The spirituality of the Filles de Marie-Immaculate congregation in Vietnam: A critical and theological analysis

• Main Author: Doan, Thi My Chau
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2009
• Subjects: Marianist Sisters; Christian education > Vietnam; Spirituality > Vietnam; Filles de Marie-Immaculate > Vietnam; Religious Education
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/256; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etd_doctoral/article/1255/viewcontent/CDTG004604_P.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

The Filles De Marie Immaculee [The Daughters of Mary Immaculate] Congregation was founded in Hue, Central Vietnam, in 1920, with a clearly defined apostolate, which included educating schoolgirls (both Catholics and non-Catholics) at elementary schools as the primary task and serving in orphanages and dispensaries as secondary and circumstantial tasks that is, the education of Vietnamese children in Christian faith. However, the specific spirituality to be followed by the Congregation was not defined at the time of the original foundation. In the movement of reframing religious life after Vatican II, the FMI Congregation has been trying to discover, to describe, and to live out its own style of spirituality. In these recent years, the FMI sisters have been concerned with how to capture in words what is exactly the FMI spirituality. Hence the idea for this study was conceived. In this study, the researcher employed the three-dimensional approach of Schneiders (description critical analysis - constructive appropriation). The aim of this study is to propose a constructive interpretation of FMI spirituality in a way that would lead the sisters to a deeper understanding of their congregational spirituality and to a transformation of their lives and vocation. The individual and collective experiences of the 173 sisters, at this present time, have articulated their practice of the love for God and for neighbor, and especially their practice of the filial love for the Blessed Mother Mary. The Mary of their love and devotion is the Mary of the New Testament. She is the favored one of God and the handmaid of the Lord at the Annunciation, the woman, par excellence, of faith at the foot of the Cross, and therefore the ideal disciple, i.e., one v who lived her faith as love of God and love of fellow human beings. For the FMI Sisters, Mary is a model of how to live in faith as Christians and as her true daughters. She always goes before them, inspiring, enlivening, and and educating their faith by her example and presence. The living tradition of the FMI Congregation shows that the sisters desire to follow Mary's faith journey from her total Yes at the Annunciation to her Yes at the foot of the Cross. The founders choice of the name of the congregation, the Original Rule (1920), and the New Rule (1997) points to a Marian spirituality capable of giving once again birth to Jesus in the context of Vietnam which over the years succumbed to a communist regime. The Vietnamese government may be opposed to evangelization but they might admit the need for integral education. In this regard, the FMI Sisters have a great task to fulfill and must, therefore, strengthen their spiritual formation. In all probability, to follow Jesus with a strong faith at the foot of the Cross can mean following Him with unwavering faith in todays Vietnamese society. The findings of the study, therefore, have implications for the initial and on-going formation of the FMI Sisters in the context of Vietnam today.