Today, Wednesday, after Mass and Morning Prayer organized by the Filipino delegation, the entire day was dedicated to lay collaboration.

In the morning, after the final delegate arrived (Fr. Oswaldo from Mexico had been inadvertently stranded in Worcester for the night — another story in itself), we listened to presentations from major organizations sponsored by the Assumptionists in North America, Suzanne Spino, president of Bayard Canada, Bret Thomas, president of Bayard, Inc, USA, and Dr. Francesco Cesareo, president of Assumption College.

In the afternoon we heard reports from lay delegates of each Region - Chantal Rouette and Claude Lamontagne from Canada, Elaine O'Connor and Tomasz Kierul from the United States, and Bollo Maltos and Rafael Martinez Guizar from Mexico.

During the morning session each representative was asked not only to present his/her company or institution, but also to indicate how they saw it as an Assumptionist work and how they promote that mission. It was interesting to note that all three presenters emphasized common elements:

1) the importance, even the necessity, of Assumptionist collaboration in their efforts in terms of support and ongoing formation (as one of them said, “what is characteristic of your life we want to become characteristic of our work”;
2) the desire to evangelize the whole person that is at the heart of their enterprise and not simply to run an efficient, profitable organization (“the world needs to be penetrated by a Christian idea....and in words it can understand,” to quote Fr. d’Alzon, as one did);
3) the difficulty of reaching a population that has become increasingly secularized but that is still searching for meaning and direction in their lives but does not always identify with the institutional Church. Clearly, the Assumptionists in Canada and the United States, very limited geographically, to small regions of their respective countries, benefit generously from the national, even international, exposure they receive from these organizations, not to mention the apostolic opportunities they can provide.

In the afternoon, the focus shifted to a conversation with Assumptionist lay associates from Canada, the US, and Mexico. Each pair of delegates was asked to respond to five questions:
Question 1:  How does your work enter into the charism and mission of the Assumption?
Question 2:  How are you inspired and fed by the spirituality of the Assumption?
Question 3:  What are your expectations from the Chapter regarding your affiliation with the Assumption?
Question 4:  How can you together with the Assumptionists in your area respond to the needs of the lay people with whom you work and live?
Question 5:  What advise do you have for us as we enter into the Chapter and look to the future?

Each pair of delegates answered these questions and presented the reality of their countries. It was immediately clear how vastly different their experiences have been and yet how much they share in common with regard to their concerns. Lay associates in Mexico have been in existence, thanks to the extraordinary efforts of Fr. Camillus Thibault, for over 25 years, the longest existing group of lay associates in the congregation. Not only are they involved in vocation ministry, but also in just about every Assumptionist work in the country from parishes to missions to spiritual and psychological direction. In Canada and the United States, the efforts have been much more recent and are still in their initial stages of development.

Nevertheless, all three pairs of lay delegates emphasized some common themes: the need for the Assumptionists to have clarity of mission that can, in turn, be shared with lay partners; a desire for more formation in Assumptionist spirituality; a desire for more encouragement in their work and for clear affirmation that Assumptionists want them to be partners in the mission of the Assumptionists; a deeper sense of co-responsibility for the mission and charism of the Assumption; a need to recognize the wide variety of experience among lay associates whether cultural, ecclesial, linguistic, socio-economic, spiritual, etc.; the hope that they might be able to communicate more often and more effectively with other lay partners around the world.

Because of his longstanding interest and involvement in fostering lay collaboration, Fr. Oliver Blanchette, the eldest member of the province, soon to be 95 years old, attended the day’s conversations and succinctly and eloquently summarized everyone’s sentiment, “I just want to say that this has been a remarkable day.”