INTRODUCTION
(To see a powerpoint presentation click:Canossian Laity Through The Years)
One of the prophetic intuitions of our Foundress, Saint Magdalene of Canossa, has been: to involve the Laity in the
Mission of the Church and of the Institute.
Magdalene had adopted a very specific system in order to use, in the best possible way, the means she had at hand, especially the existing human resources. Her strategy was to place the Sisters in very populated urban centres, places which today are very central, but, at the time of the Foundress were at the periphery of the city. The social strata of the land owners, was, somewhat, the link between the city and the villages. The organization of the Ministries of Charity, at that time, demanded that the Communities had at least seven Members. To open Communities in the villages where the population was much less, would have been a waste of energies.
To be of help to the people of the rural areas as well, Magdalene thought of “the county side Teachers” prepared through residential Seminars.
There is an affinity between the Country side Teachers and the external Tertiaries and a link with the internal Tertiaries.
To simplify, the first were prepared to carry out the same Ministries of Charity as the Sisters, in places where the Sisters could not reach. The others, instead, had to respond to the needs of the local church and the needs of the territory, but not necessarily linked with the work of the Daughters of Charity.
There is another similarity between the County teachers and the external Tertiaries: they lived in their own families, while the internal Tertiaries lived, a somewhat, Community life.
On the other hand, the ‘Interns’ as well as the Country Teachers were called, in the mind of the Foundress, to a life of chastity, while the ‘Externs’ could also be married women or widows.
This synthesis underlines some basic points necessary to introduce the topic. At the same time, it has the risk to limit the horizon and to impoverish the content.
However, by analysing the Plans prepared by the Foundress, in collaboration with Cristina Pilotti, and studying the developments that took place during almost two hundred years, one can see the whole project in its complexity and richness.
To have a complete profile or description of the various groups of lay people who share in the charism of St. Magdalene today; it is, however, necessary, to spread further the horizon to embrace all the persons that frequent our houses, friends and collaborators, people who appreciate our apostolate or work with us, bound to us in one form or others by formal promise.
THE CANOSSIAN LAITY THROUGH THE YEARS
The Canossian Laity: Its Beginnings
Magdalene, urged by the needs of the places where her Daughters cannot reach, looks for collaboration among the girls of the middle-classes, among the ladies of the cities, among young women more open to the apostolate, among friends and benefactors.
To them she shares the charism she has received. For them she holds formation courses, retreats, invents particular ways of life for single persons or for groups with the aim of transforming these persons into ardent apostles.
Magdalene, in her creativity and motivated by her one and only constant aim of spreading as much as possible and by every means, the divine glory, brought to realisation: The Promotion of the Laity at the Beginning of the Institute
They are lay vocations to the apostolate arising among the young girls who frequent the Institute or among the country Teachers trained in it. They are young girls who distinguish themselves because of sound judgement and piety and who are “genuinely desirous of leading a truly Christian life”.
Magdalene entrusts these lay apostles to Our Lady of Sorrows whose devotion they have to spread and who remains their model in the practice of virtue, particularly of patience, docility, meekness and gentleness.
Magdalene wants the Tertiaries to “be rooted and in love with true virtue”.
The external Tertiaries are united to the Institute by a reciprocal bond of love. They find in the Daughters comfort and spiritual assistance and the Daughters find in them “persons who take care, replace them and do whatever work whenever and wherever they are impeded by obligations of their state”.
1818: First draft of the Plan for the Tertiaries
1835: elaboration the definitive text of the Plan for the Tertiaries of the Institute of the Daughters of Charity.
In 1936 the Superior General, M. Antoinetta Monzoni, entrusts to M. Grillo the groups of Canossian Collaborators : mothers, brides, former students, young people, sympathizers who associate with the Collaborators.
1943 - Bergamo - the Association of the Canossian Collaborators begins, constituted in the beginning by Camilla Galbusera, Maria Ambrosioni and Ida Zanolini: named secular general Delegate of the Canossian Collaborators.
In 1950 the Holy See approves the Statutes of the Association of the Canossian Collaborators and in 1953 the Manual is printed for the Associates. 1943-1983: 40th Anniversary of the Canossian Collaborators The Xth General Chapter of the Canossian Institute in 1978 encourages the development and the renewal of the lay groups.
