V. IN FRATERNAL AND APOSTOLIC COMMUNITIES
"Let love be genuine… : love one another with brotherly affection; outdo one another in showing honor… Contribute to the needs of the saints, practise hospitality... Live in harmony with one another." (Rom I2,9. 10. 13. 16)
Importance of life in community
49. To live and work together is for us Salesians a fundamental requirement and a sure way of fulfilling our vocation.
This is why we come together in communities,1 where our love for each other leads us to share all we have in a family spirit, and so create communion between person and person.
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The community is a reflection of the mystery of the Trinity: there we find a response to the deep aspirations of the heart, and we become for the young signs of love and unity.
50.
God calls us to live in community and entrusts us with brothers to love.Brotherly love, our apostolic mission and the practice of the evangelical counsels are the bonds which form us into one and constantly reinforce our communion.
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We thus become one heart and one soul to love and serve God,1 and to help one another.
Relationships of fraternal friendship
51.
St Paul exhorts us: "Put on, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other."1The family spirit is the hallmark of the Salesian community and inspires every moment of its life: work and prayer, meals and recreation, meetings and other encounters.
in an atmosphere of brotherly friendship we share our joys and sorrows, and we are partners in our apostolic plans and experiences.
52.
The community receives each confrere with an open heart. It accepts him as he is and fosters his growth to maturity. It offers him the opportunity to use and develop his gifts of nature and of grace. It provides for his needs and sustains him in moments of doubt and difficulty, weariness and ill health.Don Bosco used to say to those who asked to remain with him: "Bread, work and heaven: I can offer you these three things in the Lord's name."1
The confrere pledges himself to build up the community in which he lives. He loves it, despite its imperfections, and knows that in it he finds the presence of Christ.
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He accepts fraternal correction, fights whatever he discovers in himself which militates against the community, and gives his own generous contribution to the community life and work. He thanks God that he is among brothers who encourage him and help him.
53.
The community surrounds its sick and aged confreres with care and affection.They in their turn, accepting their condition and serving the community in whatever way they can, are a source of blessing for it; they enrich its family spirit and deepen its unity.
Their life takes on a new apostolic significance: as they offer their limitations and sufferings in a spirit of faith for their brothers and for the young, they are united with the redeeming passion of the Lord, and continue to share in the Salesian mission.
54. The community supports with greater love and prayer the confrere who is gravely ill. When the hour comes for him to bring his consecrated life to its highest fulfilment, his brothers help him to enter fully into Christ's paschal mystery.
Death for the Salesian is made bright by the hope of entering into the joy of his Lord,1 and when it happens that a Salesian dies working for souls, the Congregation has won a great triumph.2
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The memory of departed confreres unites, "in a love that will not pass away",3 those who are still pilgrims with those who are already resting in Christ.
55.
The rector represents Christ who unites his followers in the service of the Father. He is at the centre of the community, a brother among brothers, who recognize his responsibility and authority.His first task is to animate the community so that it may live faithful to the Constitutions and grow in unity. He coordinates the efforts of all, bearing in mind the rights, duties and capabilities of every member.
He also has a direct responsibility toward each confrere; he helps him realize his own personal vocation and carry out the work entrusted to him,
He extends his solicitude to the young for whom we work and to our collaborators, so that they may share in the community's mission with increasing responsibility.
In his words, frequent contacts and opportune decisions he is a father, teacher and spiritual guide.
56. With simplicity the confreres lead a life of self-giving and sharing, by welcoming others and offering them hospitality. By their kindness and cheerfulness they are able to draw everyone into the Salesian family spirit.
Nevertheless, to foster mutual respect and expressions of brotherly communion, every community should reserve for the confreres alone certain parts of the religious house.1
57.
The Salesian community works in communion with the particular Church.It is open to the world's values and attentive to the cultural milieu in which it carries out its apostolic work. At one with those among whom it lives, it cultivates good relations with all.
Thus it becomes a sign revealing Christ and his saving presence among men, and becomes a leaven giving rise to new vocations after the example of the first community of Valdocco.
58. Local communities are a living part of the provincial community. The latter fosters fraternal communion among them and supports them in their mission.
It shows a loving concern for new confreres; it is solicitous for the formation of every member, rejoices in their success and the happy occasions in their lives, grieves over their loss and keeps alive their memory.
Attentive to the youth situation, it coordinates and evaluates our apostolic work through its various services; it encourages collaboration, stimulates pastoral work for vocations, provides for the continuity of our works, and is open to new activities.
It cultivates the spirit of brotherhood and expresses it concretely through solidarity with other provinces, with the Congregation and with the Salesian Family.
59. Religious profession incorporates the Salesian in the Society, making him a participant in the communion of spirit, witness and service that is its life within the Universal Church.
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Union with the Rector Major and his council, solidarity in apostolic initiatives, communication and exchange of information about the work of the confreres, all increase this communion, deepen the sense of belonging and dispose us to give our service to the world community.