Prot.S.357.

2023

TO THE WHOLE OF THE PIOUS SCHOOLS

THE GRACE AND PEACE OF GOD, OUR FATHER

"Those performing the service of listening and accompaniment, in its

various forms, need adequate formation, taking into account the
experiences of those they come into contact with. They also need to feel
supported by the community. For their part, communities should become
fully aware of the meaning of this service exercised on their behalf and
to receive the fruits of this listening. We propose establishment of a
ministry of listening and accompaniment in order to give greater
prominence to this service. It should be grounded in baptism and
adapted to different contexts. The way this ministry is conferred should
promote the involvement of the community.”1

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

It is with joy and gratitude to God that we inform you that the General Congregation has
established a new Piarist ministry of LISTENING AND ACCOMPANIMENT. In addition to the
pastoral ministry, the Order has so far recognised two ministries that spring from the heart
of Calasanz's charism and clearly express it: the ministry of Christian education and the
ministry of care for the poor for social transformation.
In the light of the decisions of the 48th General Chapter and in harmony with the sentiments
of the whole of the Pious Schools, the General Congregation establishes the Piarist ministry
of Listening and Accompaniment, in the firm conviction that it is a gift of the Holy Spirit to
the Pious Schools. For us, responding to the basic needs of children and young people is a
deep calling that drives our vocation. Undoubtedly, listening and accompanying is something
that is deeply desired and sought after by all those who are growing and travelling among us.
The General Congregation establishes that this ministry should be entrusted to all religious
with simple vows of the Order during the process of Initial Formation, at such time as the
formators and superiors deem appropriate. Likewise, we invite the Provinces, Piarist
Fraternities, and the Christian Piarist Communities in our presences to promote this ministry
appropriately in their Piarist environment.

1
XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, "Participation, Communion, Mission".
Synthesis report of the first session, from 4 to 29 October. "A Synodal Church in Mission", 16.p):
"Towards a Listening and Accompanying Church".
1
Together with this letter, in which we announce the establishment of this new Piarist
ministry, we send two important appendices. The first contains reflections on the ministry
we are establishing, and the second contains the liturgy for its institution.
We approve this new Piarist ministry on 27 November on the occasion of the Patronage of
Saint Joseph Calasanz over all the Christian popular schools of the world and place it under
the protection of our Holy Father. May he, who knew how to incarnate and live to the full the
charism he had received, help and bless us to be signs – humble and devoted – to the people
God places on our path, of the listening and accompaniment that God our Father gives them.
Receive a fraternal embrace and our best wishes for you, your communities and families.

Fr. Alex Djoussé Sch.P. Fr. Pedro Aguado Sch.P.

General Secretary General Father

Rome, 27 November 2023, Patronage of St Joseph Calasanz.

2
ANNEX 1
A NEW MINISTRY IN THE PIOUS SCHOOLS

Currently the ministries recognized in the Pious Schools in addition to the pastoral ministry
are two: the Ministry of Christian Education and the Ministry of Care for Poor Children for
Social Transformation. These ministries are inspired by the Spirit to proclaim the Gospel and
follow Jesus Christ, collaborating in the fullness of each person, in the transformation of
society and the renewal of the Church and the construction of the Pious Schools.

Today, the appreciation, dedication, and value of listening and accompaniment have helped
those who have exercised it and its recipients, offering them numerous spiritual and
psychological benefits derived from the exercise of this service. In today's Pious Schools, we
feel it as a new ministry that needs to be institutionalized.

The ministerial reality, being an action of the Spirit in the group of believers, cannot be closed
or limited to mere human categories or decisions, although the ordering of this reality is
always opportune and necessary. Yet, as happened to our Holy Father Joseph Calasanz when
he asked the Church to consider our charism as something new and necessary, God's action
always exceeds human expectations and logic. Today too we are called to the exercise of
discernment in order to grasp what "the Spirit speaks to the churches2." In this new Pentecost,
the Pious Schools proposed to us by Pope Francis,3 we find ourselves before a sensitivity and
a service that many Piarists, religious and laity, exercise, and that provokes a lot of life in
children, adolescents, young people and adults: listening and accompaniment.

We recall that, during the Synod on faith, young people and vocational discernment, there
were many voices that cried out for the need to implement spaces for listening and
accompaniment in our pastoral care with young people. All this was forcefully expressed in
the concluding document of the Synod.

"Listening is an important moment in the ministry of pastors, and in the first place of
bishops, who nevertheless often live overwhelmed by many commitments and find it
difficult to find the right time for this indispensable service. Many have pointed out the
lack of experts dedicated to accompaniment. Believing in the theological and pastoral
value of listening implies a reflection to renew the ways in which the priestly ministry is
habitually exercised and to review its priorities. In addition, the Synod recognizes the
need to prepare consecrated persons and lay people, men and women, who are qualified
for the accompaniment of young people. The charism of listening that the Holy Spirit
inspires in communities could also receive a form of institutional recognition for
ecclesial service."4

Pope Francis, echoing the voice of the Synod on Young People, said: "The charism of listening
that the Holy Spirit inspires in communities could also receive a form of institutional recognition
for ecclesial service5."