In 1978, a small “spiritual family”, a work of Ms. Marisa Gini is constituted as the “Secular Missionaries of Magdalene of Canossa.” The Expansion of the Canossian Laity in the Story of the Institute.In 1984 a vast Lay Canossian Movement is born promoted by the XIth General Chapter. Its basic guidelines are published in the Acts: The Promotion of the Laity in the Church and in the Institute Today.1984 –
SINGAPORE international conference CANOSSIAN LAY MOVEMENT, english language 1987: 1st INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS: CANOSSIAN LAY MOVEMENT,
ROME 70 Delegates Vocation and
Mission of the Laity, 20 Years of
Vatican II. To deepen the “Canossian spirit” imbibed in the various groups of the Lay Canossian Movement. In the light of the World Synod of Bishops, on the vocation and mission of the laymen in the church and in the world, 20 years after the Vatican II (1978) and of the publication of the document “Christifidelis Laici” - 1989, the XIIth General Chapter of the Canossian Institute in 1990 feels the need to renew the 1950 Statutes and entrusts to the General Council to form a mixed Committee, of sisters and laity, the new layout.From September 2-13 1990: thorough analysis of the comments and suggestions on the General Statutes sent by 260 Lay Canossians and friends and 150 Canossian Sisters from 15 countries guided by Sr. Janet Wang (General Councilor for the Laity).On June 29, 1991, Feast of the Apostles SS. Peter and Paul, the Statutes of the Association of the Lay Canossians are promulgated by Mother General, M. Elide Testa, from the Decree of the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life.1994: 2nd International Congress, Asiago, Italy 85 Delegates Perspectives and Challenges for the Dynamic Formation of the Laity to the Charism of the Greatest Love. To consolidate the formation of Lay Canossians according to the charism in dynamic fidelity to the vocation and mission of the laity. To find a way of promoting and encouraging “A Sense Of Universality” among Lay Canossians.1998: Inter-Regional Assembly - Albuquerque, U.S.A. 9 -16th of July
Theme: “in the Spirit…light…salt of the earth.”
Australia,
England,
HongKong, Italy,
Malaysia,
Philippines,
Singapore,
Tanzania and
United States of America. Goal: nomination of an ALC INTERNATIONAL COORDINATING TEAM indicated in the International Statutes, n. 16. Result: International Coordinating Structure “ad experimentum” for the next two years: 1998-2000.1999: INTER-REGIONAL ASSEMBLY, ARARAS, BRASIL Italian speaking countries of
Europe and
Africa,
Italy,
Indonesia,
Latin America, and
Japan May 21 to May 26 1999 2000: 3RD INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS,
ROME.106 Delegates. Leaven, Not DoughTo reflect on the Lay person’s prophecy in the Church and in the Charism to be able to grow in depth as Human-Christian-Canossians in the various paths of sanctity. THE LAY CANOSSIAN FAMILY: We are a Lay Canossian Family that is journeying with the Church and that makes the most of its diversities considering them to be a form of wealth for dialogue and the spreading of a humble Charity in its multiple expressions. We propose the creation of an International Formation Commission in which representatives from the different expressions of the Lay Canossian Family may participate:ASSOCIATION OF LAY CANOSSIANS, LAY CANOSSIAN BROTHERS AND SISTERS, SECULAR MISSIONARIES OF MAGDALENE OF
CANOSSA, CANOSSIAN FRATERNITY, CONFRATERNITY OF OUR LADY OF SORROWS LAY CANOSSIAN FAMILY International Formative Commission2001: ASIA REGIONAL ASSEMBLY – PHILIPPINESOUR PRESENCE IN THE WORLD FROM A RE-READING OF OUR STORY ….TO SOME CHALLENGES FOR THE FUTURE: A re-reading of our story brings us to a realization that, for all of us, there is a new charismatic call: the call to strengthen, in every part of the world, the prophetic intuition of St. Magdalene who sees in the lay vocation a great energy, aimed at “spreading charity”, in communion of intentions with the other forms of the Canossian lay and consecrated life. For new times, new inculturated forms are needed which can spring only from the prophecy and creativeness of new women and men today. What is important is that every form expresses the charism of the Foundress: her great challenge: “to make Jesus known and loved.” Re-reading our history, we learn and appreciate several lay expressions of the charism of St. Magdalene. We know however that the Spirit blows where and as he/she wants. We remain therefore open to see the birth of some other new lay expressions in the future . The Magisterium of the Church, very dear to the heart of our Foundress, will be for us also in the future, as it has been in the past, the privileged reference for our formative journey. Important tools of communion are the conferences and the congresses, but more effective for the growth in the Lay Canossian vocations are the local formative journey.
We want to systematically program them and to effect them with diligence. Aware that the being precedes the doing, we will make, as our own, the responsibility of deepening the spiritual patrimony of our Foundress, drawing from Christ on the cross the capacity to love all without measure.
The Canossian spirit which animates us, guides us to exercise leadership in our daily life and at work, as an evangelical service offered to everyone, in particular, to those in great need.
The only and fundamental bond that ties us to the persons of different Canossian expressions: lay and institutional, is the one wished by St. Magdalene of Canossa: a strong union of charity.