I had the pleasure of participating from April 17 to July 7 of current year, in the Training Course of the Corazón de María School, in Spain. I am very grateful for this experience, which has allowed me to know more closely, through different dynamics and activities, our spiritual and historical heritage.
One of the most beautiful and motivating experiences was visiting Viladrau, a key place in the life of our Founder San Antonio Maria Claret. He was appointed as Regent in this small town in the Montseny Mountains to help the parish priest, elderly and disabled. Claret soon began to meet the spiritual needs of the people and then, being no doctors in town, he began to heal the sick by applying the knowledge in the field of medicine that he had acquired. Many patients were cured thanks to the remedies that Claret gave them and the Lord blessed him with the gift of healing. Later, he begins to visit other nearby towns such as Espinelvas, Seva, Santa Coloma de Caral and others. Thus, gradually Claret ventures to break a geographically closed structure, preaching many missions.
In this way, Viladrau is the place of indispensable discovery: there a vision of his future apostolic work and that of the congregation takes shape: “Ecce ego, mitte me” (Here I am, send me). Claret discovers that his vocational charism leads him to wider horizons, leaves the village of Viladrau, despite the security that he had there, to devote himself fully and uninterruptedly to preaching the word of God in more remote places, go to the periphery. For this reason, he claims, “charity urges me, impels me, makes me run from one village to another, forces me to shout” (Aut.nn.199-212).
This discernment of our founder has a lot to do with our training centers. Inspired by him, we must orient our young people who live in the formative process to find and discover the gifts that God has given them for the service of people in need in needy places. The experience of Viladrau also exhorts us that in the training field we do not install ourselves in the assurances we receive nor settle for small benefits or easy achievements. Rather, this experience is an invitation to expand our horizons in the missionary life.
Finally, Claret says that everything he did in Viladrau did not have any obscure objective, or did he do it for any benefit, or for seeking honours, but for a passionate love of Christ and humanity. Let us hope, encouraged by this fundamental experience of Claret, that our young people in formation can discern and find among many paths, the meaning of missionary life and joyfully live the Claretian vocation always open to new horizons.
Fr. Joseph Kalakkal, cmf
Prefect of Formation Province Perú-Bolivia
“Viladrau, lugar de discernimiento para ser misioneros con horizontes más amplios” INFORMATIVO PERÚ-BOLIVIA Año VII, No. 29 (Julio-Setiembre 2017).