Leading up to Francis Libermann's Feast Day on February 2, we'll be traveling through his life and see how his calling from God led to a reinvigorated Mission for the Spiritans and pioneered a Missionary Method that we still use today.

Day 7: FORMATION

Francis Libermann had a vision for a congregation of “fervent and generous” missionaries, who would live simply and love people. This vision required a focus on formation: for the missionaries to be equipped for the work and for the people they were serving to improve the options in their communities.

In his own words: “We have established the need to begin the Mission with an overall plan, and an organization such that we can conceive the well-founded hope of forming a solid work (...). Our plan consists in taking particular care of the education of youth and of the most perfect civilization that we can give to these peoples: training a black clergy, schoolmasters and catechists, farmers and workers in the arts and crafts.”

Animation and formation have been an integral part of our missionary activity throughout the history of the Congregation. In the field of mission, formal education is one of the forms that the Congregation has chosen as a means of transmitting the Gospel. Promoting human development in its social form is a path of faith formation. Basic, secondary and higher education institutions are places where the Gospel comes alive in people.

These reflections follow the 2024 Francis Libermann Novena prepared by Br. Mariano Espinoza of the Paraguay Group of the Spiritans.