On the afternoons of Friday, October 30 and Thursday, November 5, some superiors, pastoral coordinators and advisers from Spain met with the Minister of the Apostolate, Rocío Pérez de Ayala, to make us aware of the importance of a topic that sometimes We leave it relegated to very specific moments in the practice of our Youth Ministry: spiritual accompaniment, understood as a fundamental mediation in the path of every disciple of Jesus, whatever their state of life.
At the beginning, we collected the concerns that some sisters sent in the forms prior to the meeting, among which the importance of be accompanied to accompany, be more trained in this area, as well as the necessary initiation of adolescents in the culture of accompaniment that the Plan tries to promote, as an adequate preparation that needs different attention, means and conditions, but that would have a positive impact on the possibility of spiritual accompaniment in later ages.
In prayer we echoed what we had seen in the way of acting of the Companion with whom the Emmaus disciples met, to continue making us aware that not all of us understand the same when talking about this issue, nor do all the practices respond to what we want to promote from this Plan “And he started walking with them”.
We made a brief tour of the steps taken from last April until now, with the aim of “Promote the culture of spiritual accompaniment among young people and in the YMW of our Institute”. Aware that, what was presented now, It was not a document to be analyzed, but a concern to be channeledWe saw the need to take advantage of some opportunities to deal with the subject openly more naturally and to put into practice small actions that could lead to others that have an impact on the good of so many young people.
In this way we could approach, from the findings from which we started, to a horizon that we envisioned as desirable and necessary, included in the Plan in five items, and with which we would be responding to an insistent church call.
"We need to practice the art of listening, which is more than hearing ... hence it is necessary "A pedagogy that leads people, step by step, to the full assimilation of the mystery." To reach a point of maturity, that is, so that people are capable of truly free and responsible decisions, it is necessary to give time, with immense patience "
(EG 171).