2
Revelation 2:7
3 Francis. Message to the Pious Schools on the occasion of the Calasanctian Jubilee Year 2017
4 Synod on Young People, Faith and Vocational Accompaniment. Concluding Document No. 9.
5 Francis. Apostolic Exhortation CRISTUS VIVIT n.244

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Likewise, the Summary Report of the First Session of the Synod on Synodality clearly
proposes the need to establish the ministry of listening and accompaniment based on
Baptism: "The people who carry out the service of listening and accompaniment, in its various
forms, need adequate formation, also according to the type of people with whom they come into
contact, and feel supported by the community. For their part, communities need to become fully
aware of the value of a service rendered on their behalf and to be able to receive the fruit of this
listening. To give greater prominence to this service, it is proposed to establish a ministry of
listening and accompaniment based on Baptism, adapted to the different contexts. The way in
which it is conferred will encourage greater community involvement6.

The Pious Schools, encouraged by the exercise of discernment carried out by their highest
authority, the 48th General Chapter, feel the need to order and recognize a new Piarist
ministry: the ministry of listening and accompaniment. This decision is a clear exercise of
freedom in the Spirit, of listening to and accepting it in the present times. Faced with a
growing demand for listening present in many of the children, adolescents, young people, and
adults with whom we relate through our charism, the Order gives a consistent and effective
response by promoting among laity and religious the recognition of this new ministry for the
good of so many.

I-THE MINISTRY OF LISTENING AND ACCOMPANIMENT

1- What does the Listening and Accompaniment service consist of?

The term accompaniment seems to derive from medieval Latin, which in the word cum-panio
recognized ‘one who has bread in common', so to accompany essentially means to share, and
to share something vital as ‘the bread of the way', that is, one's faith, the memory of God, the
experience of struggle, the search, the love for him.

Personal accompaniment (vocational and formative) is a temporary and instrumental help

that an older brother in faith and discipleship gives to a younger brother, sharing with him a
stretch of the road, so that he can discern God's action on him, and decide to respond to you,
in freedom and responsibility.7

Accompaniment is a temporary and instrumental help that one person gives to another so
that the latter may perceive God's action in him and respond to that action in order to
progressively bring about union with God in imitation of Christ8.

Accompanying and listening are tasks inherent to human beings, because accompanying and
listening are a way of loving, but it is also an art that must be learned. It takes more than
goodwill. All forms of accompaniment and listening have one thing in common: they involve
an encounter between people who, together, embark on a journey, so that one of these people
guides the other.9

6
Synod on Siniodality, 16.p
7 A. Cencini, I sentimenti del Figlio. Il cammino formativo nella vita consacrata, EDB, Bologna 1998, pp.
48-50
8 Alessandro Manenti, Comprendere e Accompagnare la Persona Umana, EDB, Bologna 2013, pp. 53-

70
9 Sánchez Monge Manuel, Aprender el arte de acompañar, Sal Terre, 2020).

4
Accompaniment and Listening, therefore, are understood as human mediations through
which a person, when listened to, welcomed, questioned and advised by another (teacher,
catechist, course director, spiritual director, formator) can experience the dynamisms that
ignite the engine of growing interiority and that impel him to commit himself to them on the
journey of life.

2-Purpose of Accompaniment and Listening

Gathering different experiences, we can affirm that the path of listening and accompaniment
produces very powerful fruits that favor the development and growth of people. Among them
we can point out the following dynamics: incarnation, motivation, consolidation,
strengthening and discernment.

a) Incarnation: Insofar as they consistently facilitate the process of internalization and

awareness of the work that God does in the inner being or garden of people.

b) Motivation: They play a motivating and healing role in personal processes. The
experience of being listened to, considered and recognized in the life that is stirring
within, stimulates the desire to be a person, to deepen and get one's life right.

c) Consolidation: The awareness of one's own life and the desire to continue deepening
decants and brings to light what is firmest inside people. They make people believe in the
best of themselves, from which they will be able to authentically build their personality
and vocation.

d) Strengthening: Accompaniment strengthens the interior in such a way that the person
acquires the ability to face the most fragile realities of his personality or the most difficult
realities of his environment (resilience). It takes strength to confront crooked tendencies,
and accompaniment brings it out.

e) Discernment: The fruit of accompaniment and listening is clarification of the meaning of

life (or vocational guidance). Once people are aware of what constitutes their inner self,
they can discern with greater certainty God's will for their own lives; God's will that
coincides with full personal fulfillment and social effectiveness.

3-Features or dimensions of the Ministry of Listening and Accompaniment

a) Theological Dimension. It is important to underline the pneumatological, Trinitarian

and Pauline consideration of ministries in general in order to apply them to the ministry
of accompaniment and listening in particular.
 Pneumatological, in the sense that gifts and charisms are bestowed by the very action
of the Holy Spirit in a context of discernment, listening and connection with the Word,
and commitment, collaboration and salvific solidarity with the groans of reality.

