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 8: CREATIVITY AND AVAILABILITY

Francis Libermann used creativity and availability to ensure that the mission and liturgy could be carried out wherever the missionaries were. Understanding the challenges of the mission field, he worked to ensure that missionaries could accompany and animate the liturgical life of the communities in their care.

Libermann was someone with a very broad outlook and a mind open to the adaptations necessary for the success of the missionary enterprise. He knew how to adapt the sometimes rigorous liturgical rules in order to reach the recipients of evangelisation better, even going so far as to propose completely innovative and daring initiatives.

From the Spiritan Rule of Life: “One basic characteristic of the Spiritan calling is an availability for the service of the gospel, a readiness to go where we are sent by the Congregation. We accept to free ourselves from an engagement in order to respond to new and different calls from a local Church or from the universal Church.”

Our missionary vocation always leads us to meet people of different cultures, traditions, histories, and languages. In the local Churches, we are integrated into pastoral programs. One of our main pastoral responsibilities is to accompany and animate the liturgical life of the communities in our care. If the liturgical life is alive, it is a sign that people understand their faith, because the liturgy is the center of the unity of the believing people.


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