Chapter Six begins today: The Formative Itenerary Of Missionary Disciples. This is a substantial portion of the document, stretching to section 346. For the rest of this calendar year, we’ll look at principles, places, and people who will assist in the making of a disciple.
Just to remember, when we speak of a disciple, she or he is a member of a subset of believers. There are no passive disciples.
In sections 240 through 275, we’ll look at a Trinitarian Spirituality Of Encounter With Jesus Christ. In turn, our topics will include the encounter with Jesus, liturgy, Scripture, service, popular piety, Mary, and the saints. Let’s begin:
240. An authentic proposal of a encounter with Jesus Christ must be established upon a solid foundation of Trinity-Love. The experience of a triune God who is inseparable unity and community enables us to overcome selfishness and fully find ourselves in service to the other. The baptismal experience is the starting point of all Christian spirituality, which is based on the Trinity.
The baptismal formula is not just a symbolic or magical set of words. It’s also not about the function of the Persons of the Trinity. At root, Trinitarian spirituality is about union in love. Communities aspiring to Christ commit themselves to attempt this love.
An expression of the Trinity’s action in our lives from Saint Paul:
241. It is God the Father who attracts us through the eucharistic surrender of his Son (cf. Jn 6:44), gift of love with which he went out to meet his children, so that renewed by the power of the Spirit, we might call him Father:
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption. As proof that you are children, God sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” (Gal. 4:4-6).
This is a new creation, where the love of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit renews the life of creatures.
Comments?
For deeper examination, an English translation of the 2007 document from the Aparecida Conference.
Catholic Sensibility 