Ingredients of Sa-Fa vocation animation 17

How is my relationship with agents 

and recipients of vocational animation?

Human relations are necessary in all the activities that are carried out. In vocational animation relationships are established with other animators, priests, religious, catechists, directors, students, pastoral agents, teachers, professors, former students, parents, etc.; a part of the candidates.

Something fundamental in these relationships is that they have to be of fraternity and community, following and spreading the teachings and the Gospel of Christ. They have to be familiar, cordial, fluid and respectful relationships specially of the other's opinion, with serenity and affection. In the relationships we are not free from feeling tired, overwhelmed, worried. Strategies are needed to carry out activities with the best possible harmony, trying to find common ground to achieve the same goal.

The sustained dialogue with the animators and other agents helps to strength ties and establish positive work guidelines, especially when sharing organizational meetings and training, when sharing face-to-face retreats, or missionary activities. It is also important the interest of each animator in getting involved and in establishing connections with all the vocational agents.

In general, the relationships that are established are very good. You can almost always count on the active presence of the members who assume the role of vocational agents and relationships are achieved with good communication. A lot of trust and open dialogue and a positive interaction is built towards the development of vocational animation.

The advantage of being able to work in a school, knowing closely the functioning of a youth community or a catechumenate, or being in contact with a community of Brothers helps to have a richer and more global experience of the possibilities of finding candidates. Participating also in parish acts, in family movements, in Nazarene Fraternities also allows expanding links with other people and establishing closer and more fraternal relationships, feeling them valuable and necessary to generate a Nazarene style in regard to vocational animation. The priests or catechists usually collaborate by suggesting some young people who have any interest or possibility of doing the vocational process.

In regard to the relationship with the candidates, we must try to ensure that these be always close. The meetings with the candidates of vocational animation should be at first in a personal and regular way, through visits, holding regular interviews, sharing material. If this is not possible, at this time technology offers solutions to achieve a greater reach. The available means of communication help to maintain active contact to create a more constant and fluid relationship for cases where there are geographical distances. But we should never forget that they cannot totally replace the face-to-face encounter.

Empathy, trust, respect, understanding, harmony and perseverance are very important in relationship with the candidates to awaken in them an interest in what we are proposing, and to create the necessary attraction to carry out the accompaniment. In case of being a candidate for Brother, the relationship or contact with their family is also important because they need to achieve trust and closeness to create a relationship of empathy.

However, there are some unfavorable aspects to take into account as well. That is the fact that there are few people to offer vocational animation or in other cases it is not possible to follow up the performance of the candidate in particular. Another drawback is the clerical figure of the Church that usually insists only on the priestly aspect of the vocation and does not cover other vocational proposals such as consecrated lays people in the Church. On the other hand the involvement of probable vocational agents is difficult too, their participation is usually scarce at the moment; therefore the link with both the agents and the candidates of the vocational promotion is restricted. In short, very few people promote the vocation to be a Brother, very few people support the promoter of vocations and in some places there is no support from families.

As a conclusion to the issue of relationships, both with the agents of vocational promotion and with the candidates, we must consider that the fundamental thing above all is to favor relationships in a harmonious, welcoming and respectful way to achieve the proposed objective that is ultimately for the work of God, that means to bring more workers to His harvest. In this sense, Brother Gabriel taught us to cultivate and have a family spirit with which we can help and serve each other mutually, giving the best of each one, sharing responsibilities, accepting differences, fostering that family spirit.