 Trinitarian in the sense that the three divine persons assume their missionary
character and act on reality, on persons to create and sustain them, to redeem and
save them, and to sanctify and build them up. They communicate and interpenetrate
each other in such a way that immeasurable and merciful love is the most evident gift
of such a relationship. Such a model of communication, of missionary service, and of
relationship between them helps us to shape our longing and effort to live in them
and they in us: "I have made your name known to them and I will continue to make
5
 it known to them, so that the love with which you loved me will be in them, and I
also will be in them10."

 Pauline, because the service (diakonia) that St. Paul and his collaborators perform
involves not only a commission, but the representation of the one who sends them.
Therefore, they need to know not only their mission and their place in the service of
the community, but above all a continuous, progressive, and permanent deep living
knowledge (according to the cross) of those who send them. Therefore, it is God who
qualifies them for him and who entrusts them with this task, thus constituting them
his servants.11

When we Piarist religious and laity accompany and listen, we are armed with this threefold
pneumatological, Trinitarian and Pauline experience of God that is present in our way of
being and doing to help identify, in turn, the action of the Father, the Son and the Spirit.
 Helping to identify God's creation in each person: gifts, talents, abilities, capacities,
and qualities to favor their development and cooperate with the Father in his creative
action.
 Helping to identify the saving action of God in his Son Jesus Christ, who accompanies
the journey while teaching, healing, forgiving so that the gifts of the Father have life
and life in abundance in people.
 Helping to identify deep awareness, a source of free love to cooperate with the
sanctifying action of the Holy Spirit who guides meaning and guides decisions that
make people develop with coherence and holiness.
 Helping to discover the ability to weave deep relationships and move forward on an
upward path that makes the Church and society possible.

b) Ecclesial and pastoral dimension.

The Piarist ministry of Accompaniment and Listening is born from the charismatic exercise
of the transformation and reform of society and the Church, in order to evangelize children,
young people and families. Therefore, the pastoral model that shapes this Piarist ministry lies
in the centrality of the child and promotes in him the path of perfect charity and his
sanctification. Thus, the pastoral worker dedicated to this recognized ministry develops in
himself the need to:

 Be aware of the gift of community and his bond and commitment to it.
 Be aware of the gift of language and communication and its effects on each person.
 Be aware of the gift of full and evangelical listening that must be developed, according
to each person.
 Be aware of the gift of encounter as a theological and soteriological category.
 Be aware of the gift of discernment as a search for the will of the Holy Spirit in the
plan of salvation of humanity and of individuals in particular.
 Be aware of the gift of the search for truth, under the light and action of the Holy Spirit
in history (groans of creation) and in the humanity of each individual (with ineffable
groans).
 Be aware of the liberating character provided by Accompaniment and Listening to sin
and social injustice, to promote the Kingdom of God and His justice.

10
Jn 17:26
11
2 Cor 4:5
6
The Piarist ministry of Accompaniment and Listening wishes to emphasize and better
understand the relationship between community and ministry, moving away from an
unfortunate dichotomous interpretation between the priesthood and the laity. Our
recognized Piarist ministries are an expression of the new covenant between God and
humanity.

The preparatory document for the Synod of Bishops on "Young People, the Faith and
Vocational Discernment" has a specific section on accompaniment, as an instrument of
discernment from which we can highlight the following elements to be considered when
assuming the ministry:
 Accompaniment involves discerning and knowing the movements of people's hearts
to help interpret them from the light of the Spirit.
 Accompaniment aims to foster the relationship with the Lord, preparing the ground
for the encounter with him, helping to remove what hinders it.
 Those who accompany must be characterized, basically, by the loving gaze (Jn 1:35-
51); to offer a word with authority (Lk 4:32); to have the ability to become a neighbor
(Lk 10:25-37); the option to "walk beside them" (Lk 24:13-35); the testimony of
authenticity, without fear of going against the most widespread prejudices (Jn 13:1-
20).
 In this way the Church commits herself to "the joy of young people" and of individuals,
without appropriating their faith and their lives, thanks to the guidance of the Spirit
who enlightens and strengthens everyone.

c) Calasanctian Dimension

We know from the letters of the Saint and from the testimonies about his being and doing,
the way in which Calasanz "accompanies" his brothers, each religious and each community,
each school, the collaborators, the children: with the loving diligence of a father; taking care
of even the smallest detail from the most external to the most intimate; putting everything in
its place with great discernment, clarity and firmness, aware that nothing belongs to him and
that it is only mediation in a work that is God's.

This is how he wants his teachers and religious to work in his mission. But this way of
situating oneself in the world is not improvised, it is a gift and a task, to be lived as a generous
response, doing everything for the love of God, for his glory and the usefulness of his little
ones. Calasanz will be the first to allow himself to be made by the Holy Spirit, the voice of God.
He will learn to open himself up and live in his presence, he will allow himself to be
accompanied by the inner Master, and thus he will become a teacher, who will accompany
the children and other teachers.

