In a call with the Province Secretary, I was informed that we will have an interfacing meeting with the other commission heads. I am the delegate for the Commission on Social Communications and it is our practice to gather together once in a while to compare our plans and synergize. This means I have to revisit and update our plans again, and I have a few days to do it.
This blog entry is not just about that meeting but about that paper.
How do Salesians do their mission? We know that Salesians work in the Youth Ministry of the Church, modeled after the life and charism of St. John Bosco. There have been leaps in the understanding of our place as Salesians in the Church and how we do “building the Kingdom of God.”
Charism, that gift of the spirit given to the Congregation, finds its local expression in the life and work of the Salesian Community. This community is a group of Salesian priests and brothers who live and work together following the Constitutions of the Salesian Society. The mission is primarily entrusted to the local community headed by the Rector.
As a community we put our heads and hearts together in discerning God’s Will – what God wants us to do in this place and in the now. Yet we do not do it by ourselves alone but also involving the lay people and the youth. By recognizing the needs of the people of God where the Salesian community finds itself, and listening to the signs of the times and the call of the Spirit, and recognizing the gifts that God has bestowed upon us, we form our Salesian Educative Pastoral Plan, or SEPP.
The SEPP is the embodiment of the dialogue between God and the Salesian community. It is formed and patterned after the identity, spirituality and charism of the Salesians but is also a bridge towards addressing the needs and calling of the people of God in that locality. The SEPP is the mission of the local community.
As Salesians, we never work alone. We are at the service of the community and its SEPP. We may be given our tasks and designations, our own niche in work of the community, but our work is not ours but is always connected to and in service of the bigger plan.
This was the fruit of reflection and lesson of the past that allows us to go beyond “my work” towards “Salesian work, our work”. It allows for transparency and responsibility and accountability. It ensures continuity in mission, which our lay people have always been keen of, when there are turnover of Salesians in the community. The SEPP remains, the members of the community do not.
The SEPP is not static, not set in stone. Time and again it is revisited and revised, always seeking to attune itself to the Spirit who is always alive and is never captured in human plans.
The SEPP is not just a paper. It is our Salesian synodal way, a way of being Church the Don Bosco style.
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