Community June3
Helped by his African culture that promotes community life and the family, the Crosier lives with his confreres as in a family (Profile of the Congolese Crosier).
The African family is more than the nuclear family (two parents with their children). It is rather the ancestors of all times and places, including the dead and children yet to be born. The extended family lives in an exchange of goods, obligations, feelings and services. The members accept one another, the one receiving willingly what the other is and what the other offers. The members are welcoming, open to including everyone in the circle of the family. On entering a religious community, the African comes with all these values. The community of goods is natural. Harmony is sought. Hospitality is indispensible. The communal nature of the culture supports the African confrere in formation for community: to become a person of confidence, transparent to others, listening to them, ready to serve, a full participant, capable of initiative, prepared for responsibility and living responsibly. The African confrere is aware that to enter religious life is to enter another family. He looks to being at ease with everyone, to feeling at home as in his own family. The confrere rejoices in the fraternal life that gives identity and assures happiness.
The person is his family. (Sérère)
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