The list of gifts and experiences that make Calasanz a teacher and companion would be
endless; we highlight a few:
 A gaze of faith, on his own person, on others, on children, reality, the Church, the Pious
Schools... from the light of the Gospel, which leads him to scrutinize and discern God's
will and how to situate himself, willing what He wants.
 A rich and intense interior life, a lover of silence and prayer, of Christ Crucified and of
Mary, the liturgy, and the sacraments... which is incarnated in their daily lives, making
transparent the face of God, the very feelings of Jesus...
 The willingness to have recourse to mediation in order to cement their vocation and
to support God's will: the Word; confessors; the spiritual directors who advise,
7
 encourage, help, exhort, correct him; the brothers; children (he has special recourse
to their prayer); the Church; the very reality pregnant with the presence of God...; and
at the same time, the clear and grateful awareness of being a mediator in the Work of
God and a Cooperator of the Truth.
 His tireless self-giving and giving of life, with that attitude of permanent conversion,
which is reflected in his humility, charity, and patience, in short, in a life with a taste
of Life.
 The exercise of his priestly ministry as a pastor, his religious consecration, and his
pedagogy at the service of awakening, opening life and accompanying life in the Order
and in all its works...

Only such a life, and the charism that he gave to the Church in the Pious Schools, can be a
source and root of inspiration for our accompaniment. We can turn to three images used by
Calasanz in relation to the way of exercising the ministry that can help us to come
closer to understanding accompaniment:

 Guardian angels. Used by Calasanz in the memorial to Cardinal Tonti. "Angelic", in the
practice of accompanying children home, masterfully depicted by the painter
Segrelles. What does this angelic character derive for the companion?
 To be a friend of God, and not a friend of prayer, according to Calasanz himself. It
is the Spirit who prays in us, giving us this inner knowledge of Jesus that allows
us to know God's will, illuminates and impels our way of being in the world in his
image, grants us the gift of discernment.
 To live in the presence of God, solid ground from which to shape our way of life;
to have him as the only reference, always contemplating his face and to be able to
discover and confess him in the face of the child, the young person, the brother...
 To be God's presence with his ways, to be a basin and channel to receive and pour
out his Grace, taking care, making us companions on the journey, illuminating,
being his cooperators.
 To guard: to watch, to help discover what God is in each one, to defend the gifts
that God places in each person accompanied, so that they can live, responding to
their reality from the gifts received... seconding God's will, each discerning his
"why" and "what for".

 Gardener. "For however small and feeble a plant may be, if it happens that a practical
gardener has careful thoughts and takes care of it, in a short time it is seen grown,
flowering, and still laden with fruit."
 To know and recognize each accompanied, each "plant", respecting hid being and
hid process.
 Have careful thoughts. It entails a continual "renewing of our minds," so that our
thoughts are not like men, but like God. Do not think with what is ours, nor for
ourselves, but according to what is in front of us, "each according to his species".
It requires our training, to be well trained to serve better...
 Always for "more life", with a healthy tension in growth, in rhythm with the
rhythm of the other, from where he is opening to the more that Jesus brings, who
is the true companion and who chooses us so that through us they may have life
and an abundant life, with abundant fruits and that they will remain.

 Pastors. "Caring for students as shepherds." In the image of Jesus, of Calasanz. Which
means getting to know and helping to get to know the person being accompanied.

8
 Seeking personal accompaniment and that of the groups, personalized attention,
without recipes "for everyone", "doing all the same"... That would be to betray our
obligation (and dare we say, our right) to discern the food, process, dynamics... that
everyone needs. We can quote here the words of Father General in the Salutatio after
the meeting of the Order on Vocation Ministry in the Dominican Republic:
 "To be a shepherd, to accompany, to know, to share, to listen, to care, to generate a
process, to lead to the right pasture, to propose the appropriate steps, etc.
 To be a "good shepherd" is a profoundly active attitude, proper to those who always
think of others. We are " shepherds" if we give our lives, if we give ourselves without
reserve. This is perceived, the "sheep feel it, know it". And that is why they accept the
shepherd and trust him.
 Be very close to young people. To understand their hearts, to understand and love
what lives in them, to be able to help them understand what they carry inside, to be
able to clearly propose to them what they expect and need, to be able to accompany
them with 'demanding respect', because that is precisely what they need".
 And let us not forget to be "fishermen".

We suggest here some clues for the journey from Calasanz itself that will help us to live the
ministry of listening and accompaniment in its own way... There are many more:
 Stooping to give light
 One's own knowledge
 Discovering the Inner Inclination and Natural Talents
 The Light of God and the World
 The Preventive Method
 Paternal Love
 Inducing the practice of love and virtues
 Caring for schools and students as shepherds.

d) Pedagogical Dimension

This document does not seek to develop a monographic text that explains the step-by-step
implementation of the ministry of listening and accompaniment, but rather an outline of
where attention and action should be directed while providing this service.

 Areas of accompaniment: accompaniment can take place in the academic,

existential, and relational spheres. Academics involve accompanying people to learn
to know (it is the process of acquiring skills and competencies necessary to grow in
knowledge, criticality, and with creativity). The existential approach is oriented
towards learning to be and to do, where the development of one's own identity and
deep experience of God is at stake, as well as the discovery of the abilities, aptitudes,
capacities, limitations, pains, and obstacles that each person is called to deploy and
manage. And the relational one accompanies all the processes of coexistence that help
each person to position themselves socially with the capacity for adaptation,
autonomy, and a sense of belonging to groups and the world.
 Whom to accompany?
 It is possible to accompany members of the Piarist Christian Communities in their
human processes of personal growth and quality relationships. These
members can be students, parents, teachers, administrators, directives, general
service staff, people related to Calasanctian spirituality, or volunteers in the
mission.

