality, something that is actually happened in a real situation and not just mediated by a created reality.

59. It is holistic. It is your whole being – that is experiencing and not just knowing about at the head level.
It is actual and noticeable…

60. It is an experience of my personal vocation and mission.

61. This is the- image = I am a loved sinner
This is the- image = I am a loved sinner! experience that leads us to see an image of God and makes us experience the true God.

62. This experience of God unifies and integrates all aspects of one’s being into what we call core experience: No matter what I see self as Loved!
Our experience of God permeates our whole life and mission and express itself in a response that is uniquely ours.

63. Reality Response Relationship Transforms Calls forth
is committed to
Response
is involved in
Integration into the Core Spirit of the Person
Flows from
Sheds light on
Sustains
is rooted in
Shapes
Relationship
Graphic Framework of Spirituality

64. Graphic Framework of Jesus’ Spirituality
Transforms
Response Preach good news to the poor Set prisoners free Give sight to the blind Set the down- trodden free
Calls forth
Reality Issues during the time of Jesus
is committed to
is involved in
Doing the will of the Father
Flows from
Sheds light on
Sustains
is rooted in
Shapes
Relationships of Jesus with the Father “ABBA”
Graphic Framework of Jesus’ Spirituality

65. Psycho-Spiritual Dynamics and Elements of this Experience!

66. CALL TO MISSION – FRUIT OF INTEGRATION.
Church stresses four Elements which ought to be taken into account in the assessment of an adequate human identity.
a) Human identity has to be sufficiently developed before a commitment is made
b) Adequate helps must be given in formation for this

67. Elements which ought to be taken into account in the assessment of an adequate human identity
c) The overall spiritual life must be adapted and made suitable to meet the physical and psychological make-up of vocationers
d ) Human identity must be integrated with the spiritual and ministerial / missionary identities of the person in a chosen religious commitment,

68. Interior attitude
And interior attitude of human detachment, frees the person for a life of “letting-go” of one’s life, time, qualities, name, status and power.
Also needing help to discover the unsettling immature motivations
These immature motivations are usually centered on need-gratification at a subconscious level. Gradually the person gets to integrate these needs with the values of Christ.

69. Integration of Vertical Dimension
The Church calls for an integration of the vertical dimension (union with God) and the horizontal dimension (service of others).
Indeed the service of God should stimulate and foster the exercise of the virtues of humility obedience, fortitude and chastity – by which one shares in the emptying of Christ.

70. Integration of Vertical Dimension
This integration invites self-transcendence i.e. by transcending what pleases oneself, one becomes free to do what pleases God and this leads to fulfillment in vocation

71. Transforms
A sense of mission/service Perseverance and Commitment Simplicity
Calls forth
Awareness/ Consciousness of the world/self
is committed to
is involved in
Deep Faith (discernment & prayer)
Flows from
Sheds light on
Sustains
is rooted in
Shapes
Sense of community Care of Creation
Values Matrix

72. Religious and Spiritual Life
Modern spirituality for all Christians;
Trinitarian devotion to the incarnate word;
mysticism and devotion to the Holy Spirit;
religious renewal of Christian life;
stress on fidelity to the Church and service to the needs of the faithful;

73. Experience of Self-Transcendence
Emotional Self- Transcendence
Getting to know my prevailing feelings and moods;
Learning not to be controlled by them – i.e getting out of because I feel it I should be that way or do that feeling!
Learning always to put these feelings into the reference – how will this further my growth.

74. Self-Transcendence- Yes to Something And No to something else!
Philanthropic Self-Transcendence
Surrendering attachment to my feelings for the good of another
Not insisting on having my way or needs so that another person can be helped or a good deed can be accomplished
Practicing the human virtues (spiritual practice) of: kindness, generosity, forgiveness, understanding, patience

75. Self-Transcendence Theocentric Self- Transcendence
Surrendering my feelings, thoughts, likes and dislikes so that God can be served and worshiped
Letting go of detachment to likes / dislikes in order to show something of the Love of God
Offering my sacrifices and struggles by uniting them with Christ’s offering for the Redemption of the world.

76. Theocentric Self-Transcendence growth benefits
Having a resignation to what is going on…
“Look at me , I limited, I can do
so little, God has to do everything.”
We need to forget ourselves and let God do the worrying. We need to live from hour to hour and from day to day.

77. Theocentric Self- Transcendence
Yet having a sense of HOPE – that God is working even in difficult situations;
Being focused on this HOPE – the Work of God and having a Prayerful-recollected sense of God’s presence in daily life

78. Personal Experience of God: Triune God dwelling in me Self Image: I am indwelt, loved by the Triune God, called to live by the Word Incarnate in all reality, led by the Spirit Image of others: all are called to be a community of disciples, indwelt by the Triune God, living the Word and led by the Spirit, missioned to proclaim the Good News to all people

79. CREATE A PERSONAL MOTTO !!!
May the Holy Triune God Live in Our Hearts and in the Hearts of All People!
(ST Arnold Jansenn)

80. To GOD THE HONOR TO MY NEIGHBOR THE BENEFIT TO MYSELF THE BURDEN
ANNA HELENA
STOLLENWERK

81. REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
1. In the light of what I have heard and reflected upon…What gives me light, challenges me or confirms my own personal experience?
2. Which “footsteps” of the various paradigms am I aware of in my religious life journey? Which ones do I recognize and own…and which ones challenge me: How do they influence my daily life?
3. Which characteristics of the “integral paradigm” attract me most?