Los Negrales, Madrid, Spain. The 4th English Edition of The Forge, the Claretian Renewal Encounter, began on Sunday, April 8, 2018 at the Forge Center at Los Negrales in Madrid, the capital of Spain.
A welcome of the participants followed by general introductory session at 6:00 p.m. by Fr Paulson Veliyannoor and Fr Roland Onuekwusi, facilitators for the English edition of the Forge. They gave the participants the synopsis of the 75-days programme that was to have three distinctive phases, each phase punctuated with its own unique experience.
This 4th English Forge had 13 participants representing different Claretian organisms mainly from English speaking countries as the name properly defines. The roll is as follows:
Nigeria East Province and West Delegation – 2
Sri Lanka – 1
India, St Thomas – 1
India, Bangalore – 2
India, Chennai – 1
Philippines – 1
East Africa, St Charles Lwanga – 2
Indonesia and East Timor – 2
United States of America/Mexico – 1
However, as expected of such great spiritual encounter, the Eucharistic celebration preceded all other activities and animated the spirit of the entire programme. Fr. Gonzalo Fernández Sanz, General Prefect of Spirituality led at the Mass concelebrated by Fr. Pedro Belderrain, Superior of the Province of Santiago, the Claretian community at Los Negrales and the Forge participants.
As a way to satiating the reader’s interest, the Forge centre at Los Negrales, Madrid, Spain, has six Claretian personnel, with two officially designated for the English Forge programme: Fr. Paulson Varkey Veliyannoor, cmf and Fr. Roland Chidiebere Onuekwusi, cmf.
The programme was carefully divided into three main phases and schedules:
1. Missionaries with Spirit (Adorers of the Father) – Patris Mei.
2. Missionaries in community (Followers of Jesus Christ)
During this phase, the participants went on the pilgrimage to the Holy Land (Walking on footsteps of Jesus Christ).
3. Missionaries Going Forth (Sent by the Spirit). It is a missionary appeal emanating from the Document of the last General Chapter.
The interesting aspect of this last phase, which took place in Barcelona, is that it made a peculiar invitation or re-invitation, so-to-speak, to the participants who are Claretians from more than nine countries on “Walking on footsteps of Claret”. The underpinning characters of this is the factual witnessing within the Claret ambient and understanding his experiential time frame.
What a great encounter! What a great renewal! What a great Congregation of Missionaries, Sons of the Immaculate Blessed Virgin Mary.
St Anthony Mary Claret – Pray for us!