9
  They can also be members of the Piarist Christian Communities in their spiritual
processes of openness to the will of the Father, of following the Master and of
discerning the action of the Holy Spirit.
 To accompany the members of the Piarist Christian Communities in their
processes of shared mission and integration with the Charism of the Pious
Schools (Spirituality, Community Life and Mission).
 Accompany the various teams in which they participate, depending on whether
they are local and/or provincial teams and in accordance with the Models,
Strategic Plans or Provincial Projects, presence, or platform projects.
 Accompany the institutions of the Demarcation in which we participate.
 Accompanying the members of the Calasanz Movement
 Accompanying young people who want to follow a vocational process
 Or, simply, to those who ask to be accompanied and listened to.

4-Types of accompaniment and listening. There are different types of accompaniment

depending on their nature and purpose. In the Pious Schools, the ministry of Listening and
Accompaniment is placed according to the gifts and training that one has in each one of them.

 Spiritual accompaniment and listening. Accompaniment or spiritual direction

presupposes the attention of long processes in the construction of religious identity, in
the living of the experience of God. At the heart of this accompaniment is the action of the
Holy Spirit. It aims at the attention of the other in specific matters related to the growth
in the faith of people in areas such as prayer life, family life, discernment of transcendental
decisions in people's history, bereavements, etc.

 "Spiritual accompaniment is a series of conversations between two people, aimed at

seeking God's will for one of them, through frequent meetings in which numerous
resources of dialogue are used and in which some useful tools for the Christian life
are also offered... the discernment of both interlocutors being the necessary
background that runs through the whole conversation12."

 The aim of spiritual accompaniment is to guide the person in the discovery of God's
action in life, to help him to give a concrete, coherent, free, and responsible opinion.

 As a discipline, spiritual accompaniment is a treatise that is part of Pastoral Theology.

Theology because it draws its sources from Sacred Scripture, the Magisterium, the
Fathers, the Doctors of the Church, and the Saints. It is pastoral because its purpose is
to guide the faithful in the practice of the Christian life. 13Spiritual accompaniment is
part of theology because it belongs to the field of pastoral care. It works with its own
methodology and emphasis.

12
Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment, Preparatory Document, Synod XV of Bishops,
p. 67
13 Alessandro Manenti, Comprendere e Accompagnare la persona umana, EDB, Bologna 2013, pp. 245-

250
10
 Vocational accompaniment and listening. Vocational accompaniment involves helping
people to find their place in the world to the extent that they respond to God's call for the
good of humanity. It must lead to "the Creator and Lord himself communicating with the
person, embracing him in his love14" in order to communicate his will.
 Vocational accompaniment must be careful to reach the deep motivations of people,
allowing the Spirit to manifest himself in them with theirs abilities and gifts and in the
direction in which they are to be lived.
 Listening and vocational accompaniment must follow an itinerary oriented to the
maturity of the faith and to a free and responsible response to the call, it must have a
personal work itinerary in the human, Christian and charismatic dimensions, it must
be personalized, it must guarantee the reception by a Piarist Christian Community in
a broad way, or by a community of the Calasanz Adult Movement or a religious
community.

 Personal accompaniment and listening. It is listening and accompaniment that

welcomes and attends to people's inner needs and aspirations and daily difficulties. This
listening and accompaniment can be a dialogue of help (where the person being
accompanied talks about his or her problem, shedding light on its solution) or a directive
of help (when the person being accompanied is overwhelmed with his or her problem
and needs to be welcomed and told what to do with clarity and foundation) or a
relationship of help (the focus of the dialogue is the person himself or herself to
understand how he or she is experiencing the problem or situation in order to solve it
taking into account their own human and spiritual resources). Personal accompaniment
and listening can unleash a process of growth of people in their different dimensions or
axes of personal development:
 Depth (identity, essential action or vocation, essential ties, and relationship with
God).
 Affective maturity (display of universal and gratuitous love and re-education of
egocentric movements – imagination, capture, domination, and distance).
 Docility to deep consciousness (voice of the Spirit, different from socialized
consciousness -others- or cerebral consciousness (rigid rules).

 Professional accompaniment and listening. The Calasanctian professional who listens

and accompanies, lives the Calasanctian motto of Piety and Letters, of faith and science,
to provide his service to the human development of people from the different levels of the
educational community. Calasanz lived and implemented the conjunction of faith and
science in his schools, in the formation of his religious and in himself. That is why neither
faith nor science are alien to them; they are part of the patrimony of the being and doing
of the Piarist Fathers in the world and, therefore, of the professionals of our institutions
as an organism of a Catholic confessional entity that proposes its actions as a cooperation
in divine action. Likewise, it admits the autonomy of science in its processes of research,
intervention, and service to the development of individuals, groups and the institution.

