MARIST PROVINCE OF BRASIL CENTRO-SUL
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Ø Title of the project
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Project VIVEMAR
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Ø Objectives or aims
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The human, Christian and Marist formation of laypeople from Marist works of the Province:
1. To make profitable a personal encounter, a deeper knowledge of self and others.
2. To profit from the “book of life” of each participant, for sharing and reviewing it in the light of faith and of Marist spirituality.
3. To allow a vaster knowledge of Marist life, its origins, reality, spirituality and mission.
4. To sensitise the awakening of the lay Marist vocation.
5. To deepen the mission proper to the layperson in society and his or her commitment in the ecclesial Community, making some evangelical dimensions stand out that correspond better to our time and simplifying to the maximum the way of living the Gospel, incarnating a new style of life.
6. To provide in the context where a favourable atmosphere reigns for a fraternal experience, a healthy community experience and prayer life in the line of Marist apostolic spirituality.
7. To ensure that every participant of Vivemar, once having had the experience, be leaven for a change of life and act in their family and in the environment of their work.
8. To encourage their commitment in the mission, through awareness, acceptance and the experience of the spirituality of the Marist charism.
Ø History
- It was created in 1998.
- Through Vivemar more than fifty works in the whole Province are assured.
- Up to the present thirty-seven sessions have been held.
- About 1312 people, brothers and laypeople have participated.
a) 864 women and 385 men;
b) a total of 1249 laypeople and 63 brothers.
Ø Description of the project
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a) It is a project conceived by the former Marist Province of São Paulo, currently Brasil Centro-Sul, to animate the directives and orientations relative to laypeople who share Marist spirituality and mission.
b) It means “Marist Experience”.
c) It is an experience lived for five days during which brothers and lay Marists are invited to “plunge” firstly into self-knowledge to revise their values and attitudes before life.
d) The moments experienced during VIVEMAR give a new behaviour in relation to our neighbour, considered in a different way: with a Christian regard. By sharing life, the strong bonds of affection and fraternity are born, through which it is possible to know the love and mercy of God.
Ø Methodology of the proposition
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- It especially concerns levels of personal and Marist formation.
- It is first and foremost existential and is characterised by moments in which life is shared.
- It is impregnated with times of prayer and of Christian and Catholic formation.
Ø Allocation of the project
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- It consists of four stages, three of which have already been held.
- Each stage has a duration of five complete days.
- Each year there are held:
a) Four sessions of Vivemar I;
b) One or two sessions of Vivemar II;
c) Every two years, one session of Vivemar III.
- There are six sessions during the year.
- The programme follows a process rhythm according to the contents and the stages.
- The meetings are always conducted in Marist houses of the Province.
ü VIVEMAR I:
- - Theme: meeting with one-self.
- - Place: Campinas/SP, in the Institute of Our Lady Mediatrix.
- - There have already been twenty-six sessions.
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ü VIVEMAR II:
- - Theme: meeting with the other.
- - Place: Curitiba/PR, in the Marcellin Champagnat Marist Centre.
- - There have already been ten sessions.
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ü VIVEMAR III:
- - Theme: meeting with the community.
- - Place: Florianópolis/SC, in the Champagnat Retreat Centre.
- - There has only been one session.
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ü VIVEMAR IV:
- - Theme: meeting with the “Marist being”.
- - Place: to be determined.
- - There has not been any session yet.
Ø Principal recipients
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- These are, by preference, the laypeople of the Marist works and the brothers of the entire Province.
- The majority are laypeople, but there are always some brothers who participate.
- There are, on average, fifty people in each session.
- The groups are heterogeneous in what concerns the functions that they exercise, sex, degree of preparation, age, etc.
- The invitation is made equally to brothers and laypeople but participation is voluntary.
Ø Those responsible
- Team from the Centre of Spirituality and Marist Experience, composed of five people:
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Co-ordinator: Lúcia Coelho
Liaison Brother: Celedônio Cruz
Assistant: Leandro Camillo
Agent: Glaziele Pasturczak
Secretary: Karin Lacerda
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- Support team: People who collaborate at certain times by giving conferences and a specific formation on the subjects that are proposed for the experience: for that brothers and laypeople are invited.
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Ø Resources
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1. Human :
- a) Five people full time;
- b) Support teams for each of the four stages;
- c) Collaborative people in the places where the sessions are held.
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2. Materials:
- a) a place with all the infrastructure;
- b) a car for daily needs and for trips;
- c) three meeting houses with all the infrastructure of the secretariat;
- d) publications:
- brochures, pamphlets and/or support material for some specific moments;
- report and/or “memories” taken during the experience;
- a CD with all the photos taken during the meeting;
- posters for commemorative dates (Christmas, Easter, Mothers’ Day, etc.) and birthdays;
- bimonthly bulletin;
- document: Project VIVEMAR (republished)
3. Financiers:
- a) the Province maintains the Centre of Spirituality and Marist Experience;
- b) each work helps its members who participate (transport and accommodation).
EVALUATION:
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Ø Realisations
- - Consolidation of the project in the Province for the formation of Marist laity.
- - A great level of acceptance with laypeople and brothers.
- - It is not a matter of a circumstantial event but of an important element in a joint and ongoing formation process which concerns the unique mission of the Institute and of the Church.
- - The process is followed in the local sector with accompaniment by correspondence and annual visits to works, the responsibility of the Centre of Spirituality and Marist Experience.
- - It responds to the desire of laypeople to deepen their life plan as people and as Marists.
- - Obvious and proven fruit from life testimonies.
- - Experience assured in the Provincial co-ordination, with its structure, its finances and its resources made available.
- - Those who have already stopped working in the work continue to receive the same attention of follow-up as when they were linked to it.
- - Regular evaluation by the organising team.
- - Sensitisation and reactivation of the awareness and the need of the formation of the lay Marist.
- - Structures of perseverance through other programmes offered by the Province for accompanying the same formation process: the MChFM, Interunidades, Identity of PUC, Retreats, “Hermitage” Formation Course on Marist spiritual patrimony, etc.
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Ø Challenges
- - Assuring structures that allow the continuity of this awakening at the local level.
- - Motivating the Vivemarists so that they follow-up the experience of Vivemar.
- - Integrating and making the local sectors of Pastoral Ministry responsible to support and follow-up the experience of Vivemar.
- - Motivating more laypeople in positions of responsibility so that they participate in Vivemar.
- - Guaranteeing the constant and difficult presence of brothers in this experience.
- - Providing a layperson, including the one who is not yet linked to the work, with the chance of nourishing the lived experience.
- - Establishing a spontaneous link between Vivemar and the MChFM.
- - Discovering the identity of the lay Marist in its various forms of membership to the Institute and deepening it.
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
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VIVEMAR:
- It is an intense time of personal and Marist formation in the context of the process of the integral and shared formation, of brothers and laypeople, that includes the three aspects of an integral formation: the personal, the professional and the Marist; with the guarantee of structures of follow-up and perseverance both at the local and Provincial levels in the setting of the Marist mission.
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The Province:
- a) It is composed of 10,427 committed laypeople and 134 brothers;
- b) It looks after approximately 41,000 students (number to be confirmed).
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- Three great challenges:
- a) a greater clarity about the identity of brothers and lay Marists;
- b) sufficient structure for looking after and forming so many lay Marist vocations;
- c) guaranteeing the unity and the identity of the Marist mission.
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