austraLasia #2975
The first thing that stands out, I guess, is the fact that this is the work of a Korean Sister belonging to the Caritas Sisters of Jesus. a Salesian Family Group that belongs very much to our Region and was founded in Japan: the CSJ spread quickly to Korea and beyond and are now entering Africa for the first time, South Sudan. They have a strong missionary focus.
Sr Pancrazia offers a fresh approach to Consecrated Life today, by providing a solid theological basis (using Vatican II and theology developed concerning consecrated life since then) for this life as a spirituality of evangelising communion. She seems less interested in questions of communion within a religious institute, and leaves aside (at least from what I can see in a quick skimming through of 600 pages!) some of the thorny questions of communion ad extra, (communion with bishops for instance), focusing instead on a communion which is Trinitarian, Christocentric, Spirit-filled - and very open, therefore missionary and evangelising by its very nature.
There is one section some 400 pages into the work that struck me quite forcibly, and just this part alone would encourage me to recommend the work as whole. Sr Pancrazia has a beautiful section on the language of tenderness, under the heading: Tenderness will save the world! Tenderness not jut as a gift someone might have but as an intentional choice, a mission to complete, something that can indeed change the world. No surprise, then, to find her at one point quoting John Donne (though not precisely in the context of tenderness).
Communion would become sterile if it was simply warming oneself by the fire (any fire, including the fire of God's love). The experience of communion has to be passed on; we need to involve people in our communion. Mission, on the other hand, would lack meaning if not given energy by communion and if it did not aim to create communion. Together they guarantee the freshness, novelty, creativity of consecrated life. This is what comes through in this thesis and it would seem an admirable response to the challenges that consecrated life has to face up to today.
Just one small gripe: this work is only available in Italian, unless Sr Pancrazia has had it translated into Korean. But English readers who cannot access Italian comfortably will be denied, for now, this profound and enlightening text.
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La comunione missionaria: la vita consecrata nella teologia postconciliare, by Sr Pancrazia Chunshin Kuk, published 2001 by Città Nuova. Sr Chunshin Kuk completed her Licentiate at the Gregorianum, then went on to do her Doctorate at the Claretianum Institute of the Pontifical Lateran University. €25
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_________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on austraLasia 2011 in the sidebar. You will see the RSS orange icon in your browser address bar - add it from there. Or be interactive with the EAO blog Cetera Tolle. Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at http://sdl.sdb.org
Missionary Communion - Consecrated Life in Postconciliar Theology
ROME/SEOUL -- Printed, bound doctoral theses are somewhat abundant in Rome; thick tomes passed on to the Central Library with an indulgent smile. But just occasionally something catches one's eye, and gives one pause - and the desire to read. Such is the case with Sr Pancrazia Chunshim Kuk's Missionary Communion - Consecrated Life in Postconciliar Theology, a study applied especially to the life of apostolic religious today, called to be and to make communion.The first thing that stands out, I guess, is the fact that this is the work of a Korean Sister belonging to the Caritas Sisters of Jesus. a Salesian Family Group that belongs very much to our Region and was founded in Japan: the CSJ spread quickly to Korea and beyond and are now entering Africa for the first time, South Sudan. They have a strong missionary focus.
Sr Pancrazia offers a fresh approach to Consecrated Life today, by providing a solid theological basis (using Vatican II and theology developed concerning consecrated life since then) for this life as a spirituality of evangelising communion. She seems less interested in questions of communion within a religious institute, and leaves aside (at least from what I can see in a quick skimming through of 600 pages!) some of the thorny questions of communion ad extra, (communion with bishops for instance), focusing instead on a communion which is Trinitarian, Christocentric, Spirit-filled - and very open, therefore missionary and evangelising by its very nature.
There is one section some 400 pages into the work that struck me quite forcibly, and just this part alone would encourage me to recommend the work as whole. Sr Pancrazia has a beautiful section on the language of tenderness, under the heading: Tenderness will save the world! Tenderness not jut as a gift someone might have but as an intentional choice, a mission to complete, something that can indeed change the world. No surprise, then, to find her at one point quoting John Donne (though not precisely in the context of tenderness).
Communion would become sterile if it was simply warming oneself by the fire (any fire, including the fire of God's love). The experience of communion has to be passed on; we need to involve people in our communion. Mission, on the other hand, would lack meaning if not given energy by communion and if it did not aim to create communion. Together they guarantee the freshness, novelty, creativity of consecrated life. This is what comes through in this thesis and it would seem an admirable response to the challenges that consecrated life has to face up to today.
Just one small gripe: this work is only available in Italian, unless Sr Pancrazia has had it translated into Korean. But English readers who cannot access Italian comfortably will be denied, for now, this profound and enlightening text.
---------
La comunione missionaria: la vita consecrata nella teologia postconciliare, by Sr Pancrazia Chunshin Kuk, published 2001 by Città Nuova. Sr Chunshin Kuk completed her Licentiate at the Gregorianum, then went on to do her Doctorate at the Claretianum Institute of the Pontifical Lateran University. €25
Click here to comment on this item, or here to assist with Glossary. You will need to enter 20eao02 when asked for a password.
_________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on austraLasia 2011 in the sidebar. You will see the RSS orange icon in your browser address bar - add it from there. Or be interactive with the EAO blog Cetera Tolle. Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at http://sdl.sdb.org