14 St. Ignatius of Loyola. Spiritual Exercises, No. 15.

11
5. The minister who accompanies and listens and his/her profile.

 The minister is the one who can exercise the service of accompaniment and listening.
It is the function of those who know the way, because they have been accompanied
and listened to, too. Those who have not been accompanied or listened to, do not have
it so easy to accompany or listen to others, or at least do not know how to accompany
or listen to others beyond what they have walked. Therefore, it is the person who goes
ahead with his life, who knows the safe paths, the risky ones, the dangerous ones.

 It can be accompanied by a Father General, a Father Provincial, a Community

Superior, a School Director, a Section Coordinator or Head of School Coexistence, a
Course Director or Tutor, a Teacher, a Pastoralist (religious or lay), a community
animator, a catechist, a formator, a professional in psychology or psychopedagogy,
etc.

 The aptitudes and attitudes of those who feel called to this ministry of listening and
accompaniment are diverse. Certainly, they are gifts that God gives, but those who
receive them must guarantee their care and growth:

 On the part of those who accompany and listen, we can highlight some keys15:
 Active nature of full listening: It involves listening to the other, from the depths
of oneself, not only with one's head, in what the other wants and needs to
communicate so that the person feels recognized. It helps a lot to live this attitude
to be able to reflect to the person, before going deeper, what the companion
understood from what the person communicated. Listening should be complete,
all the way to the end, to the point where the person has expressed all that he or
she has to say.

 Attitude of not judging by being benevolent: It means not making judgments

about the person's experience so that they do not feel interpreted inappropriately
and cause closure, hardening, and lack of confidence to let themselves be known.
It is very important to welcome life as it is. And with benevolent words that allow
the other to come out of their shell, that allow the springs of existence to work and
that help them to describe their experience in a way that is adjusted to reality.

 Ascetic character that allows us to have faith in the other: When

accompanying someone, it is essential to be aware that each person has within
them the tools and capacities necessary to assume life in coherence with the best
of themselves (with their being or creative work of God). The person must
experience that the companion perceives him capable of assuming his life with
truth. To have faith in the other is to believe in him, not from obligation, principles
or will, but from the gratuitous love with which we were all adorned.

 Flexible and free character: The other, finally, is the one who makes his
decisions, especially when he is an adult. In the process of becoming an adult,
there are decisions that can be progressively made by the child, the pre-
adolescent and the adolescent; Other decisions are made for them by adults in

15Domínguez Prieto, Xosé Manuel, " El Arte de acompañar "; PRH International, Session "Introduction
to the Aid Relationship").
12
 their family or at school. However, those who accompany cannot lose sight of this
clarity since no one can live life for another. It is important, therefore, to respect
the freedom of those who are accompanied, it is they who must make the
decisions they consider appropriate for their growth. We must beware of the
tendency to impose our own views. However, for the other to grow in freedom,
we have to be true and express what we see, and once our part of the truth is
expressed, the other makes his or her own decisions.

 Empathic character: Welcoming affection capable of capturing the experiential

tone of the person being accompanied is important when accompanying. Gestures
of pleasure on the part of the listener make it possible for the person who allows
himself to be accompanied to become more and more open to trust. It is very
important that the companion learns to manage his reactions of too much
affection, attachment, distance, rejection or repulsion that the accompaniment
may arouse.

 True and authentic character: To grow, the other needs the consistency, truth,
authenticity and coherence of those who accompany them. If you want to help
someone, it is very important to confront them with their reality, calling things by
their name. You cannot make a person believe that he is doing things right if he is
not doing them right, that's dishonesty. A person is truly formed and grows when
confronted with his or her own truth.

 Humble character: respecting the freedom of the other, even if he makes

different decisions in the opinion of the companion. Referring to another when
the problem overwhelms the companion. Humble character in the helping
relationship.

 Asymmetrical character: there is always affection (or disaffection) in every

relationship. A relationship of accompaniment should not be confused with a
relationship of friendship. Companionship and being friends are different types of
affective relationships. It is not, therefore, a relationship of equals where
everything is shared in two directions (friendship). It is a relationship where it
will be normal for affection to arise both from the companion to the accompanied
person and from the latter towards the companion. Accompaniment is, therefore,
a type of affective relationship. It is a relationship of education, in which there is
another type of affection (or disaffection) between the companion and the
accompanied. Deciphering this kind of affection is a path of wisdom.

 Merciful character: from the Christian point of view, accompaniment implies

"mercy", which in technical-biblical language means "to lower oneself in order to
rise". It is not getting off just to put yourself on the same level as the other and
stay there or in the camaraderie of enjoyment or in his success, or in his pain, or
in his problem. Those who remain in this first step of lowering themselves cannot
accompany. If you can't help the other person get out of his situation, it means
that you can't accompany that person in such a problem or in such a case.
Lowering is just a first beat of two or the first move of two. The second time or
movement is to cooperate with the other so that he or she rises, so that he or she
"stands" (resurrects), so that he or she grows and takes a step forward.

