Time to think of Formation!!!!!!!!!!

This is my personal view and opinion about the formation....you are most welcome to add and make suggestions to it. 

As an Order and Province, we need to concentrate on various aspects of our charism and spirituality. Those who wish to embrace our way of life are to be trained right from the time of their acceptance and in the formation. We have to slowly and gradually initiate them into our spirituality and charism. We have to create an atmosphere where they are empowered, provided support to know themselves to change their mindset towards life and its complexities. The formation should be geared up towards making them to be responsible and transparent in all the areas of human, spiritual and emotional life.

The provinces who have good formators, have evolved good formation practices that have improved the formees performances, could share their practices, techniques with the other provinces of the Order in order to achieve the same goal. The Friars must be open to receive and welcome the good that is happening in one part of the Order to be implemented and adopted in other provinces for effective and solid human and spiritual formation of our candidates.  Thus each province will not have something new began but could end of making use of something tried successfully.

The formation commissions of the Provinces would have to seriously make some sweeping changes in accordance with our Rule and Constitutions to meet the need of the time. The provinces have freedom and autonomy to evolve their own formation program in keeping with the Formation program of the Order, but even then the provinces can formulate its own effective formation program on the immediate requirement. The new friars who come out of the formation don’t have any vision and no courage even to face the modern world. The challenges in the church and society are too many and our formation doesn’t prepare the formees to be face them adequately. We are concentrating on the traditional and conventional type of ministries, which of course are of importance and value, one cannot do them away but we need to look at the changing world. The formation program would have to come with matter and content, which would cater to the needs of the Order, Church and society.

When a formation program is based on the current situation of the Order and Church, there will be a lot of responsibility and maturity show by the formees. The change has to be introduced not slowly but immediately so that we will have friars who are performers according to the Order’s Constitutions and traditions. When a jurisdiction has tried successfully a particular program for formation there is nothing wrong in trying in other jurisdiction. We have to learn lessons from the success of one and follow the good practices which allow us to live our capuchin charism vibrantly. One should not see who has got the successful program and which jurisdiction, but with transparent mind and heart we can approach to the new methods of formation. We need to give a try before it is too late. The world and society is progressing and advancing fast and we cannot remain with old models to serve the world in which we live. If we are not willing and ready to use competence and expertise of others we may have to face a bitter reality in the formation houses.

The formees do complain about the way formation is carried and given to them, we can act. Some of these complaints contain and communicate a lot of truth which needs to be attended and verified if it is genuine. If the formation program is not running properly, it is the responsibility of the jurisdiction to check and find a remedy for it. We cannot throw up of hands in the air and shirk responsibility saying that it is the task of the formators alone.

Students who join us are coming from different backgrounds. The intellectual and emotional level is very low. These can be handled if we offer them proper and apt opportunities to channelize the formee’s energies. The formators need to interact and dialogue with the formees on various human and spiritual issues. We cannot limit formation to lectures and classes but something more concrete.