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  Confidential:
o To lack confidentiality is to contribute to the person's life being
manipulated by others. When the matter is serious, it is referred to as
second victimization, in legal psychology.
o To lack confidentiality is to encourage the accompanied person to be
labeled and, therefore, it is to stop them in their possibility of change, they
are not allowed to grow. We "achieve" the opposite of what the person
comes to us for.
o To fail to do so is to violate the human right to privacy, honor, good name,
and reputation. Today there is a fascination with the private and it seems
that we either like to be exhibitionists of our private lives, or to be
"voyeurs" of the lives of others, to the point of becoming an industry that
erodes the sense of intimacy. Perhaps that is why it seems natural to us to
violate confidentiality. Everyone has the right to legal protection against
intrusion or attack.
o The Quebec Charter of the Rights and Freedoms of the Person inscribes as
a fundamental right "the safeguarding of their dignity, honor and
reputation" (article 4), "respect for private life" (article 5), "respect for
professional secrecy" (article 9), the latter being respected by "every
priest or other minister of another religion". Likewise, the "Right to
integrity" (Article 10). The Constitutions and Laws of countries with a
humanitarian sense promulgate and defend them.
o Therefore, to protect clients and members of different professions, codes
of professional ethics are adopted.
o Respect for: The privacy and body of the accompanied.

6. On the part of those who seek to be accompanied and listened to. Those who
accompany must know that those who are accompanied need to grow in the following skills
and attitudes so that the service of accompaniment and listening can bear the expected fruits:

 Responsibility for one's own life: When the means of accompaniment are used, the
person being accompanied must not forget that he is the one who works. He has the
inner resources to face challenges and difficulties. He must want to grow, mature, and
face his life. Be convinced that what he is doing is for his growth and faithfulness to
God's work within him. Therefore, it is he who must advance to the maximum of his
possibilities, in the understanding of what is happening to him so that he makes it
easier for the companion to be able to help.

 Illuminating and congruent character (he knows what he lives): He is the one
who knows what he lives and needs, therefore, he is the one who can read most
accurately what he lives. It is he who thinks and feels his own reality. It is very
important that he trusts his abilities to interpret and understand what is happening
to hium. In this case, the companion gives clues, asks questions, confronts
(illuminates) to help decipher his experience and even to go deeper.

 He is the one who leads the dialogue: Together with the above, it is easy to
understand that the one who leads the dialogue is the one accompanied: he knows if
the clues, questions, advice, or interpretations of the accompanist help him or not. He
has the weight of all the inner elements and their strength to take the next step.
However, there are cases in which, based on the consultation, we can help him

14
 maintain the dialogue, with attentive listening, repetitions, recapitulations,
reflections, etc.

 He is the one who decides about his life: The one who assumes the commitments,
decisions and challenges is the person accompanied. It must consider that the
decisions that arise from the accompaniment must be within its reach. It is he who
"pays" the "costs" and "benefits" of a decision. It is very important to help that the
decision he makes is the step that he can take at that moment, that he has clarity and
that he has the strength to make it.

 Trustworthiness: Everything is at stake in trust. On the one hand, it is essential to

believe in the ability to help the person accompanied; on the other hand, you have to
be very sincere to move forward with that person as far as you consider appropriate.
To the point that the accompanied person can look for another person to help him
move forward; in this case we have to work ourselves, as companions, if we feel guilty
for not having done well or jealousy because he has consulted another person who
can help him advance further.

 Opening to the companion: Without opening there is no process. It is necessary to

allow oneself to be seen as transparently as possible, even in the depths, showing all
the elements that are necessary to be well understood. In this, too, we must be free,
advancing as far as the accompanied person is able to advance.

7-Process in the Pious Schools to live the Ministry

a) Some fundamental elements to launch the ministry of Listening and

Accompaniment.

 Taking into account Calasanz who expresses in the Preface of his Constitutions in
reference to the Piarist educator: "since this task that we have in hand is of such
transcendence and requires people endowed with the greatest charity, patience and
other virtues, it will be necessary to consider with great attention who should be
admitted or excluded to formation for this ministry16", we must be careful in the
entrustment of this new Ministry of Accompaniment and Listening, so it will be
necessary:

 To elect people who have the gift of listening and accompaniment, who identify
with the Piarist charism, in any of their ways of participating in the Pious Schools.
 To mark the initial training stage by following an appropriate itinerary of training
and preparation for suitability in the provision of this delicate service.
 To make the entrustment by the corresponding Major Superior or his delegate on
behalf of the Demarcation, the Fraternity, the Shared Mission Teams, and the
Piarist Christian Community.
 To give a formal sign of mutual commitment, usually in the context of a
celebration of the Eucharist of the Piarist Christian Community.
 The ministry is to be entrusted for a long and renewable period.

16
Constitutions of the Pious Schools n. 9
15
b) Call and discernment.
 It is important at the moment of discernment to understand that the content of the
recognized ministry of Accompaniment and Listening always precedes the person of
the minister. It is, therefore, a matter of assuming the gift of Accompaniment and
Listening as an absolute, updating and renewing value of the Kingdom of God in his
person and his ministerial practice.

 "We are not able to attribute anything to ourselves, our capacity comes to us from God,
who has enabled us to be ministers of a new covenant, based not on the letter, but on the
Spirit, because the letter kills, while the Spirit gives life17."

 Those who are preparing to receive the ministry of Listening and Accompaniment in
the Pious Schools must go through the following process:
 To express to those responsible for the demarcations and, where appropriate, of
the Fraternity, the desire to assume this Ministry within the Pious Schools.
 To give an account of the call you have received from God to commit yourself to
this Ministry. Describe the experience in which elements must appear that allow
us to discern the vocational call: natural gifts and grace, a proven commitment in
this service of Listening and Accompaniment.
 Carry out discernment in the dynamics of accompaniment.

c) Initial and ongoing formation.

 The Piarist minister of Listening and Accompaniment must be diligently formed in

the human sciences that help to better strengthen his service with the internal and
contextual existential reality of the people he accompanies. Accompaniment implies
the recognition that each person's path is unique and, therefore, requires
personalized attention and care. It is about meeting people where they are, respecting
their individual experiences and supporting them in their spiritual development.

 In addition to careful training, the recognized minister must provide himself with an
adequate structure that helps him to look, read, interpret, discern, design, follow, and
evaluate all the phases involved in the process of Accompanying and Listening to
people. This structure must also agree with the rest of the practice of the project of
general pastoral care of a demarcation and a local community.

 For an adequate training process, it will be very important to work on the risk of
abuse of conscience or power, which may be present in the accompaniment process
in various ways. We are facing a challenge that must be deeply worked on to eliminate
any possibility of abuse at its roots.

 Basic training itinerary

 Go through experiences of personal and group accompaniment with some
frequency.
 Participate in accompaniment workshops to learn how to accompany and let
yourself be accompanied.

17
2Cor 3:5-6
16
 To deepen the understanding and deepening of Christian anthropology and its
axes of growth.
 To deepen the understanding and deepening of the keys to accompaniment and
listening, guaranteeing training in them: areas of accompaniment, types of
accompaniment, aptitudes and attitudes for accompaniment and listening,
dimensions of accompaniment (theological, ecclesial, Calasanctian and
pedagogical) and pastoral practice.

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ANNEX 2

Liturgy for the

INSTITUTION OF THE PIARIST MINISTRY OF
LISTENING AND ACCOMPANIMENT.

Ministers are instituted by the Major Superior, preferably within the Eucharist, or in a
Celebration of the Word.

PENITENTIAL ACT
You who become a companion on the road. Lord, have mercy...
You who heal our wounds with the balm of your love. Christ, have mercy...
You who enlighten and strengthen us with the Grace of your Spirit. Lord, have mercy...

COLLECT PRAYER
Good Father,
you who have inspired in the Pious Schools for your Church
the ministry of listening and accompaniment,
grant these children of yours whom you have chosen,
to be worthy co-operators of the truth,
at the service of your little ones.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ

LITURGY OF THE WORD

Acts 8:26-39. Philip with the Ethiopian
Psalm 22. The Lord is my Shepherd
Gospel Luke 24:13-35. The Disciples of Emmaus

Once the Gospel is read, a significant person in the community process calls the candidates.
Let those who are to be instituted in the ministry of listening and accompaniment come forward.
Candidates are called by name. Each one answers:
Present.
Everyone sits down. Homily.

At the end of the homily, everyone gets up. Fr. Provincial invites the faithful to pray, saying:
Dear brothers and sisters, let us ask God the Father to bless these sons and daughters of his,
destined for the office of listening and accompaniment, so that, faithfully fulfilling the
ministry entrusted to them,
make Jesus Christ, our companion on the journey, present to men,
for the Glory of God and the Usefulness of Neighbor.

And they all pray silently for a short time.

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Fr. Provincial continues:
O God, who always welcomes us with unconditional love,
and gives us the light of your Spirit to discern your will,
bless + these sons of yours, whom you call in the Pious Schools,
to the ministry of listening and accompaniment,
so that, being faithful to the gift received,
wake up and accompany life among your little ones.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Symbol Delivery:
Deliver an image of Our Lady of the Pious Schools with a Marian prayer, to highlight that Mary
accompanied Jesus' journey as a disciple and told us that "we must do what he tells us."

Mary, Our Lady of the Way and protector of the Pious Schools, you traveled through the mountains
of Judea carrying Jesus and his joy; you walked from Nazareth to Bethlehem where your son, our
Lord, was born; you walked the paths of exile to protect the Son of the Most High, you walked the
path of Calvary to become our Mother. Continue to walk alongside the disciples (Piarists, religious,
lay people and students) of your Son who, like you, want to lead all peoples to his Gospel, to their
salvation, on the roads of the world. Help the Pious Schools around the world to follow your Son
Jesus Christ by accompanying children and young people according to Calasanz' example. We ask
this through your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

PRAYER OVER THE OFFERINGS

Father of Mercy,
who revealed to us in Jesus your love and
the true face of the human being,
Accept our grateful offering and
transform us with the same sentiments of your Son,
to make yourself present in the midst of the world.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION

Grant, O Lord, to your children,
nourished with the Word and Body of your Son,
remain united to Him and please Him alone,
like St. Joseph Calasanz,
in the exercise of his ministry